13" MacBook Pro 2010 - Kernel Panic

[ildondeigiocchi]

Man does it feel good to be back on these forums! A true wave of nostalgia hit me when I logged onto macrumors for the first time in what I believe was an absence of 7 years.

I write to my fellow Mac community today in the hopes that it can help me with some problems I have encountered in trying to repair my girlfriend's 13" MacBook Pro she bought back in 2010 (build A1278).

Just a little backstory. My girlfriend ran into some troubles with her MacBook Pro a year ago. After having her hard drive replaced in October 2016, the computer wouldn't boot any longer. She gave up on getting it fixed and opted to buy a MacBook Air instead.

When we started dating, she saw me working on my 2007 Blackbook and said that I could have her old MacBook Pro but would need to get it fixed because it wasn't working.

Here's where my struggles began.

Upon first boot up, the Mac froze after the apple logo appeared and fans started roaring full blast and just stuck at the loading progress wheel. It started overheating and so I shut it down.

After replacing the original hard drive with an SSD (INTEL X-25M 80GB) that I had installed Mac OSX Snow Leopard onto with the use of my Mac Pro as well as having changed the MacBook Pro's hard drive cable, the system finally booted and the progress wheel started loading but suddenly Kernel Panic ...



Since I knew the original battery was no longer working and having read some posts with people saying this might have been a power problem relating to the battery, I decided to purchase a replacement battery from Macsales hoping this would solve the issue.

The good news... After installing the new battery from Macsales, the MacBook Pro was able to start up on its own but the bad news ... when it got to the loading wheel I continued to get the same message as shown above. To this day, I have not been able to boot into the Mac operating system even in safe mode.

After reading some additional information, some users have said this might be a GPU issue which Apple had implemented a logic board replacement program back in the day for affected users but which has now ended.

Looking for any insight as to what I should do next to get this old beauty up and running again. Thank you

RECAP OF FACTS
- 13" MacBook Pro 2010 (A1278)
- replaced HDD with SSD (Intel X-25M)
- replaced original hard drive cable (iFixit)
- replaced original battery with new one (Macsales)
*** Computer is unable to boot up. Gets stuck at loading wheel then met with shutdown message.

 

[ab298]

What version of SL is installed ?.

 

[Audit13]

The gpu issued affected the 2010 and 2011 15" MBP, not the 13".

Try running the Macbook with only 1 stick of ram at a time in each slot.

Try booting from an external drive to install any os. The 2010 13" will support High Sierra.

Could also be a faulty hard drive cable.

 

[ildondeigiocchi]

The gpu issued affected the 2010 and 2011 15" MBP, not the 13".

Try running the Macbook with only 1 stick of ram at a time in each slot.

Try booting from an external drive to install any os. The 2010 13" will support High Sierra.

Could also be a faulty hard drive cable.

Tried doing so with the RAM but no luck. Also changed the hard drive cable but no luck with that either.

 

[Audit13]

How about booting from an external drive?

 

[ildondeigiocchi]

How about booting from an external drive?

Didn’t try that but I can say that when I tried loading the the Snow Leopard DVD, the computer froze and eventually restarted with the same message.
[doublepost=1510542144][/doublepost]It's kind of frustrating because I don't know where the problem seems to be coming from

 

[Audit13]

You should try booting the OS from an external drive. If it still panics, it could be a logic board problem which would be expensive to repair.

 

[ildondeigiocchi]

You should try booting the OS from an external drive. If it still panics, it could be a logic board problem which would be expensive to repair.

Thanks for your advice! I'll definitely give it a try. At this point, I have nothing to lose. I've checked out ebay and have seen logic boards for roughly 199$ but not sure if it would be a worthy investment at this point.

 

[ab298]

If you're trying to start from a retail 10.6.3 DVD, and that's what was installed via the Mac Pro : that may well be your problem. I believe that those models require a version later than the retail. Perhaps you have another, later OS to try ?.

 

[ildondeigiocchi]

Alright folks. Just a small update. The MacBook Pro is up and running again. Booting from a USB stick allowed me to install Mac OS El Capitan and from there Sierra and now High Sierra. You cannot imagine how happy I am to have revived this machine from the dead!!!

I must say (knock on wood) the computer is running like butter. I do still have two issues however ...

1. Backlight keyboard isn't working

2. Internal Microphone isn't working (part has been ordered because during installation I noticed it was damaged .... something I guess a previous technician did whilst trying to repair).

Looking for any thoughts on how to fix the backlight keyboard issue. Not the biggest problem in the world but still I'd love to have that functionality.

Thanks again to everyone for your help!