Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Csound1,

I just wonder if the article that you link to (and tomshardware is one of my favorite sites) might not be a bit out of date? I didn't notice the publication data of June 2008 until I read of "new" flash drives achieving 130 MBs for read mode... even my little Crucial gets up to 550 MBs read now!

I would be interested to read how current SSDs manage power - as "Tom" himself points out, even then manufacturers were quoting less power usage than a spinning drive!

Clinton

MacBook Pro (15” Late 2011), OS X 10.??, 16GB Crucial RAM, 960GB M500 Crucial SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display

Currents SSD's seem to range from a claimed 0.34W (840 Pro, 256GB) to 1.5W (Intel 960GB) which suggests variable measuring methods to me.

SSD's run at full power all the time, unlike HDD's where power consumed varies with the tasks performed, when idle it is minimal, at full load (random writes) it is quite high. Idle is a common state for both types, and at idle SSD's consume more power than HDD's, generally.

Tom has plenty more material, I chose this one because it contained an HDD in the results.

For peak power stats of SSD's just go to anandtech and look up the stats for consumption for specific types. These solid states are built to the SATA power specs and fit way under the maximum.  Even when stuck under max load don't consume anywhere near the same peak power it takes to spin up a 7200 rpm 2.5 inch drive on start. These same 7200rpm drives that a lot need 2 USB ports plugged into an external caddy as they consume more than 0.5A on start which spin up fine in a unibody Macintosh.

I only use Crucial and Samsung drives and its been nearly a year since I had glitches installing them on Mac's. Think iirc it was your M500 type which needed an 03 firmware update to fix issues on the Macbook Pro.

The OP who mentioned his 1tb 840 EVO issue should check his firmware for an update, the latest firmware I have had no glitches whatsoever for the last 6-8 months.  Think there have been 3 notable firmware releases in total since the drive has been on the market and there is one due shortly which is a bug fix for RAPID mode which is only used and activated optionally within the Samsung Magician windows utility.  Updated easily via boot-able ISO image from Samsung.

So as far as Apple telling a user that these SSD's use too much power - they may as well say they also infect your Mac with Leprechauns.  Absolute cods-wallop, the usual blame the third party RAM/SSD game.

GavMackem,

I've four Crucial SSDs now and haven't had a problem with any, not even the M500. There were some problems, early on, with the Samsung EVO series and Macs but a quick and easy firmer patch fixed those problems.

I doubt that I will be buying any more SSDs for any Macs, though. Depending on what Apple comes out with in the next year, I may just free myself from Apple altogether.

Clinton

MacBook Pro (15” Late 2011), OS X 10.??, 16GB Crucial RAM, 960GB M500 Crucial SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display

Clinton

I've been installing 3-4 SSD's in Mac and Windows systems a week for the past 18 months - 2 years, either Samsung or Crucial.  Installed in every single Mac Intel notebook chassis up to the 15 inch 2012, all iMac's and the Mac Pro 3-5,1 too in a sled adapter.  In fact clients have ordered 3 MX100's for me in the past hour to be shipped to me, one is going in a 2010 17" MBP and the other two in HP Probooks.

My 2011 17" which is a pretty close match for yours aside from a 1Tb Evo drive is going to stay as my main work notebook for a good few years yet, may even get a 1.5-2Tb SSD upgrade when they get cheap enough which you won't be able to do in a retina that cheaply or more likely even at all. Pasted and polished it runs cool enough for me to be confident it will have a long life, plus if I want to do really hard tasks I use my Mac Pro anyway.  It can handle the heat with aplomb and shows my 2011 a clean pair of heels with 8 cores, 32Gb and a GTX 680.

I'll never be free from Apple, it's my profession to have one foot there and the other in Windows!

I'd still like to point that all this SSD discussion here is somewhat off-topic since the problem in question in this thread is related to the Macbook Pro 15" and 17" models from early 2011 on, regardless of the disk used, and as it has been discussed is most likely caused by the discrete graphics chip (AMD) and not an SSD drive.

Like I said before, my 15" Macbook Pro (early 2011 model) has had its logic board replaced twice already after having the symptoms described in this thread, rendering the computer useless whenever the discrete graphics chip was switched to use, and my computer is and has always been equipped with a traditional hard drive (500Gb) that it originally shipped with.

As I write this, I've already experienced distorted graphics, lockups and booting only to a gray screen again and am getting ready to take my Macbook Pro to have its logic board replaced for the third time..

None of the drives mentioned use significantly more power than a USB 2.0 Bus can supply (500mA @ 5V) even less a USB 3 Bus (900mA), they should have little to no effect on the Macs temperature or power useage.

Apologies, but if you click back I don't know how many clicks you'll find the OP had Apple blaming the SSD for causing problems in addition to his GPU playing up hence why it's gone OT a bit.

I feel sorry for you having to go back a third time, hopefully you wont be paying for it again.  It's the loss of the MBP if you use it for work that is next to having to pay for a GPU fault that isn't your fault is a huge amount of stress caused to you the unfortunate user who has to suffer for Apple turning a blind eye to it still!

Of course not, but that's the dangerous thing about so called Geniuses.  Most apart from the Lead Genius types at Stores (who I don't believe even all of those truly know their stuff) simply aren't!

Hi Guys,

I have been following to this thread up for some time (about a month) when my macbook pro 15" 2011 got this discrete GPU issue and would like to leave here some good news...

I decided to take it into the Apple store (Genius Bar)  yesterday and picked it up this morning. They replaced the logic board and the macbook has been working fine since then... They apparently knew this is an issue that have been affecting many macbook pro 15 2011's owners and just let me know this would cost me zero, nothing.... So that happened. There was NO COST at all for me to get my MBP 15" logic board replaced.

So I definitely would encourage you all to go after your right as this is definitely something Apple should be responsible to...

I am located in Australia, Brisbane, and believe the procedure should be the same at any (or all) Apple Store.

Regards,

Igor.

Hi mate,

Not to pour cold water on your excitement, I had my logic board replaced by Apple for free too on 28 August 2014. Last week, my screen went black twice but I managed to power it up. Today it went black screen again but does not want to power up anymore. I will be taking it to Apple for a round of diagnostic tomorrow... cheers

best wishes,

JK

That's good to know. Did you buy your computer from Apple? In my case, they'd had a few people in the last couple of weeks with the same problem,, but since there isn't a quality program in progress,  and I didn't buy it from them, they weren't able to do more.

Interestingly, I see that this thread has been branched into a locked discussion (since when, I can't tell). Not sure whether that means Apple are actively looking at it?

Owen

Oh no... That's bad to know! Keep us posted so let us know how you go after this round of diagnostics tomorrow... Cheers

jokigenki wrote:

 

Interestingly, I see that this thread has been branched into a locked discussion (since when, I can't tell). Not sure whether that means Apple are actively looking at it?

No, posts that are removed for violating the TOU go to the 'locked discussion' and there they are forgotten about (eventually)

My 2011 macbook pro had the gpu failure last year. I paid to replace the motherboard, it lasted 9 months and has now failed again. My backup macbook pro, similar model, shows signs that it will fail next.

I just called apple and escalated the issue as high as they would let me. I mentioned the class action suit and asked what could be done. Apple said the best they could offer was to sell me another full motherboard replacement at full cost, or in other words, nothing.

I would suggest that nobody pay to fix your macbook pro or try to bake it and repair it yourself. We will need to wait until the class action suit passes and then get apple to offer fair compensation for their failed manufacturing issue.

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