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

Thanks for this thread ..... I had the same issue ... My Macbook Pro was eligible for repair within the extended warranty program. The repair was done in one day ! Great support ! I live in Prague, Czech Republic .. repair was done by Apple Premium Reseller & Service ... as we do not have original Apple stores in CZ.

I just had mine replaced today thanks to the replacement program...typing from my MBP with the new board. 🙂 Does anyone have any update on how theirs that got replaced through this program are coming along? No new issues since?

Just had this happened to me. Guess mine was a long liver compared to most. Had it right from the beginning, served me well and was still a powerhouse.

WI'll try to go the official fought. See where it gets me. Wish me luck!

I just had this happen this week to me. Stripes down the screen and not booting up. I took it out to the Genius Bar at Apple and they told me that Apple was fixing units for free. They checked my serial number and they said it would fix it at no cost. E. I have a 17 inch MacBook Pro 2011. Way to go Apple! Thank you for being a stand up company.

I had the same problem just about a month ago. I looked it up and I found this and other boards talking about this problem, and that Apple was changing the mother board.

I took my computer (a Macbook Pro 17'' Late 2011) to apple, and I was very happy to see that they received it and changed the mother board at no cost for me. They said that Apple had resolved to changed at no cost for the user the mother boards of the computers that were defective for this reason. A problem in the video card, as I understood.

I was told to bring a pic of the screen frozen, which I had taken. They sent the picture and the test they run at the computer as a request to changed the board and it was changed.

So far, things have been running smoothly. I've had it for 2 weeks now. It has frozen, but due to programs running. So, so far, it's been good.

For everyone who comes looking for information on this issue, please note that Apple is ending their support program on this issue (mother board replacement) on 27th February 2016. Hope everyone gets their mac fixed in time.

This exact same thing has happened to me 2 days ago. I have a macbook pro late 2011 model.

I reset the NVM Ram and then the SMC and finally got an actual blue screen of death. I'm going to see if I can get an appointment at the genius bar.

Hey Guys,

So I ran into the same issue last night and after reading through this entire post decided to give Apple a shot. Went into Genius Bar today with my fingers crossed - there were TWO other people sitting at the Genius Bar with the SAME EXACT ISSUE! They filled out a form, double checked that my laptop is eligible, and shipped it overnight to Texas to get a brand new Logics Board installed. Apparently, when this issue first came about, they would just replace the logics board with a refurbished identical copy. Since people kept coming back with the recurring problem, they have redesigned the board altogether and the problem should not persist. This is of course, what they told me, and not what I know from experience.

Seal308 - the factory replacement thing is good until December 31st, 2016, not only till February.

Nevertheless, the total expenses for this were $0.00

I get my laptop back on Wednesday/Thursday and will report then and let you guys know whats up, but apparently this is a wide known issue, and they've bit the bullet on it and replace the part with a smile on their face at no charge.

Fingers crossed...

Oh, P.S. - he mentioned that they might need to replace the optical hard drive as well, since they can't tell off the bat if its bad as well. Luckily I have everything backed up and do all my music recording onto an external. For anyone else that doesn't - this essentially means that you are shafted... Sorry... 😟

Best.

Nick

This advice help me, since yesterday when I started the computer little verticals lines appears in the bottom lets say 1/3 of the screen, I follow the advice of holding left shift, control, option and on/off buttons together, turn my computer back on again, problem gone, I hope for ever

thanks

I have the same issue with my Macbook Pro 15-Inch Early 2011. My MBP boots with horizontal gray lines then freezes at a white or gray screen. Even had it hang with a solid blue screen several times. On my previous attempt to get the logic board replaced the Apple tech performed a magic trick and was able to get it to boot with no screen shenanigans. He then proceeded to tell me I was lucky because my machine was not included in the extended warranty program.

Unfortunately the magic Macintosh dust did not permanently resolve the issue and I am now back to a laptop that will not boot despite all the nifty Mac options. PRAM (with or w/out Space bar) .... SMC. The laptop has been down a few months because it will not get past post. I've resorted to my Windows machine .. hear that Apple? W I N D O W S! 😠

Any tips for getting it replaced despite the Genius' telling me its not covered? Pretty frustrating to have the exact symptom as the cool kids but being told I can't sit at the table!

I have the same problem with Macbook pro late 2011, 8 Gb 1600 RAM running Yosemite and had tried those ways, but cannot solve the problem..

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

After you follow the instructions above will it boot normally? If not will it boot in Recovery Mode? (Boot and hold down the Command and R keys.)

Do you have a backup?

I just experienced this last night. Pressing in the power button works! Thanks.

What does pressing the power button do? Does it reset everything to defaults?

indeed. The problem returned. Tried a fresh reinstall of osx. Same issue still. had to deliver it for service repairs. They are now replacing the motherboard :-(