MBP 1,1-10,2 Permanently Disable 2011 15"/17" MacBook Pro Dedicated GPU - gMux IC Bypass

[mirceac]

I know Colin, I was just try to test if the programmer can actually detect che chip, as mirceac said, to exclude the problem is from mine lattice programmer. I will try whit capacitor! Anyway it's possibile to have same problem in two diferent boards? Or i'm just unlucky as hell

Hi @slimmy18222, I'm really curious what could be happening on your boards, could you post some pictures here with the soldered adapter ? In any case, even if for the actual gMux flashing you need @dosdude1 software, I don't think this will really work if the original Lattice software doesn't detect the chip. I will not unsolder yet any coils or other things form the board, the JTAG chain is really supposed to work without unsoldering anything.
In any case, if you feel adventurous you can send me a machine and eventually the other board if they are from compatible machines. I'm really curious what could be cause and can even make some video using my phone as overhead camera .

In any case best of luck and don't give up !!!

 

[monofase]

Hi all,
anyone managed to get windows 7/8/10 working on a demuxed Machine?
Everytime I try to install the Intel HD 3000 driver I get a black screen! That's very frustrating :/

 

[monofase]

Leave the adapters alone, focus on fully implementing the functionality of the mux, we are chewing our fingernails here !!!

Seriously now, the pin spacing looks OK, but there is no chance to hold it fest enough with one hand, while manipulating the PC with the flashing program, to not have some noise that will screw-up the programming. You'll have to do a contraption to hold it in position and this will really not make any sense both for a professional (where the soldering will not be any problem) and to the amateur, where the cost of this adapter will add to the cost of the programmer. And the longer wires will not help the signal integrity either.

Why not? I'm a professional repairer and I currently use a pogo pin built by myself by using an Apple battery connector with 6 pins soldered in it.
It works fine, and I also bought the pogo connector from this ebay seller but I ended up building my own. I've done a lot of machines w/o soldering and it's a lot faster that soldering each machine!!

 

[mirceac]

Why not? I'm a professional repairer and I currently use a pogo pin built by myself by using an Apple battery connector with 6 pins soldered in it.
It works fine, and I also bought the pogo connector from this ebay seller but I ended up building my own. I've done a lot of machines w/o soldering and it's a lot faster that soldering each machine!!

Well, I' definitely NOT a professional repairer, but out of three profi guys I've talked with, all of them told me that soldering the wires is a non-problem, but having a full implementation of the gMux with brightness control and everything in trumps having a pogo pin adapter that will not help them a lot. The average time that it takes them to solder this stuff is around 30sec-1min, depending on how corroded are the pads. And the time added to the whole operation (opening/closing the MBP, checking the device before/after) is insignificant.

There is only one situation where one repair shop may benefit of having such a device, and that is when they employ low-qualified or non-soldering personnel (the type that replaces screens or do simple unscrewing/screwing operations), where this may allow them to perform this repair while entrusting them with a soldering iron will be a disaster.

So I stand for my first post, having a full implementation of the gMux firmware is IMO to be prioritized against fiddling with some pogo pins. Of course IMMV.

 

[monofase]

@dosdude1 I'm gonna to try to flash the BIOS with the MacbookPro 8,1 13" for Windows, I hope to get it working!

 

[code600]

Is there anyway to get the backlight keys F1/F2 to work on Sierra besides disabling 1 of the USB? CMIzapper Tiresias seems to have backlight control in Sierra without any jumper wires or sacrificing any USB is this possible to do with this fix, the CMIzapper seems to attach to the EFI chip or is it possible to use both?

 

[dosdude1]

Is there anyway to get the backlight keys F1/F2 to work on Sierra besides disabling 1 of the USB? CMIzapper Tiresias seems to have backlight control in Sierra without any jumper wires or sacrificing any USB is this possible to do with this fix, the CMIzapper seems to attach to the EFI chip or is it possible to use both?

You don't need to sacrifice any USB ports or functionality... There is an unused USB line on the logic board that DyingLight is connected to, if you choose to use that.

 

[mirceac]

You don't need to sacrifice any USB ports or functionality... There is an unused USB line on the logic board that DyingLight is connected to, if you choose to use that.

