Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Same problem. Early 2011 macbook pro. A little over four months out of apple warranty.

It happened quickly, without warning. (Working in Photoshop and Premier.) I saw big chunky pixels on the screen and then it went all haywire.

I was able to reboot in safe mode once. But as soon as the high end graphics chip was engaged it went all screwy again. That was it for the machine, it would only boot as far as a gray screen with thin gray lines on it. I was able to to use my old 2008 mac book with the dead keyboard and trackpad to boot the machine in target mode so that I could grab my work off of it.

I made an appointment at the Apple store.

They did their test and confirmed it was the graphics card.

I could tell the apple tech was familiar with the problem but of course couldn't acknowledge that.

He offered the in store fix for an unconfirmed amount ("probably more expensive") or the $310 plus taxes flat fee and send it back to apple.

He also said I could take my chances trying to contact apple directly and that if they agreed to fix it or in the least offer the same $310 fix that they would ship me a box and that I wouldn't have to return to the store. Knowing what I know from this thread and not being able to afford a new machine I took the chance on the $310 flat fee repair. It was fixed and ready for pickup two days later.

My faith in Apple has been crushed. I've been using apple computers since my junior high school days doing my papers and science reports on my moms 512k "fat" Mac. I never had problems with their desktops. I loved my G4 and my G5 desktops. They were great workhorses. I never expected the same level service out of a laptop but I did expect at least five years of service. Now two laptops in a row  have both had serious problems at, or around, the three year mark. My last laptop was part of a recall for a motherboard swap and had the ridiculous problem with the keyboard and track pad (terrible design.)

Why would I buy another Apple laptop?

I would consider the new desktop machine if it weren't so expensive and we weren't having such ridiculous problems with them where I work.

What options do I have? If I go with some sort of PC (thanks to Adobe Cloud that's now a viable option for me) I'm not buying another iphone or tablet and certainly not a watch. Apple's pro users are their bedrock. If all the "cool kids" aren't buying apple aren't all the other sheep going to follow when we leave?

Gerald, have you used PS3 specialist? Anyone recently? I see that he has not posted here or on eBay for some time, and he has increased his price from $129 to $220.

. We've had major issues with 3 out of 5 of our major purchases)

Wow, that's really worrisome.  I only switched to Apple in 2011 because my wife and I had about 8 years of bad experience with Dell (the only thing that saved us was that their extended warranty offered "in home" repairs -- I swear we had one of their contractors at our place within 6 months of a laptop purchase and then again 1-2x per year every year).

Then I thought I would go premium and got a high-spec Sony Vaio -- which failed at its 1 year mark.  Sony ended up buying it back for a full refund.

I though moving to Apple would save us these headaches?!

I follow the thread when I have time but I don't post anything unless there is something new to share, most of the posts are arguments that I don't like to be part of. I put my time into my business and help people who wants help.

mikeydapple wrote:

 

. We've had major issues with 3 out of 5 of our major purchases)

Wow, that's really worrisome.  I only switched to Apple in 2011 because my wife and I had about 8 years of bad experience with Dell (the only thing that saved us was that their extended warranty offered "in home" repairs -- I swear we had one of their contractors at our place within 6 months of a laptop purchase and then again 1-2x per year every year).

 

Then I thought I would go premium and got a high-spec Sony Vaio -- which failed at its 1 year mark.  Sony ended up buying it back for a full refund.

 

I though moving to Apple would save us these headaches?!

There is no manufacturer that can save you these headaches. Every company even remotely consumer-oriented is under tremendous market pressure to get the latest technology out the door as soon as possible, and to throw out yesterday's models in favor of today's models to stay competitive with the other tech companies. This can impact reliability. That said, I have had pretty good luck with Apple. Most of the Macs I owned or know of through friends and family have lasted more than 5 years.

However, I have one of these 2011 MacBook Pros with a failed AMD 6750 GPU. I did not have AppleCare so it is out of warranty, but was offered the $310 fix and I took it. I noted that $310 is actually less than the extended warranty would have cost originally, so i figured I did OK. But I also believe Apple should have fixed all of these for free.

Also, I and others I know have had experiences of good service when out of warranty. Apple replaced, for free, an out-of-warranty power adapter of mine that had a frayed cord. And a friend recently brought in his expensive Mac Pro tower with a problem, way out of warranty, and they fixed his for free. This experience intensified his loyalty to Apple.

No technology company is all good or bad. I have had good and bad experiences with Apple, but mostly good, and possibly better than if you went back to Dell.

And Sony? After 17 years, they have exited the PC market.

2 MBpro 2011 same problems... it's incredible and in the same day.. to solve about 1100 €, maybe no more macbook

As far as I can see, many of us have noticed that techs act as if this was not happening, or isolated cases.

I think it might be useful to open a thread exclusively to post case number, serial and specs of our mbp. If possible, even reports given by them with diagnose.

The guy who replaced twice in a week my logic board told me that people wrote in forums just for fun...

If we do so, A thread with only case number, we'll be able to see exactly how much we are (of those posting, of course there might be much more who doesn't)

I offer myself to translate that post into spanish, as there are similar threads with lots of replies in my language. Probably every language has its own threads.

We have to unite critical info in one.

