A1286 MacBook Pro 15″ 2010 Graphics Issue (UPDATED 2021)

15 inch MacBook Pro with Display Artifacts Caused by failed Graphic chip

Above is a picture of a 2010 MacBook Pro with a graphics chip issue. The issue sometimes causes display artifacts as you see above, but it can also cause kernel panics with a sudden restart, screen going black during use, and a few other crash related issues.

Apple has had some trouble over the years with the graphics chips in their laptops failing. When I was younger it happened to a lot of iBooks, the it happened to the 2007/2008 15″ MacBook Pro model, then it happened to the 2010 15″ MacBook Pro model, and more recently it happened to the 2011, late 2012, and early 2013 model. Since the repair extensions for all these models are no longer available, what are your options if you have a 2010 MacBook Pro with graphics issues?

If you take it to an Apple Store, the response will be, “Your computer is considered vintage or obsolete so we can no longer repair offer repairs for it”.

If you take it to another repair shop and get a replacement logic board, the repair can be very expensive (somewhere around $300-500), which is likely not a good use of money on a computer that is almost 11 years old.

There are repair shops that recommend replacing the chip on the logic board for less than the cost of replacing the entire board. This can be a good option, just be sure they offer a warranty on the work for as long as you want the computer to work for.

This repair video shows what is necessary on the 2010 15 inch model to fix the graphics issue. Please note that this only works on the 2010 model, NOT the 2011 model. I do offer this MacBook Pro 15″ 2010 Graphics Repair service, but my recommendation is to upgrade to a newer computer if you can possibly afford it. Spending more than a couple hundred dollars repairing a computer of that age is not worth it in my opinion.

If you decide to go with a newer computer but need the data transferred from the old one to the newer one… we can help!

We have a range of Used Macs available for sale, as well as offer transfer services if you purchase another Mac and need your data transferred to it!