2011 Macbook Pro Logic Board Failure

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 have the same issue with my MBP 2011. It started last year, but because I wasn't using my Mac that much I didn't give it much attention at the time. Last week I wasn't able to boot my Mac so I called the Customer Service. I gave them the serial no of the laptop, but instead of telling me about the potential issue this model is facing they sent me to an Apple Store. At the Genius Bar by running the VST test, which failed, they were able to determine that the cause of the problem is the faulty design. Even on the MacBook Pro extension program for Video issues Apple recognized :

"Apple has determined that a small percentage of MacBook Pro systems may exhibit distorted video, no video, or unexpected system restarts. These MacBook Pro systems were sold between February 2011 and December 2013.

Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will repair affected MacBook Pro systems, free of charge. See below for details on affected models and service options."

The guy from the Apple Store sent me to an Apple Authorized Service Provider, because he said that Apple does not carry parts for this model. By going to the Apple Authorized Service Provider, I was surprised to find out that they don't have that part either, because they have the same source for Apple parts (which is the Apple warehouse). Why did Apple send me to an Apple Authorized Service Provider if they new that they don't have that part ?

After doing more research on this issue, in my opinion Apple tried to close this case as soon as possible. They didn't have a solution to fix the original problem (which was one of design). By just replacing the motherboard, the problem doesn't go away; you just delay the issue that is likely to return again in the near future. How often, that depends on how you use the laptop. This is a "high end" model, very popular among the web designers / developers. A bad reputation in these communities would have a significant impact for the future sales of this model and Apple's reputation/reliability.

From the beginning of this issue they tried to minimize the number of customers affected by refusing to stay behind their products. They didn't notify clients about the Video card known issue or the MacBook Pro Repair program. You get notification every time when you buy a $2 app or subscription, but they don't notify you when there is a major problem with your $2000+ laptop. You can just assume that this was a bigger problem for Apple than the great PR statements want us to believe.

It would be nice if more and more users would come forward and share their experience with this issue. And yes, I believe this is the right place (despite the opinion of a few users of this forum) to express your view regarding a huge company like Apple that is not taking care of their customers (which are the ones contributing to your business success) and not backing up their products (by classifying your product as vintage, but that doesn't mean is not still an Apple product). By the way, if MBP 2011 is classified as a vintage product, how come the last version of OS (High Sierra) is still compatible with this model?

I believe that we, the consumers can make a difference and can force change inside this huge organization.

Very disappointing experience !

MBP2011ByAppleStayAway wrote:

It would be helpful if we can find out what was presented in the class lawsuit. Did the experts have the chance to present their findings and what was determined ? I guess Apple admitted that it was their fault since they started the repair program. Can we access the file for that lawsuit and see what was determined for us the consumers ?

I've noticed that you are trying to stop the debate about this issue and try to protect Apple in this messy situation.

Would you be able to clarity for the rest of us in this forum : Are you paid by Apple or any of its affiliates or do you have any other benefits from writing your posts in this forum ?

I see that you are trying to protect the Apple reputation, but I think in this case we, the consumers need protection, we are the victims, not the greedy corporation that Apple became.

Posters here are not employed by Apple. We are volunteer users here trying to help other users. Contact your lawyer if you have a legal beef with Apple or want more legal information. We have no access to Apple policies or procedures beyond what you have. We have no interest in protecting Apple other than we are Apple product users. No one is trying to stop debate you are just being advised that debating in this forum is getting you nowhere since this is a user-to-user technical help community not an Apple policy debating venue. You need to take your debate to somewhere where it will be meaningful.

I had the same problem last week. When through the phone calls, being told it was vintage and then to an authorized repair service, (they were great by the way). They told me about the known problem but that Apple stoped taking care of the problem that they knew about back in 2016. So shame on me for having a machine that lasted. Regardless, they knew about the problem and should have stepped up, they didn’t and it cost me almost $600 bucks.

Yes, welcome to the club. I say if you’re a fairly heavy user you’ve got two to five years tops before it happens again. I’m on logic board #3. However on the plus side 600 bucks isn’t that bad. I took a hit around a grand, but still it’s worth it until they make a new seventeen. Plus all the softwares i need to upgrade to high sierra, music, video, graphics - pro apps - is around another 20 grand. Still, i believe Apple let us down - some of their best all time customers. My SE-30 still runs more solidly than my MBP.

Same problem - a bad logic board that decided to quit after the extended warranty period (though another faulty logic board wouldn't be much help either). I read articles about "baking the board"- what did I have to lose? Tried it. Works for 15 min or so...found another article that was way over my head stating it was some specific type of a capacitator used on the board. Gave the number, type, Ohms and voltage of the unit and I think even where it is located on the board, but like I said, that goes beyond my training so I guess I have to remove the logic board again and then locate the faulty capacitator and get someone to remove it and solder a new (correct) one in its place? Last time I did that was shop electronics class in HS ....1980 I think... Any recommendations for someone with those skills near Charlotte, NC?

