Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Hi,

after a major crash I can not boot to Disk Utility to erase HD and reinstall OSX.

I have managed to access Finder and to back up after following the procedure found among other places here: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/120259/grey-screen-after-login-blue-scr een-of-death-from-cmdr

by doing this in Single-User-Mode:

# Execute the following commands:
/sbin/fsck -fy /
/sbin/mount -uw /
mkdir /Disabled_System_Library_Extensions
cd /Disabled_System_Library_Extensions
mv /System/Library/Extensions/ATI* .
mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD* .
touch /System/Library/Extensions
exit

The disk still shows error from Finder, but not in Single-User-Mode with fsck -fy. Graphics are (of course) totally messed up.

1) Could it work to install Yosemite online from Apple Store? Or will that render Finder broken too?

2) Could I put the ATI and AMD extensions back and then be able to boot in to Disk Utility?

3) Is it possible to disable the AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB and just use the default internal graphic card?

MacBook Pro

15 tum, early 2011

Processor  2 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory  16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Graphics  AMD Radeon HD 6490M 256 MB

Serial  C02***(ask if needed)***F8Y

Software  OS X 10.9.5 (13F34)

jasoprano wrote:

 

and how do you know that there are no automatic word detection systems apart from the human moderators? unless you are the one reporting all the posts with words that are not admitted then there is no way for you to be 100% sure that there is no automatic word detection system.

Think whatever you please, it does not affect me.

Just wanted to update on my experience. I brought my Macbook Pro to the nearest Apple Store (2 hours away) to have them tell me exactly what we already knew. I mentioned this thread and the "Genius" Bar tech told me that "the forums blow these kinds of problems out of proportion." I paid the $300-something to have it sent to the depot to be repaired with a 90-day warranty. I was also incredibly unimpressed with the service at the Apple Store. It took three techs about 15 minutes to get their own Macbook Pro to work on their "secure" Ethernet connection to process my paperwork. What should have been a 15-minute appointment ended up taking about 45 minutes while waiting for them to figure out how to use the Network Preference Pane. I should have it back on Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

hfiles wrote:

 

Just wanted to update on my experience. I brought my Macbook Pro to the nearest Apple Store (2 hours away) to have them tell me exactly what we already knew. I mentioned this thread and the "Genius" Bar tech told me that "the forums blow these kinds of problems out of proportion." I paid the $300-something to have it sent to the depot to be repaired with a 90-day warranty. I was also incredibly unimpressed with the service at the Apple Store. It took three techs about 15 minutes to get their own Macbook Pro to work on their "secure" Ethernet connection to process my paperwork. What should have been a 15-minute appointment ended up taking about 45 minutes while waiting for them to figure out how to use the Network Preference Pane. I should have it back on Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

well, since they will put a refurbished logic board as a replacement for yours, be sure to stress it before the 90 days warranty runs out because it will fail on you at some point, same bad soldering on these and Apple does not do any soldering job.

on a positive note, this $300-something repair should also replace any faulty parts if any, part of the deal.

Right and others here should know that that's called a "Depot Repair" or a "Flat Rate Quote" and should always be $300.

Interestingly enough, I just picked up my copy of "Steve Jobs" it was open to page 359:

"He let go his control-freak desire to manufacture products in his own factories and instead outsourced the making of everything from the circuit boards to the finished computers."

Even further down the page very interesting reading but not postable here!

A quick update.

So I took my MacBook Pro to a local repair shop to get the logic board replaced. It cost me $550, only for it to do the same thing 3 days after minimal use. This time it just shut down on me, and when I tried to reboot, I get the green horizontal lines across the apple logo and hangs on a white screen.

I will be taking it back today to get it replaced again (free of charge). I don't know if I am willing to keep on dealing with this over and over again, as I am expecting for it to keep failing until Apple actually acknowledges this problem and offer a resolution for the thousands of people affected by this.

Rant over.

Hey,

It seems I just joined this exclusive club here! Yeah, my MBP just waved the white flags. Not even starting anymore. Last sign of his illness was a strangely striped, splitted in half, speratated in the middle, screen..of something that might have been my desktop.

And that was it!

