Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Thanks for letting us know. Another person on here stated they couldn't use gfxCardStatus after they downloaded the update ( rridder on pg. 433). Maybe it was just the same fluke I've had.

Hi Nikonea,

I have been using the exact same process to run by MBP from last one year. It's complicated but has kept the system running.

So I am little worried about this new update if it stops gfxcardstatus from running. Is this update in some way replacement for gfxcardstatus? Has your system been stable ever since?

My enthusiasm of yesterday has been a little bit shattered by what happened next.

After the upgrade and a very promising stable usage of the system, i played a bit too much with iCal, and the system went crazy, forcing a switch, with crazy patterns on the screen i never had seen before, and of course, hanged up the system.

Then i spent 2 hours of nightmare to jungle between reboots, cmd+s reboots, gfxcardstatus until i came back to the original situation i was discribing in my previous post.

So here i tell you: the security upgrade did NOT introduce a change in the internal of mac os x GPU switching mechanism, at least, not a change that is good for us.

Switches are still happening, and gfxcardstatus seems to have more difficulties to prevent them than before.

Also, the option in " Preferences : Energy Saver : Automatic graphics switching "  was deselected and i tried to put it on again, but the system was hanging up immediately afterwards... Sometime, the options would revert to an old version of the GUI: "Graphics : better battery life" ....

So it seems that this security upgrade does change something that gfxstatuscard does not like... but after many tried and patience, i managed to boot on the integrated card, select the right option in the preferences, load gfxcardstatus with the "integrated" option... and i have a stable system again... but i wont try iCal anymore!

Chrome is ok... all my other apps too...

So i dont know what to recommend you. Except that before doing the upgrade, close all your apps, and do not ask mac os x to reopen them at the next startup. try to have the most lightweight boot up possible... so that the switch will not occur, and then you ll probably have time to check all the configuration options of preferences and gfxcardstatus to make sure you are safe.

I cannot confirm yet that gfxcardstatus works fine... ill try to update you.

i am on Lion.... but i had the problem of fgxcardstatus hanging up the system as soon as i selected "integrated only" yesterday, several times.

Someohow, i managed to come back to a stable situation after several reboots.

after the upgrade, you have to check that you still have the "automatic graphics switching" enabled , or the option " better battery life" selected in the Energy Saver preferences....

Hi All,

After emailing Tim Cook and getting an Executive Relations employee to offer a free repair/replacement of my Logicboard I finally after a week of it being away for repair have my MBP back.

Whilst it was away for repair I got a voicemail from the store which concerned me a little as they stated they had put a new logicboard in but it had failed the stress tests :/ (Did they use a refurbished board or was it just a duff new part?) either way in the voicemail they stated a replacement was on order and I was a priority. Next day they fixed it and left me another voicemail letting me know it was ready to collect stating no payment required as it was covered under consumer law. Executive relations employee did not mention this when authorising my repair when he phoned me but regardless it is fixed and I havent had to pay anything.

Few things worth mentioning.

The employee got back in touch after its repair to ensure I was happy via email and I haven't responded as you do but have also raised my concern I might come up against this issue again with time if it is indeed a design flaw as too many people are having this issue way too early in to its lifetime for it to be wear and tear or an appropriate period of time to not cover the repair under warranty.

I have also asked that the employee looks at this thread and see's not everyone has been as lucky as me to get a response and repair for free and that Apple should be responding officially.

Hope this helps other people but I think Apple are only going to respond on a case by case basis as this issue has been going on far too long.

I just hope this repair holds out. Good luck all

hi im getting this on mine as the moment the pictures that are shown nd also a full white screen any help would be grateful cos went into apple store meadow hall and they try to say it was cos i was using parallels  

i can confirm now that gfxcardstatus works well with the new upgrade.

but, if you get the same problem as rridder page 433, you should reboot and close all apps, try to have the most lightweight mac os x running. then go to preferences, energy saving, and choose the "battery life" or "automatic switching". then reboot immediately. On the next reboot, check that the preferences option is still set as it should. Then go to gfxcardstatus and select "integrated only".

i got the same problem as you, but on Lion.

Here is how is got it to work again:

you should reboot and close all apps, try to have the most lightweight mac os x running. then go to preferences, energy saving, and choose the "battery life" or "automatic switching". then reboot immediately. On the next reboot, check that the preferences option is still set as it should. Then go to gfxcardstatus and select "integrated only".

Yes , also got it to work again after some restarts and reset pram. Could t start it anymore beyond the grey and blu screen. But after a couple of tries doibg blindlogins its now working again. dont think i will shut down anymore, dont want to risk it.

Thanks for the update. Will try it.

An update: Today received my MacBook back, fully repaired for €0,- under warranty (Dutch law says expected lifetime of a notebook is 3 years).

They have replaced the logic board, allthough the shop employee couldn't answer my question if it was replaced with a new (improved) logic board or the exact same, in time faulty, motherboard. He thought it was replaced with the same logic board.

Having the same problem in my late 2011 MBP. It's been almost 2.5 years without any single problem until it started flickering 2 days ago.

First I thought it was related to Android ADT since it only started to flicker when I was running ADT. Quitting ADT would stop flickering. But later I noticed that It's not only ADT, rather the system would freeze, show blue screens, or blue screen with stripes, grey screen and stop randomly at any time without any error message or anything.

I tried resetting the NVRAM, running AHT, verify and repair disk etc. But still it freezes randomly.

Unlike other people, my system would just start fine and work (Not like it won't boot) then without any notice randomly start flickering or freeze. Sometimes it start after few mins/hours and sometimes doesn't even show any sign of problem even after using 3~4 hours.

Some screenshots:

horizontal flicker:

Random RGB pixels after flickering(small dots, you can see them clearly inside the black portion,):

Blue screen with stripes:

Do these signs mean that the GPU is failing or maybe related to some software?

This is related to the GPU, I had the same issues and these are the signs that eventually your MacBook will fail to boot.

Maybe you can ask the shop to repair it under warranty (don't know where you live, but in Europe it must be repaired for free under warranty within 3 years)

Thank you for your reply.
Then I think I should bring mac to the service centre as soon as possible.

Luckily I have the apple care which means if it's related to GPU then they should repair it for free, shouldn't they?

But how long does it take for them to repair normally? I have some submission deadlines ahead and few days without it is going to be a great problem for me

Depends on the repair centre in your country, but I got mine back within 5 working days in The Netherlands. (could take up to 10 working days)