I understand this issue fully and it's not simple. First of all Apple no longer makes as capable of a laptop as my old 17" MacBook Pro. I've upgraded one of them with a 1TB SSD, and so it's super fast -- nearly as quick as a new machine. I have friends that run their companies still using this same computer for a number of reasons. First, it has more ports than any other current laptop. Second, the screen is larger and great when I take it for presentations. Third, it has a DVD drive. While many people feel the DVD drive is an obsolete device, and it is, we make TV shows. I output these programs to BluRay, DVD and streaming media depending who's buying it. We've sold over 125,000 DVDs in the years we've been doing this series. I have need to be able to easily pop a disk in and view it. Apple has also discontinued DVD Studio Pro, which hurts. Apple sometimes feels that it will force us to use their methods even though our customers may not want to.

I have two 17's, both now with failed motherboards. One of them was fixed a few months ago by Apple, and it has again failed. So I have both these Macs now that are unusable, and like you I've taken extremely good care of them because they are the last of their kind and valuable to my business. I'm not interested in carrying a super thin computer if it can't do what I need it to do, or if I have to carry around extra junk with me to make it work. I'd rather just get these Macs repaired. It's Apple's awareness of the problem and their inability to provide us with the kind of machines we still need that is the problem.

Pinlight, my situation is so similar to yours and my thoughts are so close tou yours it’s as if you wrote my discussion post for me. On top of everything you say perfectly, I would also add that in the days since Steve, Apple has abandoned the professional users like us and become a sort of Hewlett Packard. I have owned many macs including my first SE20, (still running) my 840AV (still running) my g4 cube (still running) my g5 tower (still running) and sevearal of the macbook pros up to this 17” which, between guaranteed motherboard failures and replacements, when it is running, i still believe is the best laptop they ever made. That said, I would buy a new 17 from them whatever the cost, but what’s gonna kill me is the periferal upgrades for example for protools thats 2500 bucks to start plus a new bunch of hardware and other software upgrades. No need for me to go on about that, we all know that story. I’ve estimated a move to a new MacBook will probably run me 25,000 dollars, all to do what i’m already doing on my 2011 when it’s working, and i would end up with a smaller 15” screen. Some great new emojis i’ve heard, :( Sorry, no deal.

I don't agree with this assessment. This is not a rant.

I have two broken MacBook Pro 17" with failed motherboards. I'm also an owner of a Pro Mac, (late 2013 model even though I bought it last year) not the Pro iMac. It was touted as the best computer Apple ever made. It's beautifully built. I'm using it now to create this post. I also am old enough to appreciate being able to service clients that have individual needs. To do that requires some flexibility, not a computer that has to have a million adapters hanging off of it to use it, like Apple's current laptops. I love Apple equipment. I've seen it go through all sorts of changes, yet what is happening now with the laptops is highly disturbing, as is the glued-together new iMacPro. The studios in Hollywood that produce movies, I guess you think they don't know what they're doing either. They are getting by, and actually apologized to me that they didn't yet have a "trash can Mac" for their Avids. The problem is limited expansion and an internal drive that's only 256GB from the factory. When I bought mine, I immediately spent almost $800 to upgrade the hard drive to 1TB. These things are normal, professional needs. The Mac Pro is a great machine, but I wonder what Apple will do with it in the next couple years since only recently have they done anything to update it, and have concentrated on the new iMacPro which is a sealed system. The Pro Mac that I have has six Thunderbolt ports, four USB, and an HDMI port. I'm running 26TB of hard drives with no problem. So far so good.

I would tend to agree with Grant on this. My only suggestion might be that Apple do a better job at supplying viable and updated parts to repair shops so that most any machine can be fixed. Perhaps a reasonable cut-off period of ten years. That might mean update kits for older machines that people need because of their special needs. People want and need various ports on their MacBook Pros, and Apple has taken them all away. Third party manufacturers are having a field day making adapters, some that won't work with the new machines. Had Apple not made that decision, we wouldn't be concerned with the repair of these older systems. In general, Apple makes the best computers in the industry, but they also need to listen to their customers.