Hi Collin, any news about the state of full implementation of the gMux with brightness control? If it's anything that we can do to help, please let us know.

 

[dr_dual]

Dosdude1, I appreciate the hard work you put in to this firmware, thanks. I ordered my programmer a couple weeks ago, updated my old Acer PC desktop from 32bit windows to 64bit, spent a few hours looking for the key for windows 7 then discovered software that can extract the windows key from the old install and finally got my old desktop running windows 7 64bit with the program you mention. I repaired a friends 2011 MBP 15" using your website and YT video. I have good soldering skills already so the small board work was no issue. It all worked fine and the macbook booted up with a nice clear screen again. That is so awesome! -thank you
I have another 2011 15" MBP that someone gave me, hardly used and it had previously had a software mod and the resistor r8911 was removed. I will reflash the gmux however, is it necessary to install the resistor back onto the board? I am thinking it is probably not but want ot make sure before i go ahead with the reflash work. thanks again for this fix.

 

[code600]

Dosdude1, I appreciate the hard work you put in to this firmware, thanks. I ordered my programmer a couple weeks ago, updated my old Acer PC desktop from 32bit windows to 64bit, spent a few hours looking for the key for windows 7 then discovered software that can extract the windows key from the old install and finally got my old dectop running windows 7 64bit with all the programs you mention. I repaired a friends 2011 MBP 15" using your website and YT video. I have good soldering skills already so the small board work was no issue. It all worked fine and the macbook booted up with a nice clear screen again. That is so awesome! -thank you
I have another 2011 15" MBP that someone gave me, hardly used and it had previously had a software mod and the resistor r8911 was removed. I will reflash the gmux however, is it necessary to install the resistor back onto the board? I am thinking it is probably not but want ot make sure before i go ahead with the reflash work. thanks again for this fix.

It's better if you keep that resistor removed so no power goes to the GPU and waste your battery.

 

[dosdude1]

Dosdude1, I appreciate the hard work you put in to this firmware, thanks. I ordered my programmer a couple weeks ago, updated my old Acer PC desktop from 32bit windows to 64bit, spent a few hours looking for the key for windows 7 then discovered software that can extract the windows key from the old install and finally got my old dectop running windows 7 64bit with all the programs you mention. I repaired a friends 2011 MBP 15" using your website and YT video. I have good soldering skills already so the small board work was no issue. It all worked fine and the macbook booted up with a nice clear screen again. That is so awesome! -thank you
I have another 2011 15" MBP that someone gave me, hardly used and it had previously had a software mod and the resistor r8911 was removed. I will reflash the gmux however, is it necessary to install the resistor back onto the board? I am thinking it is probably not but want ot make sure before i go ahead with the reflash work. thanks again for this fix.

It is not necessary, and makes no difference whether or not it's installed. The custom gMux IC firmware kills all power to the dGPU regardless.

 

[TCMacdaddys]

Hello, We have a Computer repair shop here in Florida and We purchased a Couple of Licenses last night to do a repair on a Customers 2011 A1286 and for some reason when trying to flash the Mux we kept getting the error that says...”An error occurred while flashing gMux IC Your lIcense is still Valid” We figures Maybe it was just the Windows Laptop we were using so we tried on another Laptop and we Could not use our unused license on the 2nd laptop because it kept saying INVALID...SOOOO we went ahead and Purchased Another License to use on the 2nd laptop and it did exactly the same as the first laptop and gave us the identical error...We even tried to cut the wires a little shorter, Tin them well, Resolder them again and it still gave us the error. What can we do to resolve the error issue? Please let us know. Thank You ?

 

[code600]

Hello, We have a Computer repair shop here in Florida and We purchased a Couple of Licenses last night to do a repair on a Customers 2011 A1286 and for some reason when trying to flash the Mux we kept getting the error that says...”An error occurred while flashing gMux IC Your lIcense is still Valid” We figures Maybe it was just the Windows Laptop we were using so we tried on another Laptop and we Could not use our unused license on the 2nd laptop because it kept saying INVALID...SOOOO we went ahead and Purchased Another License to use on the 2nd laptop and it did exactly the same as the first laptop and gave us the identical error...We even tried to cut the wires a little shorter, Tin them well, Resolder them again and it still gave us the error. What can we do to resolve the error issue? Please let us know. Thank You ?

