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

We have to wait for a GOOD LAWYER to loose his computer files due to this and look at all of the people who could have warned him! I talked to the Mac Specialist who offered to transfer my data if I get another computer. I said I was going with a PC this time and he said I couldn't reformat my data, pictures, music, documents, anything. I think he just wouldn't make the effort to dump my data into a hard drive that was set up to format either way.

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My 2011 Macbook Pro 13 now is dead - logic board failure,  sign of the symptoms began having electricity leak out to the aluminum body, caused tiny spark on hands, over heat and slowness.

"Apple" is not stupid, only consumers are. Apple know exactly what products they are producing, and how long it will last for. My Macbook Pro died precise AFTER 3 years, ApplyCare is only "care" WITHIN 3 years,  Australian Tax Office, tax deduction on laptop it's effective life is 3 years.

Corporations (government is part of) deliberate making disposal products, as nowadays none of products could last long. they don't need to listen to consumers at all, consumers are their 'disposal products', if they can't keep up the "latest" technology. interesting to know "consume" in Latin meat "to waste"

Very interesting.  My 3rd logic board failed like you say...loads one third and then shuts off.  This happened within a few weeks of installing Yosemite...not really sure there is a connection there.  My hard drive was retrievable fortunately.  IN the process of seeing if it was still there and accessible the tech thought it was really odd that my OS X did NOT show up as being there.  I totally don't understand that.  My plan is to go back to the Apple store and have them run every imaginable test yet again and document my issues should Apple ever do the right thing by all of us.  Not sure I will pay to have a 4th board installed especially when it's just another of the same kind. 

Well if you see anything odd...anything...before the 90 days it up return it again and get a new board.  Keep doing that until Apple makes it right by all of us.  Don't get caught out of warranty on the replacement part.  It WILL fail again.

Seriously a tech at an Apple store told you this?  What a courageous person.  I hope that he is correct.  Apple needs to step up and do the right thing.  Steve, where are you when we need you?  You left too soon.

I run in this problem end of last year. My Mac Book Pro 15' (early 2011) crashed with blue screen and black/white vertical stripes. After a reboot the Mac book stopped after the login with a white screen and the fans started really fast. After several boot options (single user, recovery mode etc.) and a new installation of OS X the machine came to life again - but only for a few days. I recognised that the problem first came up with Yosemite and the GPU AMD Radeon 6750 (gfxCardStatus is here the right tool). Yosemite seems to use more power of the GPU and Apps like iPhoto or Safari with Flash are overcharging the GPU (even after going into sleep modus the fans started sometimes a real "tarantella dance"). With no warranty and no Apple Care I decided to track down the problem by disassembling my MacBook and after removing the heat sink  from the CPU, GPU the problem was clear: the heat paste to make a cooling contact between CPU/GPU and the heat sink was simply melted aside and the remaining rest on the CPU/GPU was shrunk to small islands, preventing every contact to cool down! After removing and adding new heat paste, reassembling and a SMC Reset my MacBook works again - until now!

Now who is to blame for?

1. If Yosemite is responsible for the melting Apple should have give out a warning (at least yet) not to update to this system with this computers.

2. Apple should offer a costless service to check the cooling problem

Warning: if you don't have any experience with computer hardware, don't try to open it!

Thanks for the info. The Mac Specialist that took my Macbook apart didn't tell (or show)me any particulars about the damage, only that the logic board was gone. I did print out a copy of the Panic Report before all was lost and it showed a flat zero in cpu.

Apple will have to come up with some real accountability because word is getting out more rampant about they're demeaning customer service and disconcern of backing their products. If you look at the forum under every catagory, macbook, to imac, they are all having logic board failures! Maybe they should have had Samsung build them! I think more stories should be pushed over MacWorld, CNET, and even PC Magazine would love to shout it out to potential computer buyers. I really want to know about any future class actions about this issue. I'm sure a 3rd party Computer Specialist can in fact prove a reason for an increase in logic board failures caused by Yosemite. As far as I'm concerned, my MacBook Pro (2008) ran with NO issue or quirk whatsoever until I installed Yosemite. The Wierd light shows began from DAY 1 of the "Free Upgrade". I feel it was a TROGAN HORSE to gain some sales. It is likely that people running Mac will stick to Mac because of the investment in software, and data accumulated within that OS.

I see I'm not alone. My late 2011 MBP has been a nightmare of a machine. I'd probably be on my third logic board if I could afford the downtime. They've replaced virtually every component in my machine. I'm hoping it completely dies before my applecare runs out in April or else I may have to buy a new machine which would hurt at this point in time. Its not like we're talking about an $800 Dell here, this machine was $2700 new.

