2011 Macbook Pro Logic Board Failure

Grant, the "series" you are referring to is the 15 inch and 17 inch MacBook Pro models for the years 2011-2013... ALL of them. This is a defect. Because a defect does not cause failure until the device is actually being used does not mean it is not a defect. In SillyCon Valley, where I had my 2011's initially repaired, a senior Apple tech explained that these models had two things defective: the non-lead solder was not designed to handle the heat produced by the GPU...and the GPU did not cool adequately.. these two defects combined to cause failure after some (short) period of time. The qualifiers for the Extended Service Program simple required a GSX failure code indicating a video subsystem failure.

Grant,

I think I just answered my own question:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/force-2011-macbook-pro-8-2-with-failed-amd- gpu-to-always-use-intel-integrated-gpu-efi-variable-fix.2037591/

I'll give this a try over the next week and see if it works.

Csound1: I have four friends with 2011 15 inch MBP's. All with the frosted high res screen. I have one as well. All have failed or are in the process of failing (glitches on screen, intermittent power downs, won't boot, etc.) It's a small sample (5 total) but all are going. It seems worse for those of us who used external monitors most of the time. (The discrete GPU is always on with an external monitor connected.)

I just went thru Amazon to a company called TekDepo. Send them your old board (or whole laptop) and they will replace the board with another one that has a 2016 GPU. It won’t be back for a few days yet so that’s all I can tell you now but a Amazon search will show you what they offer.

Check out TekDepo on Amazon as they offer a replacement board with a 2016 GPU upgrade to it.

I am now waiting for my 2011 17” MBP to complete this process, but I just sent it so it’ll be a few days before it gets back yet. They explain it themselves, you can communicate by email link thru Amazon for further questions you may have.

This is my chosen remedy as I’m in the same boat as the others here and wish to keep my MBP going much longer.

Mine didn’t develop this problem until approximately 4 months ago. Apples ‘fix’ and this whole issue was something that I had no knowledge of until then as...I don’t make a habit of checking Apples website...! Why would I? Guess I should be just glad to have missed that whole ‘fixit’ con game. So much for “They just work” as obviously that mindset is extinct which I will remember in the future.

My MBP 2011 17” was delivered back to me this morning with a new Samsung 860 EVO 1TB SSD w/OS Sierra installed and... a 2016 GPU on a new logic board.

I promised to report “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” once I had it back and this is my initial smoke test report pinlight.

Graphics/Displays:

AMD Radeon HD 6770M GPU (ATI) (PCIe Bus)

Intel HD Graphics 3000 (Built-In)

Automatic Graphics Switching: Supported

2ea. 4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz upgradable Ram

* I have not installed or changed anything as yet.

* No security/external firewall/anti-virus code so no outside connections as yet.

* Just threw in a dvd movie to check the drive, works as new. Beautiful native rendering, colors are fantastic. I’m not into games so no stress to GPU to that extent.

* Glitches of any sort noticed as yet: none.

* Has not been connected to any external display.

* Button push to login screen: maybe 5 seconds but with nothing but OS and what SW came installed (like MS Office 2011, Final Cut Pro, lots of Adobe SW & related utilities (which will all have a weed eater security edit)) a lightspeed startup is expected, but still even given that the load speed is more than acceptable needless to say and I’ve had no issues with the GPU being outrun by the SSD. (SATA 6GB/s) “Shutdown” without logout and nothing open takes about 3 seconds I’d say.

TekDepo it appears has earned the 5 stars I will be giving them.

Also, I’ve started using a 3 fan cooling pad and have noticed no heat except ‘very very slight’ warmth on the exterior case by touch.

What the long term results will be I obviously have no clue, I can only hope keeping it clean and bug free will give me years of use... after all, “They Just Work,” right? 😖💩

I have just had exactly the same issue that you described, first time around Apple replaced the logic board for free (under their repair programme) and then when it failed again a few months ago I took it to Apple who said that they couldn't touch it as it was vintage. I had upgraded the memory to 16GB and installed a 1TB SSD hard drive a year ago and it was working perfectly up until the grey screen appearing during an update. Sure enough it was the logic board again (I've since learned that the replacement was the same as the original, with the same weakness). I appreciate that computers don't last forever but it was a little frustrating that an otherwise excellent computer has been let down by one faulty part, apparently partly due to the use of a lead free solder. I've heard that there are specialists out there who can reball the GPU on these, so perhaps this mac will live on..

