Recently I noticed some distortions on images in Safari. I told myself it was just the Yosemite Beta. To do some testing I installed the gfxCardStatus app to switch back and forth between discrete and integrated graphics. When switching to discrete from integrated, the entire display turns to static and then seems to be fine. Does this mean my discrete graphics card is on its way out? And since it's soldered to the logic board am I looking at almost $900 to repair? I've got an appointment with the Genius Bar later this week, just curious what anybody else thought? After some research it looks like the 2011 MBP has had lots of problems with the graphics card.
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Graphics card going bad on 2011 MacBook Pro?
- Thread starter bjett92
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You are incorrect, and you should know that in case you are ever in need of repairs for your out of warranty Mac.
No. People frequently post that on here out of ignorance. Assuming a lack of abuse meaning no signs of water or impact damage, you are probably looking at around a $300 depot repair where they fix whatever is required. I do not believe this applies to expendable parts such as batteries and chargers, but I could be wrong. If there are signs of abuse, it would not be offered. It's just not really feasible to spend $900 on a computer that is a couple years old, because it may meet or exceed the residual value of the computer at that point.
Yeah, it may be heading south
radeongate is striking you.Yep, a new logic board, the typical repair
Correct and the "repair" will only kick the can down the road. Either sell the laptop for parts, or repair it, then sell it and get an iGPU only MBP.
I'm having the exact same issue, and I have too, only noticed it since the Yosemite Beta. Have you tried going back to Mavericks to see if its the same?
I've got the base spec. 2.0 GHz MBP 15 with the AMD 6490M and I only get that static some of the time and once switched it seems OK. I know this Mac is on borrowed time, just not prepared for it to go just yet!
I've got the base spec. 2.0 GHz MBP 15 with the AMD 6490M and I only get that static some of the time and once switched it seems OK. I know this Mac is on borrowed time, just not prepared for it to go just yet!
I'm having the exact same issue, and I have too, only noticed it since the Yosemite Beta. Have you tried going back to Mavericks to see if its the same?
I've got the base spec. 2.0 GHz MBP 15 with the AMD 6490M and I only get that static some of the time and once switched it seems OK. I know this Mac is on borrowed time, just not prepared for it to go just yet!
Well here's what I did. I completely wiped my hard drive and installed Mavericks on one partition and Yosemite on another. I can only reproduce this static when switching between integrated and discrete on Yosemite so far. Seems odd that it would be software related with all of the posts online about the GPU problems in the 2011 MBPs. I've got an appointment with the genius bar tomorrow. I'll see what they say.
Curiously, I did the same, and I can't replicate it under Mavericks either. I'm very suspicious that it's a hardware issue, maybe the way Yosemite switches the gpus shows the flaw quicker.
Let us know how your GB appointment goes, so I can make one myself if needs be!
If it was a hardware problem you'd think it would also appear in Maverics, so my guess is that it's just a minor glitch in Yosemite. When you switch GPU's in Yosemite and earlier versions the screen quickly flashes blue for the fraction of a second and my personal guess is that they just accidentally disabled this in Yosemite .
Also, Macrumors has thrown this flaw massively out of proportion because of how big the Nvidia 8600M flaw was. I personally know plenty of people who machines from this era and nobody has had their machines replaced. I personally have one as well and it's chugging along just fine.
Also, Macrumors has thrown this flaw massively out of proportion because of how big the Nvidia 8600M flaw was. I personally know plenty of people who machines from this era and nobody has had their machines replaced. I personally have one as well and it's chugging along just fine.
Its that age old thing of no one ever posts a thread like "My MacBook Pro is working brilliantly"
I'm happy to see what happens, although my Applecare runs out in mid Sept!
Knock on wood...
I shouldn't say this as the AppleCare expired back in May, but my refurbished early 2011 15" 2.0Ghz MBP has been a tank with no problems except a faulty main-bay SATA ribbon (discovered when upgrading to a SATA III OWC SSD a few months ago...it "ate" two of the drives, both of which OWC thankfully replaced) that the Apple Store replaced for me in a few minutes. Been doing the Fusion thing successfully for months now...a great upgrade to this older machine.