Already took an appointment with one of the Apple 'Doctor House' Genius magicians. But I'm not ok to pay €530,00 for the logic card replacement! It's better to buy a new MacMini instead . Which brings me to the question: why I spent €1790,00 to by this MBP 3 years ago. Even Windows can do better..and at least if it breaks down, for €1790,00 I can have like 4 new ones..just in case.

Tim Cook, and all the others: shame on you guys! Sorry to say it, but..we are more than 30.000 unsatisfied users all around the world. Keep being busy with the 6 fat butt people who curved the new iPhone 6+ and just keep ignoring us! That's good! You care about customers..yeah..right!

My early 2011 Macbook Pro (with AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU) is now having constant display issues.  There are vertical pink lines permanently on the screen (even after restart and PRAM reset) and flickering horizontal lines near the top of the screen.  When I switch from discrete to integrated graphics the problem goes away, which makes me think this is a similar problem many others are reporting.

Any advice on next steps?  My 3 year applecare just expired last month and it sounds like many people are facing $300-$500 graphics card replacements.

I am running OS 10.7.5

I have a macbook pro, 15" 2011. I am having these issues too. I am glad I actually found a thread that applies to what is happening to my computer. It took me a while to find this. My screen has been getting crazy lines going across is horizontally. Sometimes the colors on my screen go very bright, like neon colors and it's all distorted. My computer also freezes often and I have to do a hard restart. I took it to the genius bar, they couldn't figure out what was wrong and even kept it over night. Once I found this thread, now I understand that something actually IS wrong, I just can't afford to replace the logic board! I did not buy a macbook pro to have to spend so much money on repairing it! I had to replace the hard drive last year as well. Apple, you pride yourself on the great quality of products you have, yet I had better luck with my HP computer than this macbook pro!!!!

Try calling Apple. Some techs will give you a break since your Apple Care just expired. Ask to talk to a supervisor.

At worst a "Depot Repair" would be a flat $300.

hi mc.good

next step to keep being able to use your computer would be to never shut it down because chances are you will struggle to get to the login screen.

then avoid using softwares like adobe products, iPhoto, iMovie and anything graphic intensive even like flash videos in your browser.

use gfxCardStatus if you can keep it on integrated only once your OS is running.

in other words, living the dream.

then, as spudnuty suggests, if your Apple Care just expired try to get it taken in charge for free, explain their logic board swap won't deal with the core of the problem which is heat and bad soldering, two things that their fix, won't fix.

be patient, document yourself so you have arguments and don't insult anybody because it's useless.

if no success with one person over the phone or in-store, try again with someone else.

or consider getting a reball if you can find someone near you who does it professionaly, with warranty.

good luck

what is an alias..? wrote:

 

I have a macbook pro, 15" 2011. I am having these issues too. I am glad I actually found a thread that applies to what is happening to my computer. It took me a while to find this. My screen has been getting crazy lines going across is horizontally. Sometimes the colors on my screen go very bright, like neon colors and it's all distorted. My computer also freezes often and I have to do a hard restart. I took it to the genius bar, they couldn't figure out what was wrong and even kept it over night. Once I found this thread, now I understand that something actually IS wrong, I just can't afford to replace the logic board! I did not buy a macbook pro to have to spend so much money on repairing it! I had to replace the hard drive last year as well. Apple, you pride yourself on the great quality of products you have, yet I had better luck with my HP computer than this macbook pro!!!!

nobody did, really.

this thread has no real weight when pleading our case with any Apple representative but you'll find valuable information here so they will know what you're talking about and able to point out that they don't, if necessary.

now if you don't have problems booting up to your system, might be another problem even though your description fits right in this thread.

but if it is, paying for a refurbished logic board switch won't do anything except you losing money, time and probably temper too.

good luck to you as well.

Thank you for the advice.  Because I was only one about one-month past the end of my Apple Care, a senior support specialist granted me a one-time exception.  I will be taking it to the Apple Store in a few days and will report back on repair status once I know more

i have moved AMD extension like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyDu-Y_G1D8

now i can not switch to integrated video card, please help.

mc.good,

Excellent! Perhaps we should put up another post describing the symptoms and the fact that you were just beyond the Apple Care coverage.

Then anyone else with the same symptoms would benefit in the same way you did.

Also let us know what the warrantee on the repair would be.