Apple has just announced that it’s going to offer free repairs to MacBook Pros suffering from display issues experienced with those sold between early 2011 and early 2013. The issues in question are faulty and distorted video, no video at all and unexpected system restarts. These problems relate to the faulty graphics cards shipped with these systems.
A class action lawsuit in October 2013 criticized Apple’s failure to offer repairs or compensation for these models. Affected MacBooks Pros are:
- 15-inch, early 2011
- 15-inch, late 2011
- Retina 15-inch, mid 2012
- 17-inch, early 2011
- 17-inch, late 2011
- Retina 15-inch, early 2013
If your MacBook pro is not experiencing any of the issues mentioned then it doesn’t qualify for the repair initiative.
This move is likely in no small part due to the hashtag #mbp2011, which was dedicated to pressuring Apple into fixing the laptops since the product launched.
Sadly, the extent of the issue for purchasers of these models was so extreme that the laptop was in cases rendered unusable. It’s unlikely that customers have held onto a broken machine for four years. Still, it’s good to see Apple doing at least something about a long-term problem like this, and putting its vast cash reserves to good use.