MBP 1,1-10,2 Force 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 with failed AMD GPU to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix)

[davidlv]

Thanks @davidlv !!

Can you please inform me, if you need to do the "NVRAM" patch writing by keyboard.
Or with a clean install of Big Sur with OCLP, the GPU patch is automatically installed?

My ATI GPU is actually still working, but I disabled it, 'just in case'. As far as I know, the gpu disabling nvram command must be typed in via the keyboard, when booted up from the USB OS installer, using the Terminal. The OCLP install (build and install, followed by writing to disk) alone will not disable the problematic gpu. Neither will the post install root patch, which enables gpu acceleration for the non-metal intel HD3000 or the HD4000 (sorry, those "HD3000 & HD4000" terms may be wrong, can't remember what the correct terminology is right now).

 

[leonsk1978]

Does this work while using bootcamp?

 

[Queen6]

My own 2011 15" is closing on 11 years The Radeon DGPU is limited via SW. Haven't looked to isolate it as I figure that if it was going to fail it would have done so a good number of years back. This MBP was pushed hard when it was more relevant as a workhorse.

At this point in time it's simply an exercise in curiosity at to when it will fail. The 2011 MBP rarely rebooted or shutdown. It's outlived several Retina MBP's, remains 100% stock although the battery is now down to 50% of factory capacity so may need to attend to that at some point in time

Arguably anyone who bought a new 15" in 2011 and retained it has more than had their moneys worth...

Q-6

 

[trifero]

Does this work while using bootcamp?

No windows without the discrete GPU.

 

[Prerunning]

My own 2011 15" is closing on 11 years The Radeon DGPU is limited via SW. Haven't looked to isolate it as I figure that if it was going to fail it would have done so a good number of years back. This MBP was pushed hard when it was more relevant as a workhorse.

At this point in time it's simply an exercise in curiosity at to when it will fail. The 2011 MBP rarely rebooted or shutdown. It's outlived several Retina MBP's, remains 100% stock although the battery is now down to 50% of factory capacity so may need to attend to that at some point in time

Arguably anyone who bought a new 15" in 2011 and retained it has more than had their moneys worth...

Q-6

Im still pissed my late 2011 died on me yesterday.. Im working on confirming it was the GPU that failed. Seems most likely but Ive never had gpu glitches or lines. I boosted and cleaned the fans since new.
Now the fans spin, cd spins, battery charges, green red mag lights, battery capacity, and power light is normal. It wont boot or chime and there is no backlight or display. The heat sinks and board slowly heat up. If i pull the ram it will beep. No of the boot keys or resets work anymore.

 

[Queen6]

Im still pissed my late 2011 died on me yesterday.. Im working on confirming it was the GPU that failed. Seems most likely but Ive never had gpu glitches or lines. I boosted and cleaned the fans since new.
Now the fans spin, cd spins, battery charges, green red mag lights, battery capacity, and power light is normal. It wont boot or chime and there is no backlight or display. The heat sinks and board slowly heat up. If i pull the ram it will beep. No of the boot keys or resets work anymore.

It's 2022, so you got a pretty good run for the money. All of us with the 2011 15" MBP's are on borrowed time at this point. I don't look to conserve my 2011 MBP, I just use as I see fit. When it fails, I'll look to repair if practicable

Q-6

 

[Brian33]

Im still pissed my late 2011 died on me yesterday.. Im working on confirming it was the GPU that failed. Seems most likely but Ive never had gpu glitches or lines. I boosted and cleaned the fans since new.
Now the fans spin, cd spins, battery charges, green red mag lights, battery capacity, and power light is normal. It wont boot or chime and there is no backlight or display. The heat sinks and board slowly heat up. If i pull the ram it will beep. No of the boot keys or resets work anymore.

Well, this is a bizarre coincidence! Mine has failed with exactly the same symptoms just TWO days ago. (Except I'm not sure what you mean by "green red mag lights" and I haven't tried pulling the RAM.) On powerup the while LED on the front comes on, but no keyboard light, and if I let it sit, eventually the fans will come on. That's it. Nothing ever on the screen.

