Apple's 2011 MacBook Pro lineup suffering from sporadic GPU failures

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2015
Owners of early-2011 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros are reporting issues with the discrete AMD graphics processors in their notebooks, which in some cases results in the failure of the component, leaving an expensive logic board replacement as the only remedy.

MacBook Pro


The problem, as highlighted by multiple threads on Apple's Support Communities forum, first presents itself as a graphical glitch -- or, in more serious cases, complete system lockup -- when an affected MacBook Pro switches from the integrated Intel graphics chip to the discrete AMD graphics processing unit, or GPU. Reports of the issue first cropped up in February, but have become more frequent over the past month.

In 2010, Apple introduced the automatic graphics switching system, which dynamically shifts the processing load between the integrated chip and the discrete GPU based on what the user is doing. Owners of MacBook Pros built prior to 2010 have to manually select the more powerful GPU from OS X Settings, which forces the operating system to restart.

Users of affected machines report that display discoloration, banding, and image distortion are the most common visible symptoms, but many say that their computers suddenly freeze without any of the graphical warning signs. Rebooting --?even several times in succession --?rarely fixes the problem, and some have even tried to remedy the situation by forcing their laptop to use the integrated chip exclusively with only moderate degrees of success.

Data compiled from several Apple Support Communities threads by forum user "saramwrap" suggests that the majority of affected users are using early-2011 MacBook Pros with the AMD Radeon 6750M GPU, though failures are not limited to that chip. Those whose notebooks contain Radeon 6490M, 6750M, and 6970M GPUs are also experiencing the problem.

Apple has yet to address the fairly widespread issue, with many users reporting that the only repair option given to those without AppleCare coverage is a complete logic board replacement at a cost of $500 or more.

Apple's popular laptop line ran into similar troubles soon after its early 2011 hardware refresh, coming to light in another Apple support forum thread that now stretches more than 140 pages with over 2,000 replies. ArsTechnica reported at the time that Apple was aware of the issue and specifically targeted the problem with a special build of the OS X 10.6.7 update.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 128
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    That proves it's form over function and that a $400 notebook is better. /s
  • Reply 2 of 128

    I had this issue 2 months ago. It started with some graphical glitches and it worsen by the week. In the end it would freeze minutes after a reboot.

    Took to an Apple Store, PRAM reset got me an extra week until all the problems returned. Had to fork over £400 to get the motherboard replaced :(

  • Reply 3 of 128
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    I had this issue 2 months ago. It started with some graphical glitches and it worsen by the week. In the end it would freeze minutes after a reboot.
    Took to an Apple Store, PRAM reset got me an extra week until all the problems returned. Had to fork over £400 to get the motherboard replaced :(

    Did this still occur when you switched between to the iGPU over the dGPU?

    I thought warranties for items were 2 full years in the UK for electronics.
  • Reply 4 of 128
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by akqies View Post



    That proves it's form over function and that a $400 notebook is better. /s

    Speaking as an IT technician that has to fix those $400 notebooks you're full of crap.

     

    Failure rate of MacBook Pros are CONSIDERABLY less than the failure rate of a $400 laptop.

     

    There's still the elephant in the room though. That $400 notebook is still running a crap OS... even with Linux on it (Yes I damn well went there).

  • Reply 5 of 128
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by akqies View Post





    Did this still occur when you switched between to the iGPU over the dGPU?

    Yes. After about 1 1/2 week on iGPU the problem started to show up again. gfxCardStatus didn't help much unfortunately.

  • Reply 6 of 128
    froodfrood Posts: 771member

    Well that's one way to promote Apple Care

  • Reply 7 of 128
    winterwinter Posts: 1,238member
    Is it just me or does this not happen with nVidia? Yes, I'm going there.
  • Reply 8 of 128
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    Speaking as an IT technician that has to fix those $400 notebooks you're full of crap.

    Is /s really an unknown concept for someone1) on the internet, 2) on an internet forum, 3) who has been a member of this forum for over 1.5 years?

