Macbook Pro (15" early 2011) horizontal lines on screen and not booting...?

Hi. I had no applecare, cover plan, nor am I in the guarantee period.

In Norway we have no Apple Stores, so the only way of repairing a mac is by going to a retail shop, who again sends the MBP to Apple (I would guess).

This retail shop needed my receipt and then they submitted a claim/complaint which obviously went through.

By law, we do have a 5 year "claim/complaint deadline" in Norway on electronic devices. It could be that this law kicked in and that´s why Apple approved the complaint and gave me a new board. But now I´m only guessing...

I should also mention that I explained every step I performed before delivering the MBP to the shop, and that the last thing I did was format the system drive and reinstall a fresh copy of OSx. This makes it easier for the repair guys to troubleshoot the Mac. So the first thing they said was "well ok, then it´s probably hardware related". Which we all agree it is, but Apple won´t state that it is until you have a fresh OSx installed and the issue still remains.

I disagree, they said it was hardware issue, I did not have to reinstall osx or format anything, as I couldn't get past the green/ grey / blue screen, it was impossible. Outside of apple care they replaced logic board for free. I was amazed they did it, I didn't loose any of my files.

lol i posted a link here showing that people, more than 7000 people or cases (with this very same issue regarding this early or late 2011 macbook pro) have brought up an online petition against Apple. and i got this

"Hi Lu Tu (Tu Lu),

Thanks for participating in Apple Support Communities.

We removed your post Re: Macbook Pro (15" early 2011) horizontal lines on screen and not booting...? because it contained a poll or a petition. We understand wanting to share experiences, but these forums are meant for technical questions that can be answered by the community."

ok sure, then this is my experiences:

if you unfortunately got this problem, try restart it with cmd + s, then shut donw, then hit power button and cmd + alt + R + P

do that twice

then if it not work, close the mac, go to this forum again, and post a next line of comments lol

and here is my technical and hopefully logic question: if a specific error occur only one to one computer , we can call it bad luck and forget about it. But what happen to a specific identical hardware faulty that seems to occur in the same product model many times for many years (now is 2014 right?)?

dear Mr/Ms Host of this forum, if you have such a power to remove or change my post, could you pls do a bit further step and invite someone who could put a clear officially reply to put an end to this matter?

alfredm99,

No, connecting an external monitor will not work - an external monitor requires the use of the discrete GPU which is 'broken' (well, not really the GPU, but rather the faulty soldering).

Clinton

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

Called then went to apple yesterday. They agreed to send it out and fix it.

my apple care just expiredB(like a month) The cost would have been 310 to fix "whatever" but they waived it.

apparently they they have a flat rate "check- repair" fee.

ILl let let you kne what they find do.

OF coursr urs rot booted for them as I had to do shift opt cont power so I could get info they needed prior to leaving.

Let's hope it failed for them. Guy was like probably graphics interface - so new logic board. They send it out 3-5 days (or so they claim)

My my ya hubby reminded me his 2010 (under apple care) had it's logic board replaced.

ILl ill let you know -- meantime I'm computerless and already revived an email fr a "client" wanting a change to their website (a food kitchen) --

I just had my MacBook Pro repaired for the 2nd time. It was within the 90 days of getting it repaired the first time (at the cost of $310 dollars). I really hope they recall this issue.

I have signed the petition...

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 costo of a new one!!!

having the same problem is apple doing it on purpose for us to buy new1s, because I want to buy a new1 but hoping tI get some resale on late 2011 model if not resale Atleast for it to be in working so my mom can use, but this stupid thousands of user facing the same problem.. Hope apple has a call back and fix the the problems for free.

in 2011 apple called the 2gb nano's and replaced them with the latest 8gb watch shaped nano I was lucky to keep my nano.

Mr. Cook, you will lose out on your so called apple fans

I am also having this. Seems to be a logic board issue that Apple is pretending doesn't exist. Lucky for them no one dies from these kinds of things. Otherwise they would be facing congressional hearings. haha. Maybe if I yell at my Senator long enough, he will do that anyway. I would join in on hte lawsuits if I could figure out where to sign up.

Does anyone know if the reballing stuff works?

I've had my Early 2011 Macbook Pro 15" for less than a month, and this issue just began to happen to me this evening. I went from having a few lines on the screen to having one part of the screen shifted all the way to the other side to having everything but the mouse freeze up on me to not being able to boot past the grey (white to me) screen, all in a matter of minutes. I've been a PC user up until the time I bought this laptop, and if what all of you are saying is true about this problem, I may never buy an Apple laptop again. I love everything about the interface and the laptop overall, much better than Windows, but none of that does any good if the company won't own up to a mistake and offer some sort of recall on faulty parts that they installed into these machines.

The laptop I've got is ~2 months past Apple Care warranty, and I'm not afraid to pop open the machine and fix stuff on the inside if it means saving a dollar. Is reballing the GPU a 100% sure fix? Has anybody here actually reballed the GPU, and could you explain to me how to go about doing that or direct me somewhere that does explain it?

This is quite a problem, Same mac same specs, I'm encountering this too. I'm also out of warranty.

I've sent in a feedback. I really think Apple should do something about this.

Recall or provide free service at least.

After chatting with several Apple customer support people and getting the answer from a senior adviser of "I don't know of any plans for a recall, I would take it to the Genius Bar," (he didn't refer me to anyone who would know the answer), I just bit the bullet and took the MacBook Pro to the Apple Store. They are putting in a new logic board, which will cost $310.

I'm repairing it only to get what money I can back from it on eBay, and then I'll likely forget about my endeavor in Apple products and take my business to a more reliable company, Lenovo perhaps, at least until Apple can prove that they stand behind their products by offering a recall for the 2011 Macbook Pros that have been affected by this manufactoring error that Apple alone is responsible for. Which I sincerely hope they do, because I love the MacBook Pro, more than any PC laptop I've used. I would buy another one in a heartbeat if I knew Apple would acknowledge any design flaws like this one in their products.

I just want to add my 2011 MacBook pro on the list of machines that had a graphic issue. After a few weeks of trying all the fixes I found online my laptop now just turns on with vertical lines and after a few seconds the screen just turns gray. I took it into my local Apple Store and the genius know the problem as soon as I pulled out the laptop. Long story short, 6 months after my apple care expired It will cost my $310 and 5-7 days to get the logic board replaced.

Nothing more to add here either except that I am suffering the same issues now with my late 2011 MacBook Pro 15" . Grey horizontal lines on the start up screen and then a grey screen. It all first started when I clicked on the update button to update to the latest Mavericks 3 days ago. At first it seemed resolved by dragging the caches folder onto the desktop. 12 hours later the problems started again (when I closed a window in photoshop cs5). Since then I have reinstalled the OS X and reset the PRAM.... In fact I have pages of notes on what I've tried. Now I can't get anything other than a grey screen (after the horizontal lines on start up) Not happy 😟