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Early 2011 MacBook Pro stuck on reboot

Bootsie

Bootsie

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 23, 2008
628
36
Utah
so my computer has been functioning great for years, but I came home the other day, and it had shutdown. When I turned it on it just kept restarting over and over... It gets to the gray screen after the apple logo and then repeats.

I've spent the last few days working on it and got it up and running using recovery mode and a few other things. Reinstalled the OS, and was able to back up.

It was still running slower than normal, but seemed to be ok. I restarted a few times to see if it would start back up ok and it did. However I got home yesterday and it had shut itself off again and is now stuck rebooting again

Any ideas what could be wrong? Do you think the hard drive is going? Something else?
 
Bootsie said:
so my computer has been functioning great for years, but I came home the other day, and it had shutdown. When I turned it on it just kept restarting over and over... It gets to the gray screen after the apple logo and then repeats.

I've spent the last few days working on it and got it up and running using recovery mode and a few other things. Reinstalled the OS, and was able to back up.

It was still running slower than normal, but seemed to be ok. I restarted a few times to see if it would start back up ok and it did. However I got home yesterday and it had shut itself off again and is now stuck rebooting again

Any ideas what could be wrong? Do you think the hard drive is going? Something else?
Click to expand...
So we do not waste time suggesting things you have already tried, what specifically are the "few other things" you have tried?
My first impression is a failing Hard Drive or drive cable. Do you have the original spinner drive installed?
Which OS are you using? What size screen?
Have you tried using Disk Utility to check your Hard Drive?
When you get stuck in the reboot loop have you tried starting in Safe mode? BTW, here are some startup key options.
 
My 2011 17" did the same when the GPU failed.

Take it to Apple as others have suggested, and if it is the GPU it will be fixed under warranty which has been extended to the end of 2016.
 
Thanks everyone! I did not know about the GPU failures of this model until today, I'm hoping that is it!

I have check the hard drive with dock utility and it says that it is fine... I have tried safe mode and it would not work, command+R wouldn't work until I reset the NVRAM. Tried apple hardware test, it said everything was fine. Once I was about to get recovery mode to work I reinstalled the OS... It worked the best after this.
 
Bootsie said:
Thanks everyone! I did not know about the GPU failures of this model until today, I'm hoping that is it!

I have check the hard drive with dock utility and it says that it is fine... I have tried safe mode and it would not work, command+R wouldn't work until I reset the NVRAM. Tried apple hardware test, it said everything was fine. Once I was about to get recovery mode to work I reinstalled the OS... It worked the best after this.
Click to expand...
My GPU problem was repaired before Apple announced the warranty extension, and when I took it in, it passed all the tests, but could not boot past the grey screen.

I went with the $340 flat rate repair, .....which they refunded when the warranty was extended.
 
Last edited:
Took it in to the Apple Store and the video card failed their tests almost immediately. It is waiting at the store for the parts for repair.

Thanks for your help! Sorry to start kind of a useless thread, but I'm so glad I don't have to shell out for the repair!
 
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