Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I always believed that Apple offered BEST QUALITY PRODUCTS & was fair with customers..

So many people having the same problem, but they still keep quite! Surprising!!

I bought this S$4000 product (in early 2011) to be able to do video edits with FCPX.. which  was really good till I had this problem.  I was in midst of a project when this started happening recently... and I had to abandon my Mac Book Pro 17" and start over on a S$400 HP laptop (incidentally bought in early 2011) and successfully completed my project... AND THIS s$400 HP LAPTOP "HAS ACTUALLY OUT LIVED" A s$4000 WORTH MAC BOOK PRO!!!!!

Apple should re-look at their customer service policies and be more proactive for such massive volumes of problems. 

GavMackem wrote:

 

Csound1 wrote:

 

Points are awarded for solutions, not for snipes, you know this, you have achieved 15 points so you know how it works.

 

Here's a guide.

 

Helpful 5 points

Solution 10 points

Snipe 0 points.

I should have perhaps rephrased that to 'sniped /helpful solutions to dead easy answers', apologies.

Doesn't really matter, you are not the awarder of the points

GavMackem wrote:

 

I wonder how many points I would get for setting up an iMac in a building site office with VPN to access the server, reset the iCloud keychains on 2 Macs, 2 iPhones and an iPad and then migrate a POP3 mailbox on Mavericks Mac Mail for Exchange online? That's my workday, though perhaps you could also explain why a Tomtom could take almost an hour doing map updates on a Mac Pro 3,1 8 core with 32Gb ram?

If this was the solution, or a helpful response to an ASC question then you would get 5, or 10 points

GavMackem wrote:

 

Or you could really surprise us all - by tearing down your own MBP 2011 13", polishing the heatsink plate, applying a judicious amount of thermal paste and posting your idle temperature drops before and after and for the very first time actually contribute something constructive on this thread for everyone.  A bit harder than sniping though.

Why on earth would I dismantle a machine that works perfectly, strange request.

Don't feed the troll.

Hello everybody. Even though it is nice to have some people to share our frustration (and advice) with, I believe that in this moment what we need is to report to Apple every affected 2011 MBP, and this can only be done through an Apple Store or Apple Authorised Service Center. Posting on this forums is not a reliable reporting method (Apple won't give credit to it and, even though it is clear there is a big problem, it is also clear that this is not a reliable method of knowing how many people are affected by the issue).

I am going to paste an old post I wrote in this thread 4 months ago with some suggestions:

• Make sure someone "important" at Apple is informed about your issue. When you go back to the store you could ask to talk to the manager or make sure they communicate this to someone in Apple Headquarters: this is a common problem and we want Apple to know it. A previous answer by Hal Feldman has very good advice (pasted below too).
• Keep your receipt for the repair and stay informed about Apple replacement programs (http://www.apple.com/support/exchange_repair/). In case Apple launches one you would need to contact them to have your money back (so the receipt would be required, I guess).

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This is a very helpful summary by Hal Feldman (posted 4 months ago), kudos to him:

Issue Facts

1)  This is NOT software related.

2)  This is an issue created with many heating/cooling cycles of your MacBook Pro that results in deterioration of the solder holding the discreet GPU to the logic board.

3)  This is a design flaw since the machine produces more heat than it can reasonably dissipate.

4)  Users who tax their machine on a regular basis are more likely to expose this design fault than those whoa re casual users.

There is a piece of software call (gfxCardStatus) that IF YOU CAN BOOT your MBP can be used to try to force the integrated graphics and avoid the issue from occurring.  HOWEVER, if you use an external display with your MBP, you are ALWAYS using the discreet GPU and therefore can't use this software. Also, the integrated graphics card much slower and some software won't operate (correctly) when forced to used the integrated GPU.

Apple's only official repair is a replacement of the logic board. This will give you a "fresher" set of solder points, although some suggest these boards are refurbished.

Third-parties will offer reballing (REPLACEMENT of the solder points) or reflowing (re-melting of the solder points). Both are likely better "repairs" than the logic board swap (because so many users have mutilple swaps and failures), HOWEVER, Apple will likely not support machines that have been altered by others.

While this thread is an excellent exchange of information, it is MORE IMPORTANT to create a case with Apple and get a case # with your machine's serial number attached. Apple is "investigating" and can only use officially registered cases to decide on a more global course of action.  P.S.- The Apple Store Geniuses are the first line of defense and are at a pay-grade below where this issue is being investigated.  If you go to the Apple Store, BE SURE TO CALL OR EMAIL INTO APPLE CORPORATE, so that the case is escalated and tracked.

Excellent advice.

"this is a common problem and we want Apple to know it."

- They already know. Of course they do.

Maybe if some important magazines, techsites and videobloggers could address it. Again and again and again. The more public, the better. Apple obviously don't care about the problem internally. The only "actions" they have made, are deleting posts in this forum.

