Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

My mbp failed again the other night when I downloaded a piece of Netgear software that forced an unbeknownst to me reboot at the end of the install.  Took about 90 minutes of rebooting to get back to a login prompt.

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Just adding my voice to the forum. My late-2011 MBP died this week. The split screen symptom came first - then a total system crash. Many reboots later have resulted in only one success - and that didn't last long. Let's keep hoping that Apple responds to this issue. I can forgive a manufacturing error. I can't forgive abandoning customers like this. My +20-year-long era of Apple evangelism has come to an end.

Update on my situation from about a month ago.  After limping along in safe mode for a month I couldn't take it anymore.  I went to the Apple Store and they said they would run some tests and get back to me.  No surprise, they said it was my logic board and it would cost $310 to get it replaced.  I OK'd the fix and now have it back.  I have been able to run video but I still seem to be getting some glitches and blank blue screens when I open Google Chrome - may just get rid of it and reinstall it.  Will be running a lot of video over the next 90 days while on warranty to make sure the fix sticks.   

Hi Cotter2000, try run in full HD and full screen more often. I guess the glitches will come back very soon. Mine was same.

finally got the same problem on my MBP 15" Late 2011

Graphic Card / logic board seems to be ****** up!

time for a replacement program apple!

I live in Switzerland and I paid $900 to fix it.

What's a logic board replacement worth if the new - or refurbished - logic board is exactly the same type with the same GPU? How long will it last? They gave me only a 90 days warranty for that repair!

ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!! VERY ANGRY!!!

Same problem in here I have a Macbook pro 15" Early 2011, I was having display issues as black lines and screen screwed up several times, after many hard restarts I used smcFanControl at highest speed and almost using basic task one at a time and the problem has presented in less occasions not even a solution but it helps for a while.

I'm running on a late-2011 MBP 2.2 GHz i7, purchased in may, 2012. The dreaded split screen + system crash happened to me about 4 days ago, and I've been getting the grey startup screen ever since. Repeated re-starts have resulted in two successful bootups. The first one happened yesterday before I learned about   gfxCardStatus - the computer worked for about 5 minutes before the screen went black and required a hard-shut-down.

The second time, I installed gfxCardStatus 2.3 (www.gfx.io) and set it to "Integrated Only". That was 3 hours ago, and I'm still up and running. Keeping my fingers crossed, but it's the best news I've had in days.

Apple Macbook Pro Early 2011 Model GPU/Motherboard Failure. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Apple Macbook Pros are not like any other Windows based laptop computers. An apple Macbook Pro will cost the consumer up to $2700 compared to a $800 or less Windows based laptop. At this cost, it has to run more than 3 years. Just has to.

I bought this Macbook Pro (Early 2011 Model) and it came with a 15 inch screen and an i7 2.0 Ghz processor, 500 GB Hard Drive and 4GB RAM. It also came with an AMD Radeon GPU Chip mounted on the motherboard. A powerful machine and great for media processing. I upgraded the RAM to 16GB and installed a hybrid 7000rpm Hard Drive right from the start. Life was good until the laptop was a week short of 3 years from the original date of purchase. Warranty had expired nearly 2 years prior to that.

THE UGLY:

Last week, nearly 3 years after purchase, my Macbook Pro (Early 2011 model with AMD Radeon GPU) could not boot. This was due to a malfunctioning Graphics Processor Unit on the motherboard. This computer has an internal intel HD Graphics card as well that processes low demand graphics calls and then switches to the AMD once load demand calls for it. The conclusion was that the when the computer was switching to AMD then it simply froze whether this was during the boot process or if the OS made it to the desktop then soon thereafter.

I checked the internet for posts for similar issues and was looking for solutions. What I found was alarming. There were thousands of complaints about this model and the GPU. People with the same issue. Dead computers. The issue surfaced anywhere from the first few months of service and up to 3 years (current). There is a 522+ page thread on Apple’s own forum with over a million views about this. Change.Org has a petition for Apple to recall and fix this issue for free with over 10,000 signatures. As of this writing, August 24th 2014 Apple has neither recalled this product nor acknowledged this issue. The motherboard had to be replaced at my cost.

THE BAD:

I called Apple’s support and was instructed that there is nothing that they can do since the computer was out of warranty. I tried to divert the support person’s attention to the thousands of complaints on the internet including Apple’s own forum however Apple did not want to acknowledge the issue and recommended that I send it in for repairs and the estimated cost would be $1100. What? How much is the new comparable Macbook Pro? $2500+. What? I was back to the thought process that THIS MACBOOK PRO MODEL HAS A MANUFACTURER’S DEFECT and APPLE HAS TURNED A BLIND EYE TO IT. Yeah, Apple Care would have saved the expense. This has nothing to do with Apple Care! This has everything to do with a manufacturing defect. Apple wouldn’t hear any of it. I knew going into the phone call that nothing will come out of it based on what I had read on the internet earlier.

THE GOOD:

I decided go to the, one of several, local Apple Store to further this event and find a solution. I was greeted at the Genius Bar by a person named Dave and he ran the diagnostics software on my computer only to confirm that the GPU had failed on the motherboard. I mentioned the ongoing KNOWN issue of this model however Dave politely mentioned that, at present, there was no quality program authorized by Apple to cover the repair. The cost to repair/replace the motherboard was a flat rate of $310. The computer would be sent to an Apple depot and they would repair everything that was not functioning in the computer. Flat rate of $310. I opted to go this route since the other choices to repair were upwards of $1100 if the store repaired/replaced the motherboard in its premises. My computer was repaired and shipped to my house within 72 hours. The Warranty provided for this work was 90 days. Everything is in working order.

