Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

mandelkonvalj wrote:

 

Just got my MBP repaired and the logic board replaced. As a citizen of Sweden and thus the EU I made a European customer law claim. According to EU and Swedish customer legislation there is a 3 year warranty against manufacturing defects. The whole operation free of charge.

In the EU, does the 3-year warranty start on the day of the sale?  Or does it reset on replacement of the logic board? I suspect it starts on the day of the sale.

Here in the USA, adding an Applecare extended-warranty also gives you a 3-year warranty against manufacturing defects. So USA customers get a similar warranty by paying for Applecare.

Of course, what if your MacBook Pro is over 3 years old and off warranty?  Then there is no further coverage against manufacturing defects.  And you will have to pay for repairs yourself.

Luckily, in the USA, Apple has a special flat-rate repair deal.  For $300 they will fully examine your MacBook Pro and replace anything that isn't working to spec.  Because of this fantastic deal,  my MacBook Pro 17" 2011 has a new logic board, new RAM, and a new display, and new ExpressCard/34 cage. 

This was more than I asked for.  And my MacBook Pro 17" 2011  has since been working like a champ!

Given that this laptop is already 3 years old - old by Windows PC standards, middle-age by Mac standards - I look forward to 3 more years of service with it.

The $300 flat-rate repair is a tremendous bargain.  I did it with a previous MacBook Pro 17 and it has continued to work for years.

It is inexpensive enough that I can easily do it several times if necessary.  So far, I'm a very happy Apple customer.

Note that if you are expecting Apple to fix your 3 year-old MacBook Pro for free, you are going to be disappointed.  This was the top-of-the-line MacBook Pro for 2011 - Apple's pride and joy in 2011.  Obviously, only a small subset of the 2011 model is having the GPU problem. So there is not going to be a mass repair as with a recent iMac model.

So if your MacBook Pro is out of warranty, simply take the responsibility of getting if repaired.   If your car needs repairs and it was out of warranty, you would pay for it yourself without hesitation.  Your MacBook Pro should be treated similarly.

Actually, that's the last thing I'd want to do.    I knew a bit more of the mac's back in the old OS 7 days, but even then it was just a bit.

But as I was typing my previous message I was wondering to myself if anybody here has lost all hope and was ready to toss out their early 2011 mbp having these same symptoms and perhaps they could send it to me for free or I could buy it on the cheap to try it again.  If it works or doesn't work I could still send it back to them.  The only caveat is that I would most likely need their login and pw.  For that, I could sign a non-disclosure, etc.

But even if I were successful a second time, Apple would still want me to play the socialist.  Unless, say there was an outcry from the user community.

Maybe if there's any Portland, OR users, that could simplify a 2nd attempt greatly.  No peeking though.

destinationpsp wrote:

 

Re-balling has been way more successful than replacing the logic board; I've maybe read about one instance in which it did not work.

Actually I'm sort of surprised that relatively few reballs seem to fail given the fact that most of the replacements are done manually by people without proper packaging machines.

CindyBruce wrote:

 

However, with the amount of failures recurring after the replacements, I'm left with one of two possibilities:

 

1.  The exact same inferior materials and/or assembly was repeated for the replacement logic boards.

 

2.  This ain't the problem.  (though indirectly could be a contributor of sorts.)

The problem is much deeper: Apple is not capable of detecting this defect on their own with the AHT so the only way to recognize it for them is to either see a machine consistently neglecting to boot (and even then they like to detect all kinds of problems like defect memory, defect installation, defect harddrive) or failing in the system as demonstrated by the customer.

So when a motherboard comes back to Apple (for whatever reason) they'll usually test it, if it "passes" the test and looks good on the outside after cleaning up and has the latest firmwares flashed it'll go back into the refurbished pool and will be placed into another customers MBP as replacement. This is how "refurbishment" works (and I happen to know that because I actually was involved in refurbishment processes) and usually it's not even done by the vendor itself but outsourced to companies like UPS. If there's reason to believe that a device (or board) does not work it is usually sorted out and then will either be kept defect, thrown away or reworked to fix the defect, however as I said before the defect needs to be properly detected which the AHT doesn't do. And there's the reason why replace boards don't even boot up, fail few hours, days or weeks later or will keep working for a long time or even forever (if the replacement happened to be new without failure, properly reworked or was returned for a different reason than hardware replacement and was a good one all along).

