How do I do this system report??
EDIT: Figured it out. Sad face : ( I have the AMD Radeon HD 6750M. Am I on borrowed time?
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Lawyers Researching Possible Class Action Lawsuit Over 2011 MacBook Pro Graphics Issues
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How do I do this system report??
EDIT: Figured it out. Sad face : ( I have the AMD Radeon HD 6750M. Am I on borrowed time?
Well the failures started to spread out in early 2013, many still had warranty or applecare so there was much less attention on the problem.
The core of the problem tho, is not the gpu since those amd chips do not have a defect. The issue is caused by a flawed manufacting process by Apple: poor application of low quality thermal paste and subpar soldering materials, a lethal combo.
Some units had thermal paste up to the solder points of the gpu! Excessive heat transfer to the solder points damaging them until they crack open... This is why apple replacements still fails because they replace the whole board manufacted the same way (and is never brand new but used-refurbished, already half cooked).
In most of cases the unit can be repaired without gpu replacement, by re-soldering it with proper materials and then proper thermal paste application, and so far is the only reilable, permanent solution.
The core of the problem tho, is not the gpu since those amd chips do not have a defect. The issue is caused by a flawed manufacting process by Apple: poor application of low quality thermal paste and subpar soldering materials, a lethal combo.
Some units had thermal paste up to the solder points of the gpu! Excessive heat transfer to the solder points damaging them until they crack open... This is why apple replacements still fails because they replace the whole board manufacted the same way (and is never brand new but used-refurbished, already half cooked).
In most of cases the unit can be repaired without gpu replacement, by re-soldering it with proper materials and then proper thermal paste application, and so far is the only reilable, permanent solution.
Why? GM's recent ignition switch recall ranges from 1998 to 2014. MS extended the original Xbox 360 warranty form 1 year to 3 years because of the Red Ring of Death. Apple offered free replacement GPUs to 4 year old Mac Pro owners.
What's your magic number of unit failures and what's hyperbolic about a calling a component failure that bricks a laptop "fatal"? In a matter of days my laptop went from fully functional, to having an occasional screen glitch to unbootable (it even crashed in Target Disk Mode). Seems like a pretty fatal outcome for the laptop to me.
I have Apple Care so my laptop repair didn't cost me anything, but the replacement logic board is only warrantied for 30 days so if Apple just replaced an old defective part with a new defective part then I can expect my MBP to fail again in another 2 years or so. That will make it by far the shortest lived computer I've ever owned.
They have 160 billion in cash. To give you an idea, remember all the states changing their educational systems back a few years ago for "Race to the Top"? That was a total of 5 billion dollars, total...split by all the winning states. Apple has so much money they could give every citizen of the US (300 million) over 500 dollars per person, and still not use up all that cash in the bank.
You can argue all you want, but the cost of replacement or fixing the issues of their customers would be miniscule to Apple's bottom line. You have to wonder what sort of stupidity in management lets these issues get this far. It isn't worth the negative publicity, the ill-will to existing customers.
Filled out the survey and was called by the lawyers running the investigation. If you are having issues with your 2011 MBP I urge you to fill out the survey.
You really need a hug today don't you
? Anyway just thought I'd bring you down a peg or two, when I went into the Apple store to have MY 2010 MacBook Pro repaired by due to it's KNOWN fault, it was the GENIUS BAR representative who told ME about the EU law.So yeah, they don't say it to 'Shut you up', they say it because it's THE LAW, even your precious little Apple has to abide with consumer laws in the UK.
And yes you ARE empowered in the UK, people don't realise just how much protection we have under the Sales Of Good Acts. You can get a laptop repaired if it is 4 years old even for free with no extended warranty.
Have a read of this site:
http://whatconsumer.co.uk/faulty-laptop-rights/#axzz3B4QCsVQW
So whilst in America you may have zero rights, in the UK we have plenty to 'empower' us
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does the survey cover Mid-2010 MBP w/ GT330m also?
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I don't think insisting more should be necessary. and also an awkward solution for both parties. if there is any insisting, it should be about what is wrong with the MBP if Apple employee or Genius has no idea about the widespread failure. I like to defend this idea b/c i have a problem with my Mid-2010 MBP. I had already took my MBP to Apple Genius and I didn't insist. They just quoted me a price to have the LB replaced and I couldn't afford it so I left. I called Apple Tech Support too and then I also chatted with them online. I also filled out a feedback thing. And the hundreds of Apple Console Message logs I reported everytime my MBP suffers a KP should be sufficient.
Your request for insisting will also not work. It should not work, if Apple is doing everything right. It should not give the power to you to make Apple do what you want them to.
Apple knows what they can do or won't do and this has nothing to do with insisting. you know what I'm saying?
Yes, probably. Although the mid-2011's seem a little more reliable than the early-2011's.
It’s a bit of crapshoot, I guess there’s some things to run it cooler, keep dGPU less used, or at less intensive use (like games). Unfortunately, if you run a monitor - I personally run a large external monitor 95% of the time - you’ll be on the dGPU most of the time.
I also use SMCFanControl so I can monitor my temps, my fan speeds, and I actually have the fans set to run faster vs. the temp (vs. the stock config), as I don’t mind a little extra fan noise to keep the machine a little cooler.
My machine just hit right about 3 years, and just went out of AC coverage, but I’m not having any issues at the moment.
I’m seriously thinking about cracking mine open, cleaning off the existing thermal paste application and re-applying it.
Unfortunately it's not a guarantee. We have two late-2011's in my household - the same computer that poster has - and one of them has just started having these issues. I'm desperately hoping the one I'm using right now stays fine, but the late-2011's don't seem to be any more stable, it's just that the issues have taken longer to start showing up.
