2011 Macbook Pro Logic Board Failure

ThomasD3 wrote:

so, am I free to post an URL to another forum, or even a google doc, where members of this thread can regroup and discuss freely?

Have you read the TOU? You can ask for technical assistance. You can not: "Do not post polls or petitions or links to same.". Here is the link for the TOU: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5952

This link also appears at the bottom of each page in this community.

Post constructive comments and questions. Unless otherwise noted, your Submission should either be a technical support question or a technical support answer. Constructive feedback about product features is welcome as well. If your Submission contains the phrase "I'm sorry for the rant, but…" you are likely in violation of this policy.

Apple Support Communities Use Agreement

Mike15macbook wrote:

Same thing happened to me yesterday. MacMedia guys says motherboard is gone and Apple (no longer) supports the motherboard. I have to buy a new MacBook. Really? Didn’t know Apple dropped support for their products. KWill have to consider dumping Apple. NOTE: MacBook 15 started having problems when updated to Sierra.

Apple supports their products until they become obsolete or vintage: Vintage and obsolete products - Apple Support.

Good luck with your new Windows PC. Let us know what product you get that is supported any longer.

Mike15macbook wrote:

I don’t mean to be smug BUT! Why the can’t Apple just (continue) to support their hardware products? And why 50k ideas but no real fix?

You'll have to ask Apple that question (Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple). Probably a decision influenced by economics, changing technology, and business.

I have no idea what "...why 50k ideas but no real fix?" means.

There are several work-arounds that may be able to revive those computers without soldering. I have posted some on this thread already. If you cannot find some, look here, or I can post the information again:

Re: Re: white screen problem

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I suggest to follow the moderators' advice

I am not a moderator. I have no special abilities to enforce anything. These community forums do not have a moderator in the usual sense.

They have "Hosts" who are empowered to enforce the Terms of Use, but in general, do not contribute to the actual technical discussions.

I am someone who has has a broad technical background and has worked in the computer industry for a long time. I have an enduring interest in Computer Architecture and Diagnostic Software. Some of the readily-accessible items I have contributed here are embodied in some of the user Tips I have created:

User Tip: Creating a lean, fast Boot Drive

User Tip: Mac Pro silver tower (2006-2012) Replacement Graphics cards

User Tip: Mac Pro and Error Correcting Code RAM Memory

I am Mac User like everyone who posts here. I have never been an Apple Employee.

matthewhobley wrote:

I’m guessing you pick and choose the parts of the thread you can use to insult the person that wrote it? What ever makes you happy I guess.

My issue with Apple has to do with knowing they had a defective logic board with video chips that were ticking time bombs on them and continued to reinstall the same faulty parts. Even the authorized repair centers will no longer touch these 2011 MacBook Pro machines. Many have stated they are not in the business to reinstall faulty parts.

Mine was working great with the exception of this issue. With out this problem my Mac would have kept running for years.

I just wanted it fixed the right way, with working parts. Apparently it’s too much to ask.

That and a working solution is what I’m after. If you don’t have one, then no one needs your input.

Thanks.

Have fun with your trolling fisher man

😕 I was responding to a specific post and addressed the issues raised in that post. I responded to the logic board issue on the first page of this 23 page thread. The tread has outlived its usefulness. This is not a complaint community it is a user to use technical help community. If as I stated if people would like specific technical help it would be best to get focused help on an issue by starting a new thread detailing the issue. If you want to provide feedback to Apple about the logic board you can do so here: Product Feedback - Apple. It does no one any good to drag on about the logic board issue in a user-to-user help community where none of us can help with your logic board problem.

ThomasD3 wrote:

For the features I care about, my 2017 doesn't do much more than my 2011 (I have a 2011 with a high res screen, a SSD + a hybrid (instead of the CD) and 16gb in it.)

Nothing is obsolete in the 2011, it's still an i7 CPU with 16gb of ram and still better than many cheap modern laptops.

No problem, spend all the money you want to on your obsolete/vintage computer Vintage and obsolete products - Apple Support. I prefer not to. The choice is yours.

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.

all logic boards for that model were known to be faulty (hence the repair programme)

When you are talking about the 2011 Macs, that is NOT correct. These boards were not manufactured with a defect. A small portion of them DEVELOPED a defect with time and use, made worse by the increased stress put on them by later version of MacOS.

To qualify for that program, your Mac had to be of a certain series, had to be able to run and FAIL the Video Switching Test. Not all Macs qualified.

My family owns one of those Macs. When it had a somewhat different problem, I submitted it for testing. It passed.

Your argument was that these Macs were manufactured with a defect. That is not correct.

My Mac was the right series. It was misbehaving. But since it did not fail the VST test, it did not qualify for the logic board replacement program. It was tested before the program ended.

Like many similar Macs that COULD have qualified for the replacement program, its issues did not rise to the level where logic board replacement was warranted in any case, because it was not manufactured with a defect.

Apple makes it decisions on "fixes" for products when the pile of a specific returned product and bug reports gets statistically significant. Reports in the press or anywhere else have little to do with it.

Then they send engineers to do a deep analysis of the underlying problems, and determine whether there is something that should be done to fix the problem. Sometimes software is adjusted. Sometimes service bulletins are issued and parts may be replaced. Sometimes changes will be incorporated into replacement parts or possibly only into later products.

The best thing you can do to get problems fixed is to present your product when it first has a problem for a free evaluation at the Genius Bar at an Apple-owned store. Even if they cannot immediately supply a fix, there is a record that you complained of a problem.

It appears that your main goal here is to vent. Fortunately this is not a venting community and doing so will accomplish nothing but waste your and our time. If you have a complaint about Apple's products you must address that complaint with Apple. If you want to sue Apple you must address the lawsuit with Apple.

What do you want from us users? We have told you to contact Apple. I can only offer one more bit of advice, You can search these communities to find other posts about the same problem and whether a solution was found.