Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

ok well, thing is, I'm not the official speaker for this thread and I can only express my opinion.

amongst all the people affected by this issue since (let's say) the start of this thread, many have already solved their problem and got back to living their life.

either they got a logic board switch through Apple with success, bought a new computer, have a reball, you name it.

1000 tweets a day, that's a lot of work for a few people and that would be efficient if 1000 people tweet once a day because the first argument Apple gives and someone like Csound1 (sorry, hope it's not inappropriate) is that there is no proof to anything.

no proof to so many units are failing, no proof that paying $750 a refurbished logic board will prevent the failure to happen again, no proof that it is worth asking for a recall from Apple.

my point is, even if many people experienced this problem since it first appeared, there might not be that many who did not yet solve their problem and available to give time to the cause, especially after having wasted so much already, can't blame them.

Apple is not monitoring the forums as official source of valuable information, you are right and that's very useful for them to answer that when you're mentioning this huge thread and all the users testifying their same symptoms.

magazines and "trustable" websites probably have better things to cover or maybe they just don't want to go against Apple, a (very) few made a little story about it but that's all.

Officially registering the problem to Apple and getting a case number is the priority, sending feedback on their site, having an appointment to the store if one is nearby, all the other things are bonus but registering it with Apple is mandatory.

now again, that's just my opinion..

no offense akamyself but why are you wasting your time on that thread then?

the power of social media is huge, you can't even imagine.

How can you prove that something is wrong inside the logic board? you cannot

How can you prove that a GM was defective a part form few vehicles catching fire? you cannot

How can you prove that iMacs 2011 were defective? you cannot.

In this thread I can't see anyone who says "i have the solution now, it's all working fine, thank you"

Changing the logic board does not work it's a fact (and it's pricey). these computers are more than 3yo so even with apple care they are all out of warranty.

Only if you make some noise you can have a result. if we don't complain we will have peanuts

I bought a new computer because i don't want to wait indefinitely for a solution that might never come. and yes I sent a feedback, let's see where it goes...

They have to admit that something is wrong so the mistake will be avoided in the future

It is nice to hear everybody on how they resolve this issue. However l have not got that much time to get involved in this discussion; not having my machine because of this logic board melt-down has delayed my work.

Thank you, have a nice day, and many felicitations with your opinions.

no offense taken, I don't feel wasting my time overall and as I learned a lot on this source of this problem and the options available to get it fixed, sometimes I take time to share it with people coming here and looking for answers.

browsing back the pages is a bit of a pain to find infos so posting a recap here and there can be useful for new comers.

and since I receive notifications on my phone for every new post, I can't miss a thing anyway.

some in this thread went the reball way and keep posting to say "so far so good", not many as far as I've seen but a few, yeah.

what I meant is a lot of people posted here, some even were pretty active for a few days and then disappeared so even if it doesn't mean they got their computer fixed, maybe they did.

but hey, I agree with you on all the points you made, of course social media is powerful but this is just a thread in a forum and I seen people coming trying to organize a mass movement to Apple stores, or a call the Apple Care day, it is hard to make it happen through a forum.

other than that, you are right, making noise and being seen if the best way to get heard and noticed, with the Apple feedback even if they can also deny having many of them.

now on your last sentence, they still can avoid repeating the same mistake without having to admit anything.

Wheel-Idiot-No.1 wrote:

 

It is nice to hear everybody on how they resolve this issue. However l have not got that much time to get involved in this discussion; not having my machine because of this logic board melt-down has delayed my work.

 

Thank you, have a nice day, and many felicitations with your opinions.

I'm not sure what you really mean here but I choose to take it the right way.

I'm kinda of interested in reballing (never heard of that before...)

I don't know in which part of the world you are but if anyone has done it in south florida i'm interested

reballing seems to be the best option everyone agrees on, it's just re-soldering cpu-gpu together which is the main reason we got all these problems, the soldering is messed up.

ps3pecialist is in the US but I think in california, you can still ask him.

just so you know, if you reball, you exclude yourself from the might-never-happen recall, but you get your computer back fully working for not too much money.

akamyself wrote:

 

reballing seems to be the best option everyone agrees on, it's just re-soldering cpu-gpu together which is the main reason we got all these problems, the soldering is messed up.

ps3pecialist is in the US but I think in california, you can still ask him.

