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Bad AMD GPU EFI Variable Fix Issues

1

1635321

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 16, 2017
1
0
So the GPU on my 2011 Macbook Pro is going bad so I have attempted to switch to the integrated graphics permenantly using the method outlined here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ntel-integrated-gpu-efi-variable-fix.2037591/

I also remove the AMD kexts as described here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...efi-variable-fix.2037591/page-5#post-24511780


Also, the graphics are extremely slow even when simply using chrome or moving the mouse. Kind of like a game running at 10-20 FPS.

After following the process the mac successfully boots and is using integrated graphics but has become extremely buggy.

Login attempts are only sucessful 50% of the time.
Opening new windows the bar on top is never visible unless I move the window.
Random graphics errors.

Any ideas on how to fix?
 
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1635321 said:
So the GPU on my 2011 Macbook Pro is going bad so I have attempted to switch to the integrated graphics permenantly using the method outlined here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ntel-integrated-gpu-efi-variable-fix.2037591/

I also remove the AMD kexts as described here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...efi-variable-fix.2037591/page-5#post-24511780


Also, the graphics are extremely slow even when simply using chrome or moving the mouse. Kind of like a game running at 10-20 FPS.

After following the process the mac successfully boots and is using integrated graphics but has become extremely buggy.

Login attempts are only sucessful 50% of the time.
Opening new windows the bar on top is never visible unless I move the window.
Random graphics errors.

Any ideas on how to fix?
Click to expand...

Try the GRUB Solution instead.
 
I have a 2011 MacBook Pro - I had the same problems - GPU Fail/Panics, Kernel Panics..etc... They started occurring when I upgraded to Sierra then High Sierra. I won't bore you with the 2 days of research trying to find out what was wrong - I will say that there are plenty of complicated and sometimes goofy fixes around - nothing worked for me.

I decided that the problem must be the new OS - so I wiped my drive completely - and installed El Capitan. That fixed
everything. The machine is running clean and perfect - and I rebooted 5 times with zero issues.

It is my contention that Sierra is not suitable for older MBPs.
 
I have the 2011 15" MBP and have had the same issue as described on the post you linked to. The fix worked fine for me, but I have mixed results depending on the OS version you are running.

I recommend that you use 10.11.6 or 10.12 As they are the only versions I have managed to get a stable machine with fix active on.
 
Papanate said:
I have a 2011 MacBook Pro - I had the same problems - GPU Fail/Panics, Kernel Panics..etc... They started occurring when I upgraded to Sierra then High Sierra. I won't bore you with the 2 days of research trying to find out what was wrong - I will say that there are plenty of complicated and sometimes goofy fixes around - nothing worked for me.

I decided that the problem must be the new OS - so I wiped my drive completely - and installed El Capitan. That fixed
everything. The machine is running clean and perfect - and I rebooted 5 times with zero issues.

It is my contention that Sierra is not suitable for older MBPs.
Click to expand...

Is your computer slow with integrated graphics?
 
I’m going to go back to El Capitan,too. My 2011 MPB was great... until Sierra.

I don’t have the display glitches everyone sees and only get kernel panics when launching iPhoto, which I still prefer over Photos. My laptop is an email and internet machine. It’s just easier to do stuff instead of always using an iPad.

Erase and El Capitan, here I come.

Update: So far, so good. Fresh install and iPhoto did not crash my laptop. I'm working on transferring all of my files from a Sierra backup now.
 
Last edited:
Eriamjh1138@DAN said:
I’m going to go back to El Capitan,too. My 2011 MPB was great... until Sierra.

I don’t have the display glitches everyone sees and only get kernel panics when launching iPhoto, which I still prefer over Photos. My laptop is an email and internet machine. It’s just easier to do stuff instead of always using an iPad.

Erase and El Capitan, here I come.

Update: So far, so good. Fresh install and iPhoto did not crash my laptop. I'm working on transferring all of my files from a Sierra backup now.
Click to expand...
Can you walk through the steps on how you did that?
 
Unfortunately, I wish I could say I went backwards and everything was installed with all my settings, but I did a clean install from a new download of ElCap. Created a USB boot drive using instructions from Ars.

I have a backup of my last Sierra install with all my settings, but I am going to basically manually transfer over all my apps and user files.

I'm happy so far. iPhoto works and so does my Radeon video card. It crashed once during a 100GB file transfer, but has been OK. I know eventually my GPU will likely die, but I'd rather use it with El Cap than a newer OS that doesn't really work.

If you need more detail, I guess i can post it.
 
I’ve had two more crashes since, while transferring files from USB. I’m guessing while my machine is not too bad, it is still on the edge of complete failure.

I will continue to update it as it still works more reliably than with Sierra. I’ve turned off auto-dimming as that may be related. I have to review crash logs and I may perform surgery to redo the thermal paste, too.
 
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