Apparently the MBP runs super hot, weakening the solder links to the discrete GPU.
The problem is that there seems to be a design defect either in the chassis, logic board or both. Replacing the logic board basically just resets you to day one. If you're a heavy user, you'll soon encounter the same issue, which is why a lot of people -- myself included -- have had the problem recur.
While I'll be taking advantage of the fix (I can't even boot my Macbook Pro, even the post screen is messed up), I'm hoping they've actually made a fix to the logic board design as opposed to giving me a replacement logic board with the same problematic design.
Ah, that would explain why it happened twice to me! To be fair, the replaced logic board lasted about a year.
This is doubly good news for me, because it makes it sound like my early 2011 MBP is likely to be covered, and I can reasonably hope the fix will last longer than a year, as my main development work has been moved to a mid-2014 MBPR.
The problem is that there seems to be a design defect either in the chassis, logic board or both. Replacing the logic board basically just resets you to day one. If you're a heavy user, you'll soon encounter the same issue, which is why a lot of people -- myself included -- have had the problem recur.
While I'll be taking advantage of the fix (I can't even boot my Macbook Pro, even the post screen is messed up), I'm hoping they've actually made a fix to the logic board design as opposed to giving me a replacement logic board with the same problematic design.