MBP 1,1-10,2 Disable MacBook Pro 2011 15"/17" Dedicated GPU - SPI-ROM Modification

[dosdude1]

I just thought I'd start this thread to announce a recent accidental discovery I made today -- a (possibly) PERMANENT solution to disable the dedicated video card in a 2011 15" or 17" MacBook Pro!

Essentially, what needs to be done is the ME (Management Engine) region of your system's SPI ROM needs to be replaced with a clean one designed for a MacBook Pro 8,1 (a 13" 2011 MacBook Pro -- Which doesn't have a dedicated graphics card). When I accidentally did this to a corrupt SPI-ROM I was trying to recover from a failed firmware update, I did just this -- Not realizing that the ME regions differed between the MBP 8,1 and 8,2/8,3. After installing my newly-flashed EEPROM with MBP 8,1 ME region onto the logic board and booting, the machine worked just fine... But then I noticed something. The machine WOULD NOT switch to the dedicated graphics card NO MATTER WHAT I DID!!! Unchecking "Automatic Graphics Switching" in the Energy Saver PrefPane did nothing, and GFXCardStatus did nothing either, even when forcing dedicated graphics. The system kept on using Intel HD Graphics 3000.

Now, how to do this yourself:

Before I go into detail, just a warning: Performing this process requires an EEPROM programmer, and possibly desoldering the system's SPI ROM. I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you have at least a little bit of experience.

What you'll need:

- An EEPROM programmer -- I use a MiniPro TL866, with an SOP8 adapter. This kind of adapter requires desoldering the SPI-ROM and placing it into the adapter, you CANNOT use it to program the chip without removing it from the logic board. However, there are some clip-on adapters that you can use, but I've never had much luck with the one I got... Perhaps it isn't suited to program the chip while in circuit.

- An SMD rework station -- To desolder the SPI-ROM if necessary for your programmer.

- A computer running Windows -- For your EEPROM programmer (most have Windows-Only software), and hex editing.

The procedure:

1) First, dump your system's SPI-ROM using your EEPROM programmer (you're on your own for this... All EEPROM programmer software is different). Save the dump in a safe location, and make sure to make a backup copy in case something goes wrong!

2) Open your dump in a Hex editor... I'd recommend HxD.

3) Download this file, containing the clean ME region for the MacBook Pro 8,1.

4) Next, open both it, and your dumped ROM in a hex editor.

5) In the ME region file, highlight everything by pressing Ctrl + A keys, or right-clicking, and selecting "Select All". Press Ctrl + C to copy all, and take note of the Length value shown at the bottom of the window.

6) In your ROM dump, search for the string "krid". This string is located towards the beginning of the ME region. From the string "krid", go up a bit and look for the start of the region, which consists of " €.@".

7) Right-click right before the first of the two white-space characters, and select "Select block".

8) In the dialog box, select the "Length" option, and enter the Length value you obtained earlier.

9) Click OK, then right-click in the newly-highlighted area and select "Paste write".

10) Save the file.

11) Flash the modified file back onto your SPI-ROM. Solder it back onto the logic board if removed to program it.

12) Boot the system, and the dedicated graphics card should be completely disabled!

Final notes:

- I am not responsible for any harm this may cause to your machine. Nothing should go wrong as long as you follow these instructions exactly. If your system won't boot after following the procedure, re-flash your backed-up, unmodified dump back to your SPI-ROM.

- There may be a much easier way to do this that I am not aware of. If you have any ideas, please, of course, let me know!

- I have no idea what will happen if the system's firmware is updated... More than likely it will overwrite this modification.

- The testing I have done with this is very limited. The only machine I've done this on is the aforementioned Late-2011 15" model (2.2 GHz, AMD Radeon HD 6750M). I have not tested this on any 17" models. I make no guarantee that it will work on your machine, so once again, make sure you have an unmodified backup of your SPI-ROM dump!

 

[trifero]

Nice

 

[LightBulbFun]

very interesting discovery

does the dGPU still show up in System profiler?

I also wonder what happens when you boot into windows/a BIOS OS? since in my limited experience dealing with Modern dGPU MBPs, they no matter what will switch over to the dGPU when booting windows in Legacy/BIOS mode

(when I was playing with my MBP9,1 if I forced the EFI to use the HD 4000 GPU while it would stick to the HD 4000 GPU when booting an EFI OS, it would still switch over to the dGPU no matter what when booting any Legacy/CSM (ie non EFI) OS.)

 

[iMacC2D]

This is an extremely promising fix if so. I've been looking into modifying the SPI ROM to disable the dGPU for a while now, but without much success. I have a stack of 2011 MacBook Pros in otherwise good condition, so it may be worth some testing.

Would be interested to know if the GPU appears in System Profiler or not too.

 

[dosdude1]

This is an extremely promising fix if so. I've been looking into modifying the SPI ROM to disable the dGPU for a while now, but without much success. I have a stack of 2011 MacBook Pros in otherwise good condition, so it may be worth some testing.

