Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Same problem here:

Macbook Pro late 2011, 2.2.  The machine cost over £2000 and failed in August 2014, less than 3 years of use.

Apple have quoted £410 to replace logic board. The Graphics Processing Unit has failed. (GPU)

I use photoshop a lot and apparently the Graphics card has overheated.

An independent Technician has tried the "reballing of the GPU" but this has not worked. (cost £80)

He said the the graphics chip does not sit flat on the logic board, either this is a manufacturing fault or the chip has bent due to excessive heat.

He will resolder a new Graphics chip onto the logic board (cost £40)

I will update with new information if this has been successful.

Problems started with usual symptoms : suddenly freezing, crashing, grey screen, blue screen, lines through screen. Reinstalling Mavericks did not help,

erasing hard drive did not help. These were short term fixes as problem soon reappeared. You will soon find total failure of logic board & expensive fix.

Well of course I am not impressed with Apple. Overpriced unreliable products, I rely on my expensive Macbook for work! I just hope I can get it fixed independently.

I'm curious why some people get charged a modest flat rate, while other people are charged obscene amounts for repair?  My Late 2011 MBP is at the apple store for repair of the GPU problem.  The machine is <3 years old without AppleCare.  The Genius quoted me the flat-rate $310 ($210 parts, $100 labor).

Other than that, this is the first time I've ever needed support from Apple, and am surprised how frustrating they make the process.  With any other computer vendor, I call them on the phone, open up a ticket, and either ship or drop off your faulty device or schedule on-site service.  With Apple I had to make an appointment with a Genius at one of their stores, just so they can fill out the RMA and ship it to their repair depot.

My bad, my brain CPU is to blame for bad calculation. I bought it in end of April 2011 hence slightly less than 3 years and a half before dying.

It's gonna cost me EUR 627 (USD 823) for replacing the motherboard. Not overwhelmed with joy but I need it. The only comfort I get is that if I had bought an AppleCare for this machine it would have been expired anyway, I count this as spared money - kind of.

Interesting price difference. The quote I just okeyed here in Paris is for EUR 627: 432 part + 91 labor (USD 823: 567 part + 120 labor) - rounded up. Too bad I'm not traveling to the US soon, would have been worth having it replaced there.

Price for new logic board in UK is £410 or $675

That is fitted by Apple inc Tax.

alternatvely you could send it to BGA repairs on eBay uk for €225 plus shipping...

efix wrote:

 

Interesting price difference. The quote I just okeyed here in Paris is for EUR 627: 432 part + 91 labor (USD 823: 567 part + 120 labor) - rounded up. Too bad I'm not traveling to the US soon, would have been worth having it replaced there.

Late february went to the store at the Louvres, was told to pay 499€, where did you go?

By the way, 432 + 91 doesn't make 627 so you must be missing something in the operation or the sum is wrong.

Price difference with the US is they have a flat rate which means the computer is sent away to be repaired, when it's done in store, usually about the same price as in France.

Too expensive for getting a soon-to-be-failing logic board, though.

Same here also, macbook pro 17 late 2011, having same issue, distorted screen, vertical lines and grey screen upon boot.Went to Authorised Service Provider and they say repair cost-replace logic board is 640 euro! I have contacted Apple support and sent email to Tim Cook and recived call from Apple Customer Support with "Sry, you have to pay and thank you for answering my call"?!? In my country there is no Apple Store (Serbia) so no flat repair for me. I will continue sending emails to Tim Cook until somebody from Apple offer compesation for obvius fabric defect (good luck for me )

There is an effort to get Apple to recognize this as a design defect and address the problem. I'd like to share the link with you all, but unfortunately Apple censors this forum and has blocked my posts with any such links.  Check out #mbp2011 on twitter.

Well, it looks like my crippled yet stable mbp 2011 just bit the dust.

Already went to H#LL and back in the past few months but reached some stability albeit crippled about 6 weeks ago using gfxcardstatus, etc.

Tonight, I pressed the escape key to wake it up and bring up the login prompt.  It showed my browser windows from last night but the mbp was frozen.  No big deal, right?

Well, I forced a shutdown and pressed power on button (about 20 times tonight) and every time my superdrive engages but nothing else.  Black screen, no chime, nothing.  zapping pram, resetting smc, internet recovery attempts, etc.   All are for naught.

BUT WAIT...  as I type this I noticed that I left my mbp 2011 on with the black screen and the fans were just starting to engage.  I remember how sometimes the mac has to heat up to get moving, but cool down to get a login.  So I shut it off and rebooted and got the initial gear screen, then gray screen.

Now after about 10 minutes of various boots, I'm back in.  Fans picking up speed, as is the heat, as I race to my gfxcardstatus tool to set it to "Integrated".  It's a race against the clock for me and my balls are to the wall, and my foots on the throttle.  Will the system freeze or will I be able to change to integrated first?  I clicked integrated but it was ignored.  I'm now in overtime, I press integrated once again.  Success!!!!   Within a minute or so the fans started to spin down and now I'm staring at my desktop.

Thank goodness my mbp is back.  How much did I pay for this level of stability?

Why doesn't Apple feel our pain?

Gotta' backup my mbp.....

My MBPro's early 2011 screen went crazy two days ago as well as getting very hot near the charger plug-in area. Was just surfing the Web. Tried the usual re-sets and re-installed 10.9.4. At re-install, Red and Pink vertical bars, Green Apple logo and distorted screen. Managed to re-install. Left it at that. Yesterday morning, opened from sleep and all was fine for 4 hours, then, black screen, blue screen, split-screen, etc. It's now at Apples authorized service here in Israel and can't imagine what it will cost!

My daughters MBPro late 2011 screen went crazy in Jan. this year. In the States,  Apple replaced the logic board, after 10 days, problem reappeared. They then changed the Screen and all the Ports, added that they didn't know what was wrong. To date, it's working fine.

Red and pink bars, JoJo?   You must be a novice in your plight with your mbp 2011.   I've advanced all the way to solid black screens or solid gray screens only.   Ok, maybe the occasional blue screen but it's rare.

Cheer up, JoJo.  Things will get worse. 

Also have the same problem. First happened few days back and it happened again few times today. This is unacceptable.

The blue screen appears when I try to play a video file every time. So it must be related to the GPU.

I havent been to the Genius bar, even if I go I'll get the same result....

Starting to see weird behaviour running the discrete card.   DF91

My 2011 MacBook Pro just died. Tried getting back in but it just goes black and keeps restarting. I can get in via safe mode but the interface is very slow, almost unresponsive. Can't get a Genius Bar appointment until Friday. Can't get delivery of a MBP with a terabyte installed for 12 days. Is this where $3000+ gets you these days? 3 years of reliability? Well I just ordered another one for $3000+. And I have to find a home for the "cutting edge" 1tb SSD drive that no longer fits in apple laptops. I feel like they kicked me in the groin. And then again in the face.  And then a cheap shot to the kidney when I was down. Has anyone had any compensation in any form for this issue from Apple? This thread is on page 537 so far! 1.2 million views! 8000 posts!