Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Who woulda' thunk that Apple's new slogan would be "Caveat Emptor" (buyer beware) when the new leadership took over.

Boy Scouts - good, Apple - bad.

BTW, Lishak, perhaps when the "geniuses" at Apple "fixed" your logic board issue, they may have loosened or damaged the wiring harness to the HDD.  You might unscrew the base plate just to confirm some of the connections inside, particularly the HDD wire harness.

Just go back.

It broke first time use, that means a bad repair.

I'm running a version of OS X on an external HDD and everytime the computer switches to the discrete GPU there's a glitch as shown in the video I linked. When I run OS X on the computer's HDD all I notice is a very slight color change. Anybody know why there's a difference or why it's happening?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRs5mvYMYIg&list=UUGWq1dN83ZN53nPbds3joUA&index= 1

the link you sent us to, says the video is privat.

Sorry should be fixed now.

I Had my logic board replaced. It has cost me 620 euro. They said it was a remanifactured logicboard instead of a refurbished. What's in a name. i thought that it could last for another three years. But one week later it failed again. I have 3 months warranty.

i also told them about the worldwide problems but they replied they haven't heard about it.

needless to say there are some serious issues. If everyone with a 2011 macbook pro returns every week for a new logicboard it will generate a lot of expenses for apple.

Didn't you read my post before? Hope you didn't miss it.

Live in a redius of 20km from you and repair them too.

Well, should it fail again out of warranty....

Btw, I seriousley doubht there would be a "remanufactured logic board" .

It there are, then that would most likely only be because they allready had to much pcbs to replace.

In this context, saying there is no problem is contradicting.

SOME LIMITED HOPE FOR BRICKED OR PRESUMABLY DEAD 2011 MBP's

It's egregious to hear the many stories of those whose mbp's seem dead in the water with Apple nowhere to be found.

At the bottom is a post I pasted a few days ago that I think pretty accurately summarizes the dilemma Apple's failures put us in.  But I want to reiterate there is some hope for those who simply cannot login or their mbp is so crippled or unstable that it's just not worth using.

At least in my case, there is a yet unknown combination of resets and/or boot ups that seems to reset or clear a flag, parameter, or file that OS X reads at boot up that tells OS X which graphics card to launch at startup.  A seemingly bricked or broken mbp attempts to launch the corrupted AMD chip at startup.  This probably explains the various corrupt screens, the cooling fans kicking into high gear, the excess heat, etc.

But after trying various different PRAM reset (press power button then press option + cmd + r + p and continue to hold until you hear the startup chime twice (2 boots)) and/or SMC resets and various types of reboots, including internet recovery, (option + cmd + r), etc. some combination of these actions should reset the flag, parameter, and/or file so that eventually the startup sequence will engage the integrated Intel gnu and you can get a normal login screen with normal behavior without the cooling fans starting up, nor the excess heat.

If you can eventually get a normal login and startup, the trick then is to never allow the discreet AMD GPU to ever engage again.  This means staying away from graphics intensive operations and software, no gaming, no HD movies, no external monitors, etc.  But if you can get to a normal startup, download the gfxcardstatus software tool and  then set it to "integrated" with the hope that it will never allow OS X to engage the discrete AMD chip again.  Otherwise, you're back to square 1.

As far as ever using your mbp for its originally intended horsepower, those days are over and your resale value is gone too.

However, a castrated but stable mbp is certainly better than dead or entirely unstable mbp.

If you can login normally and you are convinced you have some limited stability, clone your disk immediately to another disk e.g. using SuperDuper or another disk cloning software tool.  This cloned disk might also be needed as a future external startup disk if you ever end up back in the broken state.

I've now gone an entire week with what appears to be good stability (so long as the discrete AMD chip does not engage).

After months and months of steadily worsening poor performance, random freezes, etc and eventually leading to the point where 3 weeks ago, I got my first split screen, and then other screens, eventually leading to a dead mbp, I'm now using my mbp daily in a stable but limited manner.  In other words, I'm learning as I go here just like anybody else.

I almost hate to share this info, because Apple will probably see it as a fix and then ignore their very serious defect until we all finally go away.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --

My previous post

In my opinion, Apple's numerous failures led to this very bad situation regarding most / all 2011 macbook pro's.

