Q: 2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

NY613, which Macbook Pro model do you have?

13, 15, 17"? Early or late 2011?

15" early 2011 if I'm not mistaken... So I dropped it off again at apple today, talk to the head tech guy, they're going to send the data to apple and do more test and will go from there, he was really nice and professional, and I left with impression that another logic board replacement isn't a option. So will see what happens next.

Side note: today apple called me from the US concerning the email I sent to Tim Cook three days ago.

Unfortunately I was just going on stage and couldn't take the call.... I sure hope they call again.

Any experience with calls from Apple and whether they will call again if they didn't reach anyone?

Hi,

Late 2011 15" MBP here with the AMD/Intel GFX switching issue. Got the MBP new in March of 2012.

In a nutshell, when my mac boots, it works for days without problems. Since I have installed Yosemite, I was able to sync my iphone again without the need of killing iphoto. I even watched a movie in HD lately. But sometimes the machine just freezes up, usually at some video operation, and also the harddisk partition is affected and it (hard) boots into refit startup screen.

When it has a bad case of not booting, I get a scrambled startup screen, with the apple logo and booting and then just a grey screen. Fans then speed up and it reboots. When I try to access rescue partition after the booting page I get a blue screen. After a while it just shuts down with the fans boosting.

I thought the AMD was dead, my mac refused to boot into OSX for days, and I was actually in the process of compiling an Ubuntu grub.efi that would enable me to switch off the AMD at boot and only use the Intel under Ubuntu.  I was just about to try out my new grub.cfg with another X64 efi booter when I forgot to put in the usb stick into the mac and it booted into OSX flawlessly. Since then it works again and it has been up again for 3 days....

I'm still planning on installing ubuntu and disable the AMD discrete video by disabling it at boot and at least be able to use the computer for programming and other purposes. For now, miraculously the **** thing works again. Maybe the bold testing with the efi boot and the mods I loaded "reset" the thing...

Apple could at least give us an option to disable the AMD, although I noticed that booting with the disabled AMD* extensions makes the machine in OSX slow and the video sluggish. If the integrated intel video runs smooth under ubuntu, for me that is a solution for a 2000 euro investment that otherwise would be useless.

Let's see what the class suit action does. I expect little from Apple at this point. I will *never* again buy an Apple computer of any kind. I had very similar issues with a 17" G5 Macbook years ago and I got no service or satisfaction from Apple either. There will be no third time that I get stuck with a useless over-priced toy. For what I paid for it, I could have bought 2 high-end laptops from any brand. It's just not worth it. I'll try to save my investment by running Ubuntu.

Regards,

JP

Don't feed the troll..

checking back to see if apple have post anything to address the problem.  Can not believe they still have not do anything !!

Thanks for this - I've just received my 'repaired' 15" MacBook Pro, Late 2011 model back from Currys/PC World repair centre 'KNOWHOW' with a replacement logic board. I turned the discrete GPU card off via the command line workaround before I sent it away, so I could at least get it to boot. But now I can't seem to turn the AMD extensions back on, by manually copying them back to the extensions folder. - I need to do this, to test that their 'repair' has been successful, as it's only running on the integrated GPU at present. - Even so, this thing is burning my leg just typing in Safari, so I don't hold out much hope of the repair lasting.

@An Node: I sent a snail-mail letter to the European HQ in Ireland describing my disappointment with the lack of response from Apple to those of us with this problem. About 2 weeks later I got a phone call from them - the rep on the phone said that, although he was unable to discuss the technical issues, he could arrange for me to talk to a technician directly. We agreed that this person would call me in about 20 minutes, at which time I would be available. That was over 4 weeks ago, and I'm still waiting for the phone to ring - although I 'm starting to get the feeling that they're not going to call.

After more than 20 years as an Apple evangelist, I'm sorry to say that my next computer is going to be Windows. I can forgive development and manufacturing errors. It's the lack of response about the problem that annoys me enough to walk away...

"Unfortunately I was just going on stage and couldn't take the call.... I sure hope they call again."

You should have emailed your schedule to TC.

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro that bricked with the same symptoms . Recently I upgraded my OS to Yosemite. While doing my design work and browsing on Firefox, the system suddenly got hung up. On restart the screen started showing broken horizontal lines.

On investigating, I have found that many others have faced similar issue with this model and graphics card.

I had extended warranted that expired only a few months back. I am very disappointed with the MBP dying just as my warranty ended.

I am afraid that on taking my MBP to the store for fixing, would be charged enormous for the fix.

They contacted me as well on phone, but for another issue. Then the guy who called me send me an email! So I answered to that email, related to an issue I managed to fix, but I took the opportunity to point out the biggest problem and also mentioned the link of the thread here!

Forgot to mention I didn't manage to answer to the phone call. But he left me a message on the voicemail, and sent me an email as well.

An Node wrote:

 

Side note: today apple called me from the US concerning the email I sent to Tim Cook three days ago.

Unfortunately I was just going on stage and couldn't take the call.... I sure hope they call again.

Any experience with calls from Apple and whether they will call again if they didn't reach anyone?

each time I missed a call from a rep in Ireland, he (always the same one) left a message with his phone number and email address while adding he would indeed try to call again the next day.

sent him an email asking him to call again asap to make sure he did, and he did.

carl wolf wrote:

 

"Unfortunately I was just going on stage and couldn't take the call.... I sure hope they call again."

You should have emailed your schedule to TC.

is getting up levels in this forum making people more and more cynical?

might sounds funny for you to say but when I missed a call I actually was asked to tell when I would be available and called again.

akamyself wrote:

 

is getting up levels in this forum making people more and more cynical?

Given enough time and effort you may level up, then you'll know the answer. Unfortunately we are not allowed to speculate on this board, no-one is.

Csound1 wrote:

 

akamyself wrote:

 

is getting up levels in this forum making people more and more cynical?

Given enough time and effort you may level up, then you'll know the answer. Unfortunately we are not allowed to speculate on this board, no-one is.

thanks for the advise, dear level 8, but that is not a goal of mine.

kinda confirms my point, though.

been boldly asked not to feed the troll again today so let's make this short now shall we?

bye now.