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my A1286 will not boot Recovery mode non response

B

bnrr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 12, 2009
13
0
Hello, I need help with my a1286(MC723/A) 2.2GHz i7 early 2011. The unit will turn on , chimes are heard, fan spinning hard drive spins normal start. But the display is pitch black. Unable to see anything with a flash light when shine to the screen.
I connect the laptop to a external monitor. On the external monitor it boot to the white screen with apple logo and the spinning gear, that's it, won't boot past the white screen. Replace the display and display cable(both new) still black screen.
I have also replace the ram with new ones, still the same problem.I am also planning to change to new HD and install snow leopard 10.6.6 (DVD black disk) Oh I forgot to mention that I had tried all start up combination keys from apple support, nothing works, If all else fails I do not know what else to try. If anyone has experienced this kind of technical problem, please help I do not want to go down the road to getting a new logic board, this a very expensive way.
Thanks with a thousand gratitudes.
 
CoastalOR said:
Have you tried binstalloting from the Snow Leopard install DVD?
Click to expand...
CoastalOR said:
Have you tried booting from the Snow Leopard install DVD?
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply. No have not yet try to boot from the install DVD will try later on today, but in the mean time could you please
provide tutorial steps as how to proceed in case I successfully boot to the DVD install? This is my very first.
 
Mnowell69 said:
logic board
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. I was hoping I would not lean towards that option. Where am from, (outside US) there are no apple store or any computer store that sells macbook pro part or services. I will try my first option with the install DVD with prayers.
 
bnrr said:
Thanks for the reply. I was hoping I would not lean towards that option. Where am from, (outside US) there are no apple store or any computer store that sells macbook pro part or services. I will try my first option with the install DVD with prayers.
Click to expand...

I realise that and i hope it's not the board but Apple will change the board for nothing as long as it is the graphic chip that's faulty and not something that you did

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

not sure if your country is in the list.
 
Last edited:
bnrr said:
Thank you for your reply. No have not yet try to boot from the install DVD will try later on today, but in the mean time could you please
provide tutorial steps as how to proceed in case I successfully boot to the DVD install? This is my very first.
Click to expand...

Here is a link to Apple's pdf instructions on installing Snow Leopard:
https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1172/en_US/Snow_Leopard_Installation_Instructions.pdf

See towards the bottom of the instructions:
"The Installer doesn’t open
If the Installer doesn’t open, restart your computer while holding down the C key to start up your computer using the Mac OS X installation disc."

Note: The install DVD will have to be inserted in the optical drive before holding the C key at start up.

I was thinking that starting up from the install DVD would be a test. If you are successful then it might indicate that it is not the logic board, but something else like your internal Hard Drive cable.
 
Update: Today I receive the OS X DVD installer (ver 10.6.6). I could not install it yesterday because I was waiting for to arrive. the DVD installer is a gray disk and not black as I had mention in my post yesterday.
anyway I went ahead to install the OS X, sadly to say it was a complete failure. first of all the macbook fail to boot with the 'C' key, but was able to boot to the DVD with the 'alt key. the disk appear and click to install, nothing happens just the a blank white screen. the DVD installer disk does not list on the label if its snow leopard just the version and other bunch of information the same for the application disk. is this the wrong disk? if so I would have to send it back and try to request the correct ones. if it is the correct one and the cause of failure is the logic board,then no choice but find a new one online. but before that I am going to try the target disk method I hopefully it would work(failure not an option). I have another macbook pro(2006 a1211 MA210A) just need to get a firewire cable. I will post a update of success or failure.

Thanks

Edite:the A1211 the OS X is snow leopard 10.6.3
 
Ok, the target disk method was a complete failure. 2011 mbp wasn't receiving the signal from 2006 mbp host. I double check the connection
(firewire 400 to 800 connections)checks out fine. