Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Recently faced with the same problem. Very disappointed.

Hadn't experienced any obvious graphical glitches on my early-2011 17" Macbook Pro, but I did a decent amount of gaming and some iOS development on it and the GPU blew up a few weeks ago - fuzzy banding momentarily on the screen, hard crash, and now it boots into a black screen once it tries loading the OS (OS X or Windows).

I'm using a cheap Windows machine for gaming and my 11" Air for other work, but I think this should be fixed. Yes it's out of warranty, but expensive machines like this should not have a massive failure rate after only three years. Please do the right thing Apple.

- Steve Moy

Steve, Your 17" computer is a very valuable one, people have been crying out for help from Apple for over a year and nothing happened, If you
care about repairing your computer find someone in your country that is reputable in reballing and send him your computer to fix for you, that is the only realistic solution for people who want to solve their computers problem. Also for the people who have been trying to disable the GPU and use the CPU built in graphics capability, by doing that you are putting a huge load on the CPU , that will result in a CPU overheating and will end up with a CPU failure and instead of having only a GPU problem you may end up with a GPU and CPU problems, my advise is try to fix the GPU problem rather than creating another problem with the CPU. Reballing the CPU on these computers is much harder and has a much lower success rate than the GPU that if you can find someone to reball the CPU at all so if you end up with a CPU problem you might end up with a non repairable computer. In general , Reballing two chips on one logic board lower its chances of repair by 50% .. no questions or comments please , it is just a professional's opinion and its up to everyone to take it or leave it.

My 2011 MacBook Pro 17 has also failed due to GPU issues .  Since it was past the warranty period I went to a outside repair service and had the GPU reballed twice!  Each time it seems to be fixed and lasts about 2 or three months, but I can't justify continuing spending money to repair what is increasingly obvious as an Apple design/manufacturing issue with these models.  I'm hoping Apple does the right thing rather than abandoning their users.  My confidence is shaken.

All my friends, i am writing this on a machine which suffers from the same problem. For more than 3 months between March and May I was not using the m/c since there was no way for me to get the machine started at times. I even sent it to Apple Support centre and they told me it will cost me Rs. 36,000 (US$ 600) to repair. I even wrote a letter to Tim Cook. It stays unanswered! Then very accidentally I stumbled on to a trick.

Whenever my machine hangs and I reboot I get thin green lines across my screen. The apple logo and the spinning gears are there and after a while I get a blank grey screen. What I do then is I overturn my m/c and keep some cloth over it to cover the exhaust vents and then let the m/c heat up. Once the temp reaches a certain level (if you touch the machine it is very hot and can burn your hand) the m/c automatically switches itself off. Now immediately restart the machine (it is advisable to keep it connected to the mains). The m/c starts off normally (touch wood). I have done this more then 25 times so far and it has worked. After the m/c starts, you can use the gfxcardstatus and set the gpu usage to integrated only. I think what is happening is that the high temperatures seem to be resulting in the machine not using the discrete GPU when it is starting off and therefore does not show the green lines and starts off smoothly.

The other thing to do is not to switch off the m/c, let it go into sleep mode when not in use (just put the screen down). I have been using the m/c like this for more then 3 months now. And it comes up from the sleep just fine.

Other tricks to keep in mind. Don't use iPhoto or any high end GPU s/w. It does result in the m/c hanging. Though I had many instances when the m/c switched from integrated to discrete and back without trouble once the m/c is on.

Even my new battery is working perfectly fine. It gives me 7 to 8 hours of uninterrupted use. I run virtual machines on it and no problem. Sometimes VM uses switches to discrete.

Nowadays I don't even have to let the m/c get really hot to restart normally. It does so after a few mins of the above trick.

So if you want to keep driving your early 2011 macbook pro without incurring the high cost of logic board changes or to do any reballing or reflow then the above trick is your answer.

Please respond only if it works

I am now the proud owner of a $2000 paperweight as of last night. It began with unresponsive programs, a Kernel Task CPU usage of 107% requiring a hard shutdown. Never came back, after hours of rebooting, there was a clicking sound from the death knell of a hard drive too. Still won't display with running only an SSD drive.  A $2000 paperweight and now a lost drive from the hundreds of reboots trying to get back to a working state.

Called Applecare, there is no acknowledgment of any known issues with this machine. Nothing they can do, but feel free to call and check on their unacknowledged problem.

Looks like its time to go with Acer and Windows 9.  If computers are just cheap commodities and even the premier technology company won't stand behind their overpriced products, Why pay a premium? For $500, if the Acer fails in three years, I get another. Windows is really improved too.

I had the Logic board of my 2011 15" MacBook pro (Bought November 2011 for £1,549.00) replaced at the apple store in Belfast on July 31st 2014 after I got the blue screen/pixelated/grey screen of death.

