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

[deknow]

There is something odd here.
A full, clean install of any OS X version will give you the kext in /System/Library/Extensions.

##(If you only cloned the BaseSystem to another drive then X3000.kext could go missing, along with quite a bit of other stuff.)##

[Regarding the hots right now: One thing you should keep in mind with a fresh install is that Spotlight and cache population processes run amok for quite some time. (Either wait that out or drag your root partition to the "Privacy" Tab in Spotlight (System Preferences) to at least quickly calm mds running wild as observed in Activity Viewer.)]

Expected prognosis: Then you should have stumbled over the hanged boot process, started the procedure, find the kext in the Extensions folder, move it, reboot, found dropped temps, then moved it back (because of the security update that wants to rewrite the kext), experience another hang, move the now updated kext again to extensions-off and be set.

Likely diagnosis: The part: "clean installation of El Capitan 10.11.6, security update" sounds very odd.
Did you really, actually start with an application called "Install OS X El Capitan.app"?
And followed through everything this Apple installer offered you or required from you?
You didn't mention the Apple Setup Procedure. Did you setup timezone, user account, password etc?
It looks to me you found somehow 'a shortcut'.

Recommended treatment: Please try this ElCap Installer.app with diskmakerx.com.
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Please state again:
On what OS version?
Was the chip or logic board replaced by Apple/someone else before?
Which guide did you follow?
Since you have an nvram script: you already did another NVRAM/SMC reset, then run your script again?
Where is AMDRadeonX3000.kext located on your system?

Hello Mikey I’m hoping you are still on here!

I had this working beautifully for 6 months... I then reset the p ram and now it’s not working. I tried to redo the instructions but I’m assuming the kexts are no long where they were before. Is there anything I can do to get this back to working without doing a complete reinstall of Sierra?
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1 - What software are you using to measure the temperature?

2 - What is the result of the Terminal?

nvram -p

I'm testing the agdc=2 option on boot-args. Only in Recovery Mode - SIP is enable.
I think that's why Policy=on was enabled.

nvram boot-args="-v agdc=2"

In this post I only had the boot-args="-v" and the result was Policy=off. #1790
Temperature: CPU Die analog=30 Celsius and GPU Die analog=zero with kextload AMDRadeonX3000.kext.

Hello ngsr,

Same question as my above post. I can’t seem disable the kexts now that I moved them. Is there any way to do this without reinstalling Sierra?

 

[yukari]

Does MikeyN #875 version of the fix work on late 2011 with Sierra OS X?
If not, can someone point to the post? I would rather not have to read all 82 pages.

Thanks

 

[d1mkaz]

I had the same exactly messages on step 8.
Yes, continue the fix. Reboot and boot in Archlinux.

Thank you @irian , I continued and after fix with Archlinux I rebooted in OS X, it seems to be working, I can still choose Discrete Only and the tick stays on Discrete, but line above does not change and it states: GPU: Intel HD Graphics 3000, so I assume it does not switch?

Thanks for help to everyone here, a lot of good advice in this thread!!!

 

[irian]

so I assume it does not switch?

yes, it doesn't switch to AMD.

 

[nerowolfe19]

Does MikeyN #875 version of the fix work on late 2011 with Sierra OS X?
If not, can someone point to the post? I would rather not have to read all 82 pages.

Thanks

It should. It works on my 2012 rMBP running Sierra taking into account removing the appropriate kexts for the 650m card instead of the AMD kext.

On a side note, for those who are having issues with rebooting. You can zap the NVRAM from terminal using the command

sudo nvram -c

after which you can disable the dGPU using

sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

before rebooting/shutting down

sudo reboot/sudo shutdown -h now

might be worth a shot if you constantly lose nvram settings everytime you do a shutdown or a restart

 

[yukari]

It should. It works on my 2012 rMBP running Sierra taking into account removing the appropriate kexts for the 650m card instead of the AMD kext.

On a side note, for those who are having issues with rebooting. You can zap the NVRAM from terminal using the command

sudo nvram -c

after which you can disable the dGPU using

sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

before rebooting/shutting down

sudo reboot/sudo shutdown -h now

might be worth a shot if you constantly lose nvram settings everytime you do a shutdown or a restart

Thanks!
I will give it a try.