    Yes. After about 1 1/2 week on iGPU the problem started to show up again. gfxCardStatus didn't help much unfortunately.

    Hmm. Considering it's happening across multiple dGPUs and the iGPU this seems different from other GPU issues that have cropped up over the years. I hope you get your money back for the new MoBo when this is all said and done.
  • Reply 9 of 128
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    winter wrote: »
    Is it just me or does this not happen with nVidia? Yes, I'm going there.

    There have been plenty of issues with Nvidia components. Here's one major issue involving Macs: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377
  • Reply 10 of 128
    Wait a minute. I thought the narrative was that Apple moved away from nvidia in their notebooks supposedly because of video chipset failure. Now AMDs are failing?
  • Reply 11 of 128
    wardcwardc Posts: 150member

    I have a mid-2012 15" MacBook Pro. "Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB"

  • Reply 12 of 128
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by akqies View Post

    Hmm. Considering it's happening across multiple dGPUs and the iGPU this seems different from other GPU issues that have cropped up over the years. I hope you get your money back for the new MoBo when this is all said and done.

    Hope so too man. It was very weird and I thought of *gasp* reformat. But working on IT I tried to isolate the issues and in the end what happens is the smallest change in GPU, sometimes unnoticeable, crashed the whole laptop.

     

    The system.log messages were pretty weird and the Apple Quick Hardware Diagnostic that the Genius runs shows no problem at all.

  • Reply 13 of 128
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Frood View Post

     

    Well that's one way to promote Apple Care


     

    Or perhaps Apple to get into the GPU business. I wonder if those Ax graphics guys can help out ;)

  • Reply 14 of 128
    winterwinter Posts: 1,238member
    I completely forgot about the 8600M GT. I should have said, in the last five years has there been problems with nVidia but that statement could come back to bite me as well because we do not know how the 2012 rMBP will be a few years from now.
  • Reply 15 of 128
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Speaking as an IT technician that has to fix those $400 notebooks you're full of crap.
    Many of those $400 laptops aren't that easy to fix either.
    Failure rate of MacBook Pros are CONSIDERABLY less than the failure rate of a $400 laptop.
    The issue with GPUs is wide spread! The good thing with a $400 laptop is that it likely has an integrated GPU.
    There's still the elephant in the room though. That $400 notebook is still running a crap OS... even with Linux on it (Yes I damn well went there).

    Which is a huge point if you had to ever run the latest versions of Windows. Linux isn't that bad if you GUI expectations are low and you can deal with the limited app environment
  • Reply 16 of 128
    This happened to one of our 2012 15" MBP's just last week. To our surprise, Apple support acknowledged the problem and agreed to fix it for free even though the machine is out of warranty.
  • Reply 17 of 128
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    frood wrote: »
    Well that's one way to promote Apple Care

    AppleCare for a MBP is $349, it still isn't a good deal. In fact it is a terrible deal considering it only provide 3 years of warranty protection.
  • Reply 18 of 128

    I had this on a 17" way back... I posted in the Apple forums about my experience and was contacted directly by Apple. They replaced my older model with the brand newest 17" -that happened to be the last of its kind :(

  • Reply 19 of 128
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    winter wrote: »
    Is it just me or does this not happen with nVidia? Yes, I'm going there.

    Actually NVidia had a huge problems in MBPs a few years ago. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the move to AMD was the result of that issue. In NVidias case it was a solder joint failure problem. We don't know what is up with the AMD failures but at this point they don't appear to be even close to what owners of those NVidia powered machine experienced.

    It will be interesting to see what the root cause is with this stuff. it could be an assembly problem, an AMD design problem or a problem with TSMC processes.
  • Reply 20 of 128
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Wait a minute. I thought the narrative was that Apple moved away from nvidia in their notebooks supposedly because of video chipset failure. Now AMDs are failing?

    Funny isn't it?

    It will be interesting to see if they can come up with a common failure mode like the NVidia chips had. Frankly I don't think at this point they really know, however this seems to cover a wider array of chips so mostly likely there is more than one thing going on here.
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