Many years ago it started displaying the graphic glitches, so I just did the NVRAM setting and moved the kernel extension. It was used every day ever since, and I even bought a new battery from OWC about 5 months ago. I'll really miss it.

@Prerunning , please post if you discover anything more about yours...

 

[Prerunning]

Well, this is a bizarre coincidence! Mine has failed with exactly the same symptoms just TWO days ago. (Except I'm not sure what you mean by "green red mag lights" and I haven't tried pulling the RAM.) On powerup the while LED on the front comes on, but no keyboard light, and if I let it sit, eventually the fans will come on. That's it. Nothing ever on the screen.

Many years ago it started displaying the graphic glitches, so I just did the NVRAM setting and moved the kernel extension. It was used every day ever since, and I even bought a new battery from OWC about 5 months ago. I'll really miss it.

@Prerunning , please post if you discover anything more about yours...

Hopefully i can fix it. I should have time to pull the mobo tomorrow. Ill try the resistor that disable gpu power first. If that doesnt work ill try reflowing it.

 

[Prerunning]

I pulled resistor 8911 and now it chimes when powered on. Ill have to do more research now that its posting.

 

[Brian33]

I pulled resistor 8911 and now it chimes when powered on. Ill have to do more research now that its posting.

Good news!

 

[tomcatrr]

My ATI GPU is actually still working, but I disabled it, 'just in case'. As far as I know, the gpu disabling nvram command must be typed in via the keyboard, when booted up from the USB OS installer, using the Terminal. The OCLP install (build and install, followed by writing to disk) alone will not disable the problematic gpu. Neither will the post install root patch, which enables gpu acceleration for the non-metal intel HD3000 or the HD4000 (sorry, those "HD3000 & HD4000" terms may be wrong, can't remember what the correct terminology is right now).

Last week I did try B.S., in a clean install.

And yes, I needed to do the "NVRAM" command.
Just need to find out how to turn off the "verbose mode" on boot

Thanks.

 

[davidlv]

Last week I did try B.S., in a clean install.

And yes, I needed to do the "NVRAM" command.
Just need to find out how to turn off the "verbose mode" on boot

Thanks.

Reference page: https://www.reddit.com/r/BigSurPatcher/comments/pzzt84 Enter the code below via the terminal and restart, should be fixed

sudo nvram boot-args=""

 

[Queen6]

My own 2011 15" remains to soldier on, still 100% stock & never clean installed Battery is now down to 60% of design capacity. I clean out the fans & heat syncs biannually, dGPU is enabled, although restricted by software which is prudent with this model.

It mostly stays offline (High Sierra) and serves up media on demand. Think what impresses is that it will literally run at 100% with zero throttling. I kind of think it's in the minority as so many 2011 15" died prematurely due to AMD's error and exacerbated by Apple's form over function cooling solution.

At this point in time it's more an exercise in curiosity as to when the 2011 will fail. So far it's seen off a good number or MBA's & Retina Mac's and baring the battery it shows no sign of decline. Only time it's shutdown is when I clean the fans & inspect the battery or if we move house and just maybe that's the key to it's longevity...

Ambient temp is generally in the upper 20's to lower 30's yet the 2011 seems oblivious. Even under a 100% the fans will not max out, unless I manually override. Value for money indeed

Q-6

 

[Prerunning]

I’m still working on getting my 2011 running again but I needed something for work so I picked up a 2014 retina.

I bought a 2011 practice board and 2 amd chip 216 0810005 from AliExpress. 1 claims to be 2017+ With leaded balls the other 2019 but I think it was lost in mail.

I pulled the old gpu off and the ppvcore_gpu short is gone.
I soldered the new chip on and unfortunately popcorned it. I should have baked it 24hours 100-110c to remove moisture like the listing says but I didnt.

I haven’t done bga work since Xbox 360 which is why I bought 2 chips..
While waiting on a new chip I’ve been attempting to bypass the gpu via SPI ROM /Bios chip.

I flashed it to match the ME region of 13 inch no gpu model as described by dosdude1 but I was unable to get video. I tried a different no gpu rom from vinafix and had a similar failure.

