Even you are a super user, Apple is still protecting you from doing stupid things. Obviously, I failed to move AMD kexts to a backup directory due to permission issues. I am so happy that I have my laptop up and running AGAIN. I can’t find the gpu-power-prefs file this time so I guess this is due to the NVRAM reset. I reset the NVRAM using Option-Command-P-R key combination from Mac startup key combinations and magically I see the Apple logo again after the chime sound. I want to redo the above two steps again but the screen stays black for some reason. Step 3 removes AMD kernel kexts so is it possible that the system is using discrete graphics card again after sleep? The screen never comes back after sleep even though the keyboard lights up and the entire system is running. It WORKS after reboot! I am very happy to see it working again so I leave it running during the day and put it back to sleep without doing step 3 (see below or the original post). This github ticket from gpu-switch mentioned that it is possible to edit NVRAM variable directly from Single-User mode (boot by pressing Command-S) to replace step 1 and 2. Add immutability to the gpu-power-prefs fileĬhattr +i '/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/gpu-power-prefs-fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9'.Edit ( e) GRUB options to append nomodeset to Linux kernel flags.Hold Option key while booting and choose “EFI boot” (ArchLinux live USB).Download ArchLinux ISO from Arch Linux Downloads.This following steps are mostly copied from stackexchange for future quick reference. My MacBook Pro is working (well mostly, details below) with Intel integrated graphics card. The steps from the stackexchange post look scary initially but it turns out to be pretty simple. Looks like I am on my own now and I have to hack it myself. Apple has a MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues program but my model is no longer eligible for this program. Depending on usage, it normally dies in 5-7 years. Many people are having the same issues from a simple Google search, like stackexchange and macrumors posts. Unfortunately, they don’t have any spare parts for my vintage model.

I send it to Apple store and the diagnostic results confirm it is indeed the discrete graphics card problem.

This normally indicates a failed graphics card on my old laptop. After upgrading to Mac OSX High Sierra, I start to see split and blue screens on my MacBook Pro (early 2011).

Apple macbook pro 2011 graphics card