Would be interested to know if the GPU appears in System Profiler or not too.

The GPU does appear in System Profiler, but the system won't use it at all. I'll try it again on another machine, and do a bit more extensive testing.

 

[gfcipriani]

Anyone willing to perform this fix for hire?

 

[dosdude1]

Anyone willing to perform this fix for hire?

I could do it for you, if you're located in the US... Of course, I could also just replace the GPU, which I've done successfully a couple times now on these machines.

 

[spidertnt]

Can you tell me does the external display port still work after this change ?

 

[spinko]

I could do it for you, if you're located in the US... Of course, I could also just replace the GPU, which I've done successfully a couple times now on these machines.

Hi, I'm not located in the US but would gladly send you the motherboard (cheaper than the whole computer). I think this fix is the most permanent one since the dgpu will fail eventually. I already got the mb replacement from Apple on which I checked the thermal paste (which was bad) and changed it. The new mb lasted for about a year and a half before failing yet again. ... would your dgpu replacement be permanent fix ? price ? thanks !!

 

[Dadioh]

Can you tell me does the external display port still work after this change ?

External display runs off the dGPU so external display will NOT work once that is disabled. You can get USB to VGA/DVI dongles that use CPU power to drive the external display. They re a bit slow (not for gaming obviously) but they work if you just need external display for viewing documents and such.

 

[spidertnt]

Has any one else tried this and get it to work ?

 

[dosdude1]

Hi, I'm not located in the US but would gladly send you the motherboard (cheaper than the whole computer). I think this fix is the most permanent one since the dgpu will fail eventually. I already got the mb replacement from Apple on which I checked the thermal paste (which was bad) and changed it. The new mb lasted for about a year and a half before failing yet again. ... would your dgpu replacement be permanent fix ? price ? thanks !!

I'm not sure replacing the GPU would be a permanent fix, but in theory it should be... It all depends on the quality of chip I end up getting. These GPUs tend to be relatively difficult to find, with the only source being China. I've done this about 5 times now, though, and have yet to have one fail. I charge $175 to do the replacement. I'm not too sure about international shipping (I've never done it before), but just send me a PM if you're interested and we can figure something out.

 

[mysteryman]

I have a 2011 mbp with this problem. Other than that it was running and looking perfect. Great that this has been discovered but not great for me as I don’t have the resource to do it.

Good work finding this though and hopefully helps others out.

 

[kjchatman]

i followed the instructions perfectly and the system still doesn't boot with the intel graphics

 

[navdove]

Anyone willing to perform this fix for hire?

If you are in Toronto area, JOGi MODS can do it for you. I believe you can also ship it to him

 

[reverendalc]

i have been looking for a (permanent) EFi solution to this as well... one which will survive NVRAM reset and/or OS install/update.

i was super excited to stumble across this thread, as i thought it would make a great complement to some of the other theories.

unfortunately though, i have just tested on early 2011 mbp15 2.2ghz, with no satisfaction.
booted to macOS, installed gfxcardstatus, forced dGPU and it came on... then failed.

has anybody done any further testing or successfully duplicated this?

cheers

 

[dosdude1]

i have been looking for a (permanent) EFi solution to this as well... one which will survive NVRAM reset and/or OS install/update.

i was super excited to stumble across this thread, as i thought it would make a great complement to some of the other theories.

unfortunately though, i have just tested on early 2011 mbp15 2.2ghz, with no satisfaction.
booted to macOS, installed gfxcardstatus, forced dGPU and it came on... then failed.

has anybody done any further testing or successfully duplicated this?

cheers

Yeah, this seems to not work... It must have just been some sort of coincidence that it worked for me. My NEW mod, however, definitely works, and is 100% permanent. Check it out here.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Sorry this is ignorant of me, but why would you want to disable the discrete GPU?

 

[dosdude1]

Sorry this is ignorant of me, but why would you want to disable the discrete GPU?

When it fails, the system will no longer boot up properly. And they fail ALL THE TIME in these systems (the chips are defective thanks to AMD's crappy quality).

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

When it fails, the system will no longer boot up properly. And they fail ALL THE TIME in these systems (the chips are defective thanks to AMD's crappy quality).

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks and sorry to hear for those that had them fail.

 

[iMacC2D]

When it fails, the system will no longer boot up properly. And they fail ALL THE TIME in these systems (the chips are defective thanks to AMD's crappy quality).

Out of curiosity, what factors suggest the issue is an AMD quality issue? Genuine question.

The main reason I ask is because from what I've seen, the issue appears to be thermal cycling related, with an inadequate cooling solution in the MacBook Pro. When the repair extension was announced, a consistent pattern is that machines with failed GPUs coming in for a board replacement usually had a thick sheet of dust over the face of the fin stack - not suggesting the dust caused the issue, but it supported the theory that the issue was heat related. That and the same GPU (Radeon 6770M) doesn't have a reputation for failing in the iMac (or any other PC, for that matter), despite being the same component.