I’m wondering what the CMIzapper gpu killer writes to this chip to kill the gpu that I’m not.

 

[SpotOnT]

Edit: Well nevermind. After an hour plus of doing the exact same thing, the screen finally came back to life

 

[ondert]

Hello everyone, tomorrow morning i’m buying a 2011 with failing gpu. The owner told me it needs reflowing. Also mentioned “The vertical blue screen showed up once. I rebooted and then it got the grey screen and couldn’t fully load the OS”

Which way should I follow for the most recent fix to disable the dgpu?

 

[Queen6]

Hello everyone, tomorrow morning i’m buying a 2011 with failing gpu. The owner told me it needs reflowing. Also mentioned “The vertical blue screen showed up once. I rebooted and then it got the grey screen and couldn’t fully load the OS”

Which way should I follow for the most recent fix to disable the dgpu?

Hope it's cheap, as in near free as the damage is done. If possible I'd recomend looking for a 2012 - 2015 and I speak as an owner of a good 15" 2011.

Q-6

 

[trifero]

Hello everyone, tomorrow morning i’m buying a 2011 with failing gpu. The owner told me it needs reflowing. Also mentioned “The vertical blue screen showed up once. I rebooted and then it got the grey screen and couldn’t fully load the OS”

Which way should I follow for the most recent fix to disable the dgpu?

Firstable, try this.

Disable MacBook Pro Dedicated GPU

If it works, I should go for Demux.

DeMux: A permanent fix for the MacBook Pro 2011 GPU - DosLab Electronics

A permanent fix to disable the defective dedicated AMD GPU on 2011 MacBook Pro models.

doslabelectronics.com

 

[ondert]

Hope it's cheap, as in near free as the damage is done. If possible I'd recomend looking for a 2012 - 2015 and I speak as an owner of a good 15" 2011.

Q-6

Yes, it’s quite cheap, $35 and it comes with 16gb RAM and 256gb ssd installed. Charger and the Mac look to be in good shape, i’ll see the battery health.

Firstable, try this.

Disable MacBook Pro Dedicated GPU

If it works, I should go for Demux.

DeMux: A permanent fix for the MacBook Pro 2011 GPU - DosLab Electronics

A permanent fix to disable the defective dedicated AMD GPU on 2011 MacBook Pro models.

doslabelectronics.com

Alright, i’ll try this at first. Also, found a video like this;

 

[Queen6]

Yes, it’s quite cheap, $35 and it comes with 16gb RAM and 256gb ssd installed. Charger and the Mac look to be in good shape, i’ll see the battery health.


Alright, i’ll try this at first. Also, found a video like this;

At that price it's worth a shot as the code has been proven to work.

Q-6

 

[ondert]

At that price it's worth a shot as the code has been proven to work.

Q-6

Success! I guess..

First, I followed the steps on the video I posted. It worked but to be sure then I disabled csrutil again and download and installed dGPU disabler.

Then checked the DeMux but it’s something I can’t do here.

 

[Queen6]

Success! I guess..

First, I followed the steps on the video I posted. It worked but to be sure then I disabled csrutil again and download and installed dGPU disabler.

Then checked the DeMux but it’s something I can’t do here.

Nice My own 2011 15" the dGPU is enabled although restricted by SW. I've owned it from new so I know the full history of the notebook. I figure that if the dGPU was going to fail it would have done so years back as it's been heavily used & abused in the past.

TBH 35$ is about the right price as they are only really worth parts price at this point in time. There used to be a service that replaced the ill fated Radeon dGPU with a lesser model, however known to be reliable without issue. I rather suspect that's no longer an option now given the age of the notebooks.

At 10.9 years old the 2011 owes me nothing, so no complaints Anyway enjoy your new/old Mac and welcome to a somewhat infamous club LOL...

Q-6

 

[ondert]

Nice My own 2011 15" the dGPU is enabled although restricted by SW. I've owned it from new so I know the full history of the notebook. I figure that if the dGPU was going to fail it would have done so years back as it's been heavily used & abused in the past.

