Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Hi All,

With such a long time and similar topic in this community without any response from Apple. I am one of the victim. For sure, all the 2011 model with AMD GPU will have the same problem. I give up to try the reflow or apply the heat grease but buy a new logic board instead.

I just buy a new logic board of Mid 2012 from Taobao for US$560.00. It fits into my Early 2011 perfectly and runs for two days without problem and cooler than before. It is just an upgrade from the old one. Nvidia GT650M instead of AMD, Bluetooth 4.0 instead of 2.0, USB3.0 instead of 2.0. The only bit is this is not my favour model MD104. I only get MD103 that has less VRAM. Also it does not switch to Intel HD4000 at all. I have not figure it out why. But once it has not problem, I don't care this.

Charles

Don't get too excited , a brand new logic board can not cost less than eight hundred to a thousand dollars, its most probably a refurbished or used one so two days is not enough time to tell how good it is. Good luck anyway. people here are looking for a free repair not a $600 one.

I get more or less similar to this...but blue stripes and sometime black stripes.

well , you know how it can be fixed now. Its how almost all the 17" show the graphics failure. I repaired five of them with the same problem just this week.

WORKING for the past 12 days without any trouble. 

MacBook Pro - 15-inch, Late 2011. (Software  OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)) bought in mid 2012.

Hello.. I had all kind of problems (screen issues, heating up too much, can't login, can't even login safe mode, etc.,) for past two months and I tried every thing (hold down all sorts of suggested comments & keys) nothing worked.  I tried my bootable disk with Command+R.... even that did not work BUT after that I could able to login and successfully backed up 390GB data into Time Machine. 

I have downloaded xfxCardStatus software and installed as per advised in this forum and tried to change 'Dynamic Switching' (it automatically selected) to 'Integrated only' that's the only additional thing I have done.

FYI I never play games and my main applications are InDesign, iMail, Word, Excel, Adobe PDF and Safari.  I rarely use Photoshop for simple photo editing and I have watched youtube videos, software updating done twice.  BUT I never shutdown my mac when I go home I put it in sleep mode.

Only once my system got heating up I just put it in sleep and started working after 10-mins. I hope this will help someone like me who left alone by the 'APPLE'

When I went to app store they checked and said that the logic board should be changed and it will cost around Rs. 45,000/- ($ 800)...

WORKING for the past 12 days without any trouble. 

MacBook Pro - 15-inch, Late 2011. (Software  OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)) bought in mid 2012.

Hello.. I had all kind of problems (screen issues, heating up too much, can't login, can't even login safe mode, etc.,) for past two months and I tried every thing (hold down all sorts of suggested comments & keys) nothing worked.  I tried my bootable disk with Command+R.... even that did not work BUT after that I could able to login and successfully backed up 390GB data into Time Machine. 

I have downloaded xfxCardStatus software and installed as per advised in this forum and tried to change 'Dynamic Switching' (it automatically selected) to 'Integrated only' that's the only additional thing I have done.

FYI I never play games and my main applications are InDesign, iMail, Word, Excel, Adobe PDF and Safari.  I rarely use Photoshop for simple photo editing and I have watched youtube videos, software updating done twice.  BUT I never shutdown my mac when I go home I put it in sleep mode.

Only once my system got heating up I just put it in sleep and started working after 10-mins. I hope this will help someone like me who left alone by the 'APPLE'

When I went to app store they checked and said that the logic board should be changed and it will cost around Rs. 45,000/- ($ 800)...

I never excited about this, it is actually frustrated. The logic board come with blank serial number. So, it is brand new. Any repaired or refurbished logic board should have serial number on it already. I have to use special software to fit the original serial number into it. You can go to hk.taobao.com to search MD104 or MD103 logic board. But I think they don't have English site as it is in Mainland China. I will finger cross to see how long it will work before it went to problem. Anyway, thank you for your input.

"The email addresses for the Apple executives are below...."

Well, some of the executives, for sure.  Too, there's no better way to assure that you won't get a response by anyone, than sending an email to everyone.  Too, you should learn what each of the executives does.  By all accounts, Eddy's a great guy and, since he's uninvolved with either the OS or the hardware, whining to him about your desire to get something rebelled for free will undoubtedly elicit a complete different response than what you want.  Just a head's up.

Hi,

Model: Macbook pro 2.4 i7

Year: late 2011

Date of purchase: April 2012

OS: Latest OS X

Computer currently using to write this post: Windows PC on my work.

Problem: Since last week I have been experiencing the BSOD with black vertical stripes. This happens when doing heavy video converting and even iTunes audio converting to iPhone and MAC gets very hot. This even happens with a cooling pad!

