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Just got hit with Radeongate

Nein01

Nein01

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 1, 2009
307
1
Germany
I have an early 2011 17" MBP and I'm a Blender user. I just became aware of Radeongate two or three months ago and have been hoping ever since that I would be lucky and wouldn't be affected..

Just now, however, as I was working in Blender, my screen started tearing and flickering. I immediately saved my file and quit Blender, which automatically made the graphics card switch back to integrated only, and the screen went back to normal. Opening Blender or otherwise activating the discrete AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics card now makes my screen go black.

What do I do? Should I refrain from powering down? I have seen some threads about Radeongate-affected MBPs not even booting up..

I depend on Blender for my livelihood, and as far as I have read, Apple has still not announced any type of replacement program or compensation. Is this accurate?

I bought the full 3 year apple care protection plan, which I hardly used and of course just expired in February of this year.

I am so pissed right now, I don't know what to do.. I sold my car for this computer, and now it's practically worthless to me.
 
You have a few options

You can ask apple for a flat rate repair, they will just put in a refurbished logic board and you may well get the problem again and it won't be cheap.

If you are in the UK you can ask for it to be repaired as a known issue and cite the standard five years reasonable warranty this may work I'd ring apple support rather than go in store though.

You can pay a third party service centre to reball the GPU this will be quite expensive but will probably fix the problem.

Or finally you can bite the bullet and buy a new computer.

I'm afraid that any computer can fail and if I was making my money using one I'd have a replacement budget in place to raise the money needed by the end of the warranty period, it is the only way you can be sure if that is your business.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
Or finally you can bite the bullet and buy a new computer.

I'm afraid that any computer can fail and if I was making my money using one I'd have a replacement budget in place to raise the money needed by the end of the warranty period, it is the only way you can be sure if that is your business.
Click to expand...

My Early 2011 15" MBP has the same problem, I use it for all my work. Therefore I decided to purchase a rMBP immediately as I cannot run my business without a working laptop. I will investigate how to fix the MBP separately and once working I can sell it to offset the cost of the new one.

However, I have had 3 1/2 years of issue free ownership, the original cost of the MBP has been repaid many times over. I was disappointed that it failed but more than happy to replace it with the latest tech. If I continue to be successful and the new one lasts a similar amount of time I will remain happy.
 
I'm an artist, not running a business. I bartend to pay my bills, and cannot afford to buy a new computer or even shell out a couple hundred euros (I live in Germany) for a new logic board, but the bigger point is that I shouldn't have to. This was an assembly flaw and an oversight mistake on Apple's part, because I wouldn't be having this issue if I had bought my MBP in 2010 or 2012.

I have everything backed up on an external, but now I am totally without a computer because after making my original post I accidentally opened photo booth because it's right next to text edit on my dock, and the screen went black, only this time no keyboard commands were working; I tried to quit the app and then tried logging out but nothing worked. I had to force shut down in order to try booting in single user mode, but that's not working either.

When exactly and for how long do you hold command + S? After the grey apple screen I'm still getting a black out from the failed dGPU.
 
atheistpally said:
but the bigger point is that I shouldn't have to.
Click to expand...

I agree, but that's the world we live in at the moment.

Its unfortunate that apple has not publicly addressed this issue or stepped up to the plate and started a repair program
 
Welcome to the club. I got hit last week. I ended up getting another notebook. It is a very sad situation that Apple is not stepping up and handling this problem. I was very very close to leaving the Apple ecosystem over this. When Dell had a similar issue with NVIDIA cards a few years ago they stepped up and handled the problem. I just cannot understand how Apple promotes itself as so consumer friendly and then when an obvious design flaw comes to light they leave users hanging out to dry.
 
So what would be the response from apple store employees? I'm thinking about going to the apple store (€20 train ride) to talk to someone about it, but I have a feeling they won't do anything to help me for free since I'm out of warranty.

Has anyone had any success at all? From what I gather, even if I fork out cash, the basic procedure is just to replace the logic board, with no guarantees that the same thing won't happen again.

Would I at least get a new extended warranty on a logic board replacement? If so, for how long?

The other option is going to a specialist who could re-solder the gpu right? I have no idea how much that would cost, but if it could be a more permanent solution maybe I would spend my savings on that.. And then keep fighting for a refund from Apple.

Any advice is welcome. I just don't have the $ for a new machine like some do.
 
atheistpally said:
So what would be the response from apple store employees? I'm thinking about going to the apple store (€20 train ride) to talk to someone about it, but I have a feeling they won't do anything to help me for free since I'm out of warranty.



Has anyone had any success at all? From what I gather, even if I fork out cash, the basic procedure is just to replace the logic board, with no guarantees that the same thing won't happen again.



Would I at least get a new extended warranty on a logic board replacement? If so, for how long?



The other option is going to a specialist who could re-solder the gpu right? I have no idea how much that would cost, but if it could be a more permanent solution maybe I would spend my savings on that.. And then keep fighting for a refund from Apple.



Any advice is welcome. I just don't have the $ for a new machine like some do.
Click to expand...


Become close with a apple genius. So in your times of need you can rely on them to save face for you. That's how I got them to fix mine for free. Lol.
 
My friend, Germany is part of the EU so surely you should be covered in the same way as we are in the UK in that you should be able to claim that it's reasonable to expect that this expensive item should last 5 or 6 years. There's clearly a manufacturing issue here which this EU law was created to protect consumers from.

Apple are well aware of this law and I think that if you put your case firmly and politely (in store or over the phone with customer serice), then I think you may get a positive result.

I wish you well and let us know how you get on.
 
Can't you disable the dGPU and work with only the iGPU? Then no more problem.
 
A repair is the only way to fix this - there is no good software fix: gfxcardstatus, removing the AMD kext's or anything else.

Your options are:
1. Contact a company to perform a reflow - only a temporary fix
2. Contact a company to perform a reball - will be a permanant fix since it replaces the solder which is the issue
3. Work with Apple and pay a flat fee repair or some how get a free fix.

I opted for #3 and after an initial outlay of $310 for a logic board repair, they covered the next 2 logic boards before finally giving me a new computer when the 3rd replacement went out. This whole process took nearly a year, but the "free" upgrade to a new retina made it OK.

Of course YMMV. I'm in the US, btw - I know the experience may be different over there.
 
boomhower said:
I was very very close to leaving the Apple ecosystem over this. When Dell had a similar issue with NVIDIA cards a few years ago they stepped up and handled the problem. I just cannot understand how Apple promotes itself as so consumer friendly and then when an obvious design flaw comes to light they leave users hanging out to dry.
Click to expand...

Well I left...Sold my 5S and got myself a Dell M4800. The mind is very happy with this cause there is a lot of value in the stuff I got...Xperia Z2 at a lot lesser price than the 5S and it is water resistant to boot...

The M4800...completely user serviceable and is powerful enough to run 5 VMs at one shot AND it is has a spill resistant keyboard...BUT...the heart longs for the finesse of Apple even though I will stay away from Apple cause finesse is good but not at the cost of reliability.

Anyway...Windows 10 is coming up next year and it finally brings in a few features of OSX I like...Android L is looking good and my Xperia Z2 has ample processing power and RAM to spare making it quite future proof (unless I get bored with it :) )

End of rant.
 
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