Macbook Pro 2011 GPU Defect fix macOS Sierra and High Sierra

macbook-pro-2011-defective-gpu-fix.md

Works for macOS Sierra and High Sierra

Taken from 2011 Macbook Pro Graphics Card FIX 100% WORKING!!!

EDIT This method works! But there is an improved version for better thermal management and brightness keys functionality. See improved version -> https://gist.github.com/cdleon/d1eff7246a25193304284ecec40445b0

Enter Recovery Mode (text mode)

if you are on high sierra 10.13.6+ you might need to use Command + r instead

Boot up holding down Command + r + s

Disable SIP

SIP locks System folder so cannot move kexts to another folder. SIP (csrutil) only enabled or disabled on Recovery Mode.

csrutil disable

Restart the system

reboot

Enter Single User mode

boot up holding down the CMD and S keys

Check a disk

use /sbin/fsck if you get fsck command not found

fsck -fy

Mount a root filesystem with read/write permissions

use /sbin/mount if you get mount command not found

mount -uw /

Make a directory to store the AMD drivers in case you'll need them in future

sudo mkdir /AMD_Kexts/

Move the AMD drivers

sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* /AMD_Kexts/

Remove the AMD drivers cache

sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/

Just in case OS X will be dumb and will not recreate this directory, we create it again

sudo mkdir /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/

Update the timestamps so that new driver caches - without AMD drivers - will be rebuilt

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions/

Unmount a partition to guarantee that your changes are flushed to it. Use /sbin/umount if you get umount command not found. It might say resource busy, ignore that and proceed to next step)

sudo umount /

Reboot

sudo reboot

Before enabling SIP again, try the normal boot without pressing any key. The Mac OS will rebuild the kernel cache and restart. See if the system starts normally. If it does, still keep going through the remaining steps.

You might encounter that you are still using discrete GPU but computer works (if you are using gfx it might say can't change to discrete while external display is connected), keep going until last step and this will be resolved

Enable SIP again by restarting the system and entering Recovery Mode (text mode)

if you are on high sierra 10.13.6+ you might need to use Command + r instead

Command + r + s

Enable SIP

csrutil enable

Restart the system

reboot

Open Terminal (Finder -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal (copy and paste):

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

Restart the system

sudo shutdown -r now

You might need to do this again after macOS system updates Brightness keys might not work use app like brightness-slider to handle that