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Some 2011 MacBook Pros Experiencing GPU Glitches, System Crashes

(3 years - 10 days) it was a nice MBP late-2011, 15"

This can not be a rare incident: Keenly following the threads about the GPU issues, still hoping to be among the 'major' group :)apple: said it's few cases) of those remaining unaffected, now it stroke mine.

Brought it to the shop (being more than glad that the GPU just failed in time to be able to use AppleCare; was using it 90% with the discreteGP using Clamshell-mode).

The clerk there said there were a handful of similar machines with them right now, thus I may have to be somewhat patient to await the availability of a replacement LB.

Please, :apple:, cover this up. Likely, it turns into a nightmare otherwise, when -all- units eventually will go trough the same thing (as it appears to be the case).
 
Why Apple keep silent about it?
My MacBook Pro 17" 2011 affected this GPU issues too :mad:
 
I'm trying to decide if I should get mine fixed or not. I don't want to pay for a new mac (or building a hackintosh). I think I could've gotten another year or two of use out of my 2011 if it was still working.
 
Macbook Pro 15" - late 2011 - 8GB ram.

The faint pinkish horizontal lines on boot-up started appearing about a week ago.
I would get to the desktop maybe 1 out of 20 boots, then other times nothing, after the Apple logo, just a grey-lit screen.

Took it to the Apple store, they quickly determined it being the logic board.
$600 + tax. Ouch.

Decided not to proceed, started reading on the subject, lo and behold, pages and pages of info, pissed off customers (and rightly so), all over the web, mostly on the Apple discussion forum (265+ pages, wtf), intriguing to say the least.

This machine cost me nearly $3k in dec of 2011, the most heard-earned money I've ever spent on something.
Less than 3 years later, because of their faulty soldering/video cards, I have to fork out another chunky amount just to get a functioning machine.
Pissed? That doesn't even begin to express the sentiment, considering what I've been reading about this, they know about it and recall on 2011's are far from being a reality just yet.

So then a few days ago, couldn't get it to boot at all.
I need this machine for work, so I bit the bullet and made another appt at the Apple Store this morning.

However, just before heading out, I decided to open it up again and have one more go and noodling about.
A while back I had cleaned the fans, etc, excess dust, for the heat and fan noise was getting out of control, this just while checking email and nothing else, ridiculous, though that seems to be resolved now, thankfully.

So anyway, this morning I did very simple things and the machine boots and works normally again, and knock-on-wood, it sustains.

1. unplugged the battery cable from the logic board.
2. swapped the two ram modules, bottom went to top, top went to bottom.
3. reconnected the battery cable, reassembled the back panel and hit the power button.

IT F____ING WORKED.

Lastly, I reset the clock/time-zone info, etc.

Now, I'm not saying it will work for everyone here, but just a sliver of hope for anyone who has the tools to do this (PH#00 screwdriver) and is willing to give it one more go before parting with money Apple doesn't deserve.

Also, I've read so much about this prior to hitting the MacRumors site that I didn't sift through this entire thread, so my apologies if this make-shift solution has already been discussed. I really didn't want to participate in the Apple forum so I created a login here and thought I'd chime, maybe could help out a few of you guys.

Good luck!
 
I spent a year on that Apple thread boomlapop, posted hundreds and got sick of the trolls defending their position with their board rules and Apple doing nothing. I gave up posting there when the lawsuit was filed, I have said more than enough on there and Apple don't listen.

My first part of my user name might give you a clue who I was ;)
 
Sent in my 2011 MBP to a depot again on Friday being one month out of the initial 3 month warranty that came with the first repair. Genius talked to his manager and the manager said they'd cover the cost of the repair.
 
Gav Mack said:
I spent a year on that Apple thread boomlapop, posted hundreds and got sick of the trolls defending their position with their board rules and Apple doing nothing. I gave up posting there when the lawsuit was filed, I have said more than enough on there and Apple don't listen.

My first part of my user name might give you a clue who I was ;)
Click to expand...

I thought about posting there but it's been so long since I've needed it that I'd forgotten my username/pw lol, so I said f___ it and decided to create an account here, seems more civilized.

No clue who you were, but it's ok, sort of comforting to see I wasn't alone in this awful Apple motherboard/VG chaos.

I'm also just relieved that my last attempt of a fix has worked so far.
Going strong since 10 am this morning, no screen glitches, even re-booted perfectly twice since.
Crossing my fingers a complete MOBO reset was all it needed, uf...

:)
 
boomlapop said:
I thought about posting there but it's been so long since I've needed it that I'd forgotten my username/pw lol, so I said f___ it and decided to create an account here, seems more civilized.

No clue who you were, but it's ok, sort of comforting to see I wasn't alone in this awful Apple motherboard/VG chaos.

I'm also just relieved that my last attempt of a fix has worked so far.
Going strong since 10 am this morning, no screen glitches, even re-booted perfectly twice since.
Crossing my fingers a complete MOBO reset was all it needed, uf...

:)
Click to expand...

I wish I could say it won't fail but it will. Don't send it to Apple get a fresh AMD GPU lead solder reballed onto your logic board, especially if it's a board which has only had one GPU ever soldered on it. Polish the heatpipe contact plates to a mirror finish using chrome polish, make sure it is all off and the chip die and surface are spotlessly clean before a top quality sliver of thermal paste on each die.

