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MacBook Pro is dead!

F

fauxosprey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 25, 2016
11
0
Hi people, i was gifted a macbook pro 17" (I know ... its a beast! .. well it was ). About a month ago it reset on its own and wouldn't boot back up, after leaving it for an hour or so it would boot back up again and was okay for around 3 weeks.Then again, it reset its self, but this time it wouldn't boot up again and would show artifacts of pixels across the screen with the apple logo and the logo would bounce all around the screen!



I have tried everything i can possibly think of to try and bring it back to life. I have tried:



  • Resetting SMC
  • Resetting PRAM
  • Removing one stick of ram at a time to see if it was bad ram
  • Wiped the ssd (bad move)
  • Tried booting from a ubuntu usb, hung on that too
  • Internet recovery (bar filled up then just grey screened and fans sped up)


I have read online it may be due to a dead gpu and to disable it, but as i wiped the ssd i cant boot into single user mode to allow me to disable the gpu



Any ideas or help would be very much appreciated as i need a laptop for many everyday things from photoshop to web development



Thanks Guys!
 
Sounds like graphics failure. I imagine you got the 2011 17"? They were absolute lemons with Logic Board failures. I'm afraid you won't have much luck with it. It's a ticking time bomb.

If you wiped the SSD (ouch), try hold CMD+ALT+R on startup. Does this boot into Internet Recovery?
 
Yep its a late 2011 model, yep i know right ... not my finest hour at all!

Yeah it boots into recovery mode, the bar fills up then it appears to reboot and then just hangs on the grey screen and the fans just speed up
 
fauxosprey said:
Yeah it boots into recovery mode, the bar fills up then it appears to reboot and then just hangs on the grey screen and the fans just speed up
Click to expand...

Not great... that's another symptom of graphics failure. Do you possibly have an Apple Store local to you? With any luck they might be able to get an OS onto it, just so you can at least boot into the system and force iGPU at all times.

Do you also have a different Mac you can make macOS recovery/install media from?
 
I do have a store local to me which i could go into and see if they can help. I dont have access to another one currently but i do have friends with imacs and other macbook pros that could possibly help me create media with.

Im just expecting the worst tbh, and that its GPU failure. I tried disabling the GPU and recovery before i wiped the SSD but they also just hung on the grey screen :/
 
Fortunately it was a gift,so,you have not wasted any money yet. Old computers with hardware issues are usually not worth the effort or cost to repair,if it's not just some lose cable or something similar. Have it checked by nearest Apple service provider,and ask them for a repair offer before they do anything.
 
Yes thats true, it came from a family member who thought they had fried the GPU trying to play bioshcok infinite on it, but i managed to fix it with a PRAM reset.

(the playing of games probably didn't help the GPU)

So, you think taking it to a apple store before buying a new machine is the best option?
 
fauxosprey said:
Yes thats true, it came from a family member who thought they had fried the GPU trying to play bioshcok infinite on it, but i managed to fix it with a PRAM reset.

(the playing of games probably didn't help the GPU)

So, you think taking it to a apple store before buying a new machine is the best option?
Click to expand...
You can at least have it checked,but I'm not sure it's worth the repair.
 
fauxosprey said:
So, you think taking it to a apple store before buying a new machine is the best option?
Click to expand...

Oh definitely. Apple won't charge just to assess the machine and at least you'll have an opportunity to weigh up service options or see if they can do anything to help with throwing an OS on there before you need to buy a new machine.

Just one thing: don't pay for a Logic Board replacement. New Logic Boards will exhibit the same problem.
 
OP wrote:
"Any ideas or help would be very much appreciated as i need a laptop for many everyday things from photoshop to web development"

Quite frankly, if those are your needs, than "you need" something other than the 17" MBPro that you have.

It's probably going to cause you quite a few headaches and problems to keep it going.

Aside:
There's a reason you were "gifted" that one...
 
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Reactions: keysofanxiety
Okay great, thanks for all your help :) i will take it to an apple store and see what they can do.

i was wanting a new smaller macbook for portability reasons so this just gives me a reason :p

I was looking at a razor blade due to power and the fact it has windows on which is helpful due to my use of visual studio for c# development (Said in hushed tones) ;)
 
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