My friend has the same-generation refurbished 17" MBP and has had no problems. She keeps her Macs for as long as possible...I had to drag her 2006 white MacBook away when the CFL backlight got too dim. I'm hoping her machine lasts a very long time.
We must both be "light" users (no heavy gaming, I do Java development in Eclipse and build MAME from source occasionally), but that's not necessarily linked to Radeongate, right? I've generally use gfxCardStatus to stay in "Integrated Only" for better battery life.
My work machine is the mid-2012 rMBP. Rock-solid but some screen ghosting (since it's owned by my employer I don't really care about that). Fighting temptation to upgrade my personal MBP...I'm way past my usual personal upgrade cycle but the SSD on the ol' 2011 has it running great.
I shouldn't say this as the AppleCare expired back in May, but my refurbished early 2011 15" 2.0Ghz MBP has been a tank with no problems except a faulty main-bay SATA ribbon (discovered when upgrading to a SATA III OWC SSD a few months ago...it "ate" two of the drives, both of which OWC thankfully replaced) that the Apple Store replaced for me in a few minutes. Been doing the Fusion thing successfully for months now...a great upgrade to this older machine.
My friend has the same-generation refurbished 17" MBP and has had no problems. She keeps her Macs for as long as possible...I had to drag her 2006 white MacBook away when the CFL backlight got too dim. I'm hoping her machine lasts a very long time.
We must both be "light" users (no heavy gaming, I do Java development in Eclipse and build MAME from source occasionally), but that's not necessarily linked to Radeongate, right? I've generally use gfxCardStatus to stay in "Integrated Only" for better battery life.
My work machine is the mid-2012 rMBP. Rock-solid but some screen ghosting (since it's owned by my employer I don't really care about that). Fighting temptation to upgrade my personal MBP...I'm way past my usual personal upgrade cycle but the SSD on the ol' 2011 has it running great.
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I have an early 2011 15" 2.0 Ghz MBP with the AMD chip. In March it failed and I had the logic board replaced. I'm also getting the staticky type stuff in Yosemite, but I don't think its anything to worry about.
Out of warranty repair is usually not that much. In my experience if it lacks signs of abuse, they will offer flat rate repair. $900 on a notebook of that age isn't really justifiable, especially if it retains the original battery.
Mine started to experience battery problems with the last Mavericks update.
No. Apple doesn't care whether it is feasible to spend $900 on a computer which is dead by design. AASPs do charge $900 for a logic board replacement, which doesn't even give you a new board.
If there are no signs of damage and you take it to an Apple Store, they will offer flat-rate depot repair, which is around $300-350. That's why I said not to count on $900. Authorized service providers may not have that option, but as you point out it's kind of ridiculous that you may get a refurbished board for that amount of money.
i have the same issue plus more.
for 3 days all whites were blue on my screen
for 3 days on a separate occasion my screen was black
both times it magically fixed itself. my macbook is currently at the genius bar being stress tested, fingers crossed they replace the logic board because this is unbearable.
for 3 days all whites were blue on my screen
for 3 days on a separate occasion my screen was black
both times it magically fixed itself. my macbook is currently at the genius bar being stress tested, fingers crossed they replace the logic board because this is unbearable.
i have the same issue plus more.
for 3 days all whites were blue on my screen
for 3 days on a separate occasion my screen was black
both times it magically fixed itself. my macbook is currently at the genius bar being stress tested, fingers crossed they replace the logic board because this is unbearable.
Do you have AppleCare?
I'm rolling with a 2011 MBP myself and it looks like I'll be staying away from Yosemite til I hear stuff like this is fixed. The graphics card on mine has always been a little wonky. I had the motherboard replaced early into owning this machine because I had a lot of issues with the graphics card. Upgrading to Mavericks has shown some signs of slowing and performance issues, so I'm going to try and run on this OS til she dies.