

Early 2011 MacBook Pros Are Dropping Like Flies, Heat Issues To Blame - adambutler
http://www.cultofmac.com/262861/early-2011-macbook-pros-dropping-like-flies-heat-issues-blame

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jwilker
Had to replace my logic board in October or so. It's not related to heavy
load. I don't play games, at all, don't watch full screen youtube videos, use
much flash, etc. From what most users in the Apple support forum can guess
it's bad solder, some have had moderate success rebelling. I lucked out (used
loosely) and Apple offered a flat $300 depot repair.

Based on the forum posts, it's not just early 2011, but most of 2011.
Basically any machine with that GPU model.

If my machine was 4 years old I might be less irritated, but it was just over
2 when the board died, and from reading the forum, the rate of failure is
increasing lately. If it was just me, sure things happen, but clearly there's
something larger at play, and i really do hope apple addresses it.

------
chiph
The GPU in my mid-2011 15" MBP died just before Christmas (symptom was
vertical bars in the display, and then random boot failures) Street price of
the used laptop: About $500. Cost of a new system board would have been $579.
Luckily for me, it was still under AppleCare warranty.

I never gamed on this laptop - it was purely a productivity machine, running
Pages, Parallels, etc., usually with an external 24" monitor.

~~~
adambutler
Ive been having these issues too -

Here is my experience...

\- I am from the UK so we are covered under the EU consumer laws, more info
here -> [http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-
warranty/](http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/) I bought my
Macbook Pro 2011 17" with the 6750M GPU in April 2011 from BestBuy UK.

\- In 2012 BestBuy shut down operations in the UK

\- In January 2014 I started experiencing this defect. System halts with
striped lines ect.

\- I contacted Apple care to ask if I would be eligible under this program,
they told me that since BestBuy had shut down they would honour the extended
warranty should it be diagnosed as a manufacturing fault.

\- I booked an appointment at the Apple Store (Bristol Cabot Circus) to have
the laptop tested. They confirmed a GPU fault and told me that Apple wasn't
responsible for upholding the extended warranty. I told them I would get back
in contact with Apple care as this contradicted what I had been told before.

\- I spoke to a Apple Care Senior Technical Support Advisor at AppleCare again
and he told me that the store was wrong and do not deal with these niche cases
as often. He enquired about the test that was run on my laptop and told me
that they still needed to confirm if this was a general fault or a
manufacturing fault. This I have been told can not be done at the Apple Store
since it was not bought from there (both I and him found this very unusual).

\- I was told I would need to book in a 'Consumer Law Claim' test at a company
called Western Computer in Bristol. If this test confirmed a valid consumer
law issue I would not be liable to pay the fee for the test of £78.00 and the
hardware repair would be carried out for free. However if it indicated a
general fault I would have to pay this myself. Before having this test run I
wanted to ask what was involved and how one distinguishes a general fault from
a manufacturing fault. I got a vague reply that indicated the test was
software based which didn't give me much confidence that this test would throw
the "error code" that was required for a consumer law repair.

\- As of now I am waiting to see how this plays out, it's hit the tech news
now and I am hoping just like in 2008 and 2010 there will be a class action
lawsuit that will save me all this hassle. I don't think I will get the test
run at this time as I want to save myself the expense. I'll keep this updated
with my progress.