The problem itself is not really that these boards had a flaw. Yes, the 2011 series is flawed.

One time I explained the flaw in detail even even though I have been involved with electronics manufacturing and I have put some of these 2011 boards under a microscope, the post got censored as 'speculative', presumably (and that *is* speculative) by people that don't have a clue about manufacturing.

Anyhow, the 2011 has a flaw in the manufacturing process and it has happened to other companies at the same time.

The real problem is that Apple denied there was anything wrong until there were several lawsuits.

And that's a really crappy things to do to your customers.

Then they made a 'quality program' to 'repair' the 2011 series for free and it got extended until the end of 2016.

I can't generalize, but all the 'repaired' boards I have examined were standard 2011 boards with a poorly re-flowed GPU; they could have fixed the problem by doing a full re-ball (which is more expensive), but the ones I had were re-flowed and the color discoloration could show it was done very unevenly.

I won't speculate they did that on all the boards, but certainly on every board I inspected.

This is an insult to the customer since a re-flow will only grant a second life to the board and not repair the problem.

I've spoken to Apple on the phone several times about a specific computer regarding this problem, I wrote T.Cook's office as well and essentially the recommendation was to get the 2011 fixed, sell it to some unsuspecting soul and move on.

And this is even more infuriating.

So, when people complain about the 2011 series, it's not so much about the fault itself; every company had bad batches, etc; the problem is about Apple's horrible behavior toward their customers since they've become a phone company. That's really the heart of the problem.

To Arepoli, Camila and the many others.

I want to applaud you, especially Arepoli, for keeping at it and not giving up in the initial pages of this thread when those 2 Bob and Grant where trying so hard to discourage you from posting the negative, be it factual, problem about your Apple computer. I want to thank you for keeping at it to the point that this was the first page on google when I searched this issue and your resistance to their tactics allows what looks like 180 of us at this point to have a voice and platform to be heard louder together. To the notion that Apple does not monitor this board, is insane. I would by happy to place a wager with whichever genius (no pun intended) had posted this, I think it was Bob. Then tried to redirect the issue to some private feedback page, where your complaint gets a canned response and is then completely ignored but the main objective is keeping it from the public eye and allowing those with similar issue to think they are alone. Am I the only one to address the elephant in the room (thread) that I have the distinct curiosity of whether those two, Grant and Bob, while perhaps not actual employees, are in some way shape or form compensated by Apple to do what they can to maintain a positive image for the brand and kill any thread in utero that might in any way cast a negative light on a fault of the company on these boards. Without revealing this, they can obviously appear unbiased and casting what can only be viewed by them as the logical recourse to "get over it and move on" or push you to feel that you got your moneys worth out of the computer. Unless they are so brainwashed to the point that no matter what apple does they will face the firing squad to sacrifice themselves for their Apple brand that can do no wrong in their eyes. In any case, they obviously dont read the entire posts before replying because they must have a lot of issues to attend to on these boards. I will simply ignore any of their asinine responses.

