Mid 2012 15in Macbook Pro Retina Freezing/Crashing

[sg_apollo]

Hey all,


My mid 2012 MacBook Pro is giving me a fit of trouble.


It all started a couple weeks ago. I was trying to import some raw image files and look through them in preview and the MacBook kept freezing completely, thus forcing me to manually power off by holding the power button. I've had some odd issues for awhile now, so I backed up all my data and wiped the drive to start with a fresh install. One of those odd issues is that I need to reset the PRAM (CMD-OPT-P-R while rebooting) every time I want to insert a SD card or the card doesn't show up on my desktop. That seemed to help for a little while, but the issues have all come back, and much worse. Fast forward to yesterday, I was trying to transfer roughly 30 gb of video footage from the SD card to the desktop, and the MacBook froze again. Forced restart. Opened the program. Froze again. Forced restart. Being to render project. Froze. Forced restart. At this point the login screen started freezing. Sometimes I could type my password in and then it would freeze. Sometimes it would load into the login screen and freeze before I could do anything. Tried to run first aid on the disk from recovery mode, but only the recovery partition showed as available. The actual HDD was greyed out. I eventually booted into safe mode, which took probably 20 minutes to log in, and ran first aid and it said everything was fine. Safe mode is running painfully slow. SMART status on the drive says not supported. I tried running apple hardware diagnostics by holding D while restarting. It made it two minutes, and completely froze. Left it all night thinking it might just need some time and no dice.

I'm starting get concerned that either my logic board or hard-drive is on the way out.

Any pointers on direction? Not sure what steps to take next.

 

[Fishrrman]

Is this a "classic" (NON-retina) MacBook Pro ?

If so, it could be the internal SATA ribbon cable that connects the hard drive to the motherboard.
This is a VERY common failure point on the 2012 cMBP design.

Do you have a brick-n-mortar Apple Store anywhere close by?
If so, make an appt. for the genius bar (has to be done via the web page), take it in, and have them check the cable.
They previously had a FREE replacement program for this part. I'm not sure if that's still in effect.
The replacement cable isn't expensive, if you have to pay.

When the cable gets flaky, it "looks like" the drive could be failing (freeze-ups, etc.) -- but it's just the cable.

One other thing...
If you like the cMBP and plan on keeping it for a few more years, it's worth putting an SSD into it (if you haven't done that already).
You can do it yourself in about 15 minutes. All you need is a Phillips #00 driver and a TORX T-6. Go to ifixit.com to see what's involved (it's EASY).

 

[sg_apollo]

Is this a "classic" (NON-retina) MacBook Pro ?

If so, it could be the internal SATA ribbon cable that connects the hard drive to the motherboard.
This is a VERY common failure point on the 2012 cMBP design.

Do you have a brick-n-mortar Apple Store anywhere close by?
If so, make an appt. for the genius bar (has to be done via the web page), take it in, and have them check the cable.
They previously had a FREE replacement program for this part. I'm not sure if that's still in effect.
The replacement cable isn't expensive, if you have to pay.

When the cable gets flaky, it "looks like" the drive could be failing (freeze-ups, etc.) -- but it's just the cable.

One other thing...
If you like the cMBP and plan on keeping it for a few more years, it's worth putting an SSD into it (if you haven't done that already).
You can do it yourself in about 15 minutes. All you need is a Phillips #00 driver and a TORX T-6. Go to ifixit.com to see what's involved (it's EASY).

It does have the Retina display. It’s my understanding that it already has a SSD (flash) hard drive in the system from factory. Albeit, im sure the performance of the 5 year old drive isn’t anywhere near up to par for today’s standards.




I’m on vacation starting this upcoming Friday so I will be making an appointment with the Apple store to get it looked at. That was going to be a last resort for me because I’m trying to avoid paying diagnostic fees, but I’m running out of options lol.

 

[duervo]

Hey all,

...

I'm starting get concerned that either my logic board or hard-drive is on the way out.

Any pointers on direction? Not sure what steps to take next.

I would agree with this assessment.

I’m on vacation starting this upcoming Friday so I will be making an appointment with the Apple store to get it looked at. That was going to be a last resort for me because I’m trying to avoid paying diagnostic fees, but I’m running out of options lol.

Things may have changed recently, but whenever I had to bring an out-of-warranty MacBook Pro to an Apple Store, they ran diagnostics for free.