Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Hi if the line does not change position and the system is stable, in most cases it will be an LCD fault.

I am joining the club, as of yesterday my late 2011 macbook has the same problem. Ive spoken with Apple and as applecare is out  by 2 days they have suggested applying for repair with consumer law. Downside is you need to take it back to point of purchase which is in my case Glasgow. However i am up in Keith an hour away from Aberdeen, so thats a fair trip to make.

Andrew.

The individual pixels on this line move and change color very quickly. The strip remains stable at the position.

Yes most likely the LCD. Not uncommon but I wouldn't say an inherent defect. Sometimes caused by physical force or quick temperature changes.

The early Intel iMac models ATI GPU when it used to break down used to give vertical lines but on a MacBook Pro like that it's nearly always the LCD.  Unscrewing the bottom case, removing the cable harness from the logic board then cleaning the connectors with isopropyl and refitting might be a long shot as I've seen wildly different artefacts on screen including vertical lines, though mostly it's screen fuzz of varying colours when there's a bad connection there.

Just joining the club today. Yay. MBP Early 2011. Crashes in Windows, boots up to interlaced/pink-ish screen. Works in OS X until I do anything that might use the AMD chip.

I just had my early 2011 mbp 15 to apple 3 months after warrantee expired bad logic board.

$310 + tax and repaired.

Same problem too with a MBP 15 inch, early 2011. I also have a late 2011 17" (last 17") - am worried will happen this too.

Apple needs to do something about this - not a "minority" problem...

*sigh* I'll join the club. HD3000 works but I didn't pay all this money for the video card of a base model 13', otherwise I would have....

Add me to the club.  2011 15" works fine until I start watching.  As soon as the fan starts to run crashes to lines or plane white screen.  Applecare just expired a few months ago so we'll see what happens when I bring it in this Sat.

Sadly, I'm part of this club, too with my MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011. The most annoying part is that my logic board was replaced for HKD 4,300 last year. Only after the replacement I started observing the problems with the graphic chip.

For a €2,000+ laptop, I'm expecting a longer lifetime than mere 2 years.

I am utterly disgusted by Apple's lack of action so far. I am one of the owner of the affected units of the Macbook Pro that I bought in 2011. It is now lay dead as a paperweight at my house as I was charged over $1,000 to replace the logic board. With that money for a repair, which many of you mention is not a solution to the problem, I rather buy a new Windows PC. To be honest, I do not mind that Apple did not do a recall of my Macbook Pro, as mine has actually run out of warranty. However, I would really like to see them getting active in this issue, maybe posting some ideas on how to repair it DIY style, or even acknowledge that this type of Macbook is indeed problematic and informing customers to beware of buying this model.

Dear Apple Team,

I have problem is Mac book pro 15 inches 2011

This problem is related with display card. It will happen when I open the movie or open the Adobe programs which are Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign. The green line will occur as the picture I have attached. I bought this machine on 20 February 2012 and have this problem on 13 June 2014. Before this, I also have a problem with hard disk on 27 May 2014 and it has been fixed by Istudio. Staff there couldn’t tell me the exact reason of this problem yet. They told me that it is rare case which could happen by dropping this computer or else in which I never drop this computer and also took care of it very well. The cost for this is around 3,500 Baht which is acceptable for me.

However, after that the display card also have problem which I am not sure it is because of we fixing HDD with Istudio. The cost for this time is 29,000 baht which is too high for me. From what I research, many people also have the same problem using this computer. So, this should be the problem that occur from Apple Company. If it is from what I do i.e. water drop, break the display, drop the computer. It would be fine for me but this is not. And the fixing cost is almost half price of buying new computer.

So I would like to ask the apple company to responsible for it like the macbook pro case that produce during may 2007. It is not fair for the user that bought this model and has to responsible for these entire problem. I believe the company should know that there are many cases similar to mine. We trust apple and always royalty to your brand. So, I think it is not fair for the user at all for this case.

I am so disappoint with the apple product and apple’s responsibly.  Also, losing trust with the brand. If you would like to build your brand to be high positing brand you should build your product to match with it.

Apple's lack of response is f***ing unbelievable (pardon my French) when I see the numbers of people that are experiencing this issue reporting in.

I sure as h*ll have lost my confidence in my high end 15' MBP early 2011, although I still can use it (GFXcardstatus). I paid more than 2500 EUR for this fine piece of machinery and it's crippled only 2,5 years afer purchase. I said it before and I'll say it again: this has been my last Apple (take note Apple, I was a good customer!), mostly because the utter lack of action to customers regarding this matter and even worse: let them pay themselves for a 500-800 EUR logic board replacement which will fail again since this offers no solution.

Goodbye Apple. I won't miss your hardware. Hello Hackingtosh. Plus, for me Windows has evolved from a necessary evil to acceptable alternative. I rest my case.

So far I assumed this is only a specific issue to my MBP 15" HiRes Early 2011 - but seems I am not the only one...

No clue what to do now however - wait for a reaction from Apple? Spend some (significant) money to get it (probably) repaired? Buy a new laptop?