Apple Initiates Repair Program for 2011-2013 MacBook Pros With Video Issues

[alexmarchuk]

Just got off the phone with Apple, they will be sending a box for me - can't boot into Windows (not recognizing the integrated and using the discrete and all) or use switching at all under OS X.

They tell you all about the "if there isn't a problem found, we will send the unit back" etc etc. Ya better not....

 

[Daalseth]

Smug git!

Yes, yes I am

 

[chriscrk]

Normally I’m not a fan of class-action lawsuits, but Apple deserves this one!
I had to replace the logic board on a 2008 MBP myself at high cost, because Apple Canada did not acknowledge the GPU problem. Then again on a 2011 MBP just recently. I sent it to a professional UK GPU repair shop to replace the GPU for a brand new one with lead solder. I don’t know if people realize that part of the problem with electronic components failing has been the stupid move to “green” circuit boards.
So maybe Apple should have given Greenpeace the finger, when they constantly downrated them with their phony environmental ratings.

Unless you have a damaged MBP sitting around and can carry it into an Apple store and get it repaired for free, or sent to and back for free, it might be a better idea to get it repaired the right way, which is re-balling with a new GPU. Unless they have logic boards with revised chips lead solder mounted, which I doubt.

Mikofox.

 

[LostMyiPhone]

Once again Apple demonstrates why they are the leader of the pack when it comes to taking care of their customers. This is why we love Apple. This is what the Sony's of the world just don't get selling high-end devices but providing lousy support and aftercare.

When considering the speed at which technology evolves (progresses) -- this is far from taking care of their customers. Taking care would be saying "Sorry for dragging our feet fixing your now-four-year-old computer. Here's a new one."

I don't always think people should feel so entitled to something brand new when something goes wrong, but in the case of a piece of technological equipment that is 4 years old at this point, yeah, it's too little too late. Give the consumers the brand new (working) machine they purchased and expected 4 years ago.

 

[magbarn]

My 2012 has been mostly reliable, but has frozen intermittently. Since I don't want to be stuck with a logic board replacement come March 2016 (Apple only extended warranty for this until February 2016), I'm going to install win 8.1 tonight and run furmark until it dies. These stupid GPU manufacturers (AMD + Nvidia) can't make a reliable portable dGPU on lead free solder it seems. GO BACK TO LEAD SOLDER ALREADY.

 

[paulold]

had mine fixed a few weeks ago

My Early 2011 17" MacBookPro died a few weeks ago. The screen was way distorted with vertical stripes and it would not restart. (I noticed it tried restarting itself a couple of times as well, but I figured that was the auto-installation of my software updates.) Up until then, my laptop was working fine. I brought it to the Apple Store and they shipped it off for repair. I didn't see any details about exactly what was done to fix my machine, but I believe at least the logic board was replaced. And now my machine is working great. I guess this article explains why they didn't charge me for the repair.

I had seen a bit of discussion online of older machines having logic board problems and they had a repair program that had ended early Dec 2014, which I had been afraid I had just missed. Guess not.

This article refers to "video issues" which I think is a bit misleading. That suggests you have problems viewing videos. It's really just the screen does not display properly at all. You can't really see anything, let alone play videos. I have no idea if they replaced the screen or not.

Feels like I have a new machine. I installed a bigger hard drive and did a clean install of Yosemite as well, for good measure. Thanks, Apple! I'm glad I did not have to buy a new computer.

One more thing... I use my laptop in my home recording studio (Logic Pro), attaching my laptop to the TV set in that room to have a big screen to work with. I remember thinking I had possibly killed my laptop from these connections since I always had trouble with getting the screen to return to normal after I had it connected to the TV. Plus I had trouble getting the full screen to appear on the TV screen. It didn't "just work" for me. I remember making the mistake of plugging/unplugging my tv connection with the laptop still on and it really didn't like that. So I learned to always do so with the laptop off. I have yet to attach my repaired laptop to the TV, so we'll see if it has any problems with it going forward.

 

[497902]

Try reading the first post.

I know it only mentions the 15 and 17 inch models, but I'm still asking just to be sure.

 

[iamMacPerson]

In my eyes Apple has made this right, and it only reaffirms my love for their products! I upgraded to a retina, and am still glad I did, but this will take some of the sting off the purchase and might even make my 2011 more valuable in resale hopefully. It was a flawless machine other than this one failure.

Speak for your self. I had to go to the Apple Store multiple times under the warranty just to get a "Cannot Duplicate" receipt and sent home with the machine untouched. Even then, I had over 6 logic board replacements within the 1-year warranty and was told at one point that they were doing the repairs as a "courtesy" even though I was still under the 1-year (I had AppleCare too!) and started blaming me for using the machine too hard! Now I am welcomed at the store with a warm "Oh your back again?" or "Oh great what's wrong now?"