FEW THINGS TO NOTE:

• At this time (August 24th, 2014) there is no recall or repair program from Apple. Apple does not acknowledge this issue even though the internet has thousands of complaints noted.
• I used to own a 2005 15inch Macbook Pro and it too had developed a GPU failure issue and was repaired at the Apple depot for $310 with 90 days warranty. Promptly after 120 days, the GPU failed again and I sent it in to the depot again for another $310. Once I got it back then I sold it on eBay for $700.
• The Apple Depot also replaced my two 8GB RAM sticks with two 2GB RAM sticks to return it back to the original specs. They, however, were nice enough to send back my two 8GB RAM sticks that I re-installed.
• I am hoping that this repair works for longer than 90 - 120 days.
• I think that the initial $1100+ estimate slapped me so hard mentally that the later estimate of $310 looked like a bargain even though it was not considering the facts

This is just additional reference to the issue.

Note that this article and the comment below were written in 2011.

From this article 2011 MBP heat issue could already be evident from day 1, even my early 2011 MBP also experienced screen freeze due to high heat and required force reboot with only after few weeks of purchase.

My guess is people who had experienced issues badly on early days already got rid of their machines and never bothered reading these threads, so look as though the issue is the accumulation of the heat over the time which may not be the case.

iFixIt’s 2011 MacBook Pro Teardown: Better Repairability, But May Be Prone To Overheating

"That's tough that your new machine also hangs. I'm hoping its not directly a heat issue, but certainly heat related. As soon as the CPU temp goes above 90 degrees C it locks up. I've now confirmed that skype also locks up the machine. My new replacement unit should be here in a week, hopefully this batch is better. Funny thing is....i was able to duplicate the issue on a quad 2.3GHZ i7 that they had in the apple store on display. The genius almost fell to the floor & basically conceded that it's very likely that my next machine will also have the same issue.

"On a Clear Day, You Can See Apple?"

Interesting enough about the thermal paste.  GOBS of TERMAL PASTE.

http://www.ebay.com/gds/Thermal-Paste-Compound-what-does-it-do-how-do-i-apply-/1 0000000001681689/g.html

This article tells what thermal paste does, which type is best, how much to apply (an amount equal to 1 uncooked grain of rice), and cautions about overheating if too much is applied.

Does Apple know what they are doing?  Of course it does.  This leads me to believe that Apple intentionally applied gobs of termal paste to cause these breakages so that people would go out and buy replacements or keep their Apple stores in business with repairs.

John DeLorean wrote a book in the early 80's entitled, "On a clear day you can see Gemeral Motors".  Despite what you think about GM product, DeLorean described how GM employed some of the best engineers in the world and they designed products exactly as Marketing requested.  When Marketing said, we need this part to break after 40,000 miles guess what?  Within just a few thousand miles after 40k mark, the part indeed broke.

It seems with the intentional GOBS of thermal paste applied on every 2011 mbp and mpb's breaking left and right at roughly the 3 year mark, I'd venture that Apple employs some very smart engineers.  And Apple's intentional ignoring of this issue would seem to confirm their intent.

xslippery

I don't really think that Apple engineers 'designed' the faulty soldering (and for goodness sake, let's stop talking about this being a "GPU" problem - it's a defective soldering issue) for 'marketing's' sake... that's just not the "Apple Way." What isn't also the "Apple Way" (and what's so puzzling) is that Apple hasn't owned up to the problem, which first started surfacing in early 2013. I don't know that they're not re-manufacturing logic boards or not -> from the failure rate of replaced boards you'd think that they would have to be. And yet some people are on their 3rd or 4th board, some have been compensated at the time of the 4th failure with a new MacBook Pro.

But I really don't think that there's any collusion amongst Apple's departments to mandate a failure. Apple's just not owning up to the fact that the soldering in the 15" and 17" models was defective.

Clinton

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS Mavericks 10.9.4, 16GB Crucial RAM, Crucial M500 960GB SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display

Clinton, thank goodness it doesn't matter what you think.

You say it's a soldering defect?  Then why did all 2011 mbp function properly right off the assembly line and for the next few years without issue?

Isn't it quite possible that the GOBS of thermal paste causing excessive heat build up compromise the soldering over time to give the impression that it's a soldering defect?  Seems to me that you're only considering the effects rather than the potential cause.

You see Apple's defects and ensuing behavior and you're left wondering and questioning and scratching your head because it doesn't make sense.

Yet others see the defects and Apple's ensuing behavior and it makes sense.

You want to continue believing Apple is good like a girlscout is good, have at it.  But then maybe you also think all governments are good and always have their peoples' best interest at heart at all times too.

Why did the solder last 2-3 years? Because it took that long for the soldering to 'break' (I'm sure there's a more technical word for it). That's why a reball will often fix the problem (done properly).

No, I'm afraid that I don't see a conspiracy here - maybe one of silence but not in the sense that Apple set out to produce this problem intentionally.

Clinton

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS Mavericks 10.9.4, 16GB Crucial RAM, Crucial M500 960GB SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display

No problem, Clinton.  But with your line of thinking, if you read up on thermal paste and how it's to be oh so lightly applied, why in your opinion would Apple who's been manufactuing macbooks for years, apply this GOBs of paste knowing that such a generious application of this goob defeats its intended purpose and can only lead to overheating?

Also, what do you suppose happens to solder when its overheated?