2016 Macbook PRO long startup issue...

[MarkieMac69]

Hello,

I'm helping someone with their 2016 MacBook PRO and am now stumped myself.
They bought the MacBook a year ago from a phone shop and have said it has been trouble ever since - screen going blank, randomly shutting down and getting the folder/question mark.
They took it back to the phone shop who charged for reinstalling the OS but then said it has water damage and needs a new motherboard.

Using Internet Recovery I was able to erase the SSD and reinstall Mojave.
Then I ran the updates and updated it to Monterey.
I've used it for about 4 hours playing an EA game and it seems to currently work ok.

The current issues seem to be;
1. Running diagnostics it gets to displaying "less than 1 minute remaining" but never seems to complete or I need to leave it even longer?
2. It takes 2-3 minutes to boot up into Mac OS.

When you open the lid or press the power button you get the Apple startup chime and the Apple logo appears on the screen.

Then it remains like that for anything between 120-150 seconds - when a progress bar appears underneath the logo.

Then the mouse pointer appears in the top left corner.

Then shortly after the login screen opens with username and password prompt.

I login and it seems to work ok.

Has anyone seen this behaviour before and can tell me what could be wrong?
Can anyone help with next steps in diagnosing this issue and getting this MacBook working like expected - if thats possible.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Bigwaff]

1. Running diagnostics it gets to displaying "less than 1 minute remaining" but never seems to complete or I need to leave it even longer?

If possible, get a USB-C ethernet adapter and use wired network when running diagnostics.... and be patient.

 

[MarkieMac69]

I got a USB-C multi-port adapter and powered on with Ethernet connected.

After sitting on the Apple logo for a while, the internet recovery rotating globe came up then the language options. No WiFi network selection so connected over Ethernet.
Something to highlight is the pointer behaviour - it is not smooth in recovery but jittery and laggy - sometimes it just jumps back to the starting position. Then when I clicked on 'English' the tick mark was displayed and it seemed to sit there - only when I moved the pointer, the language list disappeared and it seemed to move onto the next screen 'Run Diagnostics' and to select offline or I agree. I clicked 'I agree' then only when I moved my finger on the trackpad did it move onto the next screen with remaining time progress bar.
It sat on 'Less than 1 minute remaining' for about an hour and I decided to quit and try the 'offline' option.

Again, powered on, then D and the Apple logo for prob 2 minutes before it disappeared and the globe appeared.
Selected 'English' language with the jittery pointer then 'Run Offline'

Up popped 'Checking your Mac' and sometime after it was displaying 'Less than 1 minute remaining' - I left it checking back regularly

After 1 hr 50 mins the screen just displayed the pointer

Then it displayed 'No issues found. Reference Code: ADP000';

I clicked on 'Get Started' and the Mac restarted, sat on the Apple logo for 2-3 minutes then displayed recovery/Safari;

I selected ''United Kingdom' and clicked on 'Agree to Send'

And got an empty white screen. The Mac is out of support but I would expect something to be displayed or Apple to try and sell me something.

While I would normally be happy with "No Issues Found" (ADP000) - it is still taking 2.5 - over 3 minutes to boot up.

Anything else I can try oor other advice?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Fishrrman]

May have been mentioned already, but...

... did you go to the startup disk preference setting and select the internal SSD...?

 

[MarkieMac69]

May have been mentioned already, but...

... did you go to the startup disk preference setting and select the internal SSD...?

Thanks for your reply.

This is the start up disk preference - is that correct?

Disk utility showing the SSD structure;

Is that correct for the type of disk & Macbook?

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Bigwaff]

Is that correct for the type of disk & Macbook?

All looks normal. Not clear from the screenshots but how much free space is available on your internal storage?

 

[MarkieMac69]

All looks normal. Not clear from the screenshots but how much free space is available on your internal storage?

A lot - 200.75GB

 

[daneoni]

Perhaps the drive or the connector on the Logic Board is faulty.

A good way to tell will be to use an External drive connected via USB. If that drive works fine then you know something is up with the internal drive/connector

 

[MarkieMac69]

Perhaps the drive or the connector on the Logic Board is faulty.

A good way to tell will be to use an External drive connected via USB. If that drive works fine then you know something is up with the internal drive/connector

Thanks for your reply.

Do you know of any good guides to do this?

Thanks,

Mark.

 

[daneoni]

Thanks for your reply.

Do you know of any good guides to do this?

Thanks,

Mark.

Create a bootable USB of Monterey

Then have an external drive (ideally SSD) formatted and ready.

Install monterey straight on to the external drive

Reboot using the external drive. And see if you have any issues. If not, then that means the issue is with the internal drive/connector.