Help! MacBook Pro won't boot

[schrubidu18]

Hey guys, I'm in a bit of trouble.
I'm trying to start up my macbook pro late 2011 (running Yosemite) since yesterday but nothing helps.
He crashed because the battery was down. I plugged him in and tried to wake him and everything seemed normal, but after I type in the filevault password it stucks at a third of the loading bar. I tried it several times but nothing helps. Here a short list of what I tried:
- boot in safe mode (fails)
- boot recovery (holding down shift key), fails too, I never get to the disk utility window
- boot in internet recovery, it loads everything then after the Apple logo there is a grey screen and the computer turns at full speed, stuck
- boot in single user mode and running fsck -fy , I can get in the single user mode but after fsck command it only tells macintosh HD seems okay but it still doesn't work
- I tried to reset the SMC, fails
- I tried to safe boot, fails
- I tried to reset the NVRAM, fails

I'm out of ideas, my MacBook either stucks on grey screen or sometimes blue screen. Can you guys help me?

 

[DeltaMac]

Can you boot to the recovery system? That is NOT holding Shift (that boots to Safe mode), but hold Command-R
Try the Disk Utility there, and you also have the choice to reinstall OS X from that recovery partition.

 

[schrubidu18]

Can you boot to the recovery system? That is NOT holding Shift (that boots to Safe mode), but hold Command-R
Try the Disk Utility there, and you also have the choice to reinstall OS X from that recovery partition.

No unfortunately I can't, when I try to in recovery, the computer chimes, the apple logo appears and when the loading bar reaches the third I get a grey screen and the computer stucks and begins to run like a jet!

 

[tubeexperience]

https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

 

[Hustler1337]

As the post above, it could be GPU related since it's a 2011 MBP. I restarted my early 2011 MacBook Pro a couple of weeks ago and it failed to boot up. Would go into a grey screen after the loading bar on boot, fans would kick in and it sometimes would go into a blue screen. Safe mode, single user mode, PRAM resets etc all failed. I was pretty sure it was a GPU issue but it happened suddenly.

If you don't have a backup of your files, back it up by going into Target Disk Mode and book yourself an appointment at the Genius Bar. They'll confirm whether it is the GPU issue by running the VST test and it should be repaired free of charge under their Quality Program linked in the post above. I'm pretty sure it's the common GPU issue as I've experienced the same symptoms less than 2 weeks ago and mines is still with Apple undergoing a logic board replacement.

 

[schrubidu18]

As the post above, it could be GPU related since it's a 2011 MBP. I restarted my early 2011 MacBook Pro a couple of weeks ago and it failed to boot up. Would go into a grey screen after the loading bar on boot, fans would kick in and it sometimes would go into a blue screen. Safe mode, single user mode, PRAM resets etc all failed. I was pretty sure it was a GPU issue but it happened suddenly.

If you don't have a backup of your files, back it up by going into Target Disk Mode and book yourself an appointment at the Genius Bar. They'll confirm whether it is the GPU issue by running the VST test and it should be repaired free of charge under their Quality Program linked in the post above. I'm pretty sure it's the common GPU issue as I've experienced the same symptoms less than 2 weeks ago and mines is still with Apple undergoing a logic board replacement.

Hi,
Thank you for your help! I begin to think you may be right with the GPU related issue. Yesterday I tried several things and managed to boot in internet recovery mode, I repaired my Macintosh HD but even after that it still isn't able to boot normally. I'm trying to make a backup. I will reinstall Mac OSX and if my macbook still won't boot I will go to the Genius Bar.
When I was in recovery mode I saw that my HD isn't listed in the startup window, even everything seems normal in disk utility. I tried to deactivate filevault but it still asks for a password when I start up.

 

[Hustler1337]

Hi,
Thank you for your help! I begin to think you may be right with the GPU related issue. Yesterday I tried several things and managed to boot in internet recovery mode, I repaired my Macintosh HD but even after that it still isn't able to boot normally. I'm trying to make a backup. I will reinstall Mac OSX and if my macbook still won't boot I will go to the Genius Bar.
When I was in recovery mode I saw that my HD isn't listed in the startup window, even everything seems normal in disk utility. I tried to deactivate filevault but it still asks for a password when I start up.

I doubt you'll be able to reinstall Mac OS and if so, whether that will fix your problem, but you could try. I couldn't get into recovery mode with mines and completely forgot to try Internet Recovery mode so can't tell you what to expect. One of the solutions I had seen online was to go into Single User mode and move all the kernal files relating to the dedicated GPU to force it to run on the integrated graphics when it boots up. As my hard drive was encrypted with FileVault, I couldn't do it so had no choice but to find another Mac and back up the hard drive using Target Disk Mode. When you take it in for repair, they generally don't touch your hard drive as the repair involves just the logic board replacement. But bear in mind that the disclaimer you sign states that you have backed up your files and Apple can't take responsibility for any data loss, so make sure you have it backed up.

