MacBook Pro random crashing due to graphics card

Seeing as I get so much information from the Internet that helps me fix my issues, I thought I would repeat them here so they might help anyone else that stumbles across the same issue.

I have a mid-2010 Macbook Pro that began to suffer from more and more frequent random crashes and restarts. When submitting the error to Apple, the code seem to be pointing to something to do with the graphic processing. Searching the Net brings up scores of pages indeed point to the same sort of issue that many users had. A lot of people had the problem and seemingly from all the diagnostics and analysis, it became a known problem by Apple. The solder/glue that held the graphics card in place would break down over time due to the heat and cause it to fail.

This month Apple launched a repair program aimed at addressing these issue, but for people with 2011 models onwards.

Well, what a pain. My local Apple specialists, Solutions Inc, had been very helpful in initially looking into the problem to confirm that I had a motherboard that suffered with the issue. Apple refused the repair saying that it was too old.

When I saw the announcement I thought that I would be covered but Andy from Solutions Inc pointed out that my model wasn't covered, but he suggested that I call Apple and plead my case, telling them that I have been a long time Apple user with many devices.

So, I did. I acknowledged that the program did not take into account my model, but being a long time Apple user, would they consider my case. I was told that my model was too old, but he would speak to someone higher up. I was put on hold and someone senior came back on the phone. He reconfirmed that my laptop was too old for that repair programme, but under European Consumer Law I am covered for up to 6 years. I don't know if it made any difference that I bought direct from Apple. He suggested that I call back into Solutions Inc, who they wold also contact, and ensure that I put the laptop forward for repair as a consumer law claim.

Bingo, the laptop was repaired next day. So far I have not had any crashes although I do spot some pixelation on the second monitor at times. Fingers-crossed...

Apple iPhone would not backup, kept saying it has disconnected.

I must be on a roll as I sorted out another Apple issue in that my iPhone would not backup. Would get partway through the process and bring up a dialog to say my iPhone disconnected.

Many sites talked about the cable needing to be a genuine one, or check for lint in the connection, but those things were fine.

Another suggestion was to delete the backups from iTunes. I initially did this via Preferences > Devices in iTunes but that didn't help.

What did help was to delete (well actually I renamed) the last backup in the path ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ and then I was able to backup again. Oh joy.