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.
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.
- 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/
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.
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.