I have the same issue with this problem. My beef is also that I brought in the MBP early 2011, 3 times. Once under the original program, then under the extension, then again a month before the extension expired and informed the genius bar techs that there is an issue. During initial diagnostic tests each time it would come back with a yellow triangle, not green like all the other stuff and they told me my computer is fine, its not affected by (not included in, not qualified for) the quality program. In the last visit, I told them look at the issues on the screen, how can you tell me its not affected or not qualified and demanded they explore further. At some point raising my voice which got the attention of some other people at the genius bar with their own apple problems to look in my direction, the tech after being whispered something reluctantly agreed to run the extended "VST" test. After some time with weird looking graphics, a green passed bar appeared on the screen. I was then flat out told in a low voice by a person working for Apple who heard my loud banter that it frustrates them to see customers like me who obviously have issues by simply verifying the symptoms of the GPU failure that the repair needs to be done but the guidelines and their rules are conduct tiered tests and if it fails them only then are they allowed to fix the issue under the program. So at the present time their canned response is that my computer is not included, part of or qualified for the program as it is not effected by the issue. Fast forward some months, the computer is now completely unbootable, stops in the middle of the progress bar after the little flash. Took it to the genius bar, LOW AND BEHOLD, GPU/Logic Board failure. Now im being told the computer is/was of the affected series of computers that qualified for the program (Something ive been telling them the last 3 visits) however since its expired they can no longer apply the program and since the computer is vintage they cant even take it in the back for ANY repair. Advised me to visit 3rd party apple repair center. I called Apple care, after expressing my frustration with their misleading practices, I was connected to a senior level rep who offered to pay for the board but not the labor. I expressed that this is not acceptable since the issue was brought to their attention on multiple occasions during the acceptable time frame and each time they denied it until it was too late. I was told nothing further they can offer than the part cost, which initially I was told is just the cost of the GPU but when I mentioned it on the mother board, then they said if they part is the entire motherboard, logic board then thats what they will cover. Labor on me, ehhh. I called a few authorized repair places, ALL OF WHICH, told me not only do they not have the part, the reason they dont carry it is the problem will reoccur again in a matter of time. One such place, informed me they repair the board but again with the understanding that the customer has no ill will when issue reoccurs. However they dont have the part, just a machine that reapplies the GPU back to the logic board thereby rendering Apple's offer to pay for the part useless (something I imagine Apple already knows since as we can tell im not the first person complaining).

In my view, Apple needs to address this issue one of two ways to redeem their fault which would of course require them to admit fault and thats something they refuse to do.

1. Replace the boards with completely new, reengineered boards, perhaps thats are built differently to avoid this issue of happening again and offer a lifetime warranty on the logic board (which should cost them nothing if the issue is actually resolved since no one will have to repair it)
2. Replace the computers with a different comparable version that is currently available. Lets face it, the computer we pay $2500+ for costs them 1/3-1/4 to manufacture and if they really care about the customers they wouldnt hesitate. I can even care less to give them back the faulty one for them to salvage useable parts to recoup their costs on the new replacements.

As a person that currently has (and im not talking about purchased over lifetime, im talking about currently using) 7Mac Pros, 5 Macbook Pros, Macbook Air and countless portables iPod touch, iPhone, iPads. I have just about as many Lenovo machines both portable and desktop and none of them give me issues. In fact, when Lenovo has some kind of major problem with one of the series, I contacted them to see if im affected and they said whether or not im affected they will replace the faulty part at no charge so that I dont have down time should it occur. I dont need to remind anyone that Lenovo is cheaper than their comparable Apple counterparts.

Lastly, I want to mention to anyone who needs to back up or salvage their data. I read about one guy who wanted to buy a used logic board for $200 knowing it will die eventually just to backup their hard drive. With a few screws, you can simply remove the hard drive/SSD and pop it into most other apple computers that use an HDD/SSD not soldered to the board and it will start up like your old computer. I have no experience sticking it into a PC, but I imagine it could work as an additional slave drive. More likely to work if you have a linux OS. II have done that with my MAC Pro since it has 4 HDD bays and I was able to retain my hard drive.

"There is no requirement that you be notified"

This is exactly what is infuriating people in this thread: it's not about what the legal requirements were, it's about responsibility toward customers.

If am I selling burgers and I know that I had a batch of bad meat which was still legal to sell, but is bad quality, I am facing two options:

- I don't say anything, blame the customer's oral hygiene for experiencing a bad taste and only issue refunds when they get together and sue me; or,

- I tell everyone I'm sorry I had a bad batch, I'll provide new burgers to people affected and will not sell the bad ones anymore.

In either case, I don't have a requirement to notify anyone and I didn't break the law; one makes me a good business and the other one a horrible place no one should buy from again.

Now, as a practical advice since I had 3 MBP dying of video chip problems and a total of 6-7 motherboards changed (lost track), I found that you can get a reasonable low performance lifespan out of a MBP 2011 if you disable the discrete GPU at boot time and only use the integrated one.