ASPs are not allowed to do any fixes apart from replacing parts which is also part of the problem because it means that a shop can either be capable of fixing the problem or authorized by Apple to service and maintain Apple devices but not both at the same time, so affected customers will have to decide.

Just an update re my repair of the MBP 15" 2011 which needed the motherboard replacing due the graphics card failure.

I picked it up Thursdays evening after paying £416 inc vat.

I complained in store wanting to register my disappointment with Apple and this premium product which I expected to last me years and years. Rather like my white MB which is still going after over 7 years.

Anyway, the engineer recommended I rang Apple care in the UK.

Next day I rang and after a couple of transfers dept to dept I finally talked to a guy in the consumer/rights(?) support dept. (Pat)

This guy was/is the business and absolutely fantastic!!

He advised me of my rights and said that I was justified under European trading laws and that he would take up my case on my behalf. He then called the store and argued my case.

He basically said that not all stores understand consumers rights and he was there to support customers like me.

He said the store will call me soon and if they don't to call him back as he would not give up. His contact details and case number were sent to me immediately by e-mail.

In under 1 hour the store called to confirm the full refund.

I'm over the moon with this outcome.

Thank goodness I didn't give up.

So if you're in Europe call apple care and make a formal complaint.

Of course I did this after the repair and made the payment and therefore there was an engineers report.

I quoted this forum with Pat and although he said that was a good thing he recommended using the feedback system to make it formal.

My faith has been restored.

By the way the repaired MBP seems to be running much cooler than previously.

It was running so hot that it would burn the top of my legs when wearing shorts. Don't know whether this is relevant, just saying.

Many thanks to this forum and thread.

James

Understanding the problem, knowing how to fix it, understanding the process, but most all, experience and skills are more important than having the most advanced machine or tools.

For example, you don't perse need optical alignement.

As long as the chip place on and "in" the correct pads it aligns itself comletely.

To place the balls, yes, there are advanced machines placing the balls 1 by 1 soldering them with laser for a perfect result.

However, doing it manually using the correct stencil + ball size and again understanding the reflow profile, for both solder and flux can give trustable results too.

I am also affected by this problem of graphics card I have a 15 "i7 late 2011 ADM 6770 2.4 1GB

Stop playing the shows

Apple open your eyes, you must recognize this problem and repair

HHas anyone got any ideas on y this is happening

HHas anyone got any ideas on y this is happening

razor0103

If you've a 2011 model, you're suffering the same as the rest of us - a poorly soldered GPU. The only real 'fix' is to have your GPU reballed. If you're still under AppleCare, you can get the logic board replaced gratis, of course, but even that doesn't 'solve' the problem.

Clinton

After 5 days of beautiful performance on my early 2011 mbp, it turns out I'm in the same boat as the rest of you after all.  Last night, with many windows and Firefox and Safari browser pages open, in FF, I did a google search, then clicked on a local top story page.  Clicking on this local news web site always had a tendency to freeze my mpb whenever I clicked on their news video.  Last night, just loading their web page gave me my first striped screen freeze. (I've already encountered just about every other type of screen when my mbp was broken).

Back to square 1.  Tried rebooting many ways including internet recovery, but consistently got the initial apple screen, then a plain gray screen or dark charcoal gray screen.  Every unsuccessful reboot and frozen screen, the fans start up at high rpm and that area gets hot. Then try the next boot.

Eventually I was able to login and all was beautiful again.  Clicked the Auto Switching in Energy Saver without issue.  Ran a few tests, checked to see which GPU was in use and it was the Intel 3000 HD.  I wanted to force the AMD 6750M to engage, so I started up a youtube video. No problem and still only the Intel GPU was engaged.  Started the same video on another page (2 videos running), no problem, still only the Intel 3000 gnu engaged.  Started the same video on a 3rd page and within seconds, screen and mbp froze. I assume the AMD 6750M tried to engage.

Great difficulty getting a login screen again.  Went to bed. This morning booted right up and working fabulously once again.  Apparently so long as the AMD 6750 does not try to engage.

Last night early in my research, I checked to see if per chance FireFox or Adobe Flash might be the cause and found a few questionable stories, but I'm guessing they just clicked on something that caused the AMD chip to kick in.

Anyway, after enduring highly questionable performance for months averaging several freezes each week eventually getting to the first split screen/freeze.  I see 2 Scenarios once this nasty finally rears its ugly head in full force:

Scenario number 1

From that first encounter with a split screen onward, if one can login again, poor performance, system entirely unstable, routine crashes/freezes multiple times daily from that day forward, cooling fans kick in quickly, system runs hot.  mbp near worthless as it quickly progresses to the point of worthlessness (maybe a few weeks only).