----------
UPDATE: Tried it and it WORKS!!!
Thanks guys for all the hard work!

 

[Polo2883]

mine finally crapped out. The display is just lines in purplish color, and even though I can barely make out the login screen, once its logged in, it reboots. Even when connecting to an external display nothing is displaying. Its been a good laptop for 7 yrs. I dont know if I am getting another one to replace it or going to a PC.

 

[mikaelrsk]

holy smokes, guys, thank you for saving my macbook pro.. was on the verge of selling it for almost nothing,
my story goes like this:
main character: MacBook Pro late 2011, amd hd6770 with i7, Mac OS X Sierra

So my gpu failed after 6 years for the first time, I gave it to the repair shop that did solder new and chip onto my board.
Guy at the repair shop was confident that the fix will be stable, so I thought I had bought myself a brand new Mac for relatively low price. It lasted 9 months, and after that I didn't want to invest in this machine any more.

I've stumbled upon this thread, but the "tech savvines" kind of scared me of, as I have no background in IT or any of that stuff. Creating a bootable usb stick was the height of my skills in that matter ;D I decided to try all the commands I could find, and apply them on a fresh system, but that was put into my 2009 white unibody MacBook, as the pro's screen was unreadable.

Finally, after 5-6 hours of fighting, I decided to use the simplest solution on an actual broken MacBook Pro, as I was familiar at this point with what's going on without actually seeing what's on the screen.

nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

nvram boot-args="-v"

reboot


You can imagine my shock when it gave my machine a new life. I'm not sure if this was the only step, as I tried every command I could find on this thread, but before using those two Mac was still dead, and after that came to life.

The system still sees failed AMD chip, so I guess it's not completely disabled, but after working on a machine for a full day, I can testify the system is stable, and working with brightness and sleep/wake function.

I have only one question, do you think that I can safely shutdown and reboot the system? I'm happy to not do so, if that can screw something up, but Im curious what you think.

Thank you @AppleMacFinder and all of you guys, if you have a PayPal mate please send It to me, I would gladly buy you a beer. You guys deserve a Nobel prize or something. thanks <3

 

[yukari]

eGPU works!!!
I was using Aorus 1070 (Nvidia 1070 GPU) box.

After I did the fix for my late 2011 MBP using MikeyN #875 version of the fix, I redid this procedure to use eGPU:
https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/au...amd-polaris-fiji-support-for-macos/#post-1487

If this is the first time using eGPU (do only steps 2 and 3 as "csrutil disable" would already be in effect after fixing broken dGPU using the fix above.

Make sure you set NVIDIA Web driver as your graphic driver.

Below is screen shot of my 4K external monitor hooked up to dGPU failed late 2011 MBP.

 

[nerowolfe19]

eGPU works!!!
I was using Aorus 1070 (Nvidia 1070 GPU) box.

After I did the fix for my late 2011 MBP using MikeyN #875 version of the fix, I redid this procedure to use eGPU:
https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/au...amd-polaris-fiji-support-for-macos/#post-1487

If this is the first time using eGPU (do only steps 2 and 3 as "csrutil disable" would already be in effect after fixing broken dGPU using the fix above.

Make sure you set NVIDIA Web driver as your graphic driver.

Below is screen shot of my 4K external monitor hooked up to dGPU failed late 2011 MBP. View attachment 783315

Thanks for sharing this tidbit. It gives those who need an eGPU or an HDMI-out (eg a very cheap enclosure+standard card) a solution worth considering.

 

[yukari]

My pleasure. Just trying to help out others in a similar situation as MikeyN and other on this forum have graciously helped me. If it wasn't for those who found the fix for failed dGPU and posted in this forum, I wouldn't be able to use mine.

Just trying to do my part to help others as those who have worked incredibly to fix what Apple should fixed in the first place.

 

[Dark()Sun]

Hi Apple Mac Finder and everyone,

I wanted to create an account to say thank you for figuring this out and share my tale of woe. You have helped resurrect a late 2011 Macbook.

I was able to use the NVRAM command successfully after downgrading from High Sierra to Yosemite.

I was able to get this fix working with High Sierra, but it was harder to get it working and required some more steps, like enabling safe mode, to get around the the file system not letting me move the kexts, ( i wasn't able to move the kexts in the system console), however, as another poster pointed out (forgive me for not getting your handle), I lost the F1/F2 brightness control keyboard functionality and Sleep issues. So Yosemite working perfectly running on only the integrated chip.

