Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Most inconsistencies I find aside from particulates blocking the heatpipe fins I believe are down to the amount of paste and the condition of the contact plates. About 1 in 10 I find perform pretty ok by using my yardstick of measuring idle temperatures to maximise the TDP headroom and I don't have the urgent need to strip them down, but the vast majority run still far too hot and I re-do them.

What is maddening is they could save millions by getting these palm tree heat-pipe assemblies plates re-profiled so they are shiny smooth and change their pasting methods, instead of throwing away money, at the user and then Apple's expense by having to give the user a refurb 15 retina after 3 logic board strikes when these plates just need a bit of polishing for a few bucks each and rewriting a few pages of the 2011's Apple Technicians Guide for engineers who take them apart.  This as an engineer is the most maddening thing I find about these 2011's full stop, even more than the silence at leaving the bill largely at the foot of the user with a broken GPU.

Well, its about 6 months and three logic board replacements for me and the issue is starting up for me again.

The Executive Relations person I have has steadfastly refused to do anything other than offer another round trip to the depot for repair.

At what point will Apple stop the insanity?  Repeating the same thing expecting a different result is the DEFINITION of insanity.  Apple has a flawed design and just wants to keep denying...

Well, off to send my MBP off for its 4th logic board. Grrrrrr.

I am surprised that you will have to go through a 4th logic board change - usually after the third fails an offer of a refurb 15 retina happens.  There are dozens of this example happening throughout this thread.  Perhaps you should ask them to spend a week reading all these posts to count exactly how many, but it seems to me that the 3 depot board fail strikes = home retina run!

I found a guy to do a chip replacement and a reballing in the houston area for a flat fee of 275.  I guess I'll keep the reciet just in case apple gets to feeling guilty.

I absoutley agree that dust does collect under the balls of the BGA package.  If this dust happens to contain the tiny sticky particles of the dried up excess paste which aids heat transfer it's doesnt take a physicist like Feynman to work out what those particles do to the solder balls in terms of thermodynamics with lots of heat cycles.

You can add my 15" Early 2011 to the list... All of a sudden today, screen turned black, and after rebooting, it gets stuck at the grey screen. It's unacceptable that after 3 and a half years, a laptop of that price dies. I'm not willing to pay that much money to change the logic board, waiting for it to die again. That's a shame Apple. I'm so disappointed.

TJ

Myself I will be going down the rinse and repeat path because I know someone who went through three cycles of getting logic boards replaced under warranty through Apple, they ended up getting a whole new notebook (late 2012 model).

Dave

Dave - Enjoy.  I wish you the best of luck and persistent success.  I'm tired of wasting so much time with repeatedly failing apple products.

We do not have to write here, this is a closed apple "community" the problem stay inside here and as we see Apple doesn't care. We must say it to the world !

iMac (27-inch): AMD Radeon 6970M Video Card Replacement Program

WHAT?!?!?!?!!!!!

Looks like my Early 2011 MBP just got bit by the same manufacturing defect. .  Screen lockup, then gray screen lockup on boot.  Unless I use recovery boot, then I get the blue screen with black pinstripes.  Hopefully this will reach critical mass soon and Apple with address with recall/warranty program.

Oh well -- mine is done too.  I was using Photoshop, then the screen doubled and after the third reboot it was Blue Screen of Death.  No chime.  Looking back, a day before it went, the upper left portion of keyboard was sizzling hot.  Oh well --

1.  I took it out for a full reball, but it didn't work.  The chime came back at start-up, but the screen is now black.  No video at all.

2.  Read through the posts to try to bring myself up to speed on the problem, etc.  I can take machine apart with guides, etc., but not a computer guy or engineer.

3.  Really can't wait for Apple to make good on these things, so I decided to Genius Bar it for the $300 repair.

4.  My GBG (Genius Bar Guy) was friendly and somewhat knowledgeable of the problem.  After I explained what was going on he nodded and told me they could fix it for the $300 fee and if Apple ever issued an advisory to keep the receipts, etc for reimbursement.  I signed the petition and now the machine is on its way to Texas.

5.  GBG did suggest using the absolute **** out of it when it came back to make sure it holds up -- and if not, to bring it back promptly.

My question for anybody who is available to answer is -- if this is a problem for these machines, is it possible to put a 2012 motherboard without the Sandy Bridge stuff in it and make it run cooler?  Or -- is the circuitry such that that is an impossible fit?

  OS X Yosemite

coming so soon but our macbook pro not gonna make it.....

im too graphic card is dead

So here is what I have learnt thus far on my journey! – We will get nowhere with Apple until a class action law suit goes forward. Your best chance is if you have a receipt and bought direct from Apple and are still in warranty, they will replace your motherboard. If you press them when you're out of warranty and still have  receipt you may still get a motherboard free replacement.

BUT as we all know the motherboard still contains the faulty chip solder issue and is only warrantied for 3 months.

I have tried pushing them and will continue to, but Apple won't budge and I believe this is due to the main problem being LEAD FREE SOLDER that is the defect.

Under EU law for the last god knows how many years, they ALL have to use lead free solder. This is more susceptible to 'tin whiskers' or basically minute cracks in the minuscule solder (on the graphics card) caused by temperature change over the years.

So under law they could argue its not a defect because by law they can't use the more reliable leaded solder.

Catch 22 my friends.

The only solution to date. Send your MBP for a reflow or reball. Simply - this means have the solder on your graphics card fixed.

Reflow means the solder is heated in controlled conditions to become liquid again which repaid the crack. BUT your left with the same crap solder.

Reball means the chip is removed. The solder cleaned off and replaced with leaded solder. And you should fingers crossed have GPU that will last longer than the first!

I was reluctant to do this at first as the prices for re-balling were £200 and most seemd to be London companies here in the UK. However I located a nice chap further North that can do this job for approx £100 once the delivery costs are included.

Im writing this from my repaired MBP. I had it back in an amazing two days. They don't mess around hanging onto it for a week.

Anyone can feel free to message me within the forum and I can provide the company details. I won't post it as I don't wont to be seen as advertising.

EDIT - just realised my primary email here is my old email address!?! I'll mail anyone back that wants help within the thread. Just make sure you can be contacted by registered users in your preferences.

However I will still fight for a replacement program or apple fix!

Hi Gav,

Im only just catching up with this thread and have been reading yours posts. Just to recap, do you think its not down to the lead-free solder then? Sorry Im no expert. Is it down to the heat issues rather than the solder in particular?