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

Whichever Apple moderator censored cciappa's comment, I hope you know that everyone who has posted in or followed this discussion already knows what he said through the email notification of his post sent out, lol. And cciappa, I'm sure lots of people would be interested in that, me included if the situation isn't resolved. But you'll have to organize it through a less censored forum. 🙂

Why did they censor my comment? I mean if they want to sell top end computers then they they should at least address problems like these which are real and have hundreds if not thousands all over the internet complaining about the very same exact thing? This is without question a manufacturing or board component issue that needs to be addressed to make customers whole. Alternatively they are selling defective products and stealing from the consumers.

More like tens of thousands. They censored you because they don't want a lawsuit on their hands, and they probably know that there is a very serious threat of a lawsuit building up that would possibly cost them a million dollars or more considering all the 2011 MacBook Pros suffering from this issue.

I agree, Ray.

Now I'm looking at the same kind of issues showing up after the 10.9.5 update. Trying to resolve via OS, but am afraid that this line of graphics boards are dudds, and feeling that if this were cars, then Apple should be issuing a RECALL and REPLACE notice to all owners.

A huge amount of time and effort.

Have had other problems with 10.9.5... ...e.g. Parallels won't open and have to reinstall.

One other comment, and this applies to Microsoft as well... ...if you're going to do a major update like it seems 10.9.5 was, then there should be some kind of warning attached to it, advising you at least to do a system reboot and to ensure back up.

Cheers,

After that Turn it on again, After Apple logo on the grey blank screen Press Option+Command+SPACE+R+P YES SPACE ALSO (Press all together for 5 seconds then leave then again press for 5 seconds), Then leave all the buttons and turn off your Macbook forcefully and Turn it on Again It should Work

Hi everyone.

Same issue here with a late-2011 15" Macbook Pro running Mavericks 10.9.4. This happened to me this morning, tried a few PRAM and SMC resets before it magically started working again. Then this afternoon it happened again and I couldn't get it back on for ages. Of everything I tried the suggestion above was the only thing that worked and it's been working fine since. PRAM reset WITH THE SPACE BAR. Would be interested to see whether this works on other machines.

Still no idea what the issue is so I intend to back up and then take it into the Genius bar if the problem comes back. I really can't be dealing with an unreliable laptop as I use it for live music. I could end up travelling the length of the country for a gig and have it die on me! Really anxious now, particuarly as so many people have had the problem.

Logic Board needed to be replaced... ...2nd time in 6 months, on a top of the line MBP that's just 3 1/2 years old. Seems to be a systemic problem, I suspect related to Apple Cinema Displays and power supplies... ...just a guess...

Good luck with it....

gvhconnect

I'm choked to see how many early and late 2011 MBP are having this problem (the one pointed out on the first pages of this thread).

I'm having this same problem since yesterday. Doing the ****+control+option boot has worked for me since than. What scares me is

a) the lack of a foolproof solution - thing that worked for someone sometimes don't work for the others;

b) the randomness of the problem - it may appear again right now or it may appear again many days later;

c) as I said, it's the SAME problem with people around the world with the SAME lineage of the MPB (early and late 2011. Mine is ealry-2011, btw, and I'm in Brazil).

My Mavericks is 10.9.4. Based on what I see here I don't think I should upgraded it for now.

To the moderator:

I sincerely ask for your comment either privately or in this forum on how I can phrase my previous post in an acceptable way, as the included information that the post is being removed for is strictly relevant, even critical, to the conversation. To the best of my knowledge, it is not in violation of the submission guidelines; it is technical information because it is completely and provably factual. The information is not a speculation or a rumor about an unannounced product, nor is it related to Apple policies, procedures, or speculations on Apple decisions.I am not even sharing my "experiences" by giving this information, as said in your last email to me.

Therefore, without giving specific details, and without trying to get myself banned, I ask very genuinely for your reasoning in deleting my previous post, and your suggestions in presenting this information in a way that conforms to the submission guidelines. Thanks.

Having heard nothing, can I assume it's okay to post what I was going to post?

By the way, my MacBook Pro is on the brink of its third GPU failure as of this afternoon. Lines began to appear on my screen, and I shut the laptop off. I've switched to using only the integrated graphics using GraphicsCardStatus for now so I can back up my data, but it will eventually either randomly decide to switch back to the dedicated card as it has done before or I will forget to set it to use the integrated card upon booting of the machine. It's still under warranty, so I'll hopefully get another logic board here soon.

Despite all this, I'm happy about Apple's warranty policy on repairs, although I don't understand why it would not be in Apple's best interest to issue a recall, not only to save valuable future customers, but also from a more direct financial standpoint: Apple is eventually going to lose more money replacing logic boards than they would by replacing the entire laptop with a 2012 unit.

Sounds and looks like a slightly different issue eldobaldo. The GPU problem on the 2011 models causes the machine to freeze shortly after the vertical lines appear (which isn't really just vertical lines, it's a bunch or other weird squiggly stuff as well), and then the issue will resurface a time or two before the system will refuse to boot by taking the user with a blank black/grey/white screen. I hope your issue is unrelated to this one -- you might have some chance that a repair by AppleCare will actually work. As for us 2011 users, it seems our best hope lies with Whitfield Bryson & Mason, who filed a class action lawsuit regarding this issue two days ago.

By the way, my MacBook Pro is still hanging on somehow, even though I experienced the initial screen scrambling/freezing. Not sure how long it will last, but hopefully it will last until a court decision has been reached.

Note to moderator: My previous post did not contain a poll or petition. The link I provided gives a very good technical explanation of the problem facing the 2011 MacBook Pro users in this forum.

<Edited By Host>

Hey Everyone

This happened to me last night.. was able to get my computer working right after.. then this morning had the grey lines, apple.. grey screen. Fans would go on full blast then turn off.

Tried a bunch of the key combo ram fixes.. only to get in for like 10 sec then the fans would go nuts and turn the computer off.

So... I opened the back up.. took out one of the ram chips.. then boom! it turned on. I have two 8 GB Crucial Ram chips in, took the first one out. I may have done the Spacebar combo, i forgot, was just excited that it has stayed on for the time being. Going to back up and then see what happens.

So it may be a bad ram chip issue.. at least for me.

Same problem here. Mine shows lines and freezes once in a while, but I can always restart it. Sometime I did PRAM thing, but most of the times is not necessary, and works perfectly. Maybe its just the RAM. Anyways, I can't believe that Apple won't recognize this problem as a factory issue. Can We do something together? May someone suggest me the best way to talk with apple now?

Regards and good luck!

Dj,

What's your experience been the past couple of days since you did this? It's been almost a week right? My computer was doing the same thing as all of you guys (late 2011, MBP) with pink squiggly lines and then it would go to a gray screen. I opened up the back to just clean out the fans and I also unplugged the battery as well. Seemed to pop my computer back up. After restarting multiple times it's starting up okay. However, I'm sure in the next day or so the problem will return.

DJ, waiting anxiously for your response : )

Well... i don't know how they clean or they are expert of cleaning... I have my MBP 15" left at Apple service center for a few days... they said my logic board has a problem.... they gave me 2 suggestion: 1, change new logical board; 2, they will try to clean it...

and then i let them clean it... now i got it works properly... but i don't know how long it works fine