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J_Mark

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 18, 2017
6
0
I have a mid-2012 Macbook Pro, not sure what caused this because I don't think I have auto-updates on and didn't do anything out of the ordinary with my mac recently. I can startup and reach the users screen but when I type in my password the system just shuts down and shows the "you're computer restarted because of a problem page". I have tried safe boot and it can't get past the user screen as well, tried resetting the SMC, that didn't work either and I verified the disk in recovery mode and it didn't detect any problems. Any other things I could do before just resetting the OS? And is there a way to backup my most recent files before I do that?
On an unrelated note I also have an Imac from 2010 which also started having this problem yesterday but restarts at the apple logo and loading bar screen and can't boot any other modes at all, I have no clue what to do there.
 
Very interesting that you are experiencing a similar strange problem on -two- Macs.

Question:
What is the full list of startup/login items you are using?
You can use the free "EtreCheck" utility to reveal this info.
 
Very interesting that you are experiencing a similar strange problem on -two- Macs.

Question:
What is the full list of startup/login items you are using?
You can use the free "EtreCheck" utility to reveal this info.

Thanks for the reply, I'm not quite sure how I would download EtreCheck seeing as the macs are unable to startup
 
I would do this:

1) run the computer with 1 stick of ram in each slot, then try another single stick in each slot;
2) clean OS install after erasing the boot disk; and
3) put the boot drive into a USB enclosure and boot from the USB port.
 
If you put either of the two Macs you have into my hands, the first thing I'd try is to hook up a fully-bootable external drive, and see if I could get booted that way.

But I'm willing to bet that you don't -have- such a drive.

Do you have a brick-n-mortar Apple Store anywhere in range?
Perhaps your best option might be to take it to the genius bar and let them try to boot it.
 
Are you using aftermarket RAM?
Has your HDD SATA cable been replaced yet?
What macOS version are you running?
Did you also try resetting the PRAM? (in addition to the SMC)
Have you ran the Apple Hardware Test/Apple Diagnostics?

You can remove the drive from the computer, plug it into an external enclosure (connected to a Mac), and then copy the files to another external hard drive. You can also test booting from this external - if everything works perfectly, this is a sign that it could be the SATA cable.

If you are near an Apple Authorized Service Provider, you could call one to see if they have a copy of Disk Warrior they use on customer's system for free/low charge. When you go there, they will run a diagnostic that looks for general hardware failures. If all comes back clean, one potential cause could be corruption, which DiskWarrior can repair.
 
I have some good and bad news, the good new is out of nowhere my macbook pro was able to boot up normally, I tried restarting it and the problem occured again and it seems it's basically fragile at this point and won't boot up at certain times. I'm going to make sure I backup what I need now and see if I can take some advice from here, I'll probably just take it in for someone to have a look at because the imac continues the same and this issue seems too complex for my hands.
[doublepost=1504726833][/doublepost]Downloaded and used Etrecheck, nothing about login items, seems that was some kernel panic reports in there, I don't undersand this type of stuff so well so I'll probably take it in tommorow to get it fixed
 
If it is the non-retina 2012 MacBook Pro, take it to a brick n mortar Apple Store.

Ask them to check the SATA ribbon cable that connects the hard drive to the motherboard.

These have a tendency to fail or "get flaky" in the 2012 MBPro, and I believe the replacement may still be free...
 
If it is the non-retina 2012 MacBook Pro, take it to a brick n mortar Apple Store.

Ask them to check the SATA ribbon cable that connects the hard drive to the motherboard.

These have a tendency to fail or "get flaky" in the 2012 MBPro, and I believe the replacement may still be free...

Thanks for the tip, I have even more good news seems that turning off my time capsule made the Imac finally work again, still don't know if there is a correlation between the two machines if that's the case but at least some progress is happening.
 
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