I was talking to customer relations at Apple and thats what I shared her - 'Apple just works' simply does not fly especially after the way this was managed. Very polite woman actually.

On the other hand, kudos Randy for nudging us in this direction. I actually have been checking out some online website along with Amazon to find a good fix. Look up Rossmann Group , they're based in NY. I'm just encouraged by Randy's search for a viable solution and am looking forward to hearing more when he gets his MBP back.

Lastly, I actually got a 17inch HP 24GB + 1TB for $600. Surprisingly, I havent noticed a lot of difference and my Photoshop and Premier and working just fine. Who knew eh

Just previous to your post I have replied to ‘pinlight’ as to my initial feel for the completed repair. Now that it’s been a few days longer and I’m much closer to having what apps / settings I wish to keep installed & set my appreciation for the repair, and the performance boost provided by the SSD, has only grown stronger. The graphics are beautiful, the responsiveness amazing.

With what stresses I have given it while using the 3 fan cooling pad, heat is not an issue so far. Don’t know why I never used a cooling pad before, so 2 more have been ordered for other laptops here.

As with most electronics the length of service one gets from them is an unknown. I never thought to inquire as to if TekDepo would service a MacBook sent from another country, saying, if postage / customs fees was handled on your end. I could call them directly to inquire for you if you wish, as just a thought, and post back on that.

Naturally if any questions come to mind feel free to ask. I’m just a message away lol

Complaining to Apple is not really useful; I lost 2 mbp 2011 (one had 2 motherboards, the other one 5-6 if I remember) and 1 mbp 2010 to gpu problems.

I've talked to them numerous times and people have really looked into solutions and tried to help; they explored a lot of solutions but ultimately their hands are tied because they all have very limited options at their hands.

I wrote the HQ about the problem and got contacted by someone that tried to convince me, against factual data, that this was an isolated problem and these computers were old anyways.

There have been several lawsuits which triggered the 'quality program', and they replaced motherboards (the ones I inspected were identical and re-flowed) but it ended in December 2016 if I remember correctly.

The advice I got several times from Apple's support is that if a machine boots and can perform light tasks, I should resell it to someone that has basic needs before it breaks down.

While I live in the EU now, since the computers were bought in the US some potential solutions did not apply. The EU protects consumers significantly more from this kind of situations, especially the UK. In the EU these products have a mandatory 2 years warranty, regardless of the manufacturer's policy; in some cases the UK extends to 6 years. So if I have to buy anything new, I'll make a purchase from the UK.

I have been responsible for the purchase of a rather large number of macs (roughly around 80 if I remember correctly) for work projects. Even though I still use apple computers due to the software we're using, any future large purchase won't be apple products.

Since they hide behind rules and policies to avoid doing the right thing, the only thing I can use against is whatever tool I have at my disposition, which is the ability to reach a large art & tech audience. Not fixing a $2k computer has certainly cost them a lot more so far and how insignificant it may be at their size, this is really my only recourse at this point.

Klokento wrote:

Good evening apple. <snip>

Apple is not here. This is a user-to-user community. As previously stated many times in this thread, if you want to contact Apple you can use either of these links:

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

Product Feedback - Apple

I have inspected "repaired" motherboards, all the ones I saw were the same model and poorly re-flowed, so it was obvious it would fail again.

I did contact the HQ about a year and a half ago and someone called me 1-2 days after to discuss. He tried to convince me that this wasn't a widespread problem and to get my computer fixed and re-sell it to an unsuspecting soul.

My assumption was that eventually the 2011 would just disappear as people upgrade, but it seems that is is not the case and since the 2011 are still good when it comes to performance, it looks like many are still using them.

So, I just wrote to the HQ again, 2 min ago, asking if they can look into this and mentioned this thread as well. They were very responsive before which was great, so let's hope they look into it.

Yep .... exactly the same for me. In fact, I think just happened again. Looked up my receipt from having the motherboard repaired before, January 7, 2017. What a coincidence ... ?

There are logic board repair services on eBay. Just have to search your model and year. Looks like I'll be sending mine away to be repaired again. :/