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MacBook Pro won't boot

T

theath6123

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 28, 2012
19
0
I have a mid 2009 MBP with the 2.26 that will only boot to safe mode or a live cd. It will not boot into regular mode at all. I initally thought it was a problem with the os so I did a complete format and reinstall. Installtion was sucessful but when to boot it after if finiahed the the setup would never launch. I then thought that hdd was bad and replaced it with a brand new one and it just the same thing...it would get stuck at the apple logo. However I can still get in qith safe mode. I suspect a GPU failure however I did the apple hardware diagnostic test and both the short and long test but it passed both?

I have had sucess witb reflowing acer/toshiba/hp and others. Has anyone experienced this problem and if so what is the fix?
Thanks
 
theath6123 said:
I have a mid 2009 MBP with the 2.26 that will only boot to safe mode or a live cd. It will not boot into regular mode at all. I initally thought it was a problem with the os so I did a complete format and reinstall. Installtion was sucessful but when to boot it after if finiahed the the setup would never launch. I then thought that hdd was bad and replaced it with a brand new one and it just the same thing...it would get stuck at the apple logo. However I can still get in qith safe mode. I suspect a GPU failure however I did the apple hardware diagnostic test and both the short and long test but it passed both?

I have had sucess witb reflowing acer/toshiba/hp and others. Has anyone experienced this problem and if so what is the fix?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Did you try to reset PRAM AND SMC?
 
If you hold down cmd+V on start up it will boot to Verbose mode. So rather than seeing the GUI boot, you will see the command line version.

When it get's stuck see what the last line says as this will tell you what is stopping it from booting. Either do a google or post the line up in here to see what it means.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492
 
Yes and again it runs fine in safe mode on two different hdds. This is after doing a clean install. I used the instalation media in anither identical mac and it worked perfectly
 
theath6123 said:
I have done that. It never hangs up...it goes through the the black termina windowl closes and goes back to white apple logo
Click to expand...

This is very, very strange, I have never heard about this, if it's in verbose it should stay there, or maybe it restarted without the startup sound and without you noticing it.

theath6123 said:
Yes and again it runs fine in safe mode on two different hdds. This is after doing a clean install. I used the instalation media in anither identical mac and it worked perfectly
Click to expand...

Have you tried a different OS, don't know what you have now but you could try a different major OS, like 10.5.7( Minimum for your MBP)-10.6-10.7-10.8.
 
I'm surprised it is not hanging in Verbose. If that's going through fine and the Apple Hardware Test is not finding anything going to be hard to work out what the cause is. Definitely sounds like some form of HW failure due to having used 2 different HDDs.

In Safe Boot, have you checked Console to look at the system logs? May be something in there to explain why it's hanging on boot.
 
runebinder said:
I'm surprised it is not hanging in Verbose. If that's going through fine and the Apple Hardware Test is not finding anything going to be hard to work out what the cause is. Definitely sounds like some form of HW failure due to having used 2 different HDDs.

In Safe Boot, have you checked Console to look at the system logs? May be something in there to explain why it's hanging on boot.
Click to expand...

From Verbose you get into a blue screen and then Login and not the grey Apple screen, this is very strange, I think it restarts and since he does not know it restarted it will startup normally with the grey screen.
 
I just said it never hangs...it may restart idk. It goes line by line then the black window closes im back to apple logo. I doubt id get the blue screen the. Login screen as I NEVER get to the login screen except when in safemode

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justperry said:
This is very, very strange, I have never heard about this, if it's in verbose it should stay there, or maybe it restarted without the startup sound and without you noticing it.



Have you tried a different OS, don't know what you have now but you could try a different major OS, like 10.5.7( Minimum for your MBP)-10.6-10.7-10.8.
Click to expand...

I installed 10.8
 
theath6123 said:
I just said it never hangs...it may restart idk. It goes line by line then the black window closes im back to apple logo. I doubt id get the blue screen the. Login screen as I NEVER get to the login screen except when in safemode

----------

I installed 10.8
Click to expand...

And I say it again, when you start up in verbose it should get all the text until you get into the blue or login screen, yours goes to the grey Apple screen and that is absolutely wrong.
How much time from the last line in verbose to the gray screen, if it's fairly long a bet it restarted quietly.
I saw this before on my own Laptop, it happens.

You should try to install 10.5.8, the OS which came with it and see if this works.

What you also could try is to install 10.5.8 on a USB stick(minimum 8 GB) if you have one and see if it boots from there.
 
I dont have installation media for 10.5. Plus my wife has the identicial mac and I installed it on hers yesterday and it works fine. Additionally I had 10.8 on the mac before this all started.
 
justperry said:
And I say it again, when you start up in verbose it should get all the text until you get into the blue or login screen, yours goes to the grey Apple screen and that is absolutely wrong.
How much time from the last line in verbose to the gray screen, if it's fairly long a bet it restarted quietly.
I saw this before on my own Laptop, it happens.

You should try to install 10.5.8, the OS which came with it and see if this works.

What you also could try is to install 10.5.8 on a USB stick(minimum 8 GB) if you have one and see if it boots from there.
Click to expand...

I am installing Win7 on one of my drives to see what happens. I then will swap in my other HDD and try going into verbose to see if I was possibly missing something. I may try to make a video and post on youtube so you can see what I am seeing. I was able to find a 10.6.4 disc so I may try that as a last resort
 
theath6123 said:
I am installing Win7 on one of my drives to see what happens. I then will swap in my other HDD and try going into verbose to see if I was possibly missing something. I may try to make a video and post on youtube so you can see what I am seeing. I was able to find a 10.6.4 disc so I may try that as a last resort
Click to expand...

Win7 installed just fine. I installed all the drivers and it blue screens at startup but it will infact boot into windows safe mode also! In Windows here is what the blue screen references"Nvlddmkm.sys" The nvidia driver is causing it
 
justperry said:
They say on this site there is a fix for this Nvlddmkm.sys problem???

If you can get in OS X in safe mode you should look for a panic Log file, if you find it, get references in it about Nvidia then that's what to look for.
Click to expand...

I am just really leaning towards GPU failure...in fact I am in the process of removing my board. Nvidia GPU failure makes since. In Win 7 and OSX10.8 I can run in safe mode in 100% clean installs. However if I try to boot into their OS normally it fails. In Mac safe mode doesnt run quartz and in Win7 safe mode loads standard VGA drivers.
 
theath6123 said:
I am just really leaning towards GPU failure...in fact I am in the process of removing my board. Nvidia GPU failure makes since. In Win 7 and OSX10.8 I can run in safe mode in 100% clean installs. However if I try to boot into their OS normally it fails. In Mac safe mode doesnt run quartz and in Win7 safe mode loads standard VGA drivers.
Click to expand...

Seems very likely, but you can still try to find the Panic log in OS X, it will have references in it if it panics on the GPU.

You could also try to bake the Logic board if nothing helps.
 
justperry said:
Seems very likely, but you can still try to find the Panic log in OS X, it will have references in it if it panics on the GPU.

You could also try to bake the Logic board if nothing helps.
Click to expand...

do you recommend baking over a heat gun? I have always had success with a heat gun. What are the instructions for baking? I already have the board out...
 
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