Nothing Apple can do will ever be able to fix the broken trust that store has for me. Now I have to get repairs done at another Apple Store which is 5x further away then my local store or send it in. If I can get back the $115 I spent when Apple swapped my 2011 with a 2012 Retina (Genius said it was the only way to fix the problem) I will be happy. Nothing though will be able to repair my experience with the store and experience that my Early 2011 15" and Mid-2012 Retina gave me over their 2 1/2 years (combined) of ownership.

Two of my closest friends bought 15inch rMBPs after I got mine. Zero issues with theirs. However, they don't have a mid2012 model, like mine. They have late 2013 and 2014 models. I guess they fixed the problem... eventually

I don't know; my Late 2013 failed on me with blinking screen problems and distorted video, along with Kernel Panics. From now on I won't recommend any of my friends to get the 15" Pros (at least the ones with the dGPU). I have 2 2010 13" Pros and 1 2013 11" Air in my family's fleet seeing daily usage and all are still chugging along on their original LoBo.

 

[michaeltherrien]

Late 2013 15" rMBP with GPU issues

I wonder if Apple has been pushing something trying to fix this... In the past 2 days I've returned to work after lunch to 3/3 of these issues:
I have a hot corner set to "Put Display to Sleep" and when leaving for lunch, I disconnect external HDD and "Sleep" the laptop. When I return I hit Enter and type in password to login.
Yesterday: I hit Enter a few times to wake up the laptop and nothing happened. I used the mouse, laptop keyboard, trackpad, nothing worked. I hit the power button, waited, nothing happened. I held the power button to turn it off, then back on. Console revealed:

2/19/15 8:41:21.000 AM kernel[0] ===========================================================================
2/19/15 8:41:21.000 AM kernel[0] End Hang Analysis
2/19/15 8:41:21.000 AM kernel[0] ===========================================================================
2/19/15 8:41:21.000 AM kernel[0] Trying restart GPU ...
2/19/15 8:41:21.657 AM DumpGPURestart[94811] Saved gpuRestart report for kernel to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Kernel_2015-02-19-084121_Michael-Therriens-MacBook-Pro.gpuRestart
​

Today: I hit Enter a few times to wake up the laptop and it brings me to the User selection screen, the laptop had restarted. Console reveals:

2/20/15 2:37:25.000 PM kernel[0]: USBF: 50348.136 IOUSBHIDDriver(AppleUSBHIDKeyboard)::RearmInterruptRead returning error 0xe00002c0 (no such device), not issuing any reads to device
2/20/15 2:37:25.000 PM kernel[0]: USBF: 50348.136 IOUSBHIDDriver(AppleUSBHIDKeyboard)::RearmInterruptRead returning error 0xe00002c0 (no such device), not issuing any reads to device
2/20/15 2:37:25.000 PM kernel[0]: USBF: 50348.136 IOUSBHIDDriver(IOUSBHIDDriver)::RearmInterruptRead returning error 0xe00002c0 (no such device), not issuing any reads to device
2/20/15 2:37:25.000 PM kernel[0]: USBF: 50348.136 IOUSBHIDDriver(IOUSBHIDDriver)::RearmInterruptRead returning error 0xe00002c0 (no such device), not issuing any reads to device
2/20/15 2:37:25.000 PM kernel[0]: USBF: 50348.136 IOUSBHIDDriver(IOUSBHIDDriver)::RearmInterruptRead returning error 0xe00002c0 (no such device), not issuing any reads to device
2/20/15 2:37:29.000 PM kernel[0]: Restarting to collect Sleep wake debug logs
2/20/15 2:37:29.000 PM kernel[0]: AppleCamIn::systemWakeCall - messageType = 0xE0000310
2/20/15 2:37:29.000 PM kernel[0]: 0, 0 AppleIntelI210::setLinkStatus - not active
2/20/15 2:37:29.000 PM kernel[0]: en8 Link down
2/20/15 2:37:32.000 PM kernel[0]: Restart still waiting on AppleUSBXHCI​

 

[macduke]

Unfortunately, that command only asked me to install Xcode (see attachment).

I've looked into that app and it looks amazing, but I heard it doesn't run so well on an iPad 3.

Oh sorry. I didn't realize it required it. I think it's free to download for non-devs though. Just kind of a hassle.

Yeah I have an Air 2 so it obviously runs pretty well. I can even multitask away and mess around in some other apps and go back and it's right where I left off without needing to reconnect. My Mac screen doesn't flicker so it must be keeping the connection live in the background. So it's well thought out, at least for devices that can handle it. I run it retina 1:1 at 60fps and keep my chat apps, Twitter, and Rdio on it while I'm working. When bigger things are moving around on the screen it's probably only 30-40fps but acceptable. Sometimes system animations like Mission Control slow it down but it's good enough. Much better than any wireless solution I've tried like AirDisplay.

Ok, so I fired up a development iPad Mini first gen at work, which uses the same speed A5 as the iPad 3 (which has an A5X, only difference is more graphics cores for retina display). Running at 30fps at non-retina is a little bit laggy. The motion seems smooth, so like watching a video should be fine. But the mouse lags behind where you think it should be. Sometimes its worse than other times. I also don't know how much of the processing is done on the Mac's end, but I'm using a fairly high-end 2013 iMac (3.4GHz quad i7, 16GB ram).

 

[promacin]

Been having screen distortions with my mid 2012 macbook pro retina. Took it into the Apple Store today and they said they can't repair it unless it fails some VST test. It was a bit irritating because this has been happening for more than a year and I've taken it in before. Not sure if I should record it on my phone and set up another appointment. argh... wonder what their excuse will be then...

 

[iamMacPerson]

This article refers to "video issues" which I think is a bit misleading. That suggests you have problems viewing videos. It's really just the screen does not display properly at all. You can't really see anything, let alone play videos. I have no idea if they replaced the screen or not.

Not really. When they say "video issues" they mean video out issues. Whatever is displaying on screen it pushed out by the video card/graphics chip. Even if you aren't doing anything on the machine, its still pushing out a video signal.

 

[Jim L]

Applecare replaced my 2013 rMBP last November

I've already recounted my story here on macrumors, but I'm glad they are doing a massive program for this.

I think that also the number of people going through the Applecare/Genius Bar route added import to Apple's decision.

Now I'm left wondering how reliable the new Mac is (late 2014 rMBP) but after almost 3 months, it is not flaky or unreliable like the old one. Hope it is a keeper!

I've owned 3 iMacs and one Mac Mini. None of those have ever had a single problem. I think the super thin, compact design of the rMBPs plus the effects of heat are what do them in. A good friend of mine has a top of the line 2012 rMBP and uses it all the time with no issues whatsoever. He was shocked at my story, although he thinks Apple took care of me well.

 

[iamMacPerson]

I wonder if Apple has been pushing something trying to fix this... In the past 2 days I've returned to work after lunch to 3/3 of these issues:

I had a similar model to yours: 2.3GHz 750m late-2013. I had some graphical distortion along with the display flickering. After 2 main board and 2 displays, I was able to get the value of my laptop back on two gift cards and ordered a refurbished Mac Pro (cylinder). All my 15" MBPs have died on me and I was not about to get a 2014 model (same as the Late 2013 but the processor was 200MHz faster on the new one) just to have issues with it again. If I see myself needing a blogging machine in the future, I'll buy a cheap Windows laptop. I'll still use OS X as my primary OS for productivity though.

 

[Traverse]

Oh sorry. I didn't realize it required it. I think it's free to download for non-devs though. Just kind of a hassle.
Ok, so I fired up a development iPad Mini first gen at work, which uses the same speed A5 as the iPad 3 (which has an A5X, only difference is more graphics cores for retina display). Running at 30fps at non-retina is a little bit laggy. The motion seems smooth, so like watching a video should be fine. But the mouse lags behind where you think it should be. Sometimes its worse than other times. I also don't know how much of the processing is done on the Mac's end, but I'm using a fairly high-end 2013 iMac (3.4GHz quad i7, 16GB ram).

Thanks for testing that. I'm definitely going to get it when it goes in sale. It will help in a pinch and when I get a new iPad later this year it will really be worth it.

 

[wujin941005]

I went to Apple Store today to get a diagnosis on my 2013 early Macbook Pro retina. I have graphic disorders on preview. Sometimes I read the pdf and the graphic get mess up and I scroll up or down a little. It backs to normal. However I pass their diagnosis and they can not give me a repair unless failing the test. I ask them whether I can reproduce the issue and give me the repair. Still no. I am deciding to leave my mac there during spring holiday and let the apple engineers take a deep took at my mac. Hopefully they can give me a replacement of the logic board.

 

[thekev]

I've been on pins and needles regarding my rMBP, so I'm glad apple included 2012 (and 13).

I haven't read about problems with the 2012 ones, and claims certainly surfaced on 2011s long starting about a year in. I still have my 17", and I'll probably see if they will refund what I paid to fix it in early January as well as take it in again now, as artifacts started a couple days after it came back. I would like to see where intel is at by Broadwell or preferably skylake, as I don't want another macbook pro with graphics switching.

