Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Sorry, akamyself.   I must have missed Hal's all-important inflections when he typed his last post.

In the IT industry, with this many users down and out, such a situation is commonly known as a Priority 1 or Severity 1 or Sev 1 situation.

A "Sev 1" type of situation implies things like:

• Ssenior engineers and senior technicians cease working on usual projects and devote their time and attention to fixing the "Sev 1" problem.
• Senior managers are dedicated to overseeing the emergency effort.
• Engineers, technicians, and managers work in shifts (work around the clock) until the effort is properly diagnosed and a proper solution has been formulated, and an implementation plan has been approved.
• Executive management and affected users are routinely updated on progress or lack thereof.
• Reasonable timelines are set such that if Plan A (diagnosis and solution and/or recall) does not advance in a positive manner within a reasonable time, then Plan B is invoked (replacement).  If Plan B (replacement) is deemed unreasonable, then Plan C (refund/reimbursement) is invoked.

Or something similar to above.

Again, this is not a problem that arose last week, last month, or even last year.  Which of the above possible activities have you witnessed?  Are you enjoying your computer since it's been fixed?  Are you enjoying your replacement computer?  Or have you taken your reimbursement monies and purchased a substitution?

For anybody at this juncture to say Apple has not had enough time to gather informaiton or to imply Apple must first deal with their supply vendor before they address their customer's problem is luniacy.

Unless of course Apple was near bankruptcy, for which they are far from.

CindyBruce wrote:

 

 

In the IT industry, with this many users down and out,

How many users would that be CindyBruce?, I have seen no published figures, so please, share your 'insider' scoop.

I am assuming that you know?

If anybody has an accurate number of users impacted, it would be Apple.  But I don't recall them ever divulging any numbers.

I'm aware of a document collecting signatures that started around Jan 1, 2014 and now has nearly 7000 signatures.  I'm also aware of what appears to be hundreds of threads throughout the industry.  And I recall reading that when a production run is made for a certain Apple model that number is around 1,800,000 for the product at hand but I certainly have no way of confirming that.  Yet, Apple does.

But it's not just the number of impacted users/customers that is important, it's also the severity of that impact, and it's the combination of the two that generally determine the overall severity of the problem.

The fact that Apple redacts certain important information divulged in these threads (e.g. the mere mention of a document type used to collect signatures)  ain't helping matters neither.

In my book, this is clearly a severity or priority 1 matter and has been for over 2 years.  But it seems Apple has a different interpretation or understanding.

well, CindyBruce, I hear you and let me say that we are all in the same boat here, aren't we?

it's just that you got all angry just because someone was, or what seems to be, trying to guess one of (many?) reasons Apple was ignoring thousands of affected customers, that's all.

he did not say, "guys, let's be nice and comprehensive cause it might not be Apple's fault after all", you jumped at this conclusion.

and again, he did not say that they did not have enough time to figure it out either, you did it for the second time.

seems like first victims of a failing CPU/GPU appeared almost two years ago, this thread was started in january 2013, but the amount of people to experience the same failure probably reached the x thousands of people many months later, days after days and still going.

how long for Apple to notice?

not sure time is a relevant factor for them.

how many computers failing for the same problem do they need to make a recall or at least giving a free fix?

who knows, we don't have any numbers for the iMac program they put in place last year with similar problem to compare with our situation.

anyway, Apple is giving this excuse for not having anything else to offer but a paying logic board switch, don't have enough failed / sold units ratio.

true or false, I know I can't prove them otherwise.

and that is why I feel he made a good point inviting people to register their problem with Apple in the first place, whether they choose to reball or not in the end.

I doubt anyone here is willing to give Apple excuses for the trouble it causes at many levels of our lives, except maybe for those "lucky" ones who somehow got a free pass...

Well, when matters are serious and my time and my investment are at stake, I have little time for silliness or non-sensicla responses and my response to Hal had nothing to do with my being "all angry" as you put it.  It simply was a milktoast response that was out of line and counter productive to the sitatuion at hand.

