Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

xslippery

Oh, there's no doubt that the thermal paste was over-applied. Making the solder crack. Why did it affect these models. Apple obviously had a manufacturing defect - they just don't want to admit to it. I've already been through one logic board replacement. When I'm out of warranty, it will be a trip to the reballers!

Clinton

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

I think you're missing my point, Clinton.

Apple is not a novice at manufacturing finely-tuned sensitive instruments.

Apple is also no stranger to overheating and GPU's overheating.

How does an expert highly regarded company go from the standard thermal paste application (equivalant to 1 grain of uncooked rice) to GOBS?

That's not just an oversight.  That's a slew of technicians, engineers, and QA types checking their brains off at the door or perhaps Apple and all its subsidiaries and vendors were victims of too much flouride in their drinking water in 2011.

Hi

Fried GPU in Argentina.

Apple MUST repair this.

computer breaks. just buy a new one. Period.

You could (if you can afford it), or you could repair the old one (for a lesser sum), but in this case, the repairs are not always working. So you have to re-assess what you consider a safe/good buy - is it Apple, or do you have to consider another brand?

Sure, like your car?

Exactly, however, as a loyal purchaser of a particular brand, I would be inclined to ask the company what it can assure me of its new model and why the last one didn't last as expected. It had better be good news...

Great, but this tells me my MBP is out of warranty and I have to spend $69 to 'purchase a single incident of support'.

Buying a case number is pretty pricey!

Agreed.

I had this issue recently, took it into the Genius Bar and they sent it in for the $310 repair. Replaced the logic board, put in new RAM, and a new 750GB hard drive. Pretty good deal, really, for $310 I think. Would've been better if it had never needed repair in the first place obviously, but since I never bought AppleCare for this computer in the first place, I got it repaired for what it would've cost to buy AppleCare. I wasn't sure if they were going to be able to repair it, and in the meantime bought a new MacBook Pro. At this point I'm planning to return it if this one keeps working for the next few days. Apple has a pretty liberal return policy for the first 14 days.

I took in my affected Late 2011 Macbook Pro to the genius bar a couple of days ago. I have been running gfxcardstatus to keep my machine in integrated graphics only mode. Previously if I switched it over to the AMD chip the screen would distort or go black and it would take me many reboots or leaving the laptop alone for a few hours before I could successfully startup again. During the failed startup attempts I would see red lines appear on the apple logo screen. The cycle was occasionally triggered during shut down, or if I left my mac in sleep mode for too long. Basically the same problem everyone's having. However at the apple store my macbook decided to work perfectly fine for a short while, switching to the discrete graphics chip had no effect, and all the diagnostic tests performed on it revealed nothing. The apple genius was quite confident the problem was most likely with my memory, as I had installed 16GB in there which apple does not officially support for the 2011 models. I was skeptical but wanted to believe him as this would be a lot less hassle to solve. That same evening I was getting the problems again - so I put the original memory back in - all 4GB of it, unfortunately this has not made any difference and my mac is still freaking out.

I'm going back to the genius bar tomorrow to see what they say and at least try to get a quote for a repair if not a freebie under EU consumer law. I have spoken to someone I know who repairs apple computers for a living - he thinks re-applying the thermal paste should do the job, he wouldn't charge me much and would have it done within a day - has anyone else tried this? Is this the same thing as reballing? If this will work I'd prefer it to even a freebie from apple as I would not have to get a replacement machine while waiting for a repair. Any advice is appreciated!

At least I can solve my problems without whining.

My goodness, why until now still no replacement program? Apple~~~~

Hey, just one little question - when was the last time you updated the OS cleanly? Have you been on 10.6 initial and then upgraded over to 10.7 and subsequently 10.8?

I had some serious issues with my MBP early 2011 - it all ended after I finally had a clean install.

Have you ever tried?

Just took my late 2011 MBP to the genius bar here in Hamburg. They immediately found the faulty graphics card, but couldn't help me nevertheless... even though they acknowledged that there had already been numerous similar cases at their store. I was offered a discount for a new Macbook, but of course I had already bought one just so I could continue working.

So all thats left now is keeping my fingers crossed that Apple starts a repair program at the last minute (maybe when the class action lawsuit suceeds). What a shame.