Had the same graphics issue with my early 2011 macbook pro 17". Went to the Apple store and they want $750 to to replace the logic board. The repair only has warranty for 3 months. It is quite pointless to waste this money if this defect reoccurs down the track after the 3 month warranty.

The more people reporting this, the more publicity, the more bad impact on Apple´s reputation and future sales-

the better our  chances are to actually get a final solution from Apple. So in a way this forum together with  many

other "meeting points" for a disappointed crowd with dead or extra colourful screens in their  2011 MBP´s....

might get them "repaired". Apple would have to build some new high capacity "Reballing workshops....." or...

And please if You haven´t seen this link have a look and tick all the "boxes..."  http://action.mbp2011.com

Add me to the list of broken 15" early 2011MBP owners.

To NGarth: it is not necessarily pointless - with the same usage as normally, my first replaced (presumably "re-conditioned") logic board for which I paid 700 € lasted about a week; the second showed initial signs after a couple of weeks and died after nearly the 3 months guarantee of the repair, the third has been in the machine now about a week and a half and has already shown signs (blocage) - so I'm just hoping that this, my fourth logic board, will fail properly in time for me to have it replaced yet again under guarantee, and I am certainly not treating the board lightly in order for it to last for say 3 months and a day (or is it 90 days guarantee rather than 3 months? I should check!). If it is going to fail, which it surely will, I want the succession of "new" boards to continue until Apple finally agree to replace the machine with something reliable - like most people on this thread, I did not buy such a high end machine just to host an email client and a web browser.

Net cost - 700 € plus 3 x 90km round trips plus a lot of time and reduced functionality, particularly grave when travelling and relying on a single machine (at least at home I have an old, reliable white MacBook as a back-up).

One "advantage" of all this - in addition to my normal Time Machine backups I have transferred all my files to external discs, themselves also backed up.

Here's a heart-warming tale of triumph over adversity (or maybe not):

MacBook Pro owner beats Apple in court over faulty 8600M GT

Google, it!

So, where is the class action lawsuit on this if Apple isn't going to voluntarily come forward with anything but essentially normal service?  This seems like a now well established manufacturing or design defect with a known set of workarounds as well as fixes.  The architecture of the machine, if unchanged, will no doubt fail again as some have indicated has already happened.

Same problem here.

Blue screen freeze during use, followed by high fan speed.

Same on subsequent boots.

Going to try the AMD driver removal

I've been OK for about a day now.

I installed the gfxCardStatus (https://gfx.io) which allows you to switch between GPUs. At least some indication of what's going on behind the scenes. I can change between these now with out any negative effects. However, as soon as I plug in my Thunderbolt Display, the Mac locks up, striped/overlapped screens and eventually a kernel panic then a restart is forced. I can work for at most an hour before the GPU flips out. So, until this is resolved, I guess my thousand dollar Thunderbolt remains dark. I'm anxious to see what the Geniuses have to say tomorrow.

These are the cards on my Mac:

AMD Radeon HD 6770M

Intel HD Graphics 3000

Apple hit with class-action lawsuit over 2011 MacBook Pro graphics failures

<Edited By Host>

Hi all,

An update on my unit. GPU failed in late June. I had it reballed in early July. Just started failing again, yesterday. Grrrr. I don't fault the reball job, but they did not replace the chip. I should have had them do that. I should have sourced a chip for them, if they didn't have one.

So I'm back to using gfxStatus to force the machine to run the Intel chip. As I'm not a graphics/video guy (I bought the computer for the beautiful HD matte screen), I can handle that. The trouble is that the OS automatically uses the ATI chip when starting up. Lame! There is no reason for using a high-end, overheating, battery-draining, and now damaged ATI chip during the startup routine. Sheesh. So, I will have to use the ATI chip from time to time and, each time, I will come closer to bricking the machine. Unless...

Is there a way to just yank the chip out of the unit? If I did that, would the startup routine revert to the integrated chip? That would be fine with me.

What do you think? Oh, and thanks for the class-action news. I've sent them my info.

Franz

We are almost there!! Apple will do what it must to keep her company honor.

<Link Edited By Host>

We should.

My 2011 MacBook Pro 15" can no longer boot as of this afternoon. I was in the middle of watching a YouTube video when I was interrupted by purple and white vertical lines on my screen.  Tried to do a hard restart with no luck. Whenever I would try to boot into safe mode, a blue screen with vertical lines would appear on my screen. So basically, I can't go past the white screen after the apple logo appears.

Prior to today, I noticed that the fan would get loud every time I watch HD videos such as Netflix and YouTube. I also noticed getting the color spinning wheel often. I'm not quite sure if this is a graphics card problem, but I will be taking it to a Mac repair shop tomorrow. I don't have apple care, so  the "Genius" bar is not an option.

i I have a 2009 iMac that still runs perfectly, and I'm puzzled that a 3 yr old machine is already bricked. You're effin up, apple!

Welcome to the club of unexpected out of the blue failures.

<Edited By Host>

II'm just signing in to say I'm another with early 2011 Mac book pro discrete graphics issues.  Mine went, I took the laptop back to the Genius Bar and they replaced the logic board free of charge under U.K. Consumer law.  That was 2weeks ago and last night the laptop crashed while I watching a YouTube video (it wasn't even that racy!). on robots to I go a pop up saying there was an issue with the graphics.  This morning it won't boot past the grey screen.  Tried all the usual combinations of button presses at start up and it's going to be the graphics.

so I'll book another session at the genius bar and see what happens.  A 2 week repair isn't very good is it?