I'm running a late 2011 Macbook and was able to get it repaired with the repair extension program about 2-3 years ago when that was going on, but Apple's repair finally failed this year. So I tossed the logic board in the oven for 7 minutes and that worked for a couple days, then failed again spectacularly. I had no other options, I wasn't going to send the board out to be repaired under a six month warranty only to have it fail again. and can't really afford a new laptop. I also upgraded the hard drive to an SSD, which pretty much rejuvenated the laptop performance wise so I was desperate for a fix.

So Apple Mac Finder, Cheers! and everyone for reporting in.
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Just trying to do my part to help others as those who have worked incredibly to fix what Apple should fixed in the first place.

 

[bermuda]

My Mac worked fine with the solution untill I updated my Sierra from 10.12.4 to 10.12.6. It got stuck at reboot on the ioconsoleusers line. Then I followed https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...fi-variable-fix.2037591/page-35#post-24956091
I can boot successfully but the quality is so bad and the images are distorted (like in safe-mode). Can anyone please let me know what else I should do. I spent hours on this and still no success!

 

[nerowolfe19]

My Mac worked fine with the solution untill I updated my Sierra from 10.12.4 to 10.12.6. It got stuck at reboot on the ioconsoleusers line. Then I followed https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...fi-variable-fix.2037591/page-35#post-24956091
I can boot successfully but the quality is so bad and the images are distorted (like in safe-mode). Can anyone please let me know what else I should do. I spent hours on this and still no success!

Honestly, High Sierra is a major pain for a lot of RG-plagued MBP owners, that it's not worth the upgrade over Sierra or an older OS like El Cap or even Yosemite.

A hardware mod can solve some of your problems on HS, but you lose screen brightness control so. But it's there.

What I'd do if I were you is ditch HS altogether and clean install an older OS so I'd get a more stable experience. Some report success only with Yosemite, some fare just as well with El Cap and Sierra.

I'm using Sierra and my system is rock solid, though I have a 2012 rMBP with a failed NVidia 650m chip so it's different setup. There was no reason for me to upgrade to HS anyway, so I stuck with Sierra for reasons other than stability (mainly new file format and my reluctance to commit to it)

 

[Dark()Sun]

Honestly, High Sierra is a major pain for a lot of RG-plagued MBP owners, that it's not worth the upgrade over Sierra or an older OS like El Cap or even Yosemite.

A hardware mod can solve some of your problems on HS, but you lose screen brightness control so. But it's there.

What I'd do if I were you is ditch HS altogether and clean install an older OS so I'd get a more stable experience. Some report success only with Yosemite, some fare just as well with El Cap and Sierra.

I'm using Sierra and my system is rock solid, though I have a 2012 rMBP with a failed NVidia 650m chip so it's different setup. There was no reason for me to upgrade to HS anyway, so I stuck with Sierra for reasons other than stability (mainly new file format and my reluctance to commit to it)

I would try just Sierra with the fix but I had such trouble with high Sierra I decided to go all the way to Yosemite

With Sierra do you have brightness control?

 

[nerowolfe19]

I would try just Sierra with the fix but I had such trouble with high Sierra I decided to go all the way to Yosemite

With Sierra do you have brightness control?

Yeah no problem there. That's the other reason I didn't bother to upgrade to HS, all the complaints about losing brightness control and whatnot.

And then came the removal of single-user recovery mode in 10.13.6 or .5 and that was it, that mode is my safety net because 95% of the time screen turns black as soon as laptop boots up so for me it's safe-recovery and nvram command to force the iGPU quickly before it freezes and turns black. Thankfully I don't have to do that anymore unless I change the nvram to dGPU myself or zap it manually or do a cold-smc/pram reset with the battery removed.

 

[pckrullenbol]

I would try just Sierra with the fix but I had such trouble with high Sierra I decided to go all the way back to Yosemite.