In fact, if there was any legitimacy to some of your statements, Apple could easily send out alert bulletins to the user community that if they own this model and are experiencing these issuse, or if they know of of anybody that does, please go to this special new web page and submit your contact info, your model, S/N, etc, and the symptoms you're experiencing, along with any possible remedies you've attempted, etc, etc.

Well, we wouldn't even be having this conversation now, would we?

The point being that Apple does not have to pretend to be in the dark regarding this and perhaps other matters and it's certainly not in our best interest to pretend they are in the dark regarding this or other matters.  They already have all the information they need to compile whatever lists are required to properly diagnose, resolve, and implement.  It's already there right under their noses.

Why impacted users want to pretend Apple doesn't have such information within their reach is beyond me.

Bottom line is that everybody and every corporation must show reasonableness and exhibit due diligence.  Regarding this matter, I've seen neither from Apple.

BTW, with regard to potential numbers and valuable information to address this matter.  Let's pretend that Apple keeps shoddy books on production runs and problems reported and all of their databases are corrupted to one degree or another.  In this age of the internet I can still gather much valuable info.

For example, when Googling the following:

• "macbook pro 2011 amd graphics" I receive About 997,000 results (0.29 seconds)
• "macbook pro 2011 crash” I receive About 1,530,000 results (0.34 seconds)
• "macbook pro 2011 gpu” I receive About 2,120,000 results (0.24 seconds)
• "macbook pro 2011 recall” I receive About 532,000 results (0.27 seconds)

To which you will be led to this May 13, 2014 article:

"Apple remains mum as complaints mount over 2011 MacBook Pro GPU failures”

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/05/13/apple-remains-mum-as-complaints-mount- over-2011-macbook-pro-gpu-failures

Seriously, what are we talking about here?

Hi

a woman from Apple told me that there is a department in the US that is studying this model. The woman also added that at the moment the engineers haven't found this problem.

I don't know if she was saying the truth.

Sorry for my awful English.

BRiccardo, I've suspected all along that Apple does not know the real problem.  If that's true, that's okay.  These are complicated machines and to some degree every situation and config. is different, almost like every snowflake is different.

But not knowing the cause should not imply that official communicaiton is unnecessary or that there is no solution.  Apple can still be forthright with the press and its customers and Apple can still revert to Plan B, a full replacement, or to Plan C, full reimbursement. Nor should having a lack of knowledge be an excuse to keeping mum.

As the Apple staying mum article pointed out, a number of early 2011 mbp owners have already trashed theiir mbp's and moved on.  It's my speculation that with typical lifecycle replacement of laptops, 3 - 5 years, Apple is simply waiting for the rest of us to move on.  If this is the case and Apple has intentionally chosen not to acknowledge its own serious product defects as well as induce further financial harm by suggesting owners spend $600 or more to replace logic boards that does not fix the problem, this is why the SEC should investigate this publicly traded company.

Imagine if Chrysler or Ford release a fabulous automobile at say $55,000 and within months or a few short years, thousands of these cars stopped working or couldn't exceed 25 mph and the mfg'er suggested owners spend another $10,000 to "fix" the problem but the problem remained, the mfg'er stayed mum, refused to acknowledge the problem and offered no solution.

Apple's apparent behavior here is simply unacceptable by any standards.  Moreover, Apple can be a hero here anytime it wants.

Someone managed to block the pasaggio the sche integrated with the discrete, ie only ever use the Intel HD Graphics 3000.

I do not know how to do it in mac as there is no BIOS

scusate l'inglese:

qualcuno è riuscito a bloccare il passaggio automatico della scheda  integrata a quella discreta, vale a dire usare solo e sempre la Intel HD Graphics 3000. Non so come si fa nel mac non essendoci da BIOS: anche istallando GFX Card Staus e Growl non si riesce ad isolare la scheda rotta. Credo sarebbe la situazione giusta se qualche smanettatore ci riuscisse.