I had same thing flash kept failing but I kept trying I think on the 6th or 7th try it went through. You can also try soldering a "10pF capacitor between TCK and ground(GND)"

 

[i-rui]

does anyone know if there's someone in the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) area who could perform this gMux flash on a 2011 17" MBP?

 

[nomeutente]

Hello,
1. Thanks to Collin (dosdude1)

2. I designed and used a Pogo Pin adapter. Sadly I cannot share here the link to OSH Park website, my post was deleted two times already, so simply search for "Pogo pin adapter to program the gMUX IC of a MacBook" between shared project from OSH community. It's published under public domain license.

3. I bought the Lattice HW-USBN-2A USB Programmer from the eBay store listed on the website of dosdude1, shipping was very fast and it works.

4. I used a Windows 10 64bit PC. My MacBook (Pro 15 Early 2011) started up without the chime. I tried to flash the gMUX "million" times for a total of ca. 7 hours. The first time without the 10pF capacitor (TCK, GND), I had errors for 2 hours of attempts. The IC was erased and then the MacBook started up with the chime and a black screen. Second and third time I tried with the 10pF soldered direct between the pins of header (2.54mm).
I read the logs and sometimes it broke down at the beginning, sometimes it was able to erase the IC but then the flashing was not successful, and so on... (I can post 2 or 3 logs that I saved).

At the end, it worked! So don't give up, try over and over again. I don't know if the 10pF were crucial but for sure they don't make problems. If it hadn't worked, as a next attempt I would have tried to shorten the Programmer's wires (between USB Programmer and Pogo Pin adapter).

 

[dosdude1]

Hello,
1. Thanks to Collin (dosdude1)

2. I designed and used a Pogo Pin adapter. Sadly I cannot share here the link to OSH Park website, my post was deleted two times already, so simply search for "Pogo pin adapter to program the gMUX IC of a MacBook" between shared project from OSH community. It's published under public domain license.

3. I bought the Lattice HW-USBN-2A USB Programmer from the eBay store listed on the website of dosdude1, shipping was very fast and it works.

4. I used a Windows 10 64bit PC. My MacBook (Pro 15 Early 2011) started up without the chime. I tried to flash the gMUX "million" times for a total of ca. 7 hours. The first time without the 10pF capacitor (TCK, GND), I had errors for 2 hours of attempts. The IC was erased and then the MacBook started up with the chime and a black screen. Second and third time I tried with the 10pF soldered direct between the pins of header (2.54mm).
I read the logs and sometimes it broke down at the beginning, sometimes it was able to erase the IC but then the flashing was not successful, and so on... (I can post 2 or 3 logs that I saved).

At the end, it worked! So don't give up, try over and over again. I don't know if the 10pF were crucial but for sure they don't make problems. If it hadn't worked, as a next attempt I would have tried to shorten the Programmer's wires (between USB Programmer and Pogo Pin adapter).

View attachment 873402 View attachment 873403

View attachment 873404

Nice, this was my design I made a few months ago, which is more or less the same. The annoying part is actually soldering those pogo pins on; I still have yet to find an easy, quick way to get them soldered on straight.

 

[nomeutente]

Hi Collin, yes pretty similar Today I made a new board, I will see if I can upload it on OSH Park page without ordering it just updating to this new version, I fixed the silkscreen, I hope, "public domain" was not readable, and I added pads for a 0805 (2012 metric) capacitor on bottom layer, so if needed it can be soldered, now I have a 10pF between 2 pins solderder (see picture).
The Pogo pins were tricky to solder, my holes have a 0,75mm diameter and the pins 0,68mm so they don't remain in position easily. I think your pogo pins are better than mine, because mine pass through (they have the same diameter for the entire length). I had two boards blocked in a bench vise, one next to the pin contacts (silver) and the other in position where I wanted to solder the pins so that they would be aligned (like in the photo but now without vise). I think the long pads help a bit.

