Late 2011 MBP Failing GPU

In late 2011 I had purchased a 15″ MacBook pro and in mid 2016 the GPU started failing until it was unusable. Apple had a replacement program of the logic board and GPU and had it replaced. Yet these started failing recently (less than 2 years after replacement). The symptoms are random restarts, green lines on display, distorted screen. This time there is no program that will replace it free of charge, and was not willing to spend anymore on this laptop. There are a number of solutions and this blog documents the one that worked for me, mostly from this article.

  1. Format and clean installation of Mac OS
    1. Restart/Power-On
    2. Press and hold Command + R until logo appears.
    3. Select Reinstall MacOS and follow installation steps.
  2. Boot to ArchLinux
    1. Download ArchLinux
    2. Create a Bootable USB, I used Rufus on Windows.
    3. Reboot with USB drive inserted and press Option
    4. Select EFI
    5. Press e when GRUB boot loader is displayed
    6. Type space then nomodeset at end of option then press enter
  3. Update EFI variables
    1. EFI Variables should be loaded already, if not:
      1. cd /
      2. umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
      3. mount -t efivarfs rw /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
    2. Remove immutability of GPU Power Preferences variable
      • chattr -i “/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9”
    3. Delete GPU Power Preferences variable
      • rm /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9
    4. Create new GPU Power Preferences variable
      • printf “\x07\x00\x00\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00” > /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9
    5. Add immutability to GPU Power Preferences variable
      • chattr +i “/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9”
  4. Save and reboot in Safe Mode
    1. cd /
    2. umount /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/
    3. reboot
    4. Press Shift during startup until logo appears.
  5. Remove AMD Drivers
    1. Login and turn FileVault Off from the Security & Privacy System Preferences.
    2. Reboot the system and press Command + R to boot to Recovery mode.
    3. Launch Terminal from the main menu
    4. Find UUID of your Machintosh HD drive
      1. diskutil cs list (find UUID for drive)
      2. diskutil coreStorage unlockVolume UUID
    5. Move the AMD drivers
      1. cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD
      2. mkdir AMD_Kexts
      3. mv System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* AMD_Kexts/
      4. reboot
  6. Install steveschow branch of gfxCardStatus
  7. If you had FileVault on, remember to activate again.

At this point, the MBP will always use the integrated graphics card, yet the dedicated/discrete graphics card would still be drawing power. You can take this a step further by removing 1 resistor and the card would have no power. I did not do this mod but here is the article. It is possible that the steps need to be repeated upon an OS upgrade/reinstall. I am hoping to be able to use this laptop for a few more years like this. The compromise is that now I cannot use the external display, other than that I am unaffected (not a gamer) since an integrated graphic card can cope with my development requirements.

Update

Apple stopped supporting this laptop and could not update the OS anymore. Installed Ubuntu yet the graphics card kept causing issues. Removed the transistor and worked perfectly. So currently the dedicated graphics card is not being powered and the integrated card is being utilised.

PingFin 9 Closure & Thanks

PingFin 9 was a resounding success across all European workshops. This year, which also marks the 10th Anniversary of SEPA, we experimented with a different layout here in Malta which worked really well.  The workshop required each team to design, implement and visualize part of the SEPA payment protocol then to consolidate all parts together.

 

I would like to thank our sponsors MITA, MITA Innovation Hub, eSkills Malta Foundation, RS2 and Central Bank of Malta for their support. Thanks go also to MCAST management and administrative staff for their support. A special thanks to my colleagues Alan Gatt, Luke Vella Critien and Robert Abela. Thanks to all the staff at Odisee namely Dr. Christophe Debruyne. My final thanks and congrats go to all students for their hard work, dedication, and professionalism.

 

More information is found on our facebook page.

PingFIN 9 @ Malta

Glad to announce that all is set for the PingFIN 9 workshop. This is an international e-payments workshop being organised from Monday 12th-Thursday 15th March concurrently in 5 Universities Colchester Institute, Faculty of Organization and Informatics, FH SalzburgOdisee, Westerdals, and obviously MCAST. The workshop in Malta shall be held at the MITA Innovation Hub, SmartCity and it will be attended by 16 local and 12 foreign students.

This activity is being sponsored by MITA, MITA Innovation Hub, eSkills Malta Foundation and RS2 Software plc. Assisting me are my colleagues Alan GattLuke Vella Critien and Robert Abela. Visit our facebook page for more information.

MCAST IICT Presents & Publishes Research

During the international conference ISMS 2018, hosted at the University of Malta, Darren Cilia has presented our research work in typing biometrics on behalf of MCAST IICT. As part of our research, the smartphone application used to gather the data and the dataset itself is being made public on Kaggle and GitHub respectively.

We hope that other researchers will find these contributions useful and look forward to hearing of other new research.

Well done Darren Cilia

After the announcement that our research will be accepted for the ISMS2018, MCAST IICT organized a meeting where the IICT directors thanked and congratulated Darren Cilia for his hard work and achievement.