You can use gfxcardstatus to make your computer only use the integrated graphics.

I have downloaded and am using the gfx. I haven't shut it down since it crashed, just keep it on sleep when not using it. I fear what happens if and when I have to restart.

The external monitor went squiggly, then the split weird screen on the last day of June, and then it turned black, so after trying to reboot I disconnected it. I continued to use my MBP thinking it was just a bad monitor, and about  three days later the computer   screen did the same thing.  It then froze solid and I couldn't get it to shut down, so I had to use the power button. When I tried a reboot, it would not go past the gray screen. I can't remember now if I got the sound or the logo, but it never went to login. So I again used the power button to shut it down and restart. The second time, I used the option key and got the hard disc and the recovery mode, and clicked on the hard disc. It went to log in, slowly, and I logged in. I think it crashed one more time and I finally booted it using the same way and then let it sit while using my old PowerMac G4 to research. I came here, and it was the first I'd heard of the problems the mac books have been having. I used the old slow powermac for several days, till I read about the gfx solution and decided to download the program. Since then I have been using that to keep the AMD from kicking in. I am not using my external monitor either which is a pain. I also dumped Flash software from my computer after reading about the conflicts. I am afraid to shut it down because I don't know if it will boot again. I contacted our local mac shop and they quoted me a price of $429.95 to send it to apple and have it fixed. I can't afford to take a chance since they only gave me a 30 day guarantee. I hate not being able to use my monitor though. This small screen and print is hard on my old eyes.  

Thanx destinationpsp my macbook pro early 2011, 15" using "integrated graphics only" through gfxcardstatus. If its in your observation can I use graphic heavy softwares like photoshop or is it still in danger by heat? - thanx

Thank-you for explaining this to everyone. No one should be paying for this, whether they have AppleCare or not or whether it’s the first or 10th time their cards went kaput. There's enough evidence of wrongdoing to muscle Apple into doing these repairs for free. There are many US institutions that deal with this type of fraud and unsavory corporate behavior, you mentioned one. The idea that the US doesn't offer consumer protection or legal recourse for this issue is just flat out wrong.

I know I'm never paying for this. I told them that and that is what has happened and I plan on it happening again if my card dies again. I strongly suggest everyone else on here follow suit. I mean seriously people. Don't pay, just get them to do what they should be doing: taking responsibility.  That is the only way this stops. Starring at these screens of damaged Macs and I know something isn't right. You got to be kidding me that they want people to fork over $300+ for something they know is their problem.

I'm not sure that Apple doesn't know what the issue is. The creator of gfxCardStatus WORKS for Apple now.  One of his CV's states that he started as an intern and is now on their Safari team. He seems to be the only person who has come up with a software fix for this issue, a fix now in Apple's hands.

Apple didn’t do it, he did. They could have at least provided us their own app, or a link to his, a memo about the problem, how to dump AMD kext files, how to bring our Macs back from non-booting status or something similar, but they didn’t.

I believe given the human and material resources Apple has, if they wanted to know they would know...and they do know. They know all we’ve written here and everywhere else on the web and most likely offline. But if they were to admit that publicly they would have no case. I'm sure their lawyers told them that.

We got nothing and many of us paid $2-4k for these machines.  They’re doing all they can to save a buck, well that is what a lot of us need to do, especially since we all have less than they.

Well said, SameMac...

I think it would be in all of our best interests from here on out to keep the technical babble to an absolute minimum and instead become far more verbose about Apple's behavior, their responsibilities, their allowing their customer base to take it in the shorts, and their obvious lack of leadership.  Not to mention Apple's apparent willingness to have us pony up even more monies for solutions that rarely if ever solve the problem, perhaps to keep the revenue flowing into their Apple Stores.

In this thread and in every other thread and forum.

Pure and simple.  Apple needs to relinquish some of that $100 billiion cash reserve they're sitting on to make things right.

Are you in the U.S? If you are an Apple store will repair it for about $310 plus tax or in my case $210. It also come with a 3 month warranty.