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

[FarmerBob]

Keyboard Lights get broken on every MB/P that I have installed on after installing the the "Post Install Patches". Prior to no problems. But on an 8,2 would love to try it with the patches.

I've just stopped. And am going to take a break and not do anything for a while . . .

 

[Queen6]

Keyboard Lights get broken on every MB/P that I have installed on after installing the the "Post Install Patches". Prior to no problems. But on an 8,2 would love to try it with the patches.

I've just stopped. And am going to take a break and not do anything for a while . . .

MBP 8.2 is more complex to deal with and I believe requires HW mods to regain full functionality. My own MBP 8.2 on High Sierra it's dGPU is heavily restricted by SW, yet is still engaged and seen in the system. I'm of the opinion now, if the dGPU was going to fail it would have done so years ago when being pushed to it's limits on a more than frequent basis.


MBP 8.1 should be able to disable the dGPU via NVRAM and retain KB lighting & sleep. As always OS revision is a big factor. After 12 years I just use it as needs be, mostly as a media server. Push it hard from time to time and dont worry about it. At this age anything could let go anytime, or it could continue on for another 12 years?

Q-6

 

[tomcatrr]

Keyboard Lights get broken on every MB/P that I have installed on after installing the the "Post Install Patches". Prior to no problems. But on an 8,2 would love to try it with the patches.

I've just stopped. And am going to take a break and not do anything for a while . . .

2011 Macbook Pro 15"
Works keyboard and lcd light brightness!!

Now the "fun".
This MBP don´t work hibernation in macOS or Manjaro.
The fun is, I repair another 2011 15" MBP and the pause/hibernation works 100%.
He have 8 GB 1333Mhz of Ram.
Could be 1333 vs 1600 Mhz the hibernation fail?
(The true is in my case I can hear the 3 beeps, after suspend).

 

[FarmerBob]

I'm finding that the 8,1-3 series is a curious lot. And the first series to have three iterations. Which goes with a design jump.

I just rolled back my 7,1 to 0.6.8 hoping to get it a little more solid. Haven't been there for long so I'm not sure what gonna happen. Plus, 0.6.8 to 1.0.0 is quite a jump itself . . .

 

[trifero]

View attachment 2316329
2011 Macbook Pro 15"
Works keyboard and lcd light brightness!!

Now the "fun".
This MBP don´t work hibernation in macOS or Manjaro.
The fun is, I repair another 2011 15" MBP and the pause/hibernation works 100%.
He have 8 GB 1333Mhz of Ram.
Could be 1333 vs 1600 Mhz the hibernation fail?
(The true is in my case I can hear the 3 beeps, after suspend).

Which version of OCLP?

 

[tomcatrr]

Which version of OCLP?

About what?

I start using OCLP, since there is no need for "terminal commands" and you have GUI interface.
But before OCLP , I use HS and Catalina with Dosdude patch.
And keyboard and LCD brightness working

 

[trifero]

About what?

I start using OCLP, since there is no need for "terminal commands" and you have GUI interface.
But before OCLP , I use HS and Catalina with Dosdude patch.
And keyboard and LCD brightness working

Don´t understand your answer, sir.

 

[tomcatrr]

Don´t understand your answer, sir.

your right, its confusing!
Sorry about that!

What I want to say, is since I use OCLP, in my MBP 8.2, I never lost keyboard light and LCD brightness.

Happy new year!

 

[Queen6]

Sadly end of an era approaches My 2011 15' MBP no longer recognises any external audio and being a media server pretty much kills it's use in this role Going to refresh the OS outside of that not looking good. External audio just dropped off and successive reboots only report the internal speakers

Likely the 2011 MBP will be replaced by a ThinkPad with a dGPU. Little too early to make the call, equally not wanting to spend my life messing with such matters. If the OS refresh results in the same behavior it's done and time to be recycled... unless I can find another use for it...

ThinkPad I'll just wipe and refresh Windows 10 and we'll be back online as it should pick up the disk array and same as the old Mac will be offline 99% of the time. Either that or Linux as battery run time is not a consideration in this role...

 

[nisulid]

Hello, I ended up in this thread because I was sure that my problem was on the dGPU. Tried the simple Mac proceedings, but didn't work out for me. I started reading the thread, tried some searching, but when I saw it was like 123 pages, I kind got anxiety and went forward with instructions.

