hello, I have a 2011 15' and suddenly the screen turned black. I shut it down, gets to the apple screen and then remains grey. If I try to install it again from the recovery partition or a usb disk, the screen is blue with some vertical lines. Anyone has any idea what is wrong with it?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
macbook pro 2011 not starting
- Thread starter starting
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I suspect that if you knew what "radeongate" meant you would not have bothered to even post this thread asking for help, because you would also know what the most likely cause of your problem is, so I will try to do better than give you a one word response ...
If you purchased AppleCare with it, then call AppleCare or take it to an Apple Store.
Substandard materials were used in its manufacture (specifically with the dedicated graphics adapter) which are now failing after a few years of use.
If you purchased AppleCare with it, then call AppleCare or take it to an Apple Store.
Substandard materials were used in its manufacture (specifically with the dedicated graphics adapter) which are now failing after a few years of use.
Well, you must fix the GPU. The issue is the solder used on the GPU - it develops cracks over time and eventually breaks down.
You can
1. Have someone reball it to replace the solder. This is the only permanent fix.
2. Reflow the current solder, cheaper but will break again soon.
3. Work with Apple and you may get a free logic board replacement. This will have a 90 day warranty. Flat rate (depot) is $310 if your machine is in good shape. In store replacement is $500. Apple /may/ pay for it so it'll be free for you. Either way, it will most definitely break again after a few months. After a few replacements, you may get a new computer.
I followed #3 and had 3 replacements over the course of 10 months. I paid for the first dept repair and Apple covered the other 2. Eventually (last week) they replace the whole machine with a new retina.
There is no software fix for this - you need to get it serviced in one way or another. I don't believe in disabling kext's to hack it back to a half-life.
btw, just went to an apple service and at least it booted up. Now I'm making sure that it's backed up fully. I installed smcFanControl to keep fans spinning at the maximum, and gfxcardstatus to only use integrated card. Should I expect it to go berserk on me again?
Definitely! Once it goes, it'll go again. With all of mine (except #2 which was DOA) it would glitch, work well for a few days, randomly go out again, etc. Until one day it was just dead. It's a tricky thing, you'll think it's fixed and then one day - BAM!
Which doesn't really work when you can't even boot up at all.
During boot, the EFI checks to make sure that everything is up and running. If it detects that the dGPU is down, it won't even boot up at all.
hmm... doesn't sound good... I bought another one because i can't afford to not have a notebook for a week. If this one doesn't hold for at least 5 years, would be my last apple product. Just curious, what is the average time for the 2011 ones to break again?
Not 5 years by any means, there are plenty of them going through 3 depot boards before they offer a 15 retina. Though getting a competent engineer to strip out the logic board, polish the heatsink die contact plates to a mirror shine and use good and far less thermal paste I would say would increase the odds of it lasting longer a hell of a lot than they do without doing it.