A bunch of early 2011 MacBook Pro owners are running into video and heating problems

By Konrad Krawczyk January 17, 2014

suddenly bunch early 2011 macbook pro owners running video problems 17 g1 650x0

If you ask most MacBook Pro owners about their experience with Cupertino’s flagship notebook, they’ll probably have nothing but good things to say. However, there’s a bunch of people on one thread in the official Apple forums that have been reporting issues with video on the Early 2011 MacBook Pro.

We could describe the issues to you, but we figure that these photos, posted by Apple forum user “johnsolo” earlier this morning, will paint the picture pretty clearly.

The culprit seems to be the early 2011 MacBook Pro’s AMD GPU, which allegedly overheats while the notebook is engaged in heavy duty, GPU-intensive tasks, like video editing, playing games or watching HD clips. The display begins to become distorted, and while a reboot could temporarily solve the problem, the issue almost always returns from the dead and persists until the display is put out of commission.

According to multiple forum users participating in the thread entitled “2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card,” those still covered under AppleCare were able to lug their afflicted MacBooks to a Genius Bar and drop them off to have the laptop’s logic board replaced. However, that process took weeks for some. Multiple people on this thread indicated that they’ve also been using British based bga_repairs, which appears to specialize in repairing Apple and Sony notebooks, as an alternative to AppleCare.

A fellow by the name of Raj Dsouza created a Change.org petition in an effort to bring attention to these issues with the early 2011 MacBook Pro. The petition is addressed Apple CEO Tim Cook and has 302 signatures as of this writing, though we wouldn’t be surprised if that number spiked shortly.

It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, Apple will do if these problems continue to persist.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Konrad Krawczyk

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…

Deals

Best Apple Deals: MacBooks, AirPods, iPads, iMacs, AirTags and more

dell xps 15 vs macbook pro 16 apple ry 14 1200x9999

Pretty much all Apple products are some of the best-in-class for their respective type of tech. However, you do pay for the privilege with many devices like iPads or MacBooks costing a little more than non-Apple variants. That's why it's so useful to find great Apple deals like the ones below. We've picked out some of the best ways to save substantially on highly sought after Apple products from accessories to AirPods and more. Take a look below at some of our favorite Apple deals right now.
AirTags (4-pack) -- $89, was $99

If you worry about misplacing items, you need Apple AirTags. With a simple one-tap setup, your iPhone or iPad is instantly connected to an AirTag so that you can always use find items via the Find My app. That could be your car keys, your bag, or anything else that you can fit or slip an AirTag into. If you misplace something, you can simply put the AirTag into Lost Mode to be notified when it's detected in the Find My network helping you pin it down. You can also play a sound through the built-in speaker if you know it's nearby but you're not sure if it's worth moving the couch to find it.

Computing

Want an M3 Max MacBook Pro? There’s a lengthy wait ahead

An Apple MacBook Pro 14 sits open on a table.

If you’ve been holding out for a super-powered MacBook Pro with a high-end M3 Pro or M3 Max chip, you could have a lengthy wait on your hands. That’s because, despite Apple’s plans to launch new Macs later this year, several are reportedly going to miss the cut.

That’s according to journalist Mark Gurman, who claims in a new report that Apple’s flagship 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro models are unlikely to launch until the middle of 2024. Worse, the M3 Mac mini might not see the light of day until late 2024 at the earliest.

Computing

Should you buy the M2 MacBook Pro or wait for the M3?

The MacBook Pro on a wooden table.

It's been over a year since the M2 was announced, with the chip first appearing in the 13-inch MacBook Pro and 13-inch MacBook Air. With the M3 chip on the horizon, you might wondering if you're better off waiting or just buying one of the current MacBook Pros?

While nothing about the M3 MacBook Pro is official yet, there's been a lot of reporting about what we can expect from these next-gen laptops.
The M2 MacBook Pro of today