If people would purchase Applecare like a smart person would do, I'd bet 90% of these would have been covered when they noticed an issue. Just sayin.
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Well, hell, maybe Apple should just cover everything.. for free. Your 1990 Mac got dropped and shattered? Screw it, you get a 2014 for free. They're rich, why not, right?!
You know the logic board replacements are failing too...
They may only 'seem' more reliable at the moment because they've not been in use as long. It appears the number of failures is accelerating as these systems close in on the 3+ year old mark.
I'll bet in another 8 months (the age difference between the early and late 2011 models) the 'late 2011' models failure rates will be on the rise big time.
I have a 2GHz Core i7 early 2011 MBP and so does the wife. I put an SSD in mine and made a 960GB Fusion drive and maxed the ram to 16GB. It's got the AMD Radeon HD 6490M, I guess.
It still works great with no hiccups ever in three years.
It still works great with no hiccups ever in three years.
I don't think it's limited to MacBook Pro, either. My 2011 iMac 21" gets spots on the screen and freezes for no reason. I thought it was the 3rd party RAM, but after troubleshooting it, that came up clean.
Hope there's some joy for MacBook owners. iMac owners might get some attention, too.
Hope there's some joy for MacBook owners. iMac owners might get some attention, too.
Yea, I did have Applecare and within that time period they replaced the Logic Board (mobo) twice, which means I'm on my third board, and the screen once. Guess what? I'm still having graphics issues even though its the same problem and now that I'm out of the extended warranty they want me to pay for what they didn't fix before. You know what they will probably do if I pay for it? Replace the board again and in six months I'll be back to the same problem. Their answer to as why they wouldn't give me a new machine? "we don't have a process for doing something like that". According to the geniuses all they could do is basically keep replacing parts.If people would purchase Applecare like a smart person would do, I'd bet 90% of these would have been covered when they noticed an issue. Just sayin.
I'm sure this will surprise people who haven't been around that long but this is not the first time Apple has pulled this. I had an Apple Monitor that had a design flaw and it kept breaking down. Once it got past the warranty period even though it was the same part that kept dying they wouldn't fix it. They later got hit with a class action and they agreed to settle, but they only acknowledged that the problem was for a certain range of serial numbers which of course mine wasn't included. This was just a way for Apple to limit any damages they had to pay out while still looking like they were doing something, meanwhile I was out like $750 at the time. I haven't bought an Apple monitor since then.
I hope this time around they do right by me.
Lawyers Researching Possible Class Action Lawsuit Over 2011 MacBook Pro Graph...
I filled out the survey. My GPU hasn't totally failed on me (which I've stated in the survey), but I do get graphical glitches in various situations, including Safari. I've posted about this in he past where sometimes my screen just totally starts showing lines.
I filled out the survey. My GPU hasn't totally failed on me (which I've stated in the survey), but I do get graphical glitches in various situations, including Safari. I've posted about this in he past where sometimes my screen just totally starts showing lines.
What IS IT with GPUs lately? I thought the worst of it was over with the GeForce 8600M/9600M a few years ago. Now AMD? =/
As someone with a 2012 MBP I'm hoping I'm not next, lol. Although obviously the GeForce 650M =/= Radeon 6750/6770.
As someone with a 2012 MBP I'm hoping I'm not next, lol. Although obviously the GeForce 650M =/= Radeon 6750/6770.
well, the gt330m dgpu in my mid-2010 mbp is causing gpu-related kernel crashes. but, i don't think it is about heat, if that is what you're worried about.
if the gt650m hasn't had gpu-related crashes then i don't think it will suffer the same fate as the gt330m. the gt330m from the get-go has always had gpu-related issues. it was about intel igpu to nvidia dgpu graphics switching and now in mavericks, it is not about it switching so much anymore but a gpu-related kernel panic crash about read error and apple mux control or something like that which could be the same grafx switching issue before that causes the KP even though it is not switching anything if that makes sense....
this is my theory but it could be how OS X and certain programs inherently or sneakily will use the dGPU for "cpu" task but to my mid-2010 MBP--the task that the OS uses to ask the cpu or dgpu to leverage task in the OS might be tripping over the old switching graphics thing that causes it to KP. idk how to make it mroe clear, just a theory and i am not an engineer.
as for overheating like the hd6550m's in the 2011 mbp's? the 650m is by nvidia and i think it's kepler based so the 650m should be thermally sounder than what AMD usually offers for the same performance. so, the 650m might not fry itself like the hd6550m.
fry itself is the operative word. i am hoping that the 650m is smarter than that and since apple is still using it's faster sibling, the 750m in the highest priced rMBP, then apple probably doesn't see a problem with it.
although, it's hard to tell if apple sees anything since they apparently didn't see the GT330m's "latent manufacturing defect" or that the HD6550m would fry itself inside their aluminum clad computers.
If it was from the same batch and if it can go wrong, it will eventually. In the case of mine, some time ago I was reading some gfx issues on my t61 thinkpad model (due to flaw in manufacturing) while mine was going strong at that time. Not long after passing 3 year warranty mark, it went haywire. Now it is sitting duck in my shelf.
If Apple knows how to repair stuff (which I assume they don't, because they only know how to replace with refurb parts or give new machines outright), reballing a new GPU in (preferably with leaded solder) and properly applying the thermal paste would do the trick.
I've heard anecdotes that go both ways. Not convinced that the problem isn't with the lead frame or something inside the package - many have reported that reballing/reapplying thermal paste either doesn't work or works only for a short time, implying a problem inside the package.
That's because some reballers try to rip people off by reballing the original (and henceforth damaged) GPU back into the logic board.
A new GPU should be reballed to eliminate the problem.