Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Ran my second 2011 macbook pro to run music at a modern dance show (first one died once, had motherboard replaced, died again).

It crashed, blue screen then full shutdown. The show waited for 5 minutes for it to start running again.

Installed gfx, ran it in 'integrated only' mode. Computer switched itself into dynamic switching and crashed. During a show, this time I ran a backup and kept the show going.

I'm back calling apple support (30 minute wait time).

$6000 worth of computers soon to be bricks.

GFX seems to help slightly, but I can't get it to stop switching back to dynamic mode.

Updated note: this is a big one.

Apple Canada has just told me that they will cover the repair for this computer. Parts and labour.

Spread the news.

And this is what my 15" early 2011 MacBook Pro does when I go to the website of the new 5K iMac... Ugh...

gfxCardStatus was told to only use the Intel GPU, but it gives this as a result too...

<Link Edited by Host>

Just adding my voice to the crowd, but specifically to you JKKiang because your situation sounds like mine.

Early-2011 MacBook Pro, worked fine for several years (mostly connected to external display), and then in the last 6 months weird graphical glitches and crashes. Got the logic board replaced twice from Apple and still experiencing the same issues. The integrated graphics side is fine, but the discrete side tends to fail every other day now. Not being able to have it hooked up to the external monitor for very long is a major pain, and the whole thing just feels flaky to me. Upgrading to Yosemite changed nothing (which I didn't expect, since it's a hardware issue).

Here's hoping Apple decides it's worth it to replace/fix the issue, because a new MBP doesn't sound financially appealing.

As with many others here... I just spent $710 AUD to have this issue fixed in the Sydney CBD Apple Store.

When I first appeared at the Genius Bar my first words were: "If I said to you Early 2011 Macbook Pro..." to which the Apple Staff Member instantly replied, "Video Card?"

She recommended a MLB logic board replacement with a cost of $700+ to repair. Same symptoms as everyone else on this thread, video distorions and tearing, split screens and then system crashes. Distorted Apple Logo on reboot. I hesitantly approved the repair as the cost is still slightly cheaper than a new MBP.

As an aside: during the repair the technician felt the need to replace the clamshell video screen unit which was completely unnecessary and the charge for the new clamshell was added to the repair. This was doubly annoying as my old case was immaculate and had no scratches or damage of any sort (I'm incredibly careful with my MBP) and also had a custom decal around the apple logo. The "new" Clamshell is scratched in multiple places.

This whole experience is incredibly frustrating. I paid well over $3000 for this laptop initially. It appears Apple have acknowledged this exact issue occurs in iMacs: (iMac (27-inch): AMD Radeon 6970M Video Card Replacement Program) yet not on Macbooks of the exact same era.

This was my first Macbook purchase... it will likely be my last. This has now cost me over $4k in initial purchase and repairs, which would have gotten me a PC laptop for 2 years and another as an upgrade for another 2 years, and still have change.

Hope they address this for everyone else.

KEep your receipts as I understand if they do decide too acknowledge the problem, they may reimburse you.

I finally left mine for repair. Approximately $700 here in Brazil in an authorized Apple repair shop, but I heard the official Apple store charges around $1100. Lets see how much time will it take for the problem to resurface.

I think I'm another victim of this fault. I have been suffering from all the symptoms mentioned time and time again, currently it takes me upto 2 hrs to be able to boot the macbook, main problem is a grey screen blank outs even when trying to start in safe mode.

There are no apple stores in Ireland only approved retailers and they are looking for over a €1000 to repair logic board, I'm currently running extra software to run fans extra to keep the core cool and it works to a level but it is so frustrating,

Why is apple not owning up to this. I've used macs since 1998 and this is my 3rd machine with logic board problems, you would have thought that after dropping €2500 on a 15" then it would last longer than 3 years

I have the same problem, but i didn't know this is a problem of manufacturing, i believe this occur because anything wrong i did it, but recently i actualized my OS X to yosemite, the problem stay better in the next day don't stay blue and work fine, yesterday when i turn on my laptop, this stay very worm, and turbine work very fast and turn off alone, and i turn on several times, and today the something happened, its running and one more thing, now don't stay blue when change graphic card sometimes freezes another times run with no problem.

The problem stay better with gfx?

I just had my 15" MBP (early 2011) die on me while on an international business trip.  Black screen, then blue screen - just DEAD!  I took the computer into an Apple certified service center in Kolkata and they said that it was a defective logic board.  I am waiting to get back to the US to see what options I have.  All the posts in this thread seem to indicate that I am pretty much out of luck.  Investing in a repair may only be more good money being thrown after bad.

This BTW was my first MBP after being a 25 year windows user.  Loved it until now.  Not something I expected from a Mac.  Now I have to basically to basically eat crow after being so high on Macs with my acquaintances.

<Edited by Host>

JJust to update, I took my early 2011 to the apple store and found out my logic board is at fault.  I still have apple care so they are taking care of it for free, besides the $100 they are charging me to back up my data (rolls eyes).

The exact same thing just happened to my computer. I don't know what I should do. It's really annoying. Apple needs to own up to it.

I had this happen to my MBP this afternoon and it's an early 2011 model. I also have upgraded to Yosemite and at times the cursor leaves a trail of pixels.... So is this a graphics card issue?

how did you get them to cover it?

add me to the list, my 2011 MBP just died this morning and I just dropped it off at the apple store...I got quoted 600$ CDN

I'm running gfxcardstatus and smsfancontrol, I'm only two weeks into these failures but this workaround seems better than paying $600 to get a new logic board, which will likely just also need to be replaced.

I got same issue like yours last friday. I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro (2.3 GHz Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and build-in Intel HD Graphics 3000) running OS 10.9.5. There are several horizontal distortions or vertical distortions. My Apple Care was expired on last month. I don't think it is worth to cost $549 to fix it. Just wait to look Apple how to deal with this issue.