it says not eligible for the repair extension program.....
- What does?
The Early 2011 15" is covered. Just take it into Apple or an Authorized Service Provider.
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
On the macbookpro-videoissues page, it directs you to check your coverage/see if it is affected; https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
When I type in the serial number, nothing comes up saying that it is affected. Only says telephone and repair and service coverage is expired.
- That page doesn't check for coverage under the extended repair programme. It just checks which model your machine is and whether it's covered under standard warranty or under AppleCare.
The Video Issues page I linked to just refers to the Check your Coverage tool as a way of identifying your MacBook Pro model. You then have to compare the result with the list of covered models from the Video Issues page.
If your machine comes up as "MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011)" using that page, then it's covered under the programme (as indeed all 2011 models with AMD GPUs are)
Thanks everyone, I'll schedule the genius bar, and hope they will fix it under the program, and here I thought the coverage tool would actually tell me if it was under the repair extension, not have me cross-reference the model.