Macbook Pro A1278 (2011) Startup with DING to white screen

[GelleCC]

I'll try and make this quick (will post a video at the bottom - says it's processing on Vimeo and won't play for another 30 min or so from 1:20 PST):

Macbook has recently run into some issues. Last night, upon pressing power, you could hear the DING startup chime but the screen would stay black (unlit/unresponsive). I plugged it into an external monitor and the screen (monitor side) would go white. Heard some weird noises from the HDD, so I swapped it.

NOW, the macbook screen DOES light up with a ding but stays white. No flashing finder, nothing goes past the ding. I've reset the pram, smc, and even plugged in my Snow Leopard install USB. I'm not sure if something is wrong with the screen, but even on an external monitor, nothing appears to happen (tried booting into safe mode, verbose mode, AHT, and even the install USB won't show up). What could be the problem? I've taken off the bottom and nothing appears out of place/shorted/no liquid damage/etc? If it was the screen, wouldn't something happen on the external monitor? If it was the logic board, would it still "ding"? Something was obviously wrong with the last HDD (since it was making noises).

Thanks in advance!

Video: https://vimeo.com/77300629

 

[nollimac]

I'll try and make this quick (will post a video at the bottom - says it's processing on Vimeo and won't play for another 30 min or so from 1:20 PST):

Macbook has recently run into some issues. Last night, upon pressing power, you could hear the DING startup chime but the screen would stay black (unlit/unresponsive). I plugged it into an external monitor and the screen (monitor side) would go white. Heard some weird noises from the HDD, so I swapped it.

NOW, the macbook screen DOES light up with a ding but stays white. No flashing finder, nothing goes past the ding. I've reset the pram, smc, and even plugged in my Snow Leopard install USB. I'm not sure if something is wrong with the screen, but even on an external monitor, nothing appears to happen (tried booting into safe mode, verbose mode, AHT, and even the install USB won't show up). What could be the problem? I've taken off the bottom and nothing appears out of place/shorted/no liquid damage/etc? If it was the screen, wouldn't something happen on the external monitor? If it was the logic board, would it still "ding"? Something was obviously wrong with the last HDD (since it was making noises).

Thanks in advance!

Video: https://vimeo.com/77300629

It obviously can't find the operating system; however, you have cleared the pram and it could not recognize the USB boot stick. That leads me to think the logic board/graphic is faulty and believe your only option is to take it to Apple. I had a similar issue with my MA897LL/A; however, I would see the screen after clearing the pram. It turned out to be a faulty graphics card which is bulit-in the motherboard. Apple replaced it freely.

 

[priitv8]

Analyzing Mac's boot sequence and signals, no progress after chime means it
can't find boot.efi, otherwise you'd see the bitten apple on that white screen.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2674

 

[GelleCC]

It obviously can't find the operating system; however, you have cleared the pram and it could not recognize the USB boot stick. That leads me to think the logic board/graphic is faulty and believe your only option is to take it to Apple. I had a similar issue with my MA897LL/A; however, I would see the screen after clearing the pram. It turned out to be a faulty graphics card which is bulit-in the motherboard. Apple replaced it freely.

I think something is wrong with my LCD - it works intermittently. Anyway, I plugged the macbook back into the external display and for funsies - I reset the pram/smc again. NOW, I still get the boot chime and white screen BUT, if I try and boot into the (replaced) HDD, I get an error (see the first picture I attached). If I hold Option and try to boot into the Install USB (the partition chooser does come up to select Macbook HDD or USB), I get a kernel panic (see second picture). Edited: second picture didn't upload - here's an imgur link instead: http://i.imgur.com/wKMXrPz.jpg

I think part of the reason is that this new HDD was actually from my old Macbook which was a 32-bit architecture running leopard. So I'm sure the first image error has to deal with that "Unsupported CPU Family...". But the Install USB - I don't know why that would be crashing.

Thanks.

 

[GelleCC]

Analyzing Mac's boot sequence and signals, no progress after chime means it
can't find boot.efi, otherwise you'd see the bitten apple on that white screen.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2674

It appears you're right. Thanks for that link. However, I've gotten a little further with this issue (I'm just going to copy/paste my response from my previous comment):

I think something is wrong with my LCD - it works intermittently. Anyway, I plugged the macbook back into the external display and for funsies - I reset the pram/smc again. NOW, I still get the boot chime and white screen BUT, if I try and boot into the (replaced) HDD, I get an error (see the first picture I attached). If I hold Option and try to boot into the Install USB (the partition chooser does come up to select Macbook HDD or USB), I get a kernel panic (see second picture). Edited: second picture didn't upload - here's an imgur link instead: http://i.imgur.com/wKMXrPz.jpg

I think part of the reason is that this new HDD was actually from my old Macbook which was a 32-bit architecture running leopard. So I'm sure the first image error has to deal with that "Unsupported CPU Family...". But the Install USB - I don't know why that would be crashing.

Thanks.

 

[GelleCC]

I'm interested in trying a reflow to see if that helps solve any issues? I'm familiar with taking things apart - I just have never heard of a reflow of a MBP logic board (I'd use a heat gun on low setting, no baking/reballing/etc).

I would love for apple to replace it for free - but I bought this mbp second hand just after the warranty ended on it (I've been using it for several months with no problems, but I don't think apple would replace it for free.

 

[53kyle]

It looks like the install USB (assuming that was the picture in the most recent post) is also leopard 10.5. I recommend trying a retail snow leopard dvd and installing that, then installing mountain lion over the app store.

EDIT: don't listen to this post, I didn't see the link to the second picture

 

[GelleCC]

It looks like the install USB (assuming that was the picture in the most recent post) is also leopard 10.5. I recommend trying a retail snow leopard dvd and installing that, then installing mountain lion over the app store.

EDIT: don't listen to this post, I didn't see the link to the second picture

The attached picture (black screen) is what happens when I boot into the HDD - Which wasn't faulty when I replaced it but DID come from a macbook a1181 (leopard with 32-bit). But i'm not sure why I'm getting a kernel panic when booting from a SL install USB (image here http://i.imgur.com/wKMXrPz.jpg). I should be able to boot into that no problem and wipe/reformat the old HDD and install SL on it... I have my lion install esd, too, but would have to remake the USB key for it. Willing to try it, just at a loss right now!

 

[GelleCC]

Well, swapped HDD's again - this time to an HDD running ML that from a 64 bit macbook. This time, no panics. BUT, still went DING to a white screen. Tried running AHT (internet based). Starts loading, then I got "apple.com/support -5010D" Doing some googling looks like it's an internet problem. Popped her back open and it looks like the antenna to the wifi card is broken (the cable is still connected to the port, but the port is no longer on the board... FML.

Will try again with ethernet a little later. Should be fun - I'll have to run back and forth from external monitor (downstairs) to cat5 cable (upstairs), then back downstairs to see what the results are (The screen stopped working on the MBP again...).

Troubleshooting is fun! (Sarcasm).

 

[umast78]

me too!

Hello I have the same problem on my mac A1278 .
white screen but it works on the external monitor . You have already tried to replace LCD . I would replace it but I doubt that is another problem .