I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro 13". I've made regular, heavy, daily use of it for years - with few problems and none that I can recall for the past 6 months. I used it last night, but this morning it would not wake from sleep and it will not boot. I've spent all day searching for solutions. There's no external reason for it to fail (it wasn't dropped, didn't have liquid spilled on it, has not been subject to extreme heat or cold). In fact because I use an external keyboard and monitor I rarely even touch it.
For purposes of diagnostics, I have disconnected all external cables and devices - with the exception of the power cable (as noted below).
Symptoms:
When power button is pressed, the hard drive spins and that is all.
- The display remains dark
- The DVD drive does not respond
- There is no startup chime
- The keyboard does not light
- The "sleep" light on the front of the chassis remains dark
I have tried resetting the SMC and PRAM
For SMC I tried booting with Ctl-option-shift-Cmd pressed.
I also tried disconnecting the battery and charger, pressing the power button for 30 seconds, then reconnecting the charger.
On restart, sometimes the hard drive and the fan will run. But if I reset the SMC again, this may or may not happen.
The battery is old, but the LED indicator lights on the left side of the chassis show 8 green lights when the button is pushed. There is no indication that the battery is failing. The charger shows a green light at the magsafe connector. I have tried a different power supply. It too shows green at the connector.
If I try to boot with the power supply connected, the hard drive spins continuously.
If I disconnect the power supply and boot, the drive spins for a few seconds and then the system shuts down (much as it might do with a dead battery), HOWEVER, if I boot with the power supply connected, then disconnect it, the drive continues to spin. And if the MPB is shut down and I connect the power supply, the disk begins to spin.
I have removed and re-seated the two 8GB RAM modules and on the theory that it's unlikely both would fail at the same time, I have inserted each individually into each of the two slots. No change.
I've disconnected and re-seated the hard drive connector.
I've tried booting into Recovery mode (both 'R' and option-R)
I've tried booting into single-user mode (shift + power).
Same result.
Any insights? Suggestions?
For purposes of diagnostics, I have disconnected all external cables and devices - with the exception of the power cable (as noted below).
Symptoms:
When power button is pressed, the hard drive spins and that is all.
- The display remains dark
- The DVD drive does not respond
- There is no startup chime
- The keyboard does not light
- The "sleep" light on the front of the chassis remains dark
I have tried resetting the SMC and PRAM
For SMC I tried booting with Ctl-option-shift-Cmd pressed.
I also tried disconnecting the battery and charger, pressing the power button for 30 seconds, then reconnecting the charger.
On restart, sometimes the hard drive and the fan will run. But if I reset the SMC again, this may or may not happen.
The battery is old, but the LED indicator lights on the left side of the chassis show 8 green lights when the button is pushed. There is no indication that the battery is failing. The charger shows a green light at the magsafe connector. I have tried a different power supply. It too shows green at the connector.
If I try to boot with the power supply connected, the hard drive spins continuously.
If I disconnect the power supply and boot, the drive spins for a few seconds and then the system shuts down (much as it might do with a dead battery), HOWEVER, if I boot with the power supply connected, then disconnect it, the drive continues to spin. And if the MPB is shut down and I connect the power supply, the disk begins to spin.
I have removed and re-seated the two 8GB RAM modules and on the theory that it's unlikely both would fail at the same time, I have inserted each individually into each of the two slots. No change.
I've disconnected and re-seated the hard drive connector.
I've tried booting into Recovery mode (both 'R' and option-R)
I've tried booting into single-user mode (shift + power).
Same result.
Any insights? Suggestions?
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