Symptoms before trying were similar to what was described in first post: image with stripes, not booting into the system. When I got the MBP the battery was stuffed, so I took it out. Tried all the basic procedures with no success, without the battery.
- Apple diagnostics tested negative.
- Reset SMC doesn't even flicker the light. Tried both removable battery and non-removable battery techniques.
- Reset NVRAM seems odd - too long between restarts
- Wouldn't boot to safe mode.
- Recovery would boot up to selecting the wifi network, but blank screen after that
- Recovery with ALT would boot to selection boot volume, blank after that or after apple logo/progress bar
- USB Bootable Installer would boot to selection of volume, blank after that or after apple logo/progress bar

Odd things:
- I pluged an SSD from another MBP (7,1 2010 with Sonoma and OCLP), and it booted a couple of times. When booted, it recognized a 23inch screen.
- The apearance os the screen/display was absolutely normal at the times of these boots.
- Image with stripes is intermittent. Sometimes image seems fine.
- Tryed all the proceedings with external display, sometimes the faulty image would be on the MacBooks display, sometimes at the external display.
- Before startup, frontal led blinks 5 times.
- Mechanic noises upon startup seem more evident.

It is now with an internal HDD with High Sierra installed as external HDD on an Imac.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance and sorry if this is a little off topic or the answer is in the thread and I couldn't find via search.

 

[hermannkm]

Tried OCLP on my 15" 2011 MacBook Pro with bad dGPU. Worked instantly.

 

[tomcatrr]

View attachment 2316329

Now the "fun".
This MBP don´t work hibernation in macOS or Manjaro.
The fun is, I repair another 2011 15" MBP and the pause/hibernation works 100%.
He have 8 GB 1333Mhz of Ram.
Could be 1333 vs 1600 Mhz the hibernation fail?
(The true is in my case I can hear the 3 beeps, after suspend).

Update

I got one 8GB and one 4GB module 1333Mhz RAM, (so 12GB) and hibernation/pause WORKS! vs 16GB 1600Mhz!
I think my MPB do not like the 1600 Mhz, also, I think that he is running more cold.

My 5cents.

 

[sharonrjones]

FIRST OFF...Thank YOU....not only for figuring it out, but taking the time to share with us others that would have had no hope....
You may not even be keeping up with this..... but I had given up after years... just tried the following and it cleared up my display, BUT I keep hanging up a apple logo, with no progress showing...any idea?

1) fsck -fy (to check a disk)
2) mount -uw / (mount a root filesystem with read/write permissions)
3) sudo mkdir /AMD_Kexts/ (make a directory to store the AMD drivers in case you'll need them in future)
4) sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* /AMD_Kexts/ (move the AMD drivers)
5) sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/ (remove the AMD drivers cache)
6) sudo mkdir /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/ (just in case OS X will be dumb and will not recreate this directory, I am creating it for OS X)
7) sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions/ (to update the timestamps so that new driver caches - without AMD drivers - will be definitely rebuilt)
8) sudo umount / (umount a partition to guarantee that your changes are flushed to it)
9) sudo reboot

All like you said...then
nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

nvram boot-args="-v"

reboot
I am now running a hardware test...any suggestions??

 

[tomcatrr]

FIRST OFF...Thank YOU....not only for figuring it out, but taking the time to share with us others that would have had no hope....
You may not even be keeping up with this..... but I had given up after years... just tried the following and it cleared up my display, BUT I keep hanging up a apple logo, with no progress showing...any idea?

1) fsck -fy (to check a disk)
2) mount -uw / (mount a root filesystem with read/write permissions)
3) sudo mkdir /AMD_Kexts/ (make a directory to store the AMD drivers in case you'll need them in future)
4) sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* /AMD_Kexts/ (move the AMD drivers)
5) sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/ (remove the AMD drivers cache)
6) sudo mkdir /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/ (just in case OS X will be dumb and will not recreate this directory, I am creating it for OS X)
7) sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions/ (to update the timestamps so that new driver caches - without AMD drivers - will be definitely rebuilt)
8) sudo umount / (umount a partition to guarantee that your changes are flushed to it)
9) sudo reboot

All like you said...then
nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

nvram boot-args="-v"

reboot
I am now running a hardware test...any suggestions??

Hi!

The last 2011 15" that I "patch", if I remember right, I just use the :
"
1 - Boot Single User (press Command + S) at boot (If you have MacOS installed on your hard drive).
2 - If you have a blank HD, then use the USB stick/Pendrive with the MacOS installer (El Capitan, Sierra or HighSierra).
2.1 - Press Option key at boot, Position the mouse on the MacOS installer icon.
2.2 - Press Command + S and keep holding these two keys.
2.3 - Click the MacOS installer icon -> continue holding the Command + S keys until you finish the MacOS installer Single User boot .
Enter these commands (change gpu-power-prefs to Intel GPU and boot verbose):

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

nvram boot-args="-v"

reboot
"

After that, he works fine.

You can have a HDD drive problem.

 

[35mm]

Hello,

I tried doing this and I’m getting a grey screen after the logo bootup. Fans also kick up on high speed. Something I did wrong?