Early 2011 Macbook Pro logic board

Look's like a graphics issue.. which is the logic board failing.

I'd suggest the logic board need's replacing.

You have the problem discussed in a number of discussions on this forum, most notably here -> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?tstart=0.

Basically the GPU in the machine was poorly soldered onto the logic board. If you take the machine into an Apple Store, they will recommend a logic board replacement. This, however, will not permanently fix the problem. The only permanent fix is to have the GPU 'reballed' - this will cost about $160 and some services offer up to a year's warranty on their work.

I had the problem back in January and, as I was under AppleCare, had my logic board replaced gratis. Once I'm left with no warranty, I will have the GPU reballed.

Take a look at some of the discussion and see some of the photos which are just like yours. The only remedy is the reball.

Good luck,

Clinton

It sound's like a very decent machine so if I was you I'd defiantly give this companys service a go.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/APPLE-MACBOOK-PRO-15-A1286-Logic-board-2-2-GHz-Quad-Co re-i7-820-2915-/161209826683?pt=UK_Motherboards_CPUs&hash=item2588dabd7b

Send them your logic board and they will send you a fully working one for £295..

a logic board the same as your's would normally be about £600-£700

Can I ask why a logic board replacement would not permantly fix this problem?

danyog1,

Because Apple never 'fixed' the problem of the poorly soldered GPU - another board will just fail. I've known users who've had 'new' logic boards fail four times (after that, Apple will usually - but not always - issue a replacement machine).

Reballing is the only true fix. With it, you know your machine is going to last at least another year. Without it, you pay for a logic board that might not even last through Apple's 90-day warranty period.

Clinton

It's only common to the 2011 15" and 17" machines - the 2012 machines run like a champ (unfortunately, I couldn't wait the 3-4 months until the 2012's came out so I bought a Late 2011 in March of 2012).

The only thing that I don't like about the Retina display models is that there's no user upgrades available... so you have to buy what you want up-front rather than upgrading at a later date. If I were going to purchase a Retina model, I would get the full 16GB of RAM, the one terabyte PCIe solid state drive and make sure that I got the NVIDIA discrete GPU with 2GB of VRAM. That's quite an expensive configuration but it's what I have now in my Late 2011 and anything else would be 'downgrade'.

The 2011 that you have can be fixed by a reball. If you're ready to move on to a Retina model, I would go ahead and configure it to the hilt, though.

Good luck,

Clinton

That's almost exactly what I would buy - I would just upgrade the PCIe flash storage to the one terabyte flash storage.

I think that you can surely wait until Monday! 😉

Good luck,

Clinton

You can replace the GPU with a new chip of the same make and model but that's it.

Many reballing services will replace the chip for you if you'd like, but the GPU chip itself isn't the problem with these machines. It's the soldering that's defective.

Clinton

Therefore, soldering issue can't be solved by the Apple ?

Unfortunately, no.

Clinton