Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

When i tried this method i got to the same barely working state as you.

I reinstalled ALL of the kext's and then disabled the amd gpu and i'm currently using it that way.

once a week it goes crazy and i have to try to engage the integrated gpu once again.

Good luck

Hi all again,

Just wanna let you know (at least the ones from Europe) that I've just spoke with Apple Care (Spain) by phone and they told me that they are aware of the problem but still did not receive any official notification from Apple. They told me to write and send a postal letter to the european headquarters in Ireland. Here you have the address if you want to do the same: Apple Headquarters, Hollyhill Industrial Estate, Hollyhill, Cork, Ireland

unfortunately its not working..

i installed the kext files with "kext drop" than i ran "kext wizard" to see what kext were currently running.
3 of the ATI kext were there so i thought it had worked.
i rebooted and it didnt start.
so i ran the single user mode and used kextstat to see what kexts were running. and no ATI kext running.
tried using kextload and got the libkern/kext not found error.

any thoughts?!

this is good news for a change (well, let's hope so...)

i will definitely also write to apple and hope they get hundreds of letters about this issue

and please mention that we are not satisfied with just a logicboard replacement with the same poor gpu

because this is not the solution

please make all the effort to write to apple - maybe it will change something

to the european headquarter adress that sufia03 mentioned (even if you are not from europe, the more letters they get...)

This is really interesting news! I've sent the email to Tim Cook - but it didn't occur to me to go the old-fashioned route.

I'll be writing a letter this evening. I wonder if it's worth sending one to Cupertino as well.

I like it how now Apple has made it more difficult for you a scroll through the threads, like being unable to go to the last page to see how many pages the topic is..very sneaky Apple.

I am also one of the unfortunate early 2011 MBP user. I already have had my MBP fixed once (unauthorized) but now the problem has shown its ugly head again.

Now I tried to disable the discrete graphics gpu completely by following this saramwrap's workaround of removing the ATIRadeonX2000.kext file.

It seems to be working, and have been for a couple of days, but now I discovered that if gfxCardStatus is set to Dynamic Switching, it claims that it is switching to and running on the AMD 6750M gpu when running e.g. a video stream.

Should that be of any concern? Is it actually running on the AMD gpu or is it only believing that it is?

The fans do not start to spin up as they normally would, so I don't think it is running on the discrete graphics, but on the other hand I don't want to take any chances when it took me a couple of days to get it running again after the last crash.

I would restore your .kext files to how they were by default. Then you can use gfxCardStatus to choose Integrated Only (if you're not plugged in to Thunderbolt/external display). Dynamic/Discrete is required for Thunderbolt/external display use. This has been the easiest fix for me to ensure the machine does not overheat.

Adding myself to the list to see if we can make it 550 pages

My issue started happening recently (~1 month) and seems to get worse if I connect a secondary display. Today is at a point where the machine just wont start no matter how many restarts I do.

I schedule an appointment with Genius Bar and they seemed to know that this is in fact a known issue. Hopefully soon Apple will do something about it. I also bought a little fan for the machine to help with the GPU overheating (Sometimes it seem to work).

Only problem for me is that I do not completely trust gfxCardStatus to keep it on Integrated Only. Once in a while it jumps back to Dynamic Switching, and when that happens my MBP is usually not slow to crash.

So i would really like to have a more permanent alternative to disable it.

Apple can't afford to pay for defective logicboards because they had to pay U2 for their album!

I also in the list. Happened with my macbook pro late 2011 15' with Radeon 6750M about 1,5 month ago. Tried everything, and now i'm at point "don't even try to put drivers back again, or you will catch instant crash with blue stripes or squares or something like that". Currently i can't afford new motherboard, and i have to work with terrible graphic lags, glitches and overheating problems. This is just sad. Unbelievably sad.

I've recently encountered the same related issue last month. I was actually under the impression that it was a faulty HDD or virus. When my macbook boots up it shows vertical lines on the screen. Once I log in then within a hour or two, the laptop would lock up or reboot it self. Just this morning, my laptop was extremely how and wouldn't wake up. I had to hold down the power button to get it to respond.

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011)
2.3 GHz i7 / 8 GB RAM
OS X Yosemite

Chiming in here. Yet another early 2011 MBP owner. (Machine is Japanese - purchased in Japan). Recently started getting the GPU issues that everyone else is talking about. Somewhere I read a tip that recommended leaving the machine on rather than turning it off to alleviate this issue. This seems to work (sort-of).  Here's the procedure I follow.

Screen goes screwy

Reboot (to green, striped gimped screen)

Screen turns solid grey

WAIT (the longer, the better. I find that 1hr+ is a safe bet)

Reboot normally

Use machine until the next time it goes screwy.

Repeat above.

I need my machine for work, and cannot abide having an unreliable system, so I ordered a new machine. But there's a ton of lost time and expense here which I will not get back. I will be very keen to still have this machine fixed if Apple finally decides to acknowledge the problem. If not, I would be equally keen to join a class action in order to recover some of my lost time and money on this.

+1. I got a blue screen with vertical stripes, since then the laptop (MacBook Pro 2011) stopped working.