It's a different scenario than the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT failures of 2007/2008, of which those chips were notorious for failing in every make and model of machine.

 

[dosdude1]

Out of curiosity, what factors suggest the issue is an AMD quality issue? Genuine question.

The main reason I ask is because from what I've seen, the issue appears to be thermal cycling related, with an inadequate cooling solution in the MacBook Pro. When the repair extension was announced, a consistent pattern is that machines with failed GPUs coming in for a board replacement usually had a thick sheet of dust over the face of the fin stack - not suggesting the dust caused the issue, but it supported the theory that the issue was heat related. That and the same GPU (Radeon 6770M) doesn't have a reputation for failing in the iMac (or any other PC, for that matter), despite being the same component.

It's a different scenario than the NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT failures of 2007/2008, of which those chips were notorious for failing in every make and model of machine.

It is most certainly the AMD chips that are defective. For one, the Mid-2010 and Mid-2012 models have the EXACT same cooling/heatpipe/fan setup as the 2011 systems, and the GPUs on those models never fail. Secondly, I have replaced the GPUs on quite a few of these 2011 15" and 17" systems, and the chips either arrive DOA (30% of chips I got did), or fail within a month after installing them. Thermals are most certainly not the issue here (even though these systems do run quite hot). If AMD would just release a revised chipset that doesn't have the defect the originals did, all these issues would be solved. However, AMD, being AMD, continued (until 2016) to manufacture chipsets with no improvements over the ones they manufactured back in 2011. And to add, yes, the AMD Radeon HD 6xxx series cards in the iMacs fail all the time too.

 

[iMacC2D]

It is most certainly the AMD chips that are defective. For one, the Mid-2010 and Mid-2012 models have the EXACT same cooling/heatpipe/fan setup as the 2011 systems, and the GPUs on those models never fail. Secondly, I have replaced the GPUs on quite a few of these 2011 15" and 17" systems, and the chips either arrive DOA (30% of chips I got did), or fail within a month after installing them. Thermals are most certainly not the issue here (even though these systems do run quite hot). If AMD would just release a revised chipset that doesn't have the defect the originals did, all these issues would be solved. However, AMD, being AMD, continued (until 2016) to manufacture chipsets with no improvements over the ones they manufactured back in 2011. And to add, yes, the AMD Radeon HD 6xxx series cards in the iMacs fail all the time too.

I'm finding it difficult to follow. The numbers aren't adding up.

The Radeon HD 6770M failure rates, in the context of the iMac, are relatively minimal compared to the rather high failure rates of the 6770M in the MacBook Pro. I think in seven years in Apple service, I've replaced two or three 6770Ms, compared to a couple of hundred 6970Ms.

But adding other manufacturers to the mix, I can't find any substantial evidence that the 6770M experienced failure rates in other machines anywhere near as severe as the failure rates in the MacBook Pro.

I'd be curious to know where those replacement GPUs were being sourced from. I know there were suspected issues with "new" AMD GPUs shipping out of China, salvaged from old boards and etched with new part numbers.

If there's one flaw that I suspect with the AMD 6xxx series GPUs, it's that they don't like being run close to their maximum manufacturer specs for sustained periods of time, and Apple certainly likes to do exactly that, using a common and yet rather small heatpipe assembly shared between the CPU and GPU, and holding back on increasing the fan speed until the absolute last second, among other things.

A common finding in the AASPs I was fortunate enough to work in and build a sample set from was that machines coming in with failed AMD GPUs often had choked heatsinks, in the form of either a large clump of dust directly at the blower outlet or a sheet of dust over the face of the heat exchanger.

But take the same 6770M GPU and affix it to a larger heatsink - such as that in the iMac - and the failure rates fall dramatically. Take the same iMac heatsink and attach an ever hotter GPU to it - in this case, the 6970M - and the same failures start again.

Perhaps AMD should have been a little more conservative with their maximum recommended sustained temperature estimates. (Probably wouldn't have been used in the MacBook Pro then, but in hindsight most would argue this would have been for the best.)

Which is a shame. I loved the performance of my AMD GPUs. (Before I sold them, that is.) Especially coming off of the NVIDIA 8xxx debacle, burned twice with a failed 8600M GT in a MacBook Pro and an 8800GS in an iMac, the 6770M was a breath of fresh air. That said, I'm certainly glad that I didn't configure that then-new 2011 iMac with the 6970M.

 

[lextardj]

Hi to all!
I never tried this approach since I read that is not working..
I was thinking if it is possible to delete the AMD driver from the EFI ROM using UEFI TOOL, in the same way we inject the NVME driver for the Retina MBPs...

 

[reverendalc]

I agree, too bad none of us philosophers possess the technical skill to attempt this.

Even a dummy driver similar to fakesmc would be cool, but ultimately the mod should be done within EFI so that it persists NVRAM resets and OS reinstalls.