1. Apple failed us by incorporating a bad AMD chip and/or connection at the logic board.
2. Apple failed us a 2nd time by not owning up to their first failure and offering a cure at their expense.
3. Apple really failed us a 3rd time by not forcing the video control back to the integrated Intel chip at every reboot as it should. The effects of this 3rd failure by Apple are FAR worse than failures 1 or 2 as this is the failure that renders most mbp's useless.
4. Apple failed us a 4th time by not even bothering to diagnose and address their 3rd failure.
5. Apple failed many of us yet a 5th time by suggesting many of us have our mbp's repaired at a cost to us of $150 - $700+ USD only to have the same
   failures 1 through 4 to continue to persist.

But since Apple fails to engage in any responsible way, it's all just a SWAG.

Feel free to keep sharing what you find, but if Apple considers a "castrated but stable MBP" a fix for this issue, then we've got a much larger issue to deal with.

Own a 2011 15" MBP, out of Apple Care as of early July. Logic Board failed in April, replaced at that time. Refurbished replacement survived all of three months before it failed again--this time out of AppleCare, and three days before I take a state bar examination.

Apple, please help us!

ajgordon, maybe just maybe if you spent an hour or 2 dedicated to trying many resets and reboot strategies, you just might get back to the limited but stable state as I mentioned above and then just use your mbp for email and simple google searches and text documents, you just might be good to go for your upcoming bar exam.

If you can eventually reboot into a limited but stable state, you might also go to your web browser software e.g. FireFox, Safari, etc. and disable Adobe Flash as many websites use / invoke Flash which can immediately attempt to engage the now defective discreet AMD card.

BTW, after you pass the bar, please don't forget about us as we have a HUGE favor to ask.  If you know what I mean. 

Best of luck.

To Apple's credit, the Apple store took it for repairs at no cost, even though I'm neither under AppleCare of the 90 day warranty from the April repairs (90 days ago was 7/24). This is the second time it has happened, and I'm not confident that it won't recur, even with a new logic board.

But it's clear my current hardware is toast. I tried all the standard steps and couldn't get it to come back on. Plus, I can't go into the exam with an unstable machine, because if it fails during, I won't be compensated with extra time and will possibly lose all my responses. At least it didn't also cause an HD failure (as it did last time).

I bought a new computer this morning.

Apple deserves zero credit for any ill-attemtps to "fix" this problem that essentially only prolongs and exacerbate the known defect.  Especially when it costs you and us time and money and with no real relief or cure.

Shoot, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if we discovered that this was all some social marketing experiment intentionally induced on Apple's consumers to study the market's behavior and see what they can get away with.

Anyway, glad you bought a new computer for the upcoming exams.  It's not worth the risk at this point.

Another one bites the dust here... Don't know if its already been posted or if its of any help for people in the UK with this issue, however This from Cit Advice.

"Last for a reasonable length of time in a reasonable condition

The Sale of Goods Act 1979 doesn't say exactly how long goods should last. The general rule is that goods should last for a reasonable time and in reasonable condition. For example, a new car should last for several years in a reasonable condition but you may need to replace some of its parts over time.

If goods don't last as long as they should, they probably weren't of satisfactory quality when you bought them. For example, if the sole on a shoe comes away after a few weeks of normal wear, this suggests that it was never of satisfactory quality.

You may need an expert's opinion on how long a particular item can normally be expected to last."

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_common_problems_with_p roducts_e/faulty_goods_e/what_is_meant_by_not_of_satisfactory_quality.htm

Anyway, I feel that due to the value of the item, I would expect a longer life etc? hope it helps, i'll post any progress if i get anywhere with it.

S12Davison wrote:

 

Another one bites the dust here... Don't know if its already been posted or if its of any help for people in the UK with this issue, however This from Cit Advice.

 

"Last for a reasonable length of time in a reasonable condition

The Sale of Goods Act 1979 doesn't say exactly how long goods should last. The general rule is that goods should last for a reasonable time and in reasonable condition. For example, a new car should last for several years in a reasonable condition but you may need to replace some of its parts over time.

If goods don't last as long as they should, they probably weren't of satisfactory quality when you bought them. For example, if the sole on a shoe comes away after a few weeks of normal wear, this suggests that it was never of satisfactory quality.

You may need an expert's opinion on how long a particular item can normally be expected to last."

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_common_problems_with_p roducts_e/faulty_goods_e/what_is_meant_by_not_of_satisfactory_quality.htm

Anyway, I feel that due to the value of the item, I would expect a longer life etc? hope it helps, i'll post any progress if i get anywhere with it.

If you've read this vast thread at least one or two uk member victims have emailed customer relations uk, referring that act and if nothing is done filing at the small claims court. They won't want a judge asking for failure stats for GPU's between the 2010/2011/2012 generations over the past 5 years and open Pandora's box