Scenario number 2

When attempting to fix Scenario number 1, something inadvertently gets cleaned up, flag is set or reset, etc, so that system will then run like brand new if/when you're able to login again.  In my case, when the mbp was at its very worst, I performed an internet recovery and at that time I figured what the **** and upgraded to Mavericks OS.  Something occurred during that upgrade to restore complete stability and confidence with my mbp allowing it to run for 6 days like brand new again.  Apparently, so long as it does not attempt to engage the AMD 6750M.

(BTW, since the Mavericks upgrade resetting some file or flag that allows my mbp to run like new, last night when I encountered the problem, the corrupted reboots were far more consistent in their behavior and patterns.  Prior to last week's upgrade, I'd get all kinds of screens and freezes, like a box of chocolates, I never knew what I was going to get.  But also, with this recent (last night) corrupt reboot consistency, it was more difficult to get to a login prompt.)

So today, my mbp is back up and running like new (for now) and presumably so long as the AMD chip does not engage.

So I'm thinking of downloading that xgpu tool that keeps the AMD chip from engaging.  If that tool actually works, then at least I can I can have a normal operating mbp and run with confidence but I just can't do anything too graphic intensive.  I suppose a broken mbp running at 75% of its potential sure beats running at 20% of its potential.  What's the name of that software tool again?

But now that I finally realize exactly what you guys have realized for quite some time with the problem is centered on the AMD chip and/or logic board, I'm very disappointed in Apple's apparently refusal to take full responsibility for this and step forward with a recall program.

Apple's behavior and refusal to fully engage regarding this matter is completely unacceptable.

I just had my 2011 Macbook Pro with the AMD GPU return from Apple's repair facility today. It had the problems mentioned on this thread i.e., crashes and graphical artifacts. The Texas Apple Store I dropped my computer off called me to pick my laptop. They charged me the usual $350 out of warranty repair fee and I left the Apple Store after the transaction. Just a few minutes I left the Apple Store, the Apple Store employee I just talked to when I was picking up called me on my phone. He informed me he accidentally gave me the wrong Macbook. There was another person the same last name (Nguyen) as mine with the same model year and problem. (2011 Macbook Pro and GPU. Logic board replacement) I went back to the Apple Store and they refunded me on charging the other person's repair but I still have to pay mine, of course. I have to post this story on the mega thread just to show how common the problem is.

My screen look good like that

paigoomein wrote:

 

GavMackem

 

If a replacement machine is going to be reliable, then sure.  Had this been an isolated incident where my Apple laptop was a lemon, then I might have more confidence in the repair process.  However, with the large number of people who have reported the same issue, the reports of MBP's that have had to go through multiple repairs, as well as my own experience of having my MBP go through multiple repairs, let's just say that my confidence in the reliability of this machine is pretty much none.

When I first got this used 2011 17 to replace my 2010, knowing the heat problems these sandy bridge models have was to check the CPU and GPU temperatures - mine was far too high with idle temps for CPU over 60c so before I did anything taxing i stripped out the logic board, cleaned and polished the heat pipes.  Immediately I had a 20c drop which after a few weeks with artic silver 5 paste bedding in got to a 22c drop.  This is the most optimal method to the thermal system to best get rid of the heat that's actually too much for this design to cope with.

Factor in the 'coincidence' that during q1-q3 2011 in the industry there were problems with batches of lead free solder being brittle cooling high temperature chips - my friends business run into this exact same problem at this time cooling kilowatt category semis, they were breaking prematurely and best way to fix them was re-solder them with lead solder so they don't break.  Fast forward another year or so and I get clients calling with broken AMD GPU's in 2011 MBP's. Co-incidence - I think not!

With a decent reball of a fresh GPU, preferably leaded to avoid damage to the logic board surface and using non apple guidelines to improve the thermal system I'm pretty confident its a very good fix for these models for a long life and far better than what's being currently offered.  Hence when mine one does break I will be emailing my invoice for the reball onto a certain person who shall not be named for fear of moderation and asking for it being paid. I'd even be happy it being reimbursed in iTunes credit to my account to save them another 30% instead of me having to hypothetically file a small claims case!

My Early 2011 MBP wouldn't boot past a grey screen.  PS3Specialist fixed it.  I'm a very satisfied customer.