TBH 35$ is about the right price as they are only really worth parts price at this point in time. There used to be a service that replaced the ill fated Radeon dGPU with a lesser model, however known to be reliable without issue. I rather suspect that's no longer an option now given the age of the notebooks.

At 10.9 years old the 2011 owes me nothing, so no complaints Anyway enjoy your new/old Mac and welcome to a somewhat infamous club LOL...

Q-6

hahaha thanks, one thing though, isn't it possible to change screen brightness without DeMux?

edit: okay, just found this but afraid of doing something wrong now and the readme file doesn't explain how to install this. I'll just double click and run it, right?

GitHub - stecker870/MacBook-Pro-15-Zoll-late-2011-Graphics-Card-Fix-: Screen brightness control for MacBook Pro (15 Zoll, late 2011) Graphics Card Fix

Screen brightness control for MacBook Pro (15 Zoll, late 2011) Graphics Card Fix - GitHub - stecker870/MacBook-Pro-15-Zoll-late-2011-Graphics-Card-Fix-: Screen brightness control for MacBook Pro (...

github.com

edit2: Alright, I run the kext utility at first it says repairing permissions and makes me wait for about a minute then gives me this screen;


Then I drag and drop AppleGraphicsConrol.kext file but it gives me an error saying like this;


Lastly, after running this program the cpu temp has increased and found this process on activity monitor;
Okay turns out that's the website I opened while looking for kext editor and somehow it makes the cpu run at 97 Celsius degree.



Do I need to run csrutil disable first and then run this?

Thanks

one last thing; Can I move this kext file to the extensions-off folder and copy and paste the new kext file I downloaded to the extensions folder?
Okay I saw that was a super silly question

 

[Queen6]

hahaha thanks, one thing though, isn't it possible to change screen brightness without DeMux?

From what I've read seems a little conflicted. From what I know myself I'd say it's possible to get brightness, sleep & wake to work correctly. That said a lot may depend on which version of macOS is installed, firmware revisions and the exact HW model. Also a lot reading through this thread LOL...

These links may help:

GitHub - stecker870/MacBook-Pro-15-Zoll-late-2011-Graphics-Card-Fix-: Screen brightness control for MacBook Pro (15 Zoll, late 2011) Graphics Card Fix

Screen brightness control for MacBook Pro (15 Zoll, late 2011) Graphics Card Fix - GitHub - stecker870/MacBook-Pro-15-Zoll-late-2011-Graphics-Card-Fix-: Screen brightness control for MacBook Pro (...

github.com

This thread post #2,771

Hopefully someone with more experience can answer with a greater level of accuracy. As my 2011's dGPU is enabled the MBP works as expected. I've considered disabling the dGPU, equally as said it's lasted close to 11 years and seen a lot of mileage. Add in the brightness, sleep/wake issues it's just best left alone with the dGPU restricted once macOS is booted.

Q-6

 

[ondert]

From what I've read seems a little conflicted. From what I know myself I'd say it's possible to get brightness, sleep & wake to work correctly. That said a lot may depend on which version of macOS is installed, firmware revisions and the exact HW model. Also a lot reading through this thread LOL...

These links may help:

GitHub - stecker870/MacBook-Pro-15-Zoll-late-2011-Graphics-Card-Fix-: Screen brightness control for MacBook Pro (15 Zoll, late 2011) Graphics Card Fix

Screen brightness control for MacBook Pro (15 Zoll, late 2011) Graphics Card Fix - GitHub - stecker870/MacBook-Pro-15-Zoll-late-2011-Graphics-Card-Fix-: Screen brightness control for MacBook Pro (...

github.com

This thread post #2,771

Hopefully someone with more experience can answer with a greater level of accuracy. As my 2011's dGPU is enabled the MBP works as expected. I've considered disabling the dGPU, equally as said it's lasted close to 11 years and seen a lot of mileage. Add in the brightness, sleep/wake issues it's just best left alone with the dGPU restricted once macOS is booted.

Q-6

I didn't get it clearly. Are you able to adjust screen brightness as you want? I downloaded the kext utility from GitHub but it didn't work.