Dead MacBook Pro

MagicBoy

MagicBoy

MagicBoy

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
19,382
Location
South Manchester
I think the GPU just went. Bah. :(

15" late 2011 2.2GHz ordered on launch day. No AppleCare.

Scrambled display for a half second when scrolling down a webpage in Safari then the screen went black. Powered the Mac off and back on, it chimes and there are green lines across the display. Fans start screaming, sticks at a grey screen and it powers off after about a minute. So that's 99% certain a bad AMD graphics chip then. On the upside target disk mode is working.

I'll be booking a Genius appointment and taking it in this week I hope...
 
£1600 worth of laptop really should last longer than two and a bit years. I'm not going to pay to get it fixed without a fight and without some assurance it won't fail in the same way.

My old 2006 MBP is still going strong with it's second owner, as is the alu MacBook that followed that. The 2011 should have a similar lifespan.
 
An update :

Had a nice chat with a gent on the genius bar. Mac passed all the basic diagnostics, well where you could read them through the green lines across the screen. After a second opinion a faulty graphics chip was diagnosed. Quoted £400 for a replacement logic board with 90 day warranty. Asserted my expectations for the product then had a chat with his manager. Apple are covering the cost of a replacement logic board.

So far, so good. My faith in Apples customer service is mostly restored. :D
 
MilanoChris said:
Does the sale of goods act not cover Apple products?

Glad you got a result in the end though.
Click to expand...

It does, and that's effectively what I'm using. I was dropping a large hint and giving Apple the option to do the honourable thing rather than kicking off.

I worked the other side of a customer service desk for the purple shirt brigade in the 90s. Being polite but firm gets you much further than not being polite. Apple store staff must see enough pain the bum customers without me adding to it.
 
Last edited:
I'm not getting involved in the little ongoing spat.

For information - Apple emailed me the job sheet later that day and it was nearer £500 due to VAT on top.

Having looked into it a bit further in case it does go again I personally wouldn't go anywhere near a short term fix. There's a few companies around that will either reball the GPU with leaded solder or replace it entirely for sensible money. Bodging it with heat, be it the xbox towel trick, a domestic oven or a heat gun is only going to damage a logic board that can likely be salvaged by a professional with the correct equipment.
 
Other than the extra outlay that's the reason I didn't take Applecare. I'm Apple Certified, so don't need the phone and software support it provides in addition to the hardware benefits.
 
Just picked it up. Other than the minor annoyance of having to remember all my passwords that were in the keychain all appears well at the moment.

Right, where's Battlefield. ;)
 
Yeah, there is that. Question is what the spec would be... I can live without the dGPU, however the current MBP has extra RAM and a 512Gb SSD installed post-purchase.
 
Twice.

The first replacement was definately a refurb - there were wear marks on the ports. This one looks better, not that it means much.

If the 2012 logic board is a straight swap in it would make more sense for Apple to use those instead.
 
I figured as much. It was the same when I did warranty repairs in-store for the purple shirts back in days of yore.
 
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