Nice Video about the issue here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKn8D5cIU0g&feature=youtu.be

supporting article:

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

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Yes you're right. We all know they know. I mean we need Apple to know about each and every single case with this problem. Posting on this forum is good for us giving advice for each other, but Apple won't consider it a reliable source to know how many people have this problem.

We need to report each and every single case to Apple, using the official ways, and make sure our complains reach Apple HQs.

I'm as annoyed as anyone over this having had my 17in Macbook Pro go down with this and getting no response from Apple.  To cap it all, for the last two weeks it's been impossible to book an appointment with a Smurf (aka 'Genius').

To get to the point, I did quite a bit of research and the problem seems to be very well understood and easily fixed by someone that knows what they are doing so f!@£% Apple and just get it fixed using a reputable laptop repair company.  I used a company called TFix in London and they fixed it in less than a day and charged me £200 with a 6 month guarantee including a new processor (if it going to last 6 months then I assume it's a good fix but we will see).

One day Apple are going to wake up after going cross eyed from staring at iPhone icons wondering how they can redesign the corners to get a new iOS version out the door to a standing ovation from f£@3k wits and realise they don't have any real customers anymore.

THIS ISSUE MAKES ME ALMOST REGRET EVER BUYING MY FIRST MAC BACK IN 1985! Apple has turned from an exciting vision into one of those despicable corporate behemoths that only looks to their bottom line, which is profit. I too recently had the experience of a failed early 2011 MacBook Pro 17" with the defective AMD Radion HD 6750M GPU. I wrote a letter to Tim Cook about the problem, whose cause is obvious. No response from Apple. The "geniuses" at Apple Phoenix pretended ignorance of the problem (I'm sure they were told to.) and Apple only agreed to replace the logic board for the standard charge. $323 and a week later, I got my computer back with the new logic board and a promise that Apple gave me a new GPU different than the one that failed, so I would never have that problem again. I ran a diagnostic and found exactly the same GPU in the new logic board, only this time, instead of the standard 1 yr warranty, the logic bird was guaranteed for just 90 days. A week later, and it seems the overheating and constant fan blowing symptoms are worse than ever before. GPU and CPU heat have been recorded in at least the 150-160's degree range whenever I run even the tiniest movie files or web pages with video. I expect that within a few months to have the same blue screens, vertical lines and then eventual crash, just like before and just like most other users have experienced.

WHERE IS THE CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT ON THIS?? THAT SEEMS TO BE THE ONLY WAY TO GET APPLE'S ATTENTION. Most Apple computer devices I ever owned (and there have been dozens) seem to have failed shorty after the standard warranties. I have taken part in quite a few class action lawsuits over Apple's defective products and, to date have never received a penny or final notification of disposition. what a racket!

I'm making a list of as many people as I can who are willing to talk and share their story about this problem. I may have found an outlet that can help us. If you're willing to talk send me an e-mail ******.

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I'm giving up, this thread is at 1.4 million views and Apple has yet to officially acknowledge the issue.

Apple will

• Never have my business
• Never have any of my family's business
• No longer be supported at my workplace

It's almost shameful that for many years I supported Apple for the long lifetime of their computers and their high resale value, but I spent way too much on my Macbook Pro for them to blatantly ignore that faults exist.

i agree with large parts of that summary but I can add these points:

This design flaw is exacerbated by the rubbish engineering guidelines regarding the amount of paste and the poor heatsink surfaces In these units.  I don't think its a co-incidence that  NONE of the 2011's I have repasted my way and done the remedial work on the heatpipe GPU's have failed, I did probably half a dozen post year warranty in 2012.  Not one. I only started treating the heatpipe surface additionally 12-18 months ago and got even bigger idle temperature drops. I now do this with every Mac across the board.

When I see my cpu in my hit 90c and spin up the fans they cool them far quicker than stock. Stock cooling takes much longer to cool cos the massive sandy bridge cpu die cannot have the heat removed out fast enough when switching on the AMD in discrete mode.  If you run a temp monitor program in discrete mode running a cpu benchmark on a stock pasted unit you can clearly see the gpu heat up too on the sensor diode. Redone it's much less noticeable.

The other issue regarding repair is that apple cannot replace a gpu legally in the best possible way to extend the life of the logic board of the affected user which has had enough heat cycles as it is. They reball the replacement at 220-250c with lead free solder, wheras with a leaded solder reball which I do to replace any gpu on any notebook never mind just a Mac is only 185c.  Their depot boards are not tested thoroughly enough, are in poor condition and within this thread you will find pictures of them in awful nick, a few even rusty. All the horror stories are in this monster thread as proof.

Hence why if there is to be any kind of repair program the option for the customer to get reimbursed for reballing their own GPU has to be included like it was for the Nvidia 8xxx GPUs in the pre unibody models with the additional work on the heatpipe and better and far less paste.  It will be certainly the route I will take when mine fails as empirically working on these for a living there isn't a better way.

My theory? Apple is too busy selling it's new iPhone and watch to care about a few thousand messed up MBP's. I noticed their stock dropped on the dow today because their awaited new stuff has big glitches.