I Wrote to Tim Cook about the treatment my wife received at the apple store(along with the log service and call history of my machine) when she dropped the machine off for the second service in two weeks. After that I got a call from the senior manager of the Genius bar and they've been following up with me. I didn't think the email would mean anything but apparently someone read it. Now its back, I couldn't restore from a backup after they wiped my data because it freezes at 90%, and Safari is a hit or miss affair.  I haven't run Illustrator and Espresso together yet so we'll see if the screen blinks and the computer freezes soon.

I guess it might be a little too late for you but fortunatlly I have an external hard drive which saved my data. just pryor to my macbook dying, I needed to reboot my iphone because it was acting unusual. I believe it was corrupt by my failing mac because onse when I powered up the iphone, I had a similar lightning type flash of my screen on the phone (meaning just bright white strobe style flashes, not looking like a lightning arc). Any how, my iphone never completed my reboot and a couple thounsnd songs are not usable. They are visable but have red rings next to them, and will not play. That is why I don't want another iphone either. Apple has too much control over my data, and one bit of hidden code can take it all away. I'm not sure that the external hard drive isn't corrupt. We all should write to Sam Cook, post an address!!!

Its not a total loss. When my hard drive started to crap out I used another drive I had lying around to back up my documents and pictures. I've been backing up my documents and photos separately ever since.  What hurt about not being able to restore form my time machine backup is I've lost the last three projects I was working on. Not only did this blow my deadline but it also made me have to design and code from scratch again. I lost big money this time around.

Macbook Pro late 2011

I last posted here one week ago, on Jan 15, after picking up my MBP with a new logic board installed.  I installed Yosemite on the MBP and also on a Macbook Air about five weeks ago.  The Air has worked well but the MBP started having problems within days of installing Yosemite.  Multi failures occurred until I finally couldn't get the MBP to boot up at all.  Fortunately my Applecare was still in effect (only for another 2 weeks now).

The MBP with the new logic board behaved until today (that's just one week) but as of this morning I cannot send emails from the MBP.  Emails work fine on my iPhone and Macbook Air.  Settings are the same as yesterday and restarting doesn't solve it.  Then iPhoto froze on the MBP, so I fear that the logic board is on the way down again as others have reported after replacing the logic board in the 2011 MBPs.

Has anyone downgraded to Mavericks?  I'm tempted to take the MBP back to Apple and have them downgrade it to Mavericks.  I wouldn't even consider trying it myself.

I've posted a few times about this logic board issue.  I took my laptop in to the Apple store to find out what they could do about my 3rd logic board failure which took place within 2 weeks after installing Yosemite (not sure that matters).  The original board failed while still under Apple Care.  I expected a bit of a battle.  The tech took one look at my display, or lack of it, and ran some tests.  He said he thought they/Apple needed to do right by me and fix the problem.  Off he went.  He came back to tell me he was trying to get the manager to give me a new one.  They offered me a free repair or the cost of the repair off on another Apple computer. ( I do not need another Apple computer/Laptop) I went for the free repair.  Next time I'll ask for credit against a iPhone 6+.  It will fail again.  Anyway it was very interesting.  I would say the winds are shifting in the direction of all of us.  This was the first time I've talked to anyone who was willing to say there was a problem with the logic boards and that Apple wasn't doing enough.

Thanks for the updates on your Genius Bar episodes. Let’s hope Apple is starting to realize these failures make the Mac economically unfeasible for average consumers. Meanwhile I read a CNNMoney headline today that:

Apple has mind-boggling $178 billion in cash to spend

That is why I feel something is rotten at Apple.

I searched on forums because the "Mac Specialist" that told me my logic board failed also happened to have a reconditioned IMAC for sale. He was the one who told me that back in 2008, Apple had to change the formulation for solder used in logic boards due to federal regulations on lead content. Well, anyhow he said that you can only expect a 5 yr lifespan out of laptops due to reduced component size, and I should buy a desktop if I wanted longevity. Well, all of this led me to check forums on logic board failures in the IMAC community and it is prevalent there also. I notice at the top of this page, there are over 100,000 views by members looking up just the post "Macbook logic board failures". I noticed many people researching symptoms that relate to logic board failure but they don't know its about to happen. Also, in both categories, it seems to be a large number of victims who encountered the problems upon installation of the "free" download Yosemite. I was told by Apple Techs that engineers monitor the forums for patterns of irregularities. Well, if 100,000 people are researching blown logic boards in the obvious header, they can surely in all their vast skillset read another 100,000+ in quirk issues like my mac beginning to act funny, needing to restart. We need an actual counter, some kind of clicker to take actual count of failed logic boards. You know that Apple has those records, within apple care records, service calls, and probably within their own lab tests! Apple is bragging about record profits and at the same time telling me my $2400. Mac isn't worth the repair cost of a new logic board! That's a good way to herd the masses! Where the heck are the good Corporate Fraud Lawyers? Working for Apple?