I have a Macbook Pro early 2011 (MacBookPro8,2) and was on 10.13.4 with the instructions in post #875.
I wanted to update to 10.13.6 so I could get the newest Safari. The update-process was quit messy, several restarts, a crash, but booting with shift helped, I think. I was able to boot in recovery (command-R). I had to clear nvram for a fresh start and had to redo much of the instructions. The loginhook was still in place.
Everything is working now, brightness F-keys, sleep and I have Safari 12 running, very happy with this site...

 

[MikeyN]

I have a Macbook Pro early 2011 (MacBookPro8,2) and was on 10.13.4 with the instructions in post #875.
I wanted to update to 10.13.6 so I could get the newest Safari. The update-process was quit messy, several restarts, a crash, but booting with shift helped, I think. I was able to boot in recovery (command-S). I had to clear nvram for a fresh start and had to redo much of the instructions. The loginhook was still in place.
Everything is working now, brightness F-keys, sleep and I have Safari 12 running, very happy with this site...

Nice to see that working.

However, I need one test from you:
I now refuse to install High Sierra on that machine and therefore cannot confirm what several people here reported.
The update to 10.13.6 seems to be quite disruptive. Many claim that now SingleUserRecovery does no longer work.

You wrote that "I was able to boot in recovery (command-S)". That however is the key-combo for SingleUserMode on the regular boot volume.

Can you confirm that Command+R+S works or does not work?

 

[pckrullenbol]

Can you confirm that Command+R+S works or does not work

Command-R-S seems the same as command-S, I don't see a difference, it's all linux text on black.

(I corrected in my post the wrong command-S with the correct command-R for booting in recovery)

 

[Lopesdasilva]

Command-R-S seems the same as command-S, I don't see a difference, it's all linux text on black.

(I corrected in my post the wrong command-S with the correct command-R for booting in recovery)

I'm trying to the moving of the kext files but I always get:

disk1s1: device is write locked

 

[MikeyN]

Command-R-S seems the same as command-S, I don't see a difference, it's all linux text on black.

(I corrected in my post the wrong command-S with the correct command-R for booting in recovery)

Thanks.
Yeah. That textmode means SingleUser works anyway (aka the "S" key gets through).
According to some reports on trying to hold alls three keys (Command+R+S) some users experience just the one key of either R or S recognised so that they land either in SingleUserMode (aka Command+S) or RecoveryMode(Command+R), but not in SingleUserRecoveryMode (Command+R+S).

For the procedure in #875 we need Command+R+S working as it did before.

For this purpose it would be easiest to just boot Command+R+S and then just issue the
csrutil disable
command.

A If that throws an error, the actual boot-mode is SingleUser on the regular boot volume.
B If that works without an error, the actual boot-mode is SingleUserRecovery on the recovery partition.

Can you confirm that for you it's either A or B?

 

[pckrullenbol]

For this purpose it would be easiest to just boot Command+R+S and then just issue the
csrutil disable
command.
A If that throws an error, the actual boot-mode is SingleUser on the regular boot volume.
B If that works without an error, the actual boot-mode is SingleUserRecovery on the recovery partition.
Can you confirm that for you it's either A or B?

Booted with Command+R+S and typed: csrutil disable
and got:
csrutil: failed to modify system integrity configuration. This tool needs to be executed from the Recovery OS.
so the actual boot-mode is SingleUser.

 

[MikeyN]

Booted with Command+R+S and typed: csrutil disable
and got:
csrutil: failed to modify system integrity configuration. This tool needs to be executed from the Recovery OS.
so the actual boot-mode is SingleUser.

Many thx for your help. Case A it seems to be.

That's a major bummer since 10.13.6 also seems to ship for the first time in years a new and working on its own X3000.kext.

And again the question: Why did they do that?

Just in case:
Has anyone here figured out how to enter the 'faster then all other workarounds for diabling SIP and moving the kext' called SingleUserRecoveryMode?

Anyone else: be advised to prepare a bootable stick or other external volume before updating to 10.13.6!

 

[pckrullenbol]

[...]since 10.13.6 also seems to ship for the first time in years a new and working on its own X3000.kext.

What do you mean by “new and working on its own kext” And what is the problem of a working kext?
Has it to do with the brightness-keys?

 

[pckrullenbol]

Has anyone here figured out how to enter the 'faster then all other workarounds for diabling SIP and moving the kext' called SingleUserRecoveryMode?

But what is the problem with disabling SIP in Recovery Mode (at my Macbook that is still working.)?