Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

With me I got my frist repair early 2012 ( April or so ), then my second 2 month ago and now its broken again.

If you want to run it "hard" try to get a hardware heavy application like Premiere Pro and edit compressed video on it. That will need a lot of caclulation power. Also render a lot of video and do that for around 7 hours a day ( yes, people will argue that this is extreme usage, but believe it or not, some people actually use their computers for such things )...respectively you can also play graphic heavy video games.

download gfxCardStatus. with this tool you can switch actively between graphic chips. But normally, if a hardware heavy application will kick in, it will most likely choose the AMD if it needs graphics hardware support. Running it on discrete will normally create more "heat" cause the additional GPU is used more. But if you only work with Office or not graphics heavy applications, most likely it won't matter much.

I had a friend who had the same problem with a late 2011. But he got it repaired, sold it right after and bought a new generation MBP.

Hi I am also affected by the same graphics issue with my Early 2011 Macbook Pro 15 that was running Mountain Lion. At about the two year mark, when I would watch HD videos on youtube, after about 5 minutes, my computer would shut off by itself. I would have to manually power it back on and when it did, it would say something to the effect that the computer was shut down because of an error. After a month of doing that I figured I should take it to an Apple store in late August for them to check it out. At first they ran diagnostics and found no issue so they asked me to replicate the problem so that they could see it with their own eyes. I then opened up two youtube videos in HD running at the same time, and within seconds, my entire screen went blue. Thats when they finally agreed with me that there was an issue with my computer. At first they wanted to blame it on the OWC 8GB of RAM that I had installed in the computer but they after further tests, they knew that this was a graphics issue. They quoted me for the same $310 repair option that they have offered many of you, but I declined it because of my warranty with Best Buy. I took it to best buy and they put a new logic board into the machine and I thought that my problem was fixed, but sadly I was wrong. Three weeks later, I started experiencing green and grey line showing up on m screen. So I took it back to best buy, but instead of them repairing the system, they thought it was an SMC issue and sent the machine back to me. A week after that, the my Mac started showing the same problems that I was always having. The computer would shut off in the middle of me watching a youtube video or playing League of Legends on medium settings and when I would manually turn it back on, the Apple logo would be very distorted and the computer would not boot and the fans would rev up making a lot of noise and doing nothing. The third time I took it back to Best Buy for this same issue it was now October 15th, and they decided to replace the hard drive (because they believed that my OS was corrupt and that may be causing the issue), my logic board again for the second time, and they replaced my display. While they were testing the computer at their repair center, they too started experiencing the same issues I was so they replaced the display again before sending the machine back to me. I asked them why they wont just give me a new computer under their junk out/No lemon policy, and they said that since my 2 year warranty expired on October 16th and the repair center didnt get my machine until the 20th even though I gave it to best buy on the 15th, that they wouldn't replace my machine. I was livid and caled them and complained, but they basically said that it's my problem now and that even if I renew the warranty that they don't replace machine's with renewed warranties. So it is now October 30, and I got my now three times repaired mac from best buy yesterday and I have 30 days for my machine to be covered under their warranty, but then after that, I'm **** out of luck. I have installed Mavericks unto the machine, and have decided to no longer watch HD vidoes or play games on my Mac anymore in fear of the discrete graphics card from breaking again. Apple if you care about me, every other person in this thread, and your reputation and philosophy as a whole, you will do something to fix this issue once and for all.

I believe a good app to run the video card "hard" would be the Heaven benchmarking app.

http://unigine.com/products/heaven/download/

You can turn the settings up and then click "run" and it'll go. Displays the GPU temp also. And it loops, so you can just start it and let it go for hours.

I beginning to think that Apple received a big bad batch of AMD chip. This issue we're dealing with, the recent class action with the 27" iMac and the recent 2011-2012 iMac recall with the AMD 6970 chip

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5167?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

The smyptoms on the link above are EXACTLY what we're seeing here.

I would do that if I best buy was going to replace my computer for free but since I am a college student and I need my computer, I cannot afford to go another two weeks without a computer before it breaks. In the past best buy allowed me to borrow computers from them by paying for them and then returning them, but best buy's systems have flagged me as a frequent returner of expensive items and now I cannot return anything to best buy for the next 90 days because my name has been flagged in their system as a person who is doing an abnormal amount returns in a short amount of time. So if my computer does break again within 30 days, they will fix it again for free but I will be without a computer.

If we don't do a class action Apple will never react!

I'm all with you to do file a class action but I dont know how we could go about doing that

Me too, I don't know how can we move... and maybe must be done by people living in the US!

I was not under warrany anymore but paid to have the logic board replaced (credit card company was covering it anyways). Within 3 weeks the replacement board failed miserably, artifacts all over the place. Hot mess.

Currently on my 3rd logic board, waiting to see if this one is going to crap out within 90 days or if it's going to wait for the 91st day and then they'll charge me another $300 for 'out of warranty' repair.

need some expert help from all of you guys - I managed to revive my MBP and test run it with the discrete GPU for the past hour and it runs fine (with a higher fan rpm too). Should I be keeping it running under the discrete GPU and not switching the computer off or should I just play it safe and keep it running with the integrated GPU?

(I actually edit videos a lot in my line of work so running on iGPU will really bring a lot of problems to me, esp when I'm currently overseas and I have to work with my macbook - and there's no Genius Bar where I'm currently based in)

Well, what you trying to do ? Just keep the system running until you are done with your work ?

Its not going to solve anything in the end, the problem will remain. Even keeping the System running doesn't mean its going to be stable anyhow. If your system crashed already with a GPU failure, it will so again. If you are lucky it will stay this way, if you are unlucky it will have soon a break down. Its not an exact science. Under heat, certain components behave differently in certain circumstances. So don't bet on that it will be smooth sailing from there. I hope you are lucky and you can work till you return to a place where they might exchange your mainboard ( even if its not going to solve the problem most likely either on a long run ).

As you described running on the integrated is not really an option...soooo...

I guess I just have to try my luck and keep it running on integrated, then turning up my fans to the maximum and switching to dGPU when I start my work

I'm currently in Russia til January and it takes them 1 month to have it diagnosed and another month to repair (which is ridiculous). The authorized places are also a bit dodgy imo.

APPLE REALLY NEED TO FIND A SOLUTION FOR THIS NONSENSE

I had endless crashes/bluescreens/blackscreens/greyscreens until I did the following: (note: YMMV)

• turned off automatic graphics switching
• installed smcFanControl and specified 4000rpm for the left fan
• updated to the latest Mountain Lion patches

MBP has beenstable for the past week. Only thing that does not work: using a 27" external monitor (it blackscreens after about 20 minutes or less). Note: I am using all my GPU-intensive programs now, whereas two weeks ago I couldn't use them at all.

N.B. I don't think I have "fixed" my laptop, but rather it is now stable enough to work with. I will end up selling this laptop as I don't have the time to fiddel with it. Given that the news of the 2011 MBP problems is spreading, I doubt we will get much for these machines.

Michael

Same issue here. Anyone know if it's too late to buy apple care and protection plan a year after you brought the laptop?

I got the same issue just after installing OS X 10.9 Mavericks and the same thing exactly happened to a friend of mine after 2 years from purchase and use with similar MBP 15" early 2011 i7 could this be an OS driver problem? I posted my feedback to apple and hoping they will here one more disappointed mbp user. Not sure what to do to solve my issue anyone had any luck. what do you suggest of doing with customer care...I cannot afford to pay for repairing the logic board.