Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Some tips for how to keep using your MBP with this problem:

1. Don't put your computer to sleep. Shut it down when you're not using it. If you put it to sleep, even after a couple hours of it sleeping, it will randomly FREEZE and turn fan and cpu on max, and possibly burn out the circuits.

2. Download gfxCardStatus (latest version). On every startup, set gfxCardStatus to 'Integrated Only'. For me, I have to select this option two times in a row for it to take effect.

3. Don't use external displays.

4. Don't play 3D games or anything graphics intensive. Keep your usage to a minimum.

5. Hope Apple does something about this. Keep checking this thread for the latest news.

It's been discussed before that people seem to relate the last thing they did to this problem. But the problem will continued no matter which version you are in. All we have here is theory to keep our mbp running as long as possible.

spybart wrote:

 

Some tips for how to keep using your MBP with this problem:

 

1. Don't put your computer to sleep. Shut it down when you're not using it. If you put it to sleep, even after a couple hours of it sleeping, it will randomly FREEZE and turn fan and cpu on max, and possibly burn out the circuits.

 

2. Download gfxCardStatus (latest version). On every startup, set gfxCardStatus to 'Integrated Only'. For me, I have to select this option two times in a row for it to take effect.

 

3. Don't use external displays.

 

4. Don't play 3D games or anything graphics intensive. Keep your usage to a minimum.

 

5. Hope Apple does something about this. Keep checking this thread for the latest news.

I agree with everything and disagree with the first one. Ever since i shut down my mbp i can't start it up again and regretted it everyday.

My theory is that keeping your mbp cool will "help". But all we have here is theory.

+1. MBP 17" early 2011. Several freezes/crashes last month. Now just can't boot up. Black screen, no chime.

Hello! is everybody done for the Apple product feedback below? For those who did not, please support the feedback link below to raise the issues 

2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Or did anyone contacted APPLE support from link below? for my case no contacts in saudi arabia, hope somebody from concern to do this..

http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Hello Apple! Please do attention on below issues of the MBP 2011 with ATI graphic AMD Radeon 6750 and 6790, it is clearly that the issues are the VGA chip.

we are concern for what we invested on this product, hope you are concerned with us too as your supporter.

also as a quality oriented company plase do attention on this.

everybdy on this forum are concerned with APPLE that why everybody are doning the investigatioins + troubleshooting for your reference.

We are willing to cooperate with APPLE company for any feedback you need in resolving the issues.

We know that APPLE company is a costumer oriented company taht they can do all for the sake of the quality.

you can only get apple online support if your covered under apple care otherwise youll have to go to the store to report the problem which i did AND i posted shots of my screen..

EXACT same problem here.  2011 Macbook Pro. GfxCardStatus helps somewhat to prevent it from happening as soon but it doesn't eliminate it. It still occurs randomly with the program running. This is saddening. I paid over $2000 for my lap top and haven't even had it two complete years!!! Please APPLE help us!!!!

Went to the genius bar with my early 2011 mbp. They offered a change of my logic board for 471 euros. I asked for a discount because the Dutch law provides in extended warrantee. The guy who helped me had to talk to his manager about this and after that he could tell us that it is realistic that Apple will come with a program for this problem but that it could take months. He told us that Apple counts the problems only in USA and than the computers which have been offered to official apple stores or genius bars.

<Edited By Host>

I suppose I am "lucky" in that I paid for AppleCare when I purchased my Early 2011 15" MacBook Pro - I've now had two logic board replacements because of this problem. The first replacement failed within 72 hours of me getting it back from the Apple Store, the second replacement is - so far - holding up to whatever I throw at it. What I find just as concerning as the obvious flaw in the product is how little interest the store Geniuses seemed to have in hearing about my incident as part of a problem reported by countless others. The second time it failed I happened to be served by the same guy who booked in my machine in the first place, and while I know it's important that they be able to see the issue replicated, the scepticism I felt coming from him when I said "it's happened again" was a bit offensive - not to mention that this came after having to wait three days for an available appointment, which they were then over 30 minutes late in keeping. I took comfort at least in being told that, because I was returning after a failed repair, my laptop would be placed at the head of the queue, ahead of the other regular repairs which were currently being quoted at 3 - 5 days. When I called them after hearing nothing for 4 days, I was told that "they're just working on it now, it'll be ready tomorrow maybe". So it would appear I didn't get priority service after all, and the whole thing has left a very bad taste in my mouth.