Keep us updated in this thread as I'm going through the same process.

 

[schrubidu18]

I doubt you'll be able to reinstall Mac OS and if so, whether that will fix your problem, but you could try. I couldn't get into recovery mode with mines and completely forgot to try Internet Recovery mode so can't tell you what to expect. One of the solutions I had seen online was to go into Single User mode and move all the kernal files relating to the dedicated GPU to force it to run on the integrated graphics when it boots up. As my hard drive was encrypted with FileVault, I couldn't do it so had no choice but to find another Mac and back up the hard drive using Target Disk Mode. When you take it in for repair, they generally don't touch your hard drive as the repair involves just the logic board replacement. But bear in mind that the disclaimer you sign states that you have backed up your files and Apple can't take responsibility for any data loss, so make sure you have it backed up.

Keep us updated in this thread as I'm going through the same process.

As I said before, I managed to get into recovery mode after trying for two hours. Now I'm waiting for the backup process to finish. I will try to reinstall Mac OS and see what's gonna happen. I don't have much hope because if it were only a software related issue I wouldn't have so much trouble getting into recovery mode. I think in our case filevault doesn't help, it makes it impossible to force the GPU running on the integrated graphics. I will keep you updated about any progress.

 

[maflynn]

makes it impossible to force the GPU running on the integrated graphics.

If the dGPU is in fact failing, you will not be able to force the Mac into using the iGPU, its just the way it works.

Good luck, but definitely call apple to schedule a logic board replacement.

 

[Hustler1337]

If the dGPU is in fact failing, you will not be able to force the Mac into using the iGPU, its just the way it works.

Good luck, but definitely call apple to schedule a logic board replacement.

It is possible by going into Single User mode and moving the kernal files around. However, in both our cases, we're unable to do so because we have FileVault enabled which doesn't help.

 

[schrubidu18]

I have news about my MacBook. Last week I managed to boot into internet recovery and access disk utility to make a backup of my files. After many attempts (I had to type some lines in the terminal in order to prevent my mac from going to sleep) and six hours of waiting I finally saved my files. I erased my HD and made a new installation of Mac OS. After the installation I tried to boot up and everything seemed find until my Mac suddenly crashed. It got stucked a few times and in the end I couldn't even boot, nor in any recovery mode or normally. So on friday I went to the genius Bar and explained what happened. They booted my mac in target mode and made a first hardware test, everything seemed allright. They ran the VST and after 30 seconds the answer was clear, the problem is GPU related. They're gonna replace the logic board free of charge and I should get my MacBook back next week. =)

 

[Schranke]

@schrubidu18 Nice that they decided to replace the logic board free of charge
I am experience some boot problems myself. It will hang on a normal boot, but when booted into safe mood it goes through fine, then a restart and i am back in normal mode.
(it should be mentioned that the mac is a damaged rMBP from 2012 which is more expense to repair than buy a new)

 

[MormynyddMamgu]

Hey guys, I'm in a bit of trouble.
I'm trying to start up my macbook pro late 2011 (running Yosemite) since yesterday but nothing helps.
He crashed because the battery was down. I plugged him in and tried to wake him and everything seemed normal, but after I type in the filevault password it stucks at a third of the loading bar. I tried it several times but nothing helps. Here a short list of what I tried:
- boot in safe mode (fails)
- boot recovery (holding down shift key), fails too, I never get to the disk utility window
- boot in internet recovery, it loads everything then after the Apple logo there is a grey screen and the computer turns at full speed, stuck
- boot in single user mode and running fsck -fy , I can get in the single user mode but after fsck command it only tells macintosh HD seems okay but it still doesn't work
- I tried to reset the SMC, fails
- I tried to safe boot, fails
- I tried to reset the NVRAM, fails

I'm out of ideas, my MacBook either stucks on grey screen or sometimes blue screen. Can you guys help me?

[doublepost=1518372636][/doublepost]help I have a similar problem , my 2100 macbook pro wont boot . it powers on , then only goes as far as a white screen with apple logo and swirly circle that can go round for days without doing anything. Have a lot of important data stored that I want to recover ..any ideas how to get it to start again?
It was working fine when I used it laser -then this weekend i noticeed this white screen - the first restart it seemed to have lost my admin account, second restart won't boot beyond white apple screen

 

[DeltaMac]

Can you boot to single-user mode?
Restart, holding Command-s
You should see text scrolling down.
type sbin/fsck -fy
press enter to run that command. If that completes without showing any problems, type sbin/mount -uw /
press enter again. When the prompt returns, type exit, and press return again.
If that does not help (you can't get to single-user mode) or you still can't boot to your desktop, restart to your recovery system. That assumes that you have upgraded from the original system (probably OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard) to Lion or newer.
Boot to the recovery system: Restart while holding Command-r
From the recovery system menu, run Disk Utility on your hard drive. If that passes, Quit Disk Utility, which will return you to the menu screen. Choose to reinstall your system.