MBP 2011 Not Turning on

[Cubedout]

Hello, I'm new to the forums, I come in the hopes that someone here may be able to help me.

I have a late 2011 MBP 15" which doesn't seem to want to turn on.

I tried all the usual smc, pram resets ect... No luck. The battery indicator lights were flashing 5 times so I assumed the battery was causing it. I just got a new one and that has gone back to normal. But still no power.

I tried putting in different ram as well, didn't help.

The green light is on the mag charger, the battery indicates charge. But when I press the power button, nothing happens at all.

I've also tried the power pads on the board. No such luck.

So I'm guessing I have an issue somewhere on the board... If that is the case, I doubt there is much I can do. However, if there is anything I haven't tried yet, I'd appreciate your help.

I'm a PC and laptop tech, this is the first Mac I've ever owned, and I'm baffled. Usually I at least get some kinda fan movement on those. This is new territory for me.

Thanks x

 

[sevoneone]

Hello, I'm new to the forums, I come in the hopes that someone here may be able to help me.

I have a late 2011 MBP 15" which doesn't seem to want to turn on.

I tried all the usual smc, pram resets ect... No luck. The battery indicator lights were flashing 5 times so I assumed the battery was causing it. I just got a new one and that has gone back to normal. But still no power.

I tried putting in different ram as well, didn't help.

The green light is on the mag charger, the battery indicates charge. But when I press the power button, nothing happens at all.

I've also tried the power pads on the board. No such luck.

So I'm guessing I have an issue somewhere on the board... If that is the case, I doubt there is much I can do. However, if there is anything I haven't tried yet, I'd appreciate your help.

I'm a PC and laptop tech, this is the first Mac I've ever owned, and I'm baffled. Usually I at least get some kinda fan movement on those. This is new territory for me.

Thanks x

Macs with built-in batteries like your 2011 model will not start without a working battery connected. Five flashes of all the lights indicates the battery needs to be replaced: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201842

 

[MkVsTheWorld]

Unfortunately, this model is prone to GPU-related problems, look up Radeongate. That could be the issue here. Or it could just be a disconnected cable or bad RAM/HDD. Have you tried a hardware test?

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

 

[Cubedout]

Macs with built-in batteries like your 2011 model will not start without a working battery connected. Five flashes of all the lights indicates the battery needs to be replaced: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201842

Yup, I got that far, and the battery has been replaced. It now shows that it's charging. I then went back through the previous steps to see if I could get it going, but nope.

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Unfortunately, this model is prone to GPU-related problems, look up Radeongate. That could be the issue here. Or it could just be a disconnected cable or bad RAM/HDD. Have you tried a hardware test?

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

Doesn't power on at all for that. Hold on, I've taken a wee video to give you an idea. Will upload in a sec

From what I understand the radeongate you at least get power. I had a radeon problem with another laptop that I fixed by reflowing.

 

[sevoneone]

Yup, I got that far, and the battery has been replaced. It now shows that it's charging. I then went back through the previous steps to see if I could get it going, but nope.

Ooops. So much for my reading comprehension scores. lol.

Have you tried a SMC reset? With the power adapter attached to the computer, hold down Command+Option+Control+Power for 5-10 seconds. Release, then try to power up.

Also, are you sure you have the correct wattage adapter for a 15" MBP? It should be an 85watt adapter. The smaller adapters for the 13" models will charge a 15" but they can't cold boot the machine if the battery has little or no charge.

 

[Cubedout]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGc4CCFpiyw

that's a short clip of what I'm seeing

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Ooops. So much for my reading comprehension scores. lol.

Have you tried a SMC reset? With the power adapter attached to the computer, hold down Command+Option+Control+Power for 5-10 seconds. Release, then try to power up.

Also, are you sure you have the correct wattage adapter for a 15" MBP? It should be an 85watt adapter. The smaller adapters for the 13" models will charge a 15" but they can't cold boot the machine if the battery has little or no charge.

Yup I've tried an SMC reset.

I think the adapter is correct > 16.5-18.5v 4.6a

 

[MkVsTheWorld]

The power cord could be bad. You should be able to take your Mac to an Apple store and just try charging there on a free bench. Give it a good 5 minutes and see if you can get at least a boot-up. If that fails, then you could wait to see a technician at the Genius Bar or make an appointment. They should be able to give you a no cost estimate of what they think is wrong, then leave and fix it yourself.

 

[Cubedout]

The power cord could be bad. You should be able to take your Mac to an Apple store and just try charging there on a free bench. Give it a good 5 minutes and see if you can get at least a boot-up. If that fails, then you could wait to see a technician at the Genius Bar or make an appointment. They should be able to give you a no cost estimate of what they think is wrong, then leave and fix it yourself.