 

[promacin]

I went to Apple Store today to get a diagnosis on my 2013 early Macbook Pro retina. I have graphic disorders on preview. Sometimes I read the pdf and the graphic get mess up and I scroll up or down a little. It backs to normal. However I pass their diagnosis and they can not give me a repair unless failing the test. I ask them whether I can reproduce the issue and give me the repair. Still no. I am deciding to leave my mac there during spring holiday and let the apple engineers take a deep took at my mac. Hopefully they can give me a replacement of the logic board.

same. exact. boat.

i just recorded video of my screen acting up, but sounds like it won't help. their tests aren't infallible and if you can demonstrate the problem they should be willing to work with you, argh... fingers crossed that over the coming weeks they will help out the folks that can demonstrate the problem without failing their tests.

 

[weckart]

It's my understanding that a lot of the issues with modern electronics stems from the use of lead-free solder?

RoHS and BGA is a marriage made in hell. They need to stop pretending they get on and just divorce already.

This problem with dGPU and lead-free solder goes right back to the iBook G3 at least. Apple's penchant for ever thinner enclosures and setting the firmware to keep the fans off/low until temps really crank up just adds to the problem.

There are more nasties in modern computers than just lead. Any benefits to the envirionment from using compliant solder must be being offset by the more frequent scrapping of otherwise perfectly serviceable notebooks.

 

[Yebubbleman]

The Mid 2012 and Early 2013 15" Retinas had graphics issues too?

Seriously, was this a known issue? Does anyone know more about it? Also, any insight as to why the non-retina Mid 2012 15" MacBook Pro was not affected when it shares the same discrete GPU as the retina models that are affected?

 

[kuito]

Here's the issue I've been having:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8RAyj9L_nQ

I actually had similar issues with the first 4 macbook pro retinas I received back in mid 2012 (see video from then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xPTGph74dc ). The current one I have hasn't had AS many issues, but still happens intermittently so it's been hard to nail down but the video shows my issue.

I look forward to going in and getting it fixed (again).

 

[Timur]

Once again Apple demonstrates why they are the leader of the pack when it comes to taking care of their customers. This is why we love Apple. This is what the Sony's of the world just don't get selling high-end devices but providing lousy support and aftercare.

Seriously? I went to the Apple Store with my broken early 2011 MBP and got a quote of over 400 EUR with a repair warranty as laughable short as 90 days!

I did *not* make use of that generous offer, but had my machine repaired by a non certified laptop repair center for less than 200 EUR. They exchanged the GPU with a new one and replaced the extremely badly applied (by Apple) thermal paste and repaired some component on the mainboard that suffered from heat damage (heat being blocked by thermal paste spread to board). The best part of it is that I got 1 year warranty on the work and 2 years on the parts (GPU).

With Apple's repair it could have happened again some 91 days later and I would have to pay again for being out of "warranty". No thanks!

Of course I don't expect to get back any of my costs now. I had my original (late 2008) MBP replaced several times for new models (with new logic boards in between) and always had to deal with new serial faults with every iteration. Apple engineering never was interested in learning about the faults and their source, not even from their own service staff (who just kept on replacing and replacing). After years of trying to report things I still can make the Thunderbolt and ExpressCard ports lose connection to external devices by touching the MBP's ground with an external USB device cable. Yay.

 

[sbb32]

Just dropped it off at Apple Store. Will be ready in 3-5 days. Genius says it's a brand new re-engineered logic board. Purely anecdotal/hearsay though.

 

[jorgk]

... I'm going to install win 8.1 tonight and run furmark until it dies. ...

Just install GpuTest and run this in Terminal:

for i in {1..500}; do open -g -W '/Applications/Utilities/GpuTest_OSX_x64_0.7.0/GpuTest.app' --args '/test=fur /width=120 /height=70 /msaa=4 /benchmark /no_scorebox /no_log_score /benchmark_duration_ms=38000'; sleep 80; done

It's just a small window, so you can continue working - until it may die.

 

[G4DP]

I went to Apple Store today to get a diagnosis on my 2013 early Macbook Pro retina. I have graphic disorders on preview. Sometimes I read the pdf and the graphic get mess up and I scroll up or down a little. It backs to normal. However I pass their diagnosis and they can not give me a repair unless failing the test. I ask them whether I can reproduce the issue and give me the repair. Still no. I am deciding to leave my mac there during spring holiday and let the apple engineers take a deep took at my mac. Hopefully they can give me a replacement of the logic board.

Why, that's not a logic board issue. That is more likely to be software related. Have you had the issue for a long time, or has it just magically started? If they think anyone is trying to pull a fast one, you'll be told where to go in no uncertain terms.