 

just so you know, if you reball, you exclude yourself from the might-never-happen recall, but you get your computer back fully working for not too much money.

If the Nvidia 8 series MBP issue is anything to go that wasn't the case - you were re-reimbursed if you paid for a new GPU.

totally right, thanks for the precision.

Apple would not take your computer and swap the logic board for a new and fixed-for-real one or fix any part causing the problem is what I meant but yes, they would give the money back to those who paid for the useless job they proposed up to this day.

or maybe in form of some in-store credit to buy Apple stuff? no, I'm joking.

For the longer-standing Apple machine owners here, how long (in general) did it take for Apple to implement a reimbursement or recall plan for past models with defects?

For example, the 2008 model, etc... How many months/years did it take for Apple to react?  I'm not sure, but it seems we are way beyond that time limit for our case.

Don't hold your breath.

If Aplle can avoid having to repair them, they probably will.

Like on this one. They preffered to send 2 laywers to court instead of fixing a macbook for free:

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/19/blogger-victorious-over-apple-in-small-claim s-case-on-nvidia-gpu-failures/

That link makes for interesting reading. I'm not expecting Apple to do the right thing. It reminds me of that scene in Fight Club when they are discussing car recalls.

"Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."

Just out of interest has anyone noticed a slight burning/metallic smell when using their MBP 2011? I was wondering if this was an early sign of mine getting ready to pack up?

I live in Brazil, and here we pay the world´s highest price for any apple product, due to government taxes. The macbook pro 8,2, the one I have, in the occasion of its release here, cost the equivalent to US$4800. To have the logic board changed for a new one, which was the diagnosis when I took it to an authorized service, would cost US$875 (the cheapest one in my city - São Paulo, named Interalpha) to US$1125 (the most expensive one - Infoworks). Our national minimun wage is around US$312, so you can have an idea of this absurd billing. So today I took it to a place called Doctor Finder, which is not authorized by apple, so that they can TRY to solve the problem with a solder job (melting down a circuit), which will cost me US$166. Apple policy to always change an entire piece and not trying to fix it is not just dumm and expensive, but also a waste of material, and I live in a country that exports metals but you really won´t wanna know how it damages not only nature, but human beings. So all this talk about being one of the world´s top branches, well... I really think apple should rethink many things. it certainly smells like programmed obsolescence.

@GavMackem: I appreciate this clarification (and all of your posts):

If the Nvidia 8 series MBP issue is anything to go that wasn't the case - you were re-reimbursed if you paid for a new GPU.

As I see it, if Apple ever admits liability in this case, it will be for a design flaw that leads to premature GPU/CPU failure. That should have nothing to do with whether any particular unit was repaired during its lifespan. While such repairs might void the warranty, these units are now out of warranty, anyway; this is not (or no longer is) a warranty issue. Thus, Apple should reimburse owners who paid for new logic boards; should replace whatever needs replacing to fix the problem for owners whose units have yet to fail; and should reimburse owners who elected to re-ball their units. The question remains whether Apple would also replace parts for the first and third set of owners.

As for me, I need my computer for my work and I elected to have it re-balled by the Laptop Repair Center in Burbank, CA. It's been a month and, so far, so good. In fact, my anecdotal impression is that the unit runs cooler now (in addition to not crashing!). They accept mail-in units, as do many other repair places. (That might be important for folks like nyco75, but I bet there's someone in South Florida who has the experience and the machinery to do the job.) Of course I can't know how long the repair will last, but if it took the solder three years to fail, the first time, and if my repairman assures me his repair is better than the original (which he did, probably due to better thermal paste work), then I hope the repair will last the usable lifespan of the unit. If not, it was only $130.

As I say, I needed my computer. If there is a replacement program and my re-ball is not reimbursed (but I'm still eligible for the replacement), my productivity the re-ball allowed would still have been worth far more than $130. Heck, it has been already. That said, if there's a replacement program and I'm excluded from it entirely, I'll be ******.

[Edit: Off topic question. Wow, I submitted this post and my last word (a mildly ribald expression of anger, related to micturition, was censored in less than a minute. Is this an automatic function of the board?]

Thanks for the info.

I happened to find via Google a guy who can do the job in West Palm Beach, FL !

65$ for the reball

I'll let you know.

As far as I can see this is the cheapest and fingers-crossed-working solution to solve the problem.