Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

I had a 2010 MBP 15" which I had repaired several times within the one year warranty period due to similar graphics card issues which they could not fix. I finally got a replacement machine after hours of driving to my nearest Apple Store and after they spent more than $3200 AUS in repairs plus the cost of the my new early 2011 15" MBP, which I thought was amazing totally over $5400 AUS.

Needless to say I purchased expensive Apple Care for my new machine and a few months after it expired, June 2014, I now have the same graphics issues mentioned in this post. I am currently using my iPad and my crappy Dell laptop for all of my work.

I'm an Apple shareholder and I am disgusted in the way that Apple are taking so long to rectify this issue. I fully understand that my machine is over 3 years old however, machines that cost over $2500 made by Apple should not die this early.

I get the same blue, pink and grey screen glitches and most apps cause the machine to crash.

PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP - your reputation is at risk.

What we're discussing here is a problem that affects machines that withstood modest workloads as well as machines that worked hard throughout their life. If we agree on this, as anyone who has followed the thread since the beginning should, your observation quite off topic.

PS Besides, you may have repaired tens of failed pro laptops which didn't survive the workload they were supposed to flawlessly tolerate. This doesn't mean it's a mass scale phenomenon and doesn't imply that after paying a hefty price a user shouldn't have proportionally high expectations. Billions of transistors are packed inside unbelievably thin devices. Power throttling is a fact as it's been for years. A manufacturer has just to leverage the right technology and design the thermals properly.

All,

I am from Melbourne, Australia and I also have a 2011 15-inch MacBookPRO which has the same problems highlighted here with the graphics card. This includes graphical artefacts and more serious instances where my MacBookPRO totally locked-up and I could not use it. The problem is very intermittent. My MacBookPRO was covered by AppleCare Protection Plan when I first raised the intermittent problem with Apple support in January 2014; but Apple still hasn't done anything to sort this out.

I would have expected much better reliability from a premium Apple product like this. I also would have expected better support from Apple because they have not honoured their AppleCare Protection Plan. This is really poor quality control with regards to the manufacture and design of their MacBookPRO's and really bad customer service from Apple!

Caemeleo, I would make sure you have a solid backup of your important files. I tried the same strategy and it only lasted 3 days before the computer wouldn't boot at all.

This is absolutely pathetic, Apple. Computers (especially $2000+ computers at that) should work for more than 3 years. Prior to this I had a Macbook Core 2 Duo which I used for 3 years without a problem, and eventually sold to buy the now "paper weight status" Macbook Pro. Prior to my Macbook, I owned an iBook G4, which I used for 4 years. After I outgrew that computer, I gave it to my sister. She used it for a few years, and after she needed a new computer we passed it on to our mother. That computer still works just as well as it did nearly 10 years ago when I purchased it.

I'll gladly continue to use my Macbook Pro should Apple choose to fix it for free, otherwise it might be time to see what their competitors are offering.

After having been able to use my macbook for a while without using the faulty GPU, it now fails to boot even when it's overheating. Before it would eventually give in, get too hot and boot as normal. It seems like this might be it..

(good news about the lawsuit though, hope it helps)

Yeah, I'm doing a backup right now.

I was not able to boot up for a while either and I thought it is was over but then when I left it to overheat it just shut down and switched to integrated GPU.

Now I'm using gfxCardStatus to keep it on integrated only, we'll see how long that will last.

Like clockwork my 2011 15 MBP started going blue and glitching with discrete graphics enabled. Certainly makes it more of a liability for my work at the moment. Not happy.

Add me to the long long list.  My symptoms are similar to the many hundreds of reported cases here.  I am totally dismayed.   Computer is now useless.  I will wait and see if Apple recalls or admits to what appears to be a design and/or quality issue. 

Add me to the list of Early MBP2011's.  I was just doing normal work on my computer and all of a sudden the screen split in half and it just froze. And now it gets blue/grey screens freezes. Brought it to the Genius bar and gave me the option of fixing it through their warehouse for $310 stating that they don't know what's going on but if you do it through the warehouse you'll get a working computer back, and the Genius told me that it might come back with all sorts of different parts or just a completely different computer.

MBP Early 2011 15 inch

quad-core intel core i7

2.0 ghz

4gb 2 dimms

Below are links for opening a can of worms.

http://action.mbp2011.com/

https://www.change.org/p/timothy-d-co...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2011mbp/

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/...

I Just payed 600 to fix the problem. Ridiculous. Screen just went blank with blue lines, Genius Bar guy told me it was the graphic card, had to replace logic board. I have a 17 inch early 2011 machine. I can't believe apple hasn't replied yet.

Discrete Graphics Card failures are hitting me, too. The worst part is that the taxing workload that led to these problems was the installation of Yosemite. I'm pretty steamed, just like my computer.

In May 2011 I bought my macbook pro 13 inch. The first time I turned it on everything was perfect, when suddenly two hours after, it turned off and never came back.  I took it to apple; I was told that the laptop came with a factory default. They gave me a brand new computer, but this was also a complete steal. This new laptop came completely damaged too. First I had problems connecting to the internet networks. Now I have two years with the laptop and in January of 2014 the operating system did not want to operate so I took it again to apple. After a full review they told that the computer logic board was damage. Apple changed me the logic board for US$280. In August of 2014 after six months the computer didn't want to turn on, so I took it to apple again. After another review, they told me that the logic board is damaged again and the laptop is dead.

It is not possible that, after having invested thousands of dollars on a computer, I have spent these two years in the centers of apple trying to fix my macbook pro. I’ve always been extremely careful with my computer. And apple is not even able to explain me the reason of this situation. Oh! And I almost forgot to say how bad your chargers are. I just really want you to explain me what happened with my macbook pro; I understand that if the apple computers are so expensive, they should at least sell a product with excellent quality assured.

632 pages in and I'm in exactly the same boat as what seems to be many thousands of others. My 2011 MB Pro burnt through it's third logic board since March 2014 last night. I haven't been able to get the slightest glimmer of life out of it since. To date all my devices have been apple products. I'm seriously dismayed at their glaring lack of quality control on what they tout as a premium product and am further appalled by their silence on this issue.

Hi everyone! I am with you! MBP15 2011: glitches on internal card, gray/black screen on discrete

Hello,

Its become fact that the real problem with this Early 2011 Macbook Pro with 6XXX GPU is HEAT. This configuration of Intel hardware, OSX(10.6-10.10) and Radeon GPU coupled with poor soldering practices during manufacturing have lead to the expedited lifespan of Our Macs, Period. Apple's response is simply to ignore the evidence and treat each case individually hence some are offered free replacement of the Motherboard Assembly and Some are offered 1 of 2 disparaged Paid Options.

Best Advice is too keep pressure on Apple for a Full Replacement or Refund vs. Allowing these "Lemons" too be left in the marketplace and resold too unwitting consumers.

Best, Stu