Early 2011 - No boot, chime, or startup sounds - Thoughts for fixing?

[gageoleighton]

Hi all,

I have an early 2011 15" Macbook pro, yes the one with the graphics issue 😅. Keeping this one alive has been a real struggle, having Apple "repair" it on three different occasions before they accepted fault...anyways I'm having a new issue that is leaving me scratching my head.

Several years ago I used the info here to bypass the discreet graphic card. All was fine for the longest time, even upgrading through two new macOS (El Capitan -> Sierra -> High Sierra) but recently I'm unable to get it to boot.
Normally on boot the led will turn on, then the screen backlight, I will hear the CD drive kick on, and then the system will come up.

Now only the led will light and nothing else happens, the screen is still black and the CD drive makes no noise. The fans do still turn on.
I've tried booting into:

• Recovery mode
• Internet Recovery
• Safe mode
• Startup Manager (option key)

I've also tried resetting the PRAM since this worked a couple of weeks prior when something similar happened but it does not work again (tried at least 5X).
Other things I've tried is to remove the HD (Samsung SSD) and try to boot and to remove/reseat the ram (Crucial 2X 8GB).

I'm thinking I could try other options like removing the battery, CD drive, USB drive, but I don't know they would even work since I can't even enter any of the other boot modes. 🤷‍♂️

My question is, what safety features are implemented that would prevent the mac from starting?
Does it sound like this system is worth recovering?

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thanks for reading! 🙂

 

[glenthompson]

Have you tried to boot into single user mode? Hold down Command-S on power up and it should enter a command line only mode. This bypasses a lot of stuff being loaded and uses minimal hardware. Beyond that it's probably not worth putting that much effort into a 9 year old machine with known video problems.

 

[JMVB]

www.realmacmods.com

 

[glenthompson]

One downside of disabling the Radeon is the inability to use an external monitor.

 

[JMVB]

One downside of disabling the Radeon is the inability to use an external monitor.

With the right hardware, still being possible

 

[gageoleighton]

Have you tried to boot into single user mode? Hold down Command-S on power up and it should enter a command line only mode. This bypasses a lot of stuff being loaded and uses minimal hardware. Beyond that it's probably not worth putting that much effort into a 9 year old machine with known video problems.

Thanks, I tried but no luck. I'll just have to accept that it's gone for good 😢

 

[gageoleighton]

www.realmacmods.com

Interesting, do you think that this hardware mod could help, specifically the screen backlight?

I'm up for trying otherwise I would just recycle the machine. Thanks for the link!

With the right hardware, still being possible

Are you talking about this: http://www.cmizapper.com/products/tiresias-gpukiller.html

 

[JMVB]

Interesting, do you think that this hardware mod could help, specifically the screen backlight?

I'm up for trying otherwise I would just recycle the machine. Thanks for the link!


Are you talking about this: http://www.cmizapper.com/products/tiresias-gpukiller.html

Give a try to Adam from Realmacmods.. very nice al helpful guy

If you have a disabled AMD GPU 2011 mac, you can get video output via USB 3.0 displaylink adapter (it works very well despite the fact of 2011 doesn't have USB 3.0)

 

[gageoleighton]

Give a try to Adam from Realmacmods.. very nice al helpful guy

If have a disabled AMD GPU 2011 mac, you can get video output via USB 3.0 displaylink adapter (it works very well despite the fact of 2011 doesn't have USB 3.0)

THANK YOU!

I followed the hardware modification from Adam's website, remove the resistor, and add a bridge point, and we have liftoff!

Now I can keep my Mac, hopefully for a couple more years 🤞
I think it's booting faster which is a little added bonus for sticking with it. Again, thank you so much @JMVB!

 

[JMVB]

Glad to help

Curious about "Any solution for disabling the GPU (also GMUX flashing or GMUX hard-wireing) will provoke High Sierra (and later) to not offer backlight control, and worse, to have the backlight off after sleep so it looks like the Mac does not wake from sleep" founded in the tireseas website.

Well, I have High Sierra installed and only removed the R8911 and follow the Adam's software steps, no wire jumper at all.

I removed a specific kext and installed an aditional one, and done! I have brigthness control and no wake up issues

Check my post