MacBook Pro retina 15" 2012 Boot Issue

[theitsage]

I'm helping a friend whose rMBP 15" is struggling to boot. It chimes and the screen turns on but would get stuck at the grey screen indefinitely. I tried reseting SMC and PRAM. SMC reset seems to respond but the keypress for PRAM does not do anything. I was not able to boot from external drive by pressing Option key either. It seems the second the power button is pressed, no other input is recognized by the computer.

If anyone has experienced this issue before or a suggestion, please share. Thank you!

 

[theitsage]

GPU Error. Reflow Fix.

UPDATE: for future reference if someone runs into this same issue.

I decided to perform a reflow because that was the only thing made sense to me after all kind of diagnostics. This was the fix. I couldn't believe such a new machine has already experienced this GPU error.

 

[culb0743]

Can I ask what you mean by "reflow"?

 

[theitsage]

Can I ask what you mean by "reflow"?

Taking the logic board out of the laptop. Apply heat (290 degree C) to the GPU chip for about 8 minutes in order to melt the solder connections between the GPU and logic board. I have a rework station at home and have done this many times on graphic cards and logic boards.

Also of note, I was curious about the glued battery pack in this 2012 rMBP. So I took a putty knife to it. The only concern I had was the trackpad ribbon cables. Fortunately, there's a metal back plate covering the trackpad area. The putty knife cut the foam padding between the battery pack and the glue. No damage to to anything after all said and done. Moral of the story is that it's possible to replace just the battery...with a lot of care and patience.