Replied to Pinlight with all the info I have so far...not yet having my MBP back yet anyway. I completely understand your / all of those commenting here, Were this concerning just a PC I imagine most would have just trashed their boxes, spent some money to replace them and moved on. This might not have developed past page 1. (LOL)

The purpose of this conversation from start to finish is in the quest for an answer and it seemed as though an acceptable answer wasn't to be found for me also as I spent my time scouring what I thought was every dark corner of the web, reading posts everywhere etc. Sure hope the board from TecDepo works. Imagine it will be a week approx before mine returns, I should have an initial feel for the results 'soon' after and intend to post "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" asap, but how long it lasts naturally won't be known for...well years, hopefully. As yet none of the newer laptops light my fire having no ports as they are now.

As I was saying...

One problem when big companies like Apple start acting like "big companies" instead of innovators, then there is a decline in productivity and creative innovation. For all of us old enough to have watched this process before in the mid 90's, when Gill Amelio, the former CEO of National Semiconductor took over running Apple. While he was an accomplished business man, he was totally ill-equipped to understand the kind of innovation that Steve Jobs created at Apple. Apple was being bled dry by numerous companies building Mac Clones. in 1997 Apple built beige computers with less than remarkable specs. Radius was building a better Mac at the time. Apple's were, however, repairable and reliable for the most part. You know what happened. Steve came back in, revoked all the deals with other companies, and started building stunningly beautiful and feature-packed machines again. These machines set trends, were nicely built inside and out, and could be expanded or repaired without having to force open the glue holding them together. Then Jobs invented the iPod and the iPhone. It's been ten years since Apple has come up with something truly new. Meanwhile, the new MacBook Pros are not what most of us wanted. Shiny and new, thin and beautiful, yet void of most of the features we want and need. Apple referred to our need of "legacy" ports, which I found incredibly insulting. How is HDMI, a "legacy" connector when it's used on nearly 100% of TVs and all of the interconnectivity of HD products WORLDWIDE?? Why does Apple want to drag us around by the nose so they can introduce a non-standard connector and remove everything else? While it might be cool and take up less space, "standards" are important. Without them, there is chaos. In the 2011 MacBookPros, Apple gave us Thunderbolt for the first time, but they also gave us a raft of other connectors we needed at the time. We got used to Thunderbolt, while also being able to plug in our other devices without issue. We didn't need a bag of adapters to bring. There is also something Apple completely fails to consider, the financial investment we've made to be compatible with Apple's stuff while at the same time interfacing with the rest of the world. Like Thunderbolt 2, in which I've invested in 22 Terabytes of external G-Tech drives at premium prices. The new machines render them as "legacy" drives, even though some are less than a year old. Ha ha, you already need to upgrade again! It's just not that simple.

My solution, since I will not buy a Windows machine and suffer with its OS, jittery interface, not having Final Cut Pro, annoying Service Pack upgrades and compatibility issues, we found that at the bottom of Apple's ordering page was the mid 2015 MacBook Pro still selling. While it was almost as expensive as the recent shiny and new but completely goofy model, this former machine had everything I needed. Two Thunderbolt2 ports, two USB, the practical and lovely MagSafe port, HDMI port, an SD card slot, and a headphone jack. No adapters needed. AppleCare was a must. It's now a test to see how well this machine lasts, but with a 1TB SSD and 2.5gHz proc., I'm thrilled so far with this machine. I had to buy a three year old model, but it was the only solution. Let's hope it continues to work. My wife's MacBook Air has developed a screen flicker issue, and it's only about a year old. Has all the symptoms of a graphics card failure. Fortunately it's covered under warranty, but it doesn't seem to instill confidence in how long these new machines will last. And, we don't have Steve Jobs to bail us out this time. We'll be watching Apple closely.

Assuming I’m looking at the correct TekDepo listing on Amazon, I was a little concerned that their refurbished logic board is advertised with the same AMD Radeon 6750M graphics/video chip which was the source of the original problem. I was relieved to see that the refurbished board actually utilizes a Radeon 6770M chip, apparently manufactured in 2016 and presumably defect-free. I hope and trust it will run for years with no problem.

It would appear that you’ve updated your hard drive to an SSD and perhaps your RAM as well? Can I assume you determined the price (plus install labor) for these additional items once you established contact with TekDepo via their Amazon page? Did the $849 pricetag for the logic board include the installation by TekDepo?

I’m curious as to whether I can just order the refurbished logic board from TekDepo and have it shipped so I can install it myself. I’ve already got a new internal SSD in this MBPro17 running El Capitan 10.11.6 and don’t have any interest in upgrading the OS at this time. That said, perhaps they need to do the install so that they can match the logic board to the SSD. Not sure about this…

Also, I bought a new left speaker because mine was blown and I’d have to pull the logic board to install the speaker so I might as well do both at the same time.

I’ll reach out to TekDepo and report back if anyone is interested in that info.

Thanks again RandyfromPalmer!

robert.wace wrote:

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..

Stop wasting your money on a 7 year old computer. Technology has moved on, so should you.