Q: Early 2011 Macbook Pro 15' - Logic Board Failure

Friday 13 June.

MyMacbook pro 15' early 2011 stopped responding for anything. It just do not switch on. I bought it second hand but i still have Apple Care.

Guys,what are my options now - take it to the Apple service or throw it out of the window directly?

If you still have Applecare take it in to an Apple store and they'll fix it for nothing.  Worth a try.

  Add me to the list.  My Early 2011 Macbook Pro is in for a logic board replacement as of the 18th.  Fortunately i got the extended warranty, unfortunately there's only 3 months left on it.  Hearing about replacement logic boards failing doesn't inspire confidence.

Believe it or not, you do have options once your extended warranty ends. However, you shouldn't assume that a LB repair will last indefinitely; in fact, quite the opposite.

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Well actually its a known issue, but is not a faulty part the failure is due to overheating and reheating causing the GPU soldering points to become weak and separate from the socket (it comes up as a power management issue with the logic board [probably due to shorting or something]).  but it is fairly common for the early 2011 15" to need a logic board replacement because of power using it. ALSO the repair should only be about $310 without tax.... so paying $600 seems a bit ridiculous to me unless he also needed something else repaired besides the logic board...

Hi same thing with my 2011 Macbook Pro !

I too seem to be having a 2011 15" Macbook Pro logic board issue. The laptop has the 3 beeps. Clearly as 2000+ people ( that;s just those who bothered logging onto a forum online and) reported the issue. The computer- as most of yours is out of warranty, my macbook pro has only had somewhere between 40-50 hours use in total. This is not acceptable, I could more or less understand if my computer was on day and night for 2.5 years, but this is just ridiculous.

When it was not used it was always unplugged and put away, condition is a 10/10, not a single mark or scuff. Also, I am very frustrated as this was my first Apple product and I had very high hopes, this is just heart breaking.

I will be taking the computer to the Apple store near my house tomorrow- after speaking with a local Apple Rep that said they may be able to assist and may very well be able to do something for me. Fingers crossed.

I have an appointment today at an Apple Retail Store for a diagnostic.  I have the early 2011 15" and started having issues in early April.  This was my first Mac purchase and I'm concerned if this is a faulty hardware issue.  I purchased my mac at Best Buy from an Apple representative and thought I purchased the apple warranty, instead I purchased some accidental/damage warranty (my mistake for not being diligent).  I have called Apple Support Service and talked to "Steve" and "Jeremy" to talk me through all kinds of functions SMC; PRAM; Hardware Test; Safe Mode Boot; Firmware Update; Repair Disk; Recover; Reset Logic Board/Video Resolution; etc.,

My Mac seemed to be working great and a few weeks later the problems came back.  I contacted Apple Support by Chat ("Andrew") and completed another Disk Repair & Verify Disk.  No issues were detected.  Two days later more problems occur and I called Apple Support ("Jeffery") to set up an appointment for a diagnostic.

Apple Care Support service has been great.  All have been polite, personal, knowledgeable, etc.,  Unless Apple makes a decision to make this right for Early-2011 MacBook owners, more costly repairs will continue at the owners' expense. 

Well, good news. I took the macbook laptop in. At first it was diagnosed as a logic board issue, everything pointed to that. Using their system they were able to access and reformat the HD completely and reinstall a new OS. This resolved the issue. So good news in this case, the computer is working well again and Applestore did a great job as previously recommended.!!

TheGoldenPanda

If you actually had the problem with a faulty solder of the GPU, I doubt that reinstalling OS X is going to be a genuine fix. Your machine may NOT be suffering from the same problem as 'the rest of us.'

Clinton

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS Mavericks 10.9.4, 16GB Crucial RAM, Crucial M500 960GB SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display

I have the same Macbook that died about a month ago. I asked the Apple Genius if there was a service recall on the logic board on my model and he said no. So I had to buy a new computer. Still mad about that because I paid $2,700 for that computer and didn’t even get 3 years it of it.

Another victim of the logic board issue. The same symptoms as documented over and over in this thread. I also run bootcamp and get the same bluescreen when booting to my windows partition. In Windows though I can boot in safemode which does not load the video driver so the AMD GPU drivers never load. I then delete those drivers and let Windows install the standard vga drivers. Then I can fully boot in windows with horrible low res graphics. But at least I can get to my applications. I am considering logic board replacement vs. buying a new mac. But overall, how does apple ignore what is clearly a defect.

There are several large threads running in the apple support forum about the same topic. And searching the internet produces some dedicated blogs as well as other sites with requests for assistance and user input & support about the problem. This is clearly a widely experienced defect.

Come on apple. Step up!

Same thing happend to mine I think, read my topic

I´m having the same problem since 3 days ago: Macbook Pro (15" early / late 2011) horizontal lines on screen and not booting...

In Argentina the cost for this repair (logic board change) on an Apple Authorized Service is USD 2500. This is more than the cost of a new one!!!

An Apple Authorized repair is likely to be very expensive in Argentina. You probably already know that the most reliable fix - reballing - will cost less than a logic board replacement. I don't have any information on specific reballing facilities in your country, but I know the service is available. The key is to find a facility with a a solid success record.