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Is descrete graphics soldered to the logic board?

M

mortenjensen

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 19, 2012
241
21
Hi,
Today I experienced the much feared nvidia graphics problem with the mbp 2011. As I understand it, it is connected to heat - it is working fine again now, but I am expecting it to come back anytime.

It happens so that my logic board was replaced less than a year ago due to a failed mic. So there is warranty on this one part still.

My question: Is the discrete GPU soldered on the logic board - so that I can opt for a replacement?

Morten
 
mortenjensen said:
Hi,
Today I experienced the much feared nvidia graphics problem with the mbp 2011. As I understand it, it is connected to heat - it is working fine again now, but I am expecting it to come back anytime.

It happens so that my logic board was replaced less than a year ago due to a failed mic. So there is warranty on this one part still.

My question: Is the discrete GPU soldered on the logic board - so that I can opt for a replacement?

Morten
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
I simply cannot understand that Apple will not stand behind their product! This is a disgrace! My mbp is 2+ years old. It costed nearly 3000 usd. It is ridiculous to expect us to pay that kind of money again, when they will not honor a reasonable request for so many users.

Come on apple!

Morten
 
yjchua95 said:
This is true, but also, replacement boards never work, because every single Sandy Bridge board has a manufacturing flaw with the Radeon GPU that causes it to fail.

A replacement board fails within 2-weeks - 3 months.
Click to expand...

Can this really be so? "Everyone"? - or just a high percentage?

If it was next to all, I really believe Apple would have issued a recall.

Morten
 
I feel sorry for you man. I feel your pain. I'm definitely going to get AppleCare after reading so many stories like this.

I think Apple should do better than this. These are expensive machines. The repairs cost a large percentage of the computer itself.

Common sense would tell me to buy a 500 PC and run it to the ground. Then get another one, and when that goes bust, another one, and when that goes bust too, another one.

I'd be covered for at least 15 years for the price of ONE MBPr.

There's no doubt the MBPr is a luxury machine, but boy is it an expensive toy! (for most people i.e. college kids)
 
yjchua95 said:
This is true, but also, replacement boards never work, because every single Sandy Bridge board has a manufacturing flaw with the Radeon GPU that causes it to fail.
Click to expand...
I'm not arguing that point, it merely kicks the can down the road. :/
 
After reading through some of the other posts and responses in this thread, it sounds like the same kind of issue that the 2006 iMacs experienced. Failing GPU causing issues for the system, issues that are heat aggravated. This happened to most of the 2006 iMacs, including mine. It's a real shame that Apple still has not acknowledged the fact that this is a manufacturing defect, and because of the age of the machines, chances are, they never will. I was able to disable the GPU by removing the .kext file that corresponds to my iMac's GPU from the Extensions folder in the System folder. The problems (distorted graphics, graphical artifacts, freezing, crashing, rebooting, etc) disappear and the computer could be used again, but the system becomes notably slower.

The GPU in pretty much any MacBook is going to be soldered, as it will be in most notebook computers. I'm honestly going to say that, even though you still have warranty on the machine, your best bet is to get a newer MacBook. As someone else mentioned, the replacement logic boards will fail pretty soon as well. This happened with the 2006 iMacs.
 
yjchua95 said:
I can confirm that this applies to 99% of people who suffered Radeongate and went for a logic board replacement.

I suffered Radeongate myself.
Click to expand...

I follow these threads because I bought a new, early 2011 17" MBP for my wife in 2012. She uses it almost exclusively as a desktop computer at home, and rarely does any graphic or CPU intensive work that heats it up. She just likes the bigger screen. Obviously there appears to be an above average failure rate with these machines, but I'm sure there are many, many others like her, that have had no issues at all. I wish there were some way of knowing what the true failure rate really is. Fingers crossed. :)
 
mortenjensen said:
Hi,
Today I experienced the much feared nvidia graphics problem with the mbp 2011. As I understand it, it is connected to heat - it is working fine again now, but I am expecting it to come back anytime.

It happens so that my logic board was replaced less than a year ago due to a failed mic. So there is warranty on this one part still.

My question: Is the discrete GPU soldered on the logic board - so that I can opt for a replacement?

Morten
Click to expand...

Yes it is soldered, just like on about 99% of all laptops sold in the last 10 years.
 
yjchua95 said:
I can confirm that this applies to 99% of people who suffered Radeongate and went for a logic board replacement.

I suffered Radeongate myself.
Click to expand...

What's your source?

How did you get access to Apple's data on logic board replacements?

Can you send it to me please, I'd like to look over the figures.
 
I should point out that in the US, a flat rate repair is only around $350 as long as there's no physical damage or abuse. In the case of my 2010 MBP with switching graphics failure even this was waived- the repair was 6 months after the repair program ended but they fixed it free for "customer satisfaction". They even replaced the battery.

Call AppleCare, they're more than willing to help.
 
joe-h2o said:
So can I see the data that says it's confirmed that 99% of worldwide logic board repairs ion this issue result in recurrence of the fault?
Click to expand...

I didn't say worldwide.

But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell that there's a manufacturing fault. And since these boards are all from the same batch and generation...

The exact fault is the wrong application of thermal paste.
 
yjchua95 said:
I didn't say worldwide.

But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell that there's a manufacturing fault. And since these boards are all from the same batch and generation...

The exact fault is the wrong application of thermal paste.
Click to expand...

You said this:

yjchua95 said:
I can confirm that this applies to 99% of people who suffered Radeongate and went for a logic board replacement.

I suffered Radeongate myself.
Click to expand...

That implies worldwide to me. "99% of of people who suffered Radeongate".

Also still waiting for the proof.
 
joe-h2o said:
You said this:



That implies worldwide to me. "99% of of people who suffered Radeongate".

Also still waiting for the proof.
Click to expand...

MR's frontpage has an article stating many 2011 GPUs are failing.

I don't know about 99% for the 2011 MBPs, but its basically that with Apple's prior dGPU fiascos.

In fact looking back through the lens of history we see Apple's track record of discrete GPUs and its not all that stellar :(
 
mortenjensen said:
Hi,
Today I experienced the much feared nvidia graphics problem with the mbp 2011. As I understand it, it is connected to heat - it is working fine again now, but I am expecting it to come back anytime.

It happens so that my logic board was replaced less than a year ago due to a failed mic. So there is warranty on this one part still.

My question: Is the discrete GPU soldered on the logic board - so that I can opt for a replacement?

Morten
Click to expand...

2011 models didn't have nvidia gpus
replaced logic board for a failed mic? the mic is a separate component..
 
Last edited:
maflynn said:
MR's frontpage has an article stating many 2011 GPUs are failing.

I don't know about 99% for the 2011 MBPs, but its basically that with Apple's prior dGPU fiascos.

In fact looking back through the lens of history we see Apple's track record of discrete GPUs and its not all that stellar :(
Click to expand...

An article on a website is a far cry from someone claiming that he is "confirming" (quote) that "99% of logic board replacements" (quote) due to this issue have a repeat failure.

He then cites his source as an Apple authorised repair tech in a single geographical location.

I'm just wondering how he can can confirm with certainty that 99% of users face this issue after repair. I was just looking for the official figures that he obtained from Apple to prove this.

----------
yjchua95 said:
You can go find your own proof at the 2011 MBP discrete card failure group on FB and also at mbp2011.com
Click to expand...

ahahahahahahaha.

Proof is a Facebook page?

So, you were just bull excrementing then. Gotcha.
 
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