Thanks, I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. But if needs be I guess I'll have to. I live quite a far way from the nearest apple store.

 

[MkVsTheWorld]

Thanks, I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. But if needs be I guess I'll have to. I live quite a far way from the nearest apple store.

You could also go to a local busy library, Barnes and Noble, or Starbucks and ask a nice person if you can bum a quick charge.

 

[Cubedout]

hmm don't have any of those nearby either :/ I live in the middle of nowhere unfortunately. Thank you for your help though, I'm gonna keep trying.

 

[hermagerd]

To see if it's the battery or the logic board, try disconnecting the power adapter, press and hold the power button for ~5 sec, and then reconnect the power adapter without releasing power button. After some 5-10 seconds it should start (and once it's starting you can release power). This will work if the battery is not functioning normally.

To start it like this is a mess because the fans will run like crazy, but at least you can see if it behaves normally once on.

 

[Cubedout]

To see if it's the battery or the logic board, try disconnecting the power adapter, press and hold the power button for ~5 sec, and then reconnect the power adapter without releasing power button. After some 5-10 seconds it should start (and once it's starting you can release power). This will work if the battery is not functioning normally.

To start it like this is a mess because the fans will run like crazy, but at least you can see if it behaves normally once on.

Hey, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately this didn't work. So this means it is in fact the logic board? I'm assuming this is going to get expensive.

 

[GoldfishRT]

Apple flat-rate depot for the Logic Board is about $300 if that is in fact what it is.

 

[yjchua95]

Hey, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately this didn't work. So this means it is in fact the logic board? I'm assuming this is going to get expensive.

Yup, Radeongate hit your Mac.

Logic board replacements will not work either, because the replacement boards all contain the same flaw that causes Radeongate to happen again.

Your best bet would be to reball a new GPU with leaded solder, and apply thermal paste nicely on both the GPU and CPU.

IMO it's not worth it, because the Radeon card is much slower than the 650M in the mid-2012 MBPs. I'd just sell it off for parts and get a new rMBP instead.

 

[Prodo123]

Yup, Radeongate hit your Mac.

Logic board replacements will not work either, because the replacement boards all contain the same flaw that causes Radeongate to happen again.

Your best bet would be to reball a new GPU with leaded solder, and apply thermal paste nicely on both the GPU and CPU.

IMO it's not worth it, because the Radeon card is much slower than the 650M in the mid-2012 MBPs. I'd just sell it off for parts and get a new rMBP instead.

Unfortunately, this model is prone to GPU-related problems, look up Radeongate. That could be the issue here. Or it could just be a disconnected cable or bad RAM/HDD. Have you tried a hardware test?

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

This is completely unrelated to Radeongate. Laptops will still boot with the dGPU disabled. You can even manually set the boot parameters to bypass Radeongate and use only the Intel graphics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGc4CCFpiyw

that's a short clip of what I'm seeing

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Yup I've tried an SMC reset.

I think the adapter is correct > 16.5-18.5v 4.6a

The blinking behavior is normal if you hold down the power button for that long.

By the looks of it, the fans don't even spin up. This isolates the problem to a critical component issue. Namely, something has happened to either your RAM or logic board (or anything else that is necessary in the boot process). Static damage, short circuiting, RAM dying, etc. are primary reasons.

Test the laptop with some other RAM (DDR3 under 1600Mhz, even one stick should do). If that doesn't work then the problem almost certainly lies in the logic board. EFI corruption is also possible, but I'm not aware of any methods to flash EFI on a Mac that doesn't boot in the first place.

If you can get to the boot screen, run the Apple Hardware Test. Option-D at boot will start the internet-based AHT.

 

[yjchua95]

This is completely unrelated to Radeongate. Laptops will still boot with the dGPU disabled. You can even manually set the boot parameters to bypass Radeongate and use only the Intel graphics.

Actually, removing the kexts doesn't force the laptop into Intel-only. Rather, it actually forces all animations to be rendered by software, hence everything lags.

When using gfxcardstatus to force into Intel only, everything is still largely smooth. Removing the kexts via SU mode causes everything to be really laggy, even laggier than on Intel, because all animations are rendered by software. Zero hardware acceleration.

 

[Prodo123]

Actually, removing the kexts doesn't force the laptop into Intel-only. Rather, it actually forces all animations to be rendered by software, hence everything lags.

When using gfxcardstatus to force into Intel only, everything is still largely smooth. Removing the kexts via SU mode causes everything to be really laggy, even laggier than on Intel, because all animations are rendered by software. Zero hardware acceleration.

I did not say anything about removing kexts. It's the gpu-policy parameter in the NVRAM. You can set which card to use at startup or even disable switching altogether on the login screen.