For those of you without access to an affordable solution to this, I was able to keep my Mac alive through a combination of gfxCardStatus and Caffeine (set to activate indefinitely). I don't ever really need to close its lid, so if I ever did want to turn it "off", I just made sure I was on forced integrated graphics, Caffeine activated, and then kept hitting the screen brightness lower key until the display turned off. Using this approach I lasted through around a week and half's use with no sign of problems (and probably longer but I got enough of a break in work that I could organise to take it into the Apple Store for repair).

Same shoe as everyone here except that I am aboard and have no access to an apple store. But even if I am back in the US I probably wouldn't have apple fix it for me seeing how unreiable their "fix" is. kind of makes me wonder if they really replace it with a "new" logic board.

I got mine back from repair just yesterday. Given that I had to install all Thunderbolt firmwares they've released since (the first from June 2011) it seems to me that I've received a genuine new logic board from before June 2011; not sure that's going to me happy in the long term though...

Just came back from an Apple Authorized Service Provider in my country (no Apple Store here) they told me theyve received more than 30 units with the same problem an that Apple is asking for detailed information on every issue. They have to run deep multiple tests to the machine that can last up to hours each!

Please everyone take your computer and get it checked!

He also told me one other thing though, these machines are almost 3 years old, so maybe Apple could say that we've stressed the machine way too much an theyre "old" using that as an excuse for not providing a replacement program!

Please visit your nearest service provider so they can run all the necessary tests and those of you who have access to an Apple Store just go and make a rant about the severity of this issue, they MUST do something!

I just feel like Apple is mocking all of us, being shamelessly unrespectful to its customers.

Personally, if they dont do anything about this Im never buying and Apple product again.

Today they have called me from the Apple Store service center. The technician has told me that the computer is fixed and ready to be picked up. I am going to try to have them open it in front of me in order to verify that the logic board is actually new as they promised, since the last two times they "replaced" it it wasn't. In fact the second time was the same as the first time (since the MAC addresses of the Ethernet card were the same on both boards, something that is impossible considering that the ethernet card is weld on the logic board). By the way, the replaced board had silicone (gel) under the graphic card memory chips, which the original one did not have and which I find very suspicious (can anyone verify such practice?).

I doubt they will agree on openning it. The very first thing I will do will be installing Mavericks as it has proven to be a trigger to have the Mac Book Pro break. If it doesn't, and I really hope it doesn't because I need the computer and I can't afford to spend 2500€ every two years (that is more than $3000 in the USA) for a computer. The reason why I have bought Apple products for the past 10 years of my life is because I had always considered them high quality time lasting items that were worth the price as the lasted longer and performed better than their competitors.

Of course, with the current incidents happening at my face, I must say that what used to be a devotion for a brand that made me ignore completely the price difference between Apple and its competitors is turning to a ressentment due to the poor quality of such a luxury item (a computer that is worth $3000 should be considered as such) and specially due to the very bad customer relationship that Apple is building with myself after having lied to me and having tried to trick me despite the fact that I have paid a 500€ replacement (around $700).

As I said, tomorrow I will pick up my laptop for the third logic board replacement in a row in less than 2 months and I will stress it as much as I can in order to verify the quality of the reparation. I will of course keep it posted so that the people that are facing the same problem as me can gather more information.

thank everyone for posting, please keep us all updated on your progress.

This issue is not triggered by heat: I have tested it by shutting down my computer, letting it cool for an hour in a chilled, air-conditioned room, and setting the fans to 6200 rpm right after turning it on. The moment I set the 6750M in gfxCard Status, the issue appears instantaneously.

I live outside the US, so I'm waiting for my next trip to take it to the Apple Store to get it fixed. It scares me that the issue will appear again after I get back, since several posters report Apple has exchanged their mainboard 3, 4 times, and more. So I think I'll dump this expensive POS like a hot potato on eBay the second I get it back from the Apple Store.

My faith and confidence in Apple laptops have taken a big hit and I'm seriously considering getting a Windows laptop as a replacement.

Quick note, heat caused the inital failure of the component. After the gpu has failed, it will continue to fail in the future even if it doesn't get hot again.