Is this the end of my MBP? 😩

[Peter Franks]

I have tried numerous times to switch on, and if I ever get past the log in, in less than a minute the first ‘problem’ pic appears, followed by the second, and then sits on apple logo till I power off. Or more often than not, it turns itself off. Nothing seems to help. I tried to start in safe, but that fails also, and I dare say would switch itself off again if it ever did.

Question being, I realise this is a 2011 MBP running High Sierra and it owes me nothing, but I’ve relied on it most days and it would be good to get something out of it. I don’t find the iPad I’m on now as easy to do stuff on at all. I’d like to think the SSD is still OK, but I’m beginning to wonder, as my last back up is a fair while ago. Any advice, other than throw it away, would be most appreciated.

I assume the problem isn’t because of the drive as it switches off and is deeper than that? Or I’d swap out drive.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Fishrrman]

"... this is a 2011 MBP"

IMPORTANT QUESTION:
What size is the display?

If it's 15" -- could be a failed GPU. At this point, not worth fixing.

If it's 13" -- something else. A kernel panic (first image) is usually an indication of something amiss with hardware. Did you ever add RAM to this one? Does it have the original HDD, or did you install a replacement drive?

After 14 years, might be time for something new (or a little newer).
Do they have Apple-refurbished Macs "over there" ...?

 

[MBAir2010]

swap the drive, I had this problem several times during the happy 2000s-2010  days.

 

[Peter Franks]

"... this is a 2011 MBP"

IMPORTANT QUESTION:
What size is the display?

If it's 15" -- could be a failed GPU. At this point, not worth fixing.

If it's 13" -- something else. A kernel panic (first image) is usually an indication of something amiss with hardware. Did you ever add RAM to this one? Does it have the original HDD, or did you install a replacement drive?

After 14 years, might be time for something new (or a little newer).
Do they have Apple-refurbished Macs "over there" ...?

It’s a 13inch, and yes I swapped RAM several years ago, 2 x 4GB cards as well as a new Samsung SSD 500GB drive. I’ve never had a problem with either. But possibly RAM card can cause this screen?

Problem being, it doesn’t stay on long enough to do anything at all to it
I have tried getting on a dozen times. One or two occasions I get to desktop but it’s less than a minute before it shuts down if I do get desktop.

Would love to get a new MBP. As per, finances…… iPhone and iPad doing the heavy lifting sadly.

swap the drive, I had this problem several times during the happy 2000s-2010  days.

It’s not the original drive, but would a SSD cause this problem?

Thanks both of you.

 

[galad]

Try to boot from an external disk. It could be that the internal SATA is not working anymore. It happens often on those models.

 

[Peter Franks]

Try to boot from an external disk. It could be that the internal SATA is not working anymore. It happens often on those models.

Tried it mate. Had one which was my back up from year ago. It just turned itself off again.

 

[Fishrrman]

One other thing you could try would be to remove the RAM modules, and "swap their positions", replacing them. Perhaps a dirty contact or something like that?

This may help, maybe not.
It's just a long shot, but something worth trying.

If that doesn't help, might be time to take the internal SSD out of it (may be useful somewhere else) and retire the rest...

 

[Peter Franks]

One other thing you could try would be to remove the RAM modules, and "swap their positions", replacing them. Perhaps a dirty contact or something like that?

This may help, maybe not.
It's just a long shot, but something worth trying.

If that doesn't help, might be time to take the internal SSD out of it (may be useful somewhere else) and retire the rest...

Thanks man. Will try. You’re correct of course. It’s way past its sell by and may have to retire it. I just know I’ll miss the USB ports, and the DVD drive I use to get CDs in the old iTunes, believe it or not. Hate all those adapters for the old USB you have to use on the new ones. Just praying SSD isn’t corrupted and I can drag and drop from it.

 

[Bigwaff]

Run Apple Diagnostics. Hopefully will still work with older hardware.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

 

[Peter Franks]

Run Apple Diagnostics. Hopefully will still work with older hardware.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

Wont stay on. If it ever shows the desktop, during the dozens of trying to start it up, it goes back to white log in screen in less than a minute, even if you do nothing, but without the log in box, and nothing can be done other than use power switch to turn it off.