Darren graduated in December 2017 and will be presenting our research next week at the International Conference on Information Systems and Management Systems 2018 at the University of Malta in Valletta. Today, he delivered a talk to all 1st, 2nd and 3rd year BSc Software and Multimedia students, sharing his experience and motivating them to excel and believe in themselves.

Thanks also go to our directors for their support. I would like to congratulate Darren and say how proud I am of his achievement, hard work, and professionalism.

 

IMG_20180214_130424

ensquad

A new chapter in my life, I am co-founding ensquad together with Robert Abela, Alan Gatt and Luke Vella Critien. As an IT startup, we specialise in the handling of digital data to offer business insight, restructure/clean for migration to new systems or data warehouses and offer tailor-made training.

 

logo

MCAST @ Digital Assembly 2017

It was my pleasure to represent MCAST IICT, together with the institute directors, Mr Conrad Vassallo & Mr Mark Anthony Farrugia, and some students at the Digital Assembly 2017. The conference was held on the 15th and 16th June 2017 at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta. The conference was packed with technical, business and informative seminars about Cyber Security, Data Economy, Roaming and other current digital topics of importance within the EU.

 

We were one of the various exhibitors, together with University of Malta, Gaming Malta, Malta Enterprise, eSkills Foundation, Malta Communications Authority and MITA Innovation Hub just to name a few. Am really proud of my 2nd Year B.Sc. students who after a year-long hard work, found the time to exhibit their end of year project.

  • Charleston Attard (Image Enhancement for Colour-Vision Impaired Individuals),
  • Alistair Azzopardi (Arab Spring Themed 3D FPS),
  • James Azzopardi (Facial Recognition for Persons with Prosopagnosia),
  • Christian Bonnici (User Authentication via KeyStroke Dynamics),
  • Jean Paul Caruana (Drone Construction & Drone Racing Simulator),
  • Luke Benjamin Cassar (Augmented Reality Restaurant),
  • Nathaniel Cutajar (Map Generation via Procedural Content Generation),
  • Evgeny Danilenko (Image-Sound Bi-Directional Converter),
  • Isaac Hili (Syria Civil War Automated News Scraper and Linker),
  • Martin John Meli (Digital Mosaicer),
  • Mark Patrick Owen (Flight Price Scraper and Monitor) and
  • Simon Zerafa (Augmented Reality Interior Design).

You made us all proud.

 

PingFin 8 @ Malta – Closure & Thanks

It has been my pleasure and honour to chair the PingFin 8 workshop at Malta. I am pleased to inform you that we have ended the PingFin 8 workshop at Malta with great success. It has been a formidable 4-day experience and a real pleasure to share with a lot of talented people. I believe that all participants have learnt a lot and enjoyed themselves, we have also managed to complete design and implementation of 2 clearing house and 2 bank teams, had we had some more time, the other teams would have also finished.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank a number of persons who were an integral part of this workshop, starting with Odisee University for having us as their partner and for coordinating this event at an international level. Thank you, Yvan Rooseleer and Stefaan Debrabandere for your invaluable time and support. This year, we have had a number of guests to deliver the professional side of SEPA, namely Mr Joseph Mallia and Mr Emerson Amaira from Central Bank of Malta, Mr David Grech and Mr Aaran Calafato from MITA.

This year, MITA has increased its support at different levels, thanks to: Mr Carm Cachia and Ms Bernardette Zerafa from eSkills Malta Foundation for their financial support; thanks to Mr Alexander Borg, Ms Deborah Maria Schiavone and Ms Tea Vrcic from MITA Innovation Hub for the venue, refreshments, laptops, service and support.

This is a testament that MCAST puts the student experience at the forefront and I would like to thank: the Principal & CEO, Mr Stephen Cachia, IICT Director Mr Conrad Vassallo and IICT Deputies Mr Mark Anthony Farrugia and Mr Jean Paul Tabone; IICT admin team Ms Stefania Aquilina, Ms Cher Tonna, Ms Nadia Schembri and Ms Sephora Said. I would like to thank my colleagues from my heart for their invaluable support, I would not have been able to do this without their help: Mr Alan Gatt, Mr Luke Vella Critien and Mr Robert Abela.

We are really glad to have hosted this event and hope that MCAST represented the Maltese culture and personality with our foreign visitors. It has been a real pleasure having you: Alpay Topalka, Ayoub Houari, Azeddine El Hammouchi, Berton Lutina Mulamba, Mohamed Lammou, Redouan Belguenani, Said Hadj, Walid Haouriqui and Yassine Azouagh.

My last, but not least, thanks go to the local students who have shown great dedication and respect to the visiting students, the hosts, the guests and staff. You have made MCAST proud and made a very positive name for yourself. Well done and thank you: Alistair Azzopardi, Andre Grech, Damian Fenech, Dylan Fenech, Francesca Micallef, Geordey Gatt, Jamie Lee Dingli Sacco, Jean-Paul Caruana, Kurt Montanaro, Luke Benjamin Cassar, Martin Meli, Michael Vella, Sigmond Gatt and Zack Gatt.

Theme: Overlay by Kaira