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Macbook Pro Late 2011 Startup Graphics Issue

S

Seandesigner

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 1, 2015
7
0
I've got a problem with my Late 2011 17" MacBook Pro.

On Startup I get a thin Multicolour Band Appear Horizontally across the screen above the apple logo. This is then followed by the screen going black for a few seconds. It then continues to boot normally and logs in fine.

I've recently been to the Apple store and had the Logic Board and GPU replaced as part of their warranty extension programme. It happened before the replacement, and is what prompted me to look into the replacement in the first place.

When i received it back i questioned them further as it was still having this problem. After checking the laptop again they said that this happens on all of these models of MacBook pro. To be honest this surprised me, as it certainly isn't normal behaviour on any other mac i've seen. Plus it never used to happen on this mac until a few months ago.

My Question is... Has anyone else experienced this problem, and if so were you able to resolve it?

I've included a picture to help describe the issue.

Its a late 2011 MacBook Pro 17" 1TB SSD, 16GB Ram Running macOS Sierra.

IMG_1198.jpg
 
I have an early 2011 and had my logic board replaced twice for this sort of issue - much more severe than the image posted, but to me it is the same underlying issue (one that is known to happen in early 2011 models - maybe late 2011 ones as well?). I am now experiencing the issue again. I would not be confident in the problem being fully addressed if this was showing up on my machine. Others may have greater technical insight on this issue, but that is how I feel. I would keep a close eye on this and be prepared to take it in once again.
[doublepost=1475598416][/doublepost]Here is the official Apple page about the 2011 (and other year) model problems. You can check if you are eligible for coverage from a link on this page as well:

https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
 
I experienced exactly the same on my Late 2011 17" MBP for a long time in several beta versions of Sierra. Now it is gone since a while but I can't recall what I did before. It could be that it disappeared after I disabled FileVault a few weeks ago. Do you have FileVault enabled?

Beside this glitch I never had any other graphics issue on this Mac.
 
Cheers for the responses...

Yaboze said:
Bring it back again, looks like the new board has issues as well. Supposedly, you only get a refurb board anyway.
Click to expand...

I brought it back in a second time. they said they'd fit a new board if diagnostics tests showed issues. None showed up. I'll keep an eye on it.

groundcontrol said:
I have an early 2011 and had my logic board replaced twice for this sort of issue - much more severe than the image posted, but to me it is the same underlying issue (one that is known to happen in early 2011 models - maybe late 2011 ones as well?). I am now experiencing the issue again. I would not be confident in the problem being fully addressed if this was showing up on my machine. Others may have greater technical insight on this issue, but that is how I feel. I would keep a close eye on this and be prepared to take it in once again.
[doublepost=1475598416][/doublepost]Here is the official Apple page about the 2011 (and other year) model problems. You can check if you are eligible for coverage from a link on this page as well:

https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
Click to expand...

That's the same programme i had the logic board and gpu replaced under. They did say when i picked it up first time that the diagnostics they ran didn't show up any of the problems, but they replaced the boards anyway. They reiterated when i dropped it in the second time that all the diagnostics they ran didn't show any problems related to the replacement programme.

Erdbeertorte said:
I experienced exactly the same on my Late 2011 17" MBP for a long time in several beta versions of Sierra. Now it is gone since a while but I can't recall what I did before. It could be that it disappeared after I disabled FileVault a few weeks ago. Do you have FileVault enabled?

Beside this glitch I never had any other graphics issue on this Mac.
Click to expand...

No FileVault enabled. I had the same problem on the previous version of the OS also before i installed Sierra. If there's anything else you can think of that you changed, i can look into those also.
 
I've seen this on my 2011 as well after having the replacement done. It has only occurred just after the replacement on a few boots, and then it's stopped. No impact on use. I don't know from where it stems, but it seems it can happen temporarily on replacement boards which are otherwise "fine" (in quotes since the replacements boards will of course also fail eventually).

Try forcing the dGPU on your machine by disabling automatic graphics switching in System Preferences. The dGPU is used on boot, but then the iGPU takes over when OS X is fully loaded and stays that way unless some application invokes the dGPU again.
 
JTToft said:
I've seen this on my 2011 as well after having the replacement done. It has only occurred just after the replacement on a few boots, and then it's stopped. No impact on use. I don't know from where it stems, but it seems it can happen temporarily on replacement boards which are otherwise "fine" (in quotes since the replacements boards will of course also fail eventually).

Try forcing the dGPU on your machine by disabling automatic graphics switching in System Preferences. The dGPU is used on boot, but then the iGPU takes over when OS X is fully loaded and stays that way unless some application invokes the dGPU again.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I tried disabling the auto switching... still the same i'm afraid. I've also had no impact on use so far. Fingers crossed it sorts itself out. The "new" board comes with a 90 days warranty. So if things change for the worse hopefully it shows up sooner rather than later.
 