 

[reinisbaab]

@dosdude1 I just now successfully did this http://dosdude1.com/gpudisable/ Now, is there really, really no software-based solution to fix the sleep side-effect (I don't care about brightness)?

I really want to be able to put my macbook pro to sleep by simply closing the lid and then having it wake up when opening the lid.

 

[godman]

My 17" would not work with Your diagram. It would turn on to white screen with no image (maybe because of the 1920x1200 screen). So first I went with the diagram of Matejh for the 15" and made it work for my 17". Everything works, however backlight would turn off with a flash on sleep/shutdown and backlight turn on was not so smooth. After that I tried to follow the directions of Dosdude1 in one of the threads:

- Connect LVDS_IG_BKL_ON to LCD_BKLT_EN
- Connect LVDS_IG_PANEL_PWR to LCD_PWR_EN
- Connect PP3V3_S0 to LCD_BKLT_PWM

And this worked perfectly. Backlight turns on smoothly and turns off without any flashes. One wire has to go to the other side of the logicboard, but no need to remove GMUX. Diagrams attached. R8911 HAS to be removed!

That's weird cuz I did it on my MacBook and its working perfectly fine since then.

 

[godman]

Yeah, you'll need to wire the enable lines as follows:

- Connect LVDS_IG_BKL_ON to LCD_BKLT_EN
- Connect LVDS_IG_PANEL_PWR to LCD_PWR_EN
- Connect PP3V3_S0 to LCD_BKLT_PWM

I've tried solution 1) in few logicboards with 6750M (4 VRAM) and it worked well.
The same solution with board with 6490M (2 VRAM 256MB) gives screen but no backlight.

I tested solution 2) you wrote but gives no picture at all.
Any ideas how to solve that?

1)

2)

 

[trifero]

Nice, this was my design I made a few months ago, which is more or less the same. The annoying part is actually soldering those pogo pins on; I still have yet to find an easy, quick way to get them soldered on straight.

View attachment 873669 View attachment 873670

Is there any way I can get one of those? Thanks

 

[nomeutente]

Is there any way I can get one of those? Thanks

Hi trifero, you can find my adapter on OSH Park website. Search for "Pogo pin adapter to program the gMUX IC of a MacBook" under shared projects from OSH community ("Sharing"). I made a new board (Ver. 1).
That costs 1.05$ (for 3 PCBs) and I don't get any money from this. Be aware that this is only a PCB so you have to buy and solder the pins on your own.

 

[shamanArt]

Hi Guys,

MBP 15" 2011.For some reason had to back to AMD on my mac. i put the resistor R8911 back, reinstall the system fully also reset the DRAM. Unfortunately when i disconnect the jumper (pic below) no backlight. I am using my mac at night usually so the screen is to bright. Any advice how i can get it work as normal with adjustment? thanks

 

[dosdude1]

Hi Guys,

MBP 15" 2011.For some reason had to back to AMD on my mac. i put the resistor R8911 back, reinstall the system fully also reset the DRAM. Unfortunately when i disconnect the jumper (pic below) no backlight. I am using my mac at night usually so the screen is to bright. Any advice how i can get it work as normal with adjustment? thanks

First off, you should NEVER, EVER remove R8911 when doing an NVRAM-based bypass. This is a recipe for disaster, and it seems to have caused issues in your case (as per usual). In your case, this may just be an issue with your soldering, causing the resistor that feeds the PWM signal used for brightness control not to be making proper contact with one of its pads. You should do a full hardware bypass, as explained in the OP of this page, or better yet, by using DeMux, the custom gMux IC firmware that I've written.

 

[Rick Arabian]

Hi @dosdude1,

Thank you for all that you've done to extend the life of older Macs. The 17in MacBook pro has always been my favorite and you work is keeping mine alive.

I was wondering how the firmware update was progressing. I've ordered the programmer and look forward to installing the firmware to disable the discrete graphics adapter when it arrives. Now I'm wondering if I should get the hardware mod for brightness control or wait for your update.

Can you give us some guidance on when it will be ready?

Thanks for all that you do,

--Rick