Like you, I have the screen of death issues. However, I didn't address the problem prior to the Applecare expiring, and I haven't wanted to spend the money to take it in for an over-haul. Am glad to know about the $310 option, as that's what will need to be done...and soon. My MBP (2011) is crashing more frequently and I fear one of these days I'll be stuck with little more than a grey-screened paperweight.   

<Edited by Host>

I've just had my MacBook Pro fixed by TFix in London (they replaced the GPU) and its working perfectly except that now the CPU heats up much faster.  Within seconds of just a 20% workload it starts to get to 90 degrees and the fans start going made.  Th is never happened before.  Any ideas what they could have done to it to have done this.  I haven't gone back to TFix yet because I'm sure they won't tell me the truth even if they know so would like to get some ideas first.

I won't be the last, but as i'm one of the victim, i will post my story here:

Apple Singapore finally get back to me regarding the issue. Summary is, there is no replacement program for this model #mbp2011 , only way is to replace logic board by them (MYR,2500) or repair from 3rd party (Which less than MYR500).

Great Apple, i'm interested to turn into Darth Vader now, no more loyalty Jedi for your empire. Honestly, building Hackintosh are better than this.

I don't mind to repair if hardware failure or if it is physical damage by me, but if issue of the model that affected more than 16K users all around the world, and yet Apple denied it is design flaws of this model, it just make me have to re-consider for buying Apple's product from today onward, especially all current iMac/Macbook retina that integrated everything onboard....

Bye Apple, the 11 years loyalty Jedi dead today, and join the dark side.

<Link Edited By Host>

The going rate here in the U.S. seems to be $310 for the repair, as reported by multiple people in this thread, including myself.

To make matters worse, I've been reading that the fix doesn't last. Some people are on their third logic board replacement, I saw one person that even said he was on his fifth.

I opted to get a new computer, a 13" MacBook Pro. based on what I've read I didn't feel like I would be able to trust the computer once it had been fixed. I'm excited to be getting a new computer but it's bittersweet. I didn't plan to get a new machine yet and having to do so put an unexpected strain on my finances. It ***** to have a three year old, $2500 computer sitting here that is essentially a piece of junk.

I will probably get my 2011 MBP fixed at some point to have as a backup when my next apple computer fails.

I have had ups and downs with Apple but this absolutely changes the way that I view their products. This is so obviously Apples fault. I used to buy the best Apple computer that I could afford, but those days are over for me.

I no longer view Apple as a company that provides products I can rely on and trust. 

in alto c'è scritto "Apple Support Comunity" … support cosa ???

Cosa vuol dire "PRO" Jobs lo sapeva e rispettava !

As a former 30 year-long loyal customer of Apple, I have bought dozens of Mac desktops, laptops, iPods, iPads, etc. over the years. However, until Apple makes right by it's customers, I'll have a new perspective on the company. Apple has turned as bad as Microsoft ever was! Shakespeare, would say, "For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds." I never cared much for "cool." I was under the impression that Apple was the reliable partner. When I pay more than $3,000 for a laptop, I expect that machine to work reliably, at least a few years. If not, the company should fix it at its expense. I'm not going to continue supporting a company that treats it's customers like serfs and picks their pockets at every opportunity.

Hi everyone,

I add my experience to the general rant going on there.

My MBP is an early 2011 model and the last 3 months a weird incident is happening that can be declined in several form, all linked somewhat to a GPU error:

- Sometimes when operating my MBP suddenly turns black, the fans start turning at maximum velocity, the computer is not responding anymore and the two ways out are : (1) to wait until it shuts automatically off (2) to force the shut down of the computer.

If option (2) is chosen then turning back on immediately the computer results in these incidents:

          A - Only half of the startup chime is heard

          B - The screen remains black

          C - Only the POWER button and the button to check the battery remaining are responding, the keyboard isn't. So SMC/PRAM/NVRAM, safe mode is OUT of the  possibilities

          D - The LED is on but that's all

          E - Only way out is to wait the battery unloads completely and then plug the battery back and start teh computer. Then it works.

- At other times (it is more recent), my computer works normally but when I shut it down the following incident happens:

          + - All apps are shut off, the screen goes grey as normal, but the loading to shut off actually never stops.....

                    ----> ONLY way out: FORCE shut down, which is way not good to maintain what is left of my computer.

- A third really seldom incident happened which led to display distortions: 3/4 of the screen display was shifted to the left and the remaining quarter (supposed to be on the left of the screen) was shifted on the far right......

Additonally frequently along these 3 kinds of incident I have stripped display from time to times, again due to GPU failure.

It is a relief and a pity that so many people are affected by GPU issues on MBP of 2011, I really hope APPLE is going to correct this imminent issue!

Please let me know if some of you share the same incidents as my own laptop as it seems the consequences of these GPU failure are manifold.

Thank you

Cheers

Marth286

Kosovar1- the problem is we aren't talking about iPhone, Apple Watch or iMac. Those seem to be Apple's core customers. Their support for the professional community has declined over the years and it's really sad. I too paid over $3K for my laptop then upgraded to 16GB RAM so I spent even more. I was investing in a Pro-level piece of equipment. I mean it's right there in the name. I have a Mac Plus from 1998 or 1996 that works perfectly. That was the appeal. They were meant to be used and used hard, everyday for years. I have a G3 desktop from 2003 and a G4 desktop from 2007 that still work perfectly.

But this… it baffles me. I suppose we are not the core demographic so we are feeling ignored. At least for now.