Over here in the UK that's about 300 bucks and the most effective fix I have found yet.
 
Well I got my MBP back yesterday. Right when I turned it on it happened again. They took it again and this time they're replacing the logic board and RAM. They're just wasting their money and resources.
 
Not a computer person but I found this thread when researching what happened to my MBP. This happened to me about a week ago on my 2011 15 in. MBP. I was told to mail it in to Apple to repair, cost me roughly $500. I hadn't backed up my data in a while so it cost me another $70 to back up. (Lesson learned, always back up data!!)

Switched to a backup MBP and it crashed after a week as well. (Different problem though, from what I learned, the hard drive can't be located and its possibly a hard drive failure.) Currently, I'm stuck using a 2007 Black MacBook.

I didn't read through all the posts but exactly how common is it for the main logic board to fail after it was fixed by Apple? It seems to happen quite a lot judging from the posts I've seen so far. I'm considering just buying a new one instead then. Does anyone know if this happens to the newer models as well? I'm tempted to swear off Apple for good but I've grown too attached to the Mac operating systems.
 
if you've paid for the repair, keep flinging it back at Apple if it's a bad refurbished board and under the 90 day repair warranty. They'll eventually replace it with a new Mac after three failures.
 
ogremoustro said:
Yep it's great. Can't believe they gave me one with 512GB storage and a 750M GPU.
Click to expand...

I was happy to get brand new laptop, and I was relieve after months of going through logic board replacements. I am happy with intel Iris pro because I stated to them I am done with discreet gpu's. I want to get 750m macbook pro retina but I rejected because I was afraid of gpu failure. My last laptop cost fortune but only lasted almost three years:(.
 
Jessica Lares said:
I have daily display glitches on my late 2011 13" model and it has the lame Intel HD Graphics 3000. It has happened since the Mavericks betas...
Click to expand...



Same one I am using, albeit just waiting for my new 27" riMac to arrive but I haven't updated it to Maverick.

I am still using 10.95.
After reading your post, I will remain there, although if i need to reformat, at any time it makes it very difficult to "choose" this 10.95 as its not the OS it came with, naturally so any reformat/upgrade would bring me right up to the latest, which I may not want :eek:
 
MagicBoy said:
10.95 is probably a good 85 years off. ;)
Click to expand...


:D

Good Catch!

Okkkkkk....1.0.9.5 :)

Anyhow, this thread is depressing...LOL But now I am looking at my 13" MBP and wondering.......as I just bought a SSD flash drive I thought i would install into it to speed it up a a couple more years.

But i just bought a new 27" retina iMac so this MBP although it won't be my main computer but I will still be using it daily. After spending $3k its got me a bit concerned.

That said, my MBP is only a 13" and it sounds as if is happening to the 15" and 17" more??!!

I am on the computer 24/7. I use it very heavily.

As stated, I haven't upgraded to Maverick which might have helped?

BUT, i ALSO have kept it on a stand since the beginning the "rain design m stand" I think its called, plus have an extra iCurve stand.
So they don't really get hot

(my 2009 MBP is also on one and is fine, albeit slowing down too much)

Reading though though, I did just install SMCFanControl I had forgotten to install on this one

/fingers crossed
 
Apple checked my laptop for days and found nothing

My early 2011 Macbook Pro, 2,2 i7, 8GB is working really slow and using up all the memory with just a couple of safari tabs. It also gets warmer then ist should with that little CPU load. I also have bad screen artifacts.

Apple checked may laptop for days and claims that there is nothing wrong. What can i do?

Thanks for your help
 
My early 2011 macbook pro 17 inches 2.2 i7 is half dead since October, i remove the kexts file of the AMD graphic cards and it is force to use the integrate gpu and successfully got it working. Now I am using my pricey machine as iPod, media server, and torrent downloader.

I am can no longer wait for Apple to do something with this issue, unfortunately I am currently based in Muscat, Oman and I can't find any Apple store.

If anyone can point me to an online store where I can buy a logic board, that will be great!
 
Has anyone experienced screen flickering only on gray/silver colors? I have a late 2011 17" MBP and I've been seeing this happen for a while. At first I thought it was just a Google Chrome issue, but now I see it when using the Amazon Music app. It's not really that disruptive enough for me to want to take it into Apple. I was curious if anyone else had that issue though?
 
MkVsTheWorld said:
Has anyone experienced screen flickering only on gray/silver colors? I have a late 2011 17" MBP and I've been seeing this happen for a while. At first I thought it was just a Google Chrome issue, but now I see it when using the Amazon Music app. It's not really that disruptive enough for me to want to take it into Apple. I was curious if anyone else had that issue though?
Click to expand...

I have experienced that flickering onto grey/silver color websites, I also thought it was just normal.

Check the bottom part of http://www.pcworld.com/ and Steam website and you will get the same flickering.

Better use gfxCardStatus now to minimized the use of your discrete GPU.

Sooner or later, you will be one of us, or take to Apple now.
 
I have AppleCare until Feb 2015. I wasn't sure if the problem I have is considered a hardware defect or just an incompatibility with Yosemite, ie color pallete issue. Anyone else with a gray flicker issue?
 
Anyone have problems since they upgraded to Yosemite? I upgraded my late 2011 mbp and about a week later it overheated and the logic board fried. It's going to cost me 500$ to fix, and I'm really not happy about this happening.
 
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