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About the MBP 2010 and 2011 graphical issues

A

AkdM

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 22, 2014
9
1
Hello everyone,

I just read the article about the MBP 2011 graphical problem, and after reading the comments on the forums and after having joined the MBP2011 Facebook group, I noticed a lot of users were having issues with their mid-2010 MBP too.

It has been almost a year I am getting those graphical problems with my 15" MBP mid-2010, which Apple recognized as a default (see here).

So, I got my logic board replaced in last January 2014 for free (fortunately) by Apple. Everything worked fine for about 2 months.
After 2 months, the same problem appeared : artefacts while using the Nvidia video card.

I went to the Genius Bar again, but this time they couldn't recognize the problem, so they just reinstalled the operating system. I am sorry Apple but holding my MBP for about 2 weeks for only reinstalling the OS, that's crazy.

Now, as of 22 August 2014, I still get those artefacts with my MBP while using the discrete card (Nvidia).

I (without purpose) captured the problem while I was making a screencast for my blog:

--> http://www.anthonydamota.me/blog/en/use-countly-with-swift/

The video is at the end of the article.
You can notice the artefacts at 00:05 ; 00:18 ; 02:05 and 02:11.


Thank you for reading this, and I hope Apple will recognize for both 2010 and 2011 15" MBP the problem we are all facing.
 
AkdM said:
Thank you for reading this, and I hope Apple will recognize for both 2010 and 2011 15" MBP the problem we are all facing.
Click to expand...
Apple did recognize the 2010 issue, in fact they had a special warranty repair program for that model, so even if your 2010 MBP was out of warranty and the GPU failed, they're repair it.

Apple's track record is not the best for dGPUs.
2008, 2010 and now 2011. I'm waiting to see if the 2012 models have similar failures.

As for the long term viability of the repair, there isn't any. The repair only kicks the can down the road, the new logic board will have a dGPU failure in the future.
 
maflynn said:
Apple did recognize the 2010 issue, in fact they had a special warranty repair program for that model, so even if your 2010 MBP was out of warranty and the GPU failed, they're repair it.

Apple's track record is not the best for dGPUs.
2008, 2010 and now 2011. I'm waiting to see if the 2012 models have similar failures.

As for the long term viability of the repair, there isn't any. The repair only kicks the can down the road, the new logic board will have a dGPU failure in the future.
Click to expand...
Yes, I know, I had my logic board replaced thanks to that program.

But the thing is that they can't replace it anymore now because I have the same problem, again. They told me they couldn't reproduce the same problem.
In other words they don't believe me, even after showing the video.
I told them the problem was exactly the same as before I get my logic board replaced, they literally don't believe me.
 
OP, besides artefacts, do you encounter kernel panics...?

And what do they meant by cannot reproduce the problem...? Meaning the artefacts doesn't show up all the time...?
 
Eithanius said:
OP, besides artefacts, do you encounter kernel panics...?

And what do they meant by cannot reproduce the problem...? Meaning the artefacts doesn't show up all the time...?
Click to expand...
Yep, Kernel panics too.

I don't know, they did some tests at the back of the Apple Store, so I don't know how they tried to reproduce it.
I know that every time the Nvidia card is used (thanks to gfxcardstatus), and when the MBP is around 70-80°C, I have those artefacts.
For example, when I watch a video, the Nvidia is used most of the time : I have those artefacts. They appear around 10 times on a 5 minutes video.
 
AkdM said:
Yep, Kernel panics too.

I don't know, they did some tests at the back of the Apple Store, so I don't know how they tried to reproduce it.
I know that every time the Nvidia card is used (thanks to gfxcardstatus), and when the MBP is around 70-80°C, I have those artefacts.
For example, when I watch a video, the Nvidia is used most of the time : I have those artefacts. They appear around 10 times on a 5 minutes video.
Click to expand...

what video card do you have on your macbook?
you should do that at the apple store, tell them to watch a video and see the artifacts happen.
 
lokster said:
what video card do you have on your macbook?
you should do that at the apple store, tell them to watch a video and see the artifacts happen.
Click to expand...
Nvidia 330m.

I already showed them a video, they were like "but that's because it's Flash !"...
I know it's not, since when I play a game, the problem is the same. And a game doesn't use Flash at all.
 
AkdM said:
Nvidia 330m.

I already showed them a video, they were like "but that's because it's Flash !"...
I know it's not, since when I play a game, the problem is the same. And a game doesn't use Flash at all.
Click to expand...

play an Mp4 video, and ask them to play a game, whatever it takes to recreate the problem
 
AkdM said:
Yep, Kernel panics too.

I don't know, they did some tests at the back of the Apple Store, so I don't know how they tried to reproduce it.
I know that every time the Nvidia card is used (thanks to gfxcardstatus), and when the MBP is around 70-80°C, I have those artefacts.
For example, when I watch a video, the Nvidia is used most of the time : I have those artefacts. They appear around 10 times on a 5 minutes video.
Click to expand...

I had that problem with my 330m, so happened I discovered the problem when I was using Mission Control with Microsoft Word 2011 active, giving me kernel panics all the time. In my case it is 100% reproducible. You might wanna try it. Just make sure Word 2011 is running, hit Mission Control repeatedly...
 
Can't wait for apple, so I just used the heat gun technique and reflowed my graphics chip. Took about 2 hours total with the whole disassembly and cooling off period. Popped everything back in and voila working great now even with intensive gaming.

I also took the liberty to reapply the thermal paste and it's running extremely cool.
 
lokster said:
play an Mp4 video, and ask them to play a game, whatever it takes to recreate the problem
Click to expand...
They don't want to use tier softwares. They only use Safari and that's all...

Eithanius said:
I had that problem with my 330m, so happened I discovered the problem when I was using Mission Control with Microsoft Word 2011 active, giving me kernel panics all the time. In my case it is 100% reproducible. You might wanna try it. Just make sure Word 2011 is running, hit Mission Control repeatedly...
Click to expand...
Mhh, doesn't seem to do something on mine :/
 
AkdM said:
Mhh, doesn't seem to do something on mine :/
Click to expand...

Make sure your 330m is enabled... Either use gfxCarStatus to enable it or go to System Preferences > Energy Saver > Uncheck Automatic Graphics Switching...
 
Eithanius said:
Make sure your 330m is enabled... Either use gfxCarStatus to enable it or go to System Preferences > Energy Saver > Uncheck Automatic Graphics Switching...
Click to expand...
Still nothing, even after forcing it to the Discrete card.
I hit the button for like 10 minutes haha
 
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