Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I also am experiencing this exact same problem.

I first noticed it a week ago on my Early 2011 MBP 15" -

Blue screens, glitching of the display and freezing and then the system wont boot after many resets.

AHT says there is no problem but there definitely is as even booting from a install CD causes the freezing and glitching.

Same here, I have Macbook Pro 15" Early 2011. A week ago, it started glitching with vertical/horizontal lines, and then freezed. I had to force shutdown the computer and restarted it. It only loaded the Apple logo or just plain white.

I took it to the authorized service provider, they said, in the past week they had received a few Macbook Pro Early 2011 with the same problems. After they diagnosed, I was told to replace the logicboard, costs $850.

I don't know what to do now! I read this thread there are so many Macbook Early 2011 on their 2nd/3rd logicboard. I'm not sure I want to spend $850 with only 90days guarantee..

I think someone should print all 50 pages of this thread, tape them end to end and walk into an Apple store with all 50 pages trailing behind you as you walk to the Genius bar. Maybe that would get someone's attention

matt_jd > Thanks, thanks a lot. Could you please send me an email to nileans (at) gmail (dot) com? I have a couple of questions regarding the Ubuntu installation issue if you don't mind.

Nilean

Same Probleme ... :/

Macbook Pro 15' Early 2011

SurfsUpSD wrote:

 

I think someone should print all 50 pages of this thread, tape them end to end and walk into an Apple store with all 50 pages trailing behind you as you walk to the Genius bar. Maybe that would get someone's attention

Maybe walk around the "geniuses" a few times too.

In other news, had another wake-up to a black screen today, followed by a restart with corrupt apple boot screen. Again, i've let it get to the gray screen (where it always freezes), waited for the fans to kick in, forced a shutdown, unplugged the AC, rebooted, once again - fine.

And it reset to dynamic switching again, couriously enough.

Same problem for a couple of weeks. Stabilized it but today had a crash and took over 2 hours to get it to boot up. Now the screen is striated and when I try and open Final Cut Pro it says I'm missing the proper hardware (video card, not enough VRAM, etc.) even though I was just editing last night.

Tried repairing disk permissions but nothing changes. Can't get the screen back to normal. Have gfxCardStatus installed with Integrated Graphics only selected. Tried quitting out of it and restarting but still no change.

I'm willing to edit with the screen like this but need to get FCP to open. Any ideas? I'm in the middle of cutting a TV show and will have to give to another editor if I can't get this worked out. Very upset as this is costing me money.

if you can take out your hdd, buy a 2.5 SATA hdd enclosure.  I'm using mine as an external hdd now.  You can get your files that way and work on other Mac.  

I have a late 2012 27" iMac. Same issues. Blue lines. Apple logo and the white screen or sometimes blue. I can't boot into safe mode either. I had no issues until after I installed Mavericks.

Hi ThyForsakenOne, This thread only concerns the 2011 model of MacBook Pro with Discrete Graphics, as you can see from the title. Our problem here is that the computer relies internally on "AMD Radeon HD 6750M" video hardware, and this hardware appears not to have been built to last.

Please find and post to a more appropriate thread ( perhaps https://discussions.apple.com/message/17990071 ). Best of luck finding a solution to your problem.

As of today I have run the Apple Hardware Test for over 8 hours with no problems found - that's rougthly 14 passes. I am running the online test by pressing Option+D on startup.

My system definitely has a hardware problem as I have a fresh install of Mavericks running on the interneal HDD and and External HDD.

I also am not interested in having the system's logic board replaced just yet as I don't want to be stuck with another dead machine after 90 days...

The Macbook Pro is barely usable for anything as the risk of it crashing while editing documents it to high.

It crashes out about once every hour or two and then wont turn on for another random period of time.

That said AHT will always run - even if the OS currently hangs on the grey screen...

Also to everyone needing to get straight back into their system try this fix:

[ "To follow on my previous suggestion. It's actually better to boot in shell mode, instead of waiting…" — Davide Pasca http://disq.us/8fuh4c ]

To follow on my previous suggestion. It's actually better to boot in shell mode, instead of waiting for the Mac to overheat.
- Press Cmd + s at start, and wait for the shell come up
- At the prompt, type:

mount -uw /
mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD* ~/Desktop/
shutdown -h now


..restart and it will work. I just tested it with Mavericks, that reinstalled the AMD drivers and wouldn't boot again.

Since yesterday i have de same problem with my macbook pro 17" 2,2Ghz AMD, bla, bla. I have an apointment in the Geniusbar in Amsterdam next thursday. Curious of what they will say because warranty period in The Netherlands is a little different by law.  I hope that helps ;-)

Here is the pic:

Have the same problem started last week. I still can use macbook with integrated video. One advantage of broken gpu is I do not hear the fan more. I thought I've bought excellent quality product but it was broke in two years.

Even though my system is forcing the Integrated Video it still hangs sometimes... really annoying...

And I agree the laptops should definitely last longer then 2+ years at this price.