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LucasBe

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 8, 2015
6
1
Duffel, Belgium
Hi to all,

I'm new to this forum, so I'm hoping someone can help me.

Last week I updated my Macbook Pro to El Capitan and I wish I hadn't.

I have a MacBook Pro, 15 inch , early 2011.
- 2GHz Intel Core i7
- 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
- Intel HD-video 3000 384 MB

Since I updated my MacBook to El Capitan, I noticed a problem:

On completely random moments, the display becomes filled with lines or turns blue, black or light brown.
When the screen turns blue/black/brown it freezes after a while and the Macbook automatically reboots.

It also sometimes happens that the right side of the screen moves a little into the left side: when I move my cursor to the end of the right side, it enters the left side of the screen. This also results in a blue screen and an automatic reboot.

I added some pictures and a movie to show what it looks like. Here's also a video:

I'm not very technically skilled, so I had no idea what was wrong.
I started googling and already tried the following things:

- Erasing my hard drive in recovery mode and reinstalling El Capitan, this did not fix the problem.
- Erasing the hard drive again and downgrading to Yosemite from an external SD disk. I managed to downgrade to Yosemite, but this also did not fix the problem.
- I ran a detailed Apple Hardware Test, but the test found no error.
- I reset my NVRAM and SCM, this also did not fix the problem.
- I scanned for viruses and found nothing harmful.


I haven't got the slightest idea what the problem is and how I can fix this, so I'm hoping some of you can tell me what I can try to fix this error. Thanks in advance.

IMG_20151107_192937.jpg IMG_20151108_150244.jpg IMG_20151108_154215.jpg
 
I also think that's a possibility, but I'm not sure, since I had never had hardware problems before I upgraded to El Capitan.
I think it is just coincidence it happened when you did the El Capitan update. The fact that it still happens when you went back to Yosemite would seem to support that theory. Sorry you are having this trouble. I know it is very frustrating to have your computer on the fritz.
 
As other posters above have said, Apple has an extended repair program for the 2011 15" MBPros.

Take it to an Apple Store right away!
 
Have you got an SSD in there?? If so it could well be an incompatability problem and may need a firmware update.
 
Your graphics card is failing.

When you take it in they're going to ask you if your data is backed up so back it up. Also they're going to want to know if the machine has the factory drive installed in it. I would remove the SSD and zero out the data on the factory drive, re-format and re-install it in the laptop (hopefully you have a backup computer with which you can perform these tasks - I have a power PC machine still running that I can still perform these tasks with). Finally you can tell them what OS you want on them to install on the machine so if you want El Cap they can do that for you. You should have your machine back in 6 days or so I was told.
 
Your graphics card is failing.

When you take it in they're going to ask you if your data is backed up so back it up. Also they're going to want to know if the machine has the factory drive installed in it. I would remove the SSD and zero out the data on the factory drive, re-format and re-install it in the laptop (hopefully you have a backup computer with which you can perform these tasks - I have a power PC machine still running that I can still perform these tasks with). Finally you can tell them what OS you want on them to install on the machine so if you want El Cap they can do that for you. You should have your machine back in 6 days or so I was told.
The factory drive is still in there, I never installed an SSD. Thanks for the information! Do you have any idea how much the reparation will cost me?
 
Just to be clear - I am not suggesting to re-format your SSD. I would remove the SSD and clone it if you can to yet another third party drive. I am suggesting you zero out the data on the factory drive that originally came with the MacBook. Hopefully you still have that.
 
Ah, gotcha. Then definitely back up that original drive. You don't have to re-format it or zero it out but I don't feel comfortable sending out my entire digital life into the wild. I just dropped off my 2011 MacBook Pro this a.m. and these machines are all under the replacement program thanks to a class action lawsuit that Apple lost back in February of this year, so even though we are both out of extended warranty phase we qualify for free logic board replacements. The cost was around $300 but I was told they were doing the repairs at no charge to me.
 
If you don't already have a backup of your hard drive somewhere I guess I wouldn't zero out your data as it sounds like that might be the only copy you have. I'm hoping you make use of Time Machine at least. Good luck!
 
If you don't already have a backup of your hard drive somewhere I guess I wouldn't zero out your data as it sounds like that might be the only copy you have. I'm hoping you make use of Time Machine at least. Good luck!
My hard drive is nearly empty now, but I already made a manual back-up of all my important files. I'm not really a fan of Time Machine. Thanks again for your help!
 
My pleasure - I don't really use Time Machine either (prefer CarbonCopyCloner). PS...I asked what are the chances the replacement boards are faulty and they said the boards are not re-furbished ones like those prior to the class action and that we should have no problems w/them. We'll see about that. I do heavy video/photoshop work w/mine.
 
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