Seandesigner said:
Thanks for the advice. I tried disabling the auto switching... still the same i'm afraid. I've also had no impact on use so far. Fingers crossed it sorts itself out. The "new" board comes with a 90 days warranty. So if things change for the worse hopefully it shows up sooner rather than later.
Click to expand...
- Disabling auto switching wasn't to solve the startup "issue". It was to see if there actually is an issue. On startup, only the Radeon GPU is used, and it shows issues there to some extent in the form of the coloured line. If you then disable auto switching, the machine can only run on Radeon even when macOS is loaded. If it shows issues when in macOS under those conditions, there actually is a significant issue. If it doesn't, there isn't anything important wrong.
It's a diagnostic method, not a solution.
 
Last edited:
I am seeing this too. Had logic board replaced once. After installing Sierra I did nvram and smc reset. That's when these lines pop out. I did a hardware diagnostic test. Nothing wrong with hardware.
 
ljjycss said:
I am seeing this too. Had logic board replaced once. After installing Sierra I did nvram and smc reset. That's when these lines pop out. I did a hardware diagnostic test. Nothing wrong with hardware.
Click to expand...

Have you mentioned this to apple? If so what was their take on it?
 
I got it too on Early 2011 17" - also been having restarts like the above link says.

Doubt Apple will help me as my hinge snapped (everything works fine and had issues before) so they will put blame on that....
 
Also seeing it on mine (since Sierra upgrade). I had the logic board replaced maybe a year ago.
 
Polaroid said:
Doubt Apple will help me as my hinge snapped (everything works fine and had issues before) so they will put blame on that....
Click to expand...
- Don't think so. They have a specific diagnostic test. If that indicates your machine is affected by this specific GPU fault, they will fix it.
 
Seandesigner said:
Have you mentioned this to apple? If so what was their take on it?
Click to expand...
I did the same and the Genius bar said it is a software problem on the 2011 as well as new Macs. They hope Apple will do an update of the OS to fix it. I really believe it is recurrent graphics card issue as mine was replaced once under the recall. Passed the video test and therefore they won't take it in for repair. I bet it just gets worse until the graphics fail completely. Apple won't fix it.
 
DaDoc said:
Passed the video test and therefore they won't take it in for repair. I bet it just gets worse until the graphics fail completely. Apple won't fix it.
Click to expand...
- They will when it gets so bad that it fails the test, if that happens before the end of the repair programme.
 
Don't forget you are protected by consumer laws - in UK its 6 years after purchase.
 
JTToft said:
- They will when it gets so bad that it fails the test, if that happens before the end of the repair programme.
Click to expand...
Great. I'm calling Apple again to demand that they just take it to depot and fix it.
 
I am also getting the exact same problem. The bar comes on, screen goes black and then on again and the machine starts normally. This started after I restet the PRAM of my laptop. How is this possible?
 
Erdbeertorte said:
I experienced exactly the same on my Late 2011 17" MBP for a long time in several beta versions of Sierra. Now it is gone since a while but I can't recall what I did before. It could be that it disappeared after I disabled FileVault a few weeks ago. Do you have FileVault enabled?

Beside this glitch I never had any other graphics issue on this Mac.
Click to expand...

So you think this is kind of a glitch bug?
 
kwvin29 said:
So you think this is kind of a glitch bug?
Click to expand...
There seems to be some people incurring graphical issues on Sierra that never had that on the older version of OS X. I recommend trying to downgrade and seeing if that corrects the issue.
 
maflynn said:
There seems to be some people incurring graphical issues on Sierra that never had that on the older version of OS X. I recommend trying to downgrade and seeing if that corrects the issue.
Click to expand...
My machines showed this problem after resetting the PRAM, is this normal?
 
JTToft said:
- They will when it gets so bad that it fails the test, if that happens before the end of the repair programme.
Click to expand...
JTToft said:
- They will when it gets so bad that it fails the test, if that happens before the end of the repair programme.
Click to expand...
I
DaDoc said:
Great. I'm calling Apple again to demand that they just take it to depot and fix it.
Click to expand...
So I just got back from the Apple store. They replaced the logic board AGAIN but were sure to let me know that it did NOT correct the problem. They still feel that it is a software glitch that will likely (hopefully) be fixed in a future OS update. Yup.
 
DaDoc said:
I

So I just got back from the Apple store. They replaced the logic board AGAIN but were sure to let me know that it did NOT correct the problem. They still feel that it is a software glitch that will likely (hopefully) be fixed in a future OS update. Yup.
Click to expand...
- What problems are you having exactly?
 
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