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

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.

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totally agree with Mandolin Guy 

Looks like this forum's monitors are also trying to cover the defect itself.

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.

Spoke too soon.

Got about an hour on my laptop.. then heard the fans start to faster then.. black screen. Back to square one.

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!

Yeah i got the same problem on my MacBook Pro 15" it's horizontal red line... And can not maverick os. It just startup with apple logo then restart or shut it down... I checked with apple service, they told me to change logic board it costs $780 and 3 months warranty only... What if after three months I got this problem again?

Hey All!

figured out what the issue was. The thermal paste that connects the AMD graphic chip to the logic board heats up and dries out over time. I found someone where I lived who cleaned it up and replaced the thermal paste and now my comp is running great. Also, make sure you clean out your fans every 6 months.. He found huge dust bunnies that were clogging 40% of them.. Which made my comp run a lot hotter than normal. i don't think apple does this fix, randomly found someone where I live who knew the issue and had fixed the problem numerous times. Paid him $115. Anyways, hope this helps people out.

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

My MacBook Pro's graphics card just failed for the third time... it held on a lot longer than I thought it would. I was starting to get worried it would last until after the repair warranty period ran out, but I've still got until December 22.

Interestingly, this time the GPU failure happened in a different way than the previous two times. This time, instead of the screen going bonkers and freezing up, the system acted just fine during the final shutdown. And when I started the laptop back up, it wasn't the grey screen of death I'd gotten the past two times, but a black screen. The monitor didn't even turn on. Nor did the Apple logo on the lid. But I know there's nothing wrong with the display itself, because it flickered for a fraction of a second when it booted into OS X. Maybe I could run an external monitor through to do stuff until the logic board is replaced again.

The problem with the Macbook is described below.

After following the recommendations to reset the PRAM I now have a blue screen instead of the gray screen on start-up. Its become worse not better.

I have a early Macbook Pro 2011 which has stopped functioning 3years 8 months years after it was bought. It had full 3 years apple care. In those three years I had to get my screen changed once because the apple logo had 'burned through' the screen and was visible all the time.

Now the Macbook starts-up with gray lines. The startup logo screen appears and in a short while it is replaced by a grey/white screen. The fans kick in at full speed and after some time the machine shuts down. The laptop has not been used continuously as I use a MacPro normally. If I had used the Macbook as my main machine I probably would have suffered this problem a lot sooner and within my Applecare warranty period. Given the number of Apple users who have experienced this the company should acknowledge the problem and find a solution for it. I have been a Mac User since 1988 and have been through a fair number of Macs. It is disappointing that Apple has chosen to ignore its customers who have, given the number of complaints, a very genuine manufactuing fault.

Hi everyone! Just wanted to add my story to the masses. I bought my macbook pro in 2011 and haven't had a problem until about 5 months ago. 5 months ago, my computer started to randomly produce a few loud beeps, horizontal lines would appear and the computer would turn off completely. Fast forward a few months. My computer started to start up with horizontal lines. I was able restart a few times and still use my computer at this point. Eventually, my computer could not get past the apple loading screen. It would sound as though my fan was trying to blow through the laptop. I tried numerous remedies including resetting the PRAM/SMC, attempting to call it up in all of its modes and completely wiping my drive. Once I completely wiped the hard drive, the lines ARE STILL THERE. Now I am unable to reinstall the OS and it has turned into a giant paperweight. Hope Apple takes responsibility soon! I'm a broke college student who can't afford to pay the repair cost and now I don't have a laptop. I thought Apple could be trusted but I know better now.

-Christy

The problem with the heatsink thermal paste is NOT new. Dell have had similar problems and i've been merrily replacing that on all the machines we have and it does cure the problem. Same thing with their Alienware range. Sometimes, the thermal paste is so dried out that it is impossible to seperate the GPU from the heatsink without the GPU detaching itself from the board it is soldered to. Ultimately the paste becomes so dried that it insulates more than it conducts and the GPU or in some cases the CPU cook themselves to death. On some of the Dells, the machine throttles the performance so much  to keep cool that the machine grinds to a standstill.

If you can get in and get it in bits - Arctic Silver thermal paste is the stuff you want to use.

However there is a but.

If you don't replace the thermal paste in time, eventually the overheating damages the board and the connection of the GPU to it permanently and at that point, it is beyond fixing. When you take a MacBook apart and look at the thermal design, the reason for the problems is immediately apparent - personally I won't have one and will dissuade any colleague from buying one unless they purchase the extended warranty and keep it up to date.

I have some good news. My graphics card failed for the fourth time (yeah, no surprises here).

But when I took my 2011 MacBook Pro up to the Genius Bar this time, they decided to just keep my laptop and give me a brand new 2014 MacBook Pro with top-of-the-line specs... for FREE. It turns out it was going to be more cost-effective for them to do this than to keep giving me new logic boards over and over again.

So since I bought the 2011 MacBook Pro for $1,000 and paid $310 for the repair, I actually ended up paying only $1,300 for a BRAND NEW MacBook Pro. VERY HAPPY!!!

I'd recommend anyone suffering this problem to do what I did -- bite the bullet and take the laptop to the Genius Bar for repair. Then when your new logic board fails (which it probably will, otherwise your problem's solved), take it back under the 90 day warranty (none of my logic boards lasted more than about 60 days) and get a new one. Just keep doing this until the Apple guys give in and give you a brand new laptop.

I'm glad I bought a defective laptop now! I'm an Apple boy for the rest of my life.

good news. Could you please tell us which city and country that you have the service?

also, i would glad to see if apple has a plan to replace these surely faulty products or it's just yours store tired of replacing logic board. lol