I have already installed a clean OS, after another BSOD I have reset the PRAM/VRAM, reset the SMC and for some kind of reason I cannot do the hardware test??? (yes I have the latest recovery partition on my disc)

Next week I am taking my Macbook pro to a authorized Apple technical assistance, which the Apple Portugal hotline has indicated to me.(because here in Portugal we don´t have a apple store)

I am very disappointed with the fact that this almost 2.000€ (at the time) laptop after 2 years of usage has this problem, I really thought buying a MAC would save me these type of problems and AT LEAST could handle 6 years.... The Macbook pro late 2008 of my colleague is still running without any problem (slower but no BSOD) Seems that the late 2008 model was created with the standard quality's of when Steve was still around....

It´s a shame that this turned out this way, I always (and still) liked MAC OS and I always recommended this to family and friends...... Until now of course.

My policy for apple products for now:

- None Apple product has portable computer with POWER and no problems.

- For power: buy a Desktop

- Something portable: iPAD with limited functions or Macbook air with less power.... (no gaming or high level video editing) I don't know if The Macbook air has problems or not, maybe it doesn´t because of lower CPU with integrated GPU.

Don´t buy the latest Macbook pro, it´s to much power with bad ventilation and bad quality standards..... (soldering etc)

Currently this is my opinion and I really hope there is an solution for this within the price range of my wallet, because if it doesn´t I´ll never go back and rather buy a HP with i7 quad core and buy a new one every 2 years.

I read that logic board replacements could be necessary and the estimate cost of this is 800€. If every 2 years I have to pay a new logic board..... Well do the math.

rjjcvb wrote:

 

- For power: buy a Desktop

Totally agree on that.

Allready wrote that a few times myself. Don't understand getting a portable for video editing, rendering etc...

If needed, have an online friend in Portugal doing repairs/reballs.

Will probably be 3-6x cheaper then an Apple repair..

After reaching a stable but crippled state with my 2011 mbp a few weeks ago and refraining from rebooting whenever possible, last night I encountered the problem again after watching a video, stopping it, then closing the lid.  After remembering to do one more thing, I opened the lid and could not get a login screen again, so had to reboot and got the gray screen at boot up.  Tried once more, same gray screen, fans kicking in, etc.  So I walked away for about 30 minutes to cool down, then I was able to reboot and get a login.

The gfxcardstatus had to be reset to "integrated" at reboot again.

What a bush-league company Apple turned out to be.  They've made it very clear that they don't give a rat's behind about their own mfg'er's defects and the stress and impact they've imposed on their customers.

Who the frick would remain loyal to a company with no ethics?

@carl wolf  I did receive a phone call from Apple, less than 24 hours after I sent the email.  Therefore. yes, contacting Apple executives was effective.  Did they resolve my problem?  No.  Apple offered me to send in my MBP for a new logic board for $310.00.

Did I mention anything about reballing?  No.  Am I whining?  No.  

Who the frick would remain loyal to a company with no ethics?

People with their heads in the sand.  I've lost all trust for Apple products.

It's not the fact that my early 2011 17in MacBook Pro has a GPU defect that bothers me.  It's the fact that like so many others I've now returned it several times only to have Apple put the same defective GPU (via a logic board replacement) back into my laptop and it's a sitting timebomb just waiting to fail again.

It's the fact that Apple hasn't announced a formal repair program for this and is shafting its customers in the process.  This has caused me quite a lot of anxiety.  After the first repair I was constantly worried I was going to lose clients and money when it failed again.  When it did fail again after about 3 months, I lost money I couldn't afford to lose from not being able to get all my work completed yet again.

Now, I'm just trying to make enough money in time after the second replacement of my GPU/Logic board so I can be financially secure enough to take another hit when this fails again an inevitable third time.  My anxiety is through the roof thanks to Apple.  It's causing me very real and irreparable harm to my life and health issues due to stress and overwork trying to make as much money as possible before this laptop dies on me again.  It's even affecting my family members as well.

I used to trust Apple to do the right thing by their customers.  I am no longer trustful of Apple in this regard.  They have all this money in the billions they are hoarding, but they won't dip into a small percentage of it to make things right with a defect in their product that adversely affects their own consumers.  This is disgusting.

Carl, referring to those who complain about this defect as "whining" isn't productive and is only adding more hostility to an already stressful situation for many of us here.  In the future, I hope you act like a professional and drop the pompous attitude.  You're inflaming an already explosive situation and reading your post just made me very angry.  If your goal is to make upset, stressed out, anxious people very angry with you and even more angry with Apple, then mission accomplished.

Did I mention anything about reballing?  No.  Am I whining?  No.

Yeah, saying you were "whining" was really rude and uncalled for.  If Carl is trying to wear us down by being rude, it's not working.  It's only making me very, very angry and motivated.

Apple offered me to send in my MBP for a new logic board for $310.00.

That's ridiculous.  If you have an early 2011 MacBook Pro and it's showing all the same graphic symptoms of the defect we've been talking about in this thread, contact Apple customer relations and tell them they need to replace it for free.