Now I am having the same issue again on the 26th August 2014, one month the logic board lasted, the whole month I was plagued by slow start up and pixilation on start up.

The manager called me after leaving feedback, he said "If you look on the internet you'll find something wrong with everything" and refused to accept there was an issue, ok he's towing the company line, I get it, but don't make me out to be stupid for suggesting it.

When I got to the store to drop off the machine, the technician (I refuse to call them geniuses) told me he was fully aware of the issues with 2011 mbp failing and that apple hadn't acknowledged it yet.

Still waiting to hear what the problem is this time, if they are going to put in a new logic board or even do anything at all.

Hi 15-inch MBP late 2011 owners,

Anyone with the same GPU issue, appreciate if you can add value to your complaints by doing the following. Unfortunately, Apple does not monitor this forum.

1. Call Apple Care Contact Apple for support and service
2. Point them to this thread. Ask them why Apple is keeping quiet on this known issue?
3. Get a case number and inform them to follow up with the on-site/certified Apple service provider.

They "should" offer a sound/amicable solution.

cheers

No "amicable solution" offered. Going to Acer and  Windows, at least I pay a third for what I'll throw away in three years.

I always thought of Apple to be the best Tech company in the world. This is undeniably a manufacturer defect that is affecting thousands of people. How is this not being addressed? People have faith in these products and when they are malfunctioning due to faulty parts, they must be replaced and fixed. Simple as that. Not only does it hurt the reputation of Apple when these parts are defective in the first place, but not addressing the issue turns a fanboy for life into an enemy.

Sincerely,

An Apple customer immersed in the Apple ecosystem with an iPhone, iPad, iMac, and faulty MacBook Pro that doesn't get respect.

Switching.

I've just encountered the same problem on my early 2011 MacBook pro, a blue screen with lines when booting up, and sometimes a white/grey screen. It's got to the point where I can't even boot up at all, Apple care has just recently ran out too. Not too sure what to do now, any ideas?

Yep, another 2011 MBP here.

same issue for me too, I'd been travelling for a little while and as soon as I returned I turned on the laptop and the gpu glitched out almost instantly.

so bad, I can't get passed grey screen, safe mode has been working ok but even that is starting to glitch out now.

iI've tried setting the gpu to inbuilt but the computer just hangs when I do - if I can get to a stage where I can actually set it, i haven't been able to boot it apart from in safe mode for some time.

i took it into apple and the guy confirmed my problems, he advised I sell (implying I pass it off as a working computer) and use the money on a new computer, which just seemed fundamentally wrong to me.

I had three years of care but that ended in May - i work in music and video production but since I've been on the road since April, I've only been using the laptop for basic stuff and nothing GPU intensive. It pretty much feels that Apple have designed a machine that breaks/becomes obsolete as soon as their obligation to repairing it is over. Not impressed at all. I have to use apple products for work but I can safely say I am not personally going to be spending any money on apple products again unless they resolve this issue.

sign the petition, give apple feedback and complete the survey for any lawyers investigating this case http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/widespread-2011-macbook-pro-failures-continue -3497935/

Hi there, if you do not wish to open a case with the Authorised service provider, at least open a case with Apple Support over the phone.

We need to add to the statistic some where. Apple does not monitor this thread, hence the least we all can do is to open a case by calling them at Contact Apple for support and service

Heaps of online thingy going on (see below) but if you do not call Apple Support they will just continue to ignore us.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/widespread-2011-macbook-pro-failures-continue -3497935/

Similar experiences, possible workaround?

My Model

• MacBook Pro 15-inch, Early 2011
• Processor  2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
• Memory  16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
• Graphics  AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB
• Software  OS X 10.9.4 (13E28)

Possible Workaround – gfxCardStatus

Has anyone else tried the "gfxCardStatus" app by cody krieger?

After clean installing the OS and being told it'd be a $310 logic board fix by the AppleStore yesterday, I installed Cody's gfxCardStatus app last night and set it to:

• Discrete Only

After rebooting, I've been testing with FCPX, Motion 5, several web videos, TED talks, Pixelmator... all at the same time... and it has not crashed yet.

Can anyone else duplicate this workaround?

Might be useful to community if it works successfully – I'm personally psyched to be using my MacBook Pro again for more than 5 minutes (going on over an hour so far) without it crashing.

I'm still a bit hesitant to give it a complete thumbs up for mission critical work, and going to test it more thoroughly using FCPX work project later today.

BTW I first had gfxCardStatus set to "Integrated Only" and that white/gray-screened my MacBook Pro completely – took me a Safe Reboot and PRAM reset to get it back. If testing on your system, maybe uncheck "Load gfxCardStatus at startup" so that you don't get stuck in a loop.

KV