MacBook Pro....Endless problems!

[petehumble]

Hi,

I'm on an early 2011 Macbook Pro here and recently started experiencing weird display warp/freezes that required a hard shut down/restart.
Initially this fixed it but over a period of a few months they've become more frequent to the point where it's now very unstable.
I've so far done the following trouble shooting with no effect on the problem:

1. Recovery Boot, Verify Disk, then Repair disk
2. Safe Boot mode
3. Command-S Boot, > Run fsck -fy...twice
4. Reset the NVRAM

None of this has had any effect.

My next plan was to completely erase my HD and re-install Mountain Lion (I'm currently running 10.8.5 and have the original instal disks > 10.6.6) I'm all backed up but I've run into a wall trying to do this step.

Here's my problem:
When I boot into recovery mode (command-R) and choose the re-install OS option I go through the steps until I'm asked for my Apple ID. I type it in and get the following message:
"This Apple ID has not purchased Lion"
This got me thinking that maybe I used an old ID when I first purchased my computer. I dug around and sure enough I have an old Apple ID I'd forgotten about associated with an alternative email address. I tried again to do the recovery/OS set up, got to the same sign in with Apple ID stage and am now receiving the following message:
"This Apple ID has not yet been used with the App Store. Please review your account information" When I click 'Review' nothing happens.
So I logged on to this old ID and tried updating my preferences, tried the process again but am still getting this message.
I've spent hours trying to fix this.
Any suggestions?
Peter

 

[maflynn]

Do you have an iPad/iPhone that you can log into the app store and update your information for your old apple-id. Then try installing the OS?

 

[Fishrrman]

My suggestions

If the original internal hard drive is a platter-based (i.e., spinning) hard drive, it might be showing signs of failure.

Perhaps it's time to think about changing out the old HDD for a new SSD -- the price on these has come down significantly in the past months, and you will be both amazed and delighted at the speed boost an SSD gives you. Like owning a new computer.

It's very easy to change out the hard drive on the MacBook Pros (at least it was on my mid-2010 model) - you can go to ifixit.com and view the online repair guide.

One thing you WILL need are the RIGHT TOOLS for the job -- ifixit will tell you what tools to get.

If you decide to do a drive swap, I STRONGLY SUGGEST that you "prep and test" the new drive "externally" BEFORE you do the drive swap.

That is very easy to do if you use a USB3/SATA docking station, which can be found for only $20-25. Go to amazon.com and enter "usb3 sata dock" in the search box and you'll see many choices.

For $20 you can get this and it should work fine:
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Docking-...395503216&sr=8-2&keywords=syba+usb3+sata+dock
It will come in handy for other uses, as well.

 

[petehumble]

Thanks for the response.
ok. So now I cant get in at all anymore. None of the various trouble shooting is working. Regardless of what I try its stalling on a blue or white screen.
given I cant seem to run any of these trouble shooting anymore will a new ssd drive solve the issue or could it be something else?

 

[MagicBoy]

Exactly which model is it?

The 15" can show similar symptoms if the ATI graphics chip is going faulty.

 

[petehumble]

Its early 2011 15 inch.
I did read about that somewhere

Can u suggest a way for me to diognose exactly the ptoblem?
Thanks

 

[thekev]

Thanks for the response.
ok. So now I cant get in at all anymore. None of the various trouble shooting is working. Regardless of what I try its stalling on a blue or white screen.
given I cant seem to run any of these trouble shooting anymore will a new ssd drive solve the issue or could it be something else?

People often suggest an ssd if you're going to replace the hard drive anyway. You mentioned "warp". Was the image actually distorted? If so that doesn't sound like a hard drive problem.

Its early 2011 15 inch.
I did read about that somewhere

Can u suggest a way for me to diognose exactly the ptoblem?
Thanks

Not if you can't boot it. I would take it in. If Apple is able to run diagnostics as is, they may be able to tell you what is wrong.

 

[petehumble]

When the problem began it was more a weird frame mal alignment issue. The screen would suddenly jump to the side and get stuck. It also exhibited fairly extreme interlacing (I think mostly horizontal) issues as well

 

[ChrisA]

When the problem began it was more a weird frame mal alignment issue. The screen would suddenly jump to the side and get stuck. It also exhibited fairly extreme interlacing (I think mostly horizontal) issues as well

It's NOT a hard drive problem. Re-installing Mac OS X should not made any difference

Apple will want to charge you a lot to replace an entile logic board. Look to doe third party shops nd see what they will offer to do.

When the problem first started you could have read the system log file to see what kinds of problems were detected. Disk failures/retries get logged.

 

[mojolicious]

I'd be amazed if it was anything other than a GPU problem.

The 15" and 17" both have discrete AMD graphics cards in addition to the integrated Intel graphics, and magically switch between the two. Double the fun, double the tech, double the problems.

There are dozens of threads, some with several thousand posts, at discussions.apple.com