MacBook Pro won't turn on unless power is connected

[megalymo]

Hello! This is my first post and I also don't know a ton about computers, so forgive me if this comes off sounding dumb. Just need guidance asap.

Recently, my MacBook Pro 15" Retina (early 2013) (macOS High Sierra 10.13.3) has been having some issues. It all started about a month ago when I kept getting GPU kernel panics whenever I was doing something such as editing a picture/video clip, creating a PowerPoint, watching a video, etc. It kept happening over and over so I looked into it and read something about downloading "gfxCardStatus". Probably dumb but I was desperate as I'm a university student and need my laptop to work every day. This seemed to help for a few weeks and I didn't have any issues. Then about a week or so ago, my laptop would run fine and then start shutting off. I couldn't use it for more than 20 minutes before it would just shut down randomly. Then one-day last week, it shut down but wouldn't turn back on. I could hear the bootup chime (possibly incorrect terminology - but the screen was black, this was before the apple logo would turn on) clicking like it was trying to start up but it kept getting stuck. My laptop was like this for a few days as I couldn't turn it on. Nothing would work (tried holding down different keys - "D", "command + D", "command + option + p + r", "shift + control + option", etc. I tried it all).

Finally, I saw a video online where a guy held down the power button for 10 seconds and then immediately plugged in the power while still having his finger on the power button for another 10 seconds. I tried this and it worked! However, the fan was running EXTREMELY fast/loud, and if the power source got unplugged my MacBook would shut off. There is NO Apple store near me. Closest one is about 2 hours away. However, there is an Experimac store. I took it there and they ran some tests. They said it was the battery. They put a new one in and all seemed to be working fine again....but then 3 days later it shut off and did the exact same thing. So, I took it back and they claimed it was a bad battery. They put a new one in, and it seemed to be working fine. Then, about 10 hours later, it did the exact same thing. So this is where I'm currently at. It won't let me run a diagnostic on it. Says that it can't. However, if I press "command + D" and run an Internet Recovery, I got this message:

"Alert! Apple Hardware Test has detected an error. 4HDD/11/40000000"

Please help! Need my laptop to work for school. This has already made my life super difficult.

 

[radubraharu]

Take it to a real service
They should be able to perform a hardware test. If the results of the test are ok, then maybe they can check if there is dust somewhere, and the connections between the components are somehow for some reasons interrupted

 

[treekram]

On the web, there are multiple posts about 4HDD/11/40000000 error being a false alarm. If you don't have any other disk problems, that's probably the case.

The early 2013 15" retina MBP was subject to a "repair extension program for video issues". This program ended on Dec. 31, 2016. There have been a couple of posts recently where people who had the 2012 15" retina MBP's (part of the same extension) also seemed to have GPU issues. I had not noticed many if any of these problems on this forum before they started coming up recently so it could be that these computers will start to see an increased incidence of failures. People have used gfxCardStatus to get the computer to only use the integrated GPU (vs the discrete GPU which is the cause of these problems) and the program is recommended by numerous people. There's a post on the web where Apple quoted a price of $575 to replace the logic board of the 2012 MBP. However, people who had GPU issues with the 2011 MBP report that these replacement logic boards tend to have problems after some period of time.
https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Experimac is a franchise operation and whether or not they are an Apple-authorized service provider appears to depends on the individual store. Apple used to run tests to see if computers were affected by the GPU problem that prompted the repair extension. I don't know if they still do and Apple-authorized service providers may charge to run such a test. If it's not Apple-authorized, they likely don't have access to this test.

The 10-second hold of the power button will reset the SMC.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

That the computer didn't run without being plugged in and the loud fans does suggest a battery issue. It may be a coincidence that you started to have battery issues and the GPU issue at about the same time.
However, if you told the repair people that you had GPU problems and they did not mention that the early 2013 15" MBP had GPU issues, I would question their competence. If the people who repaired your MBP are not Apple-authorized, then they don't have access to the OEM batteries that Apple uses. That may or may not be a problem but the fact that they had to replace the initial replacement suggests that it is. The batteries in the early 2013 15" MBP are glued in and if they don't have good procedures for handling this, I think that can be a problem as well. Short-term, you should probably find an Apple-authorized service provider quickly (if the Experimac store isn't) and see what they say. If it's the battery again, you should try again I guess to get another battery replacement from Experimac. You can also ask this authorized Apple service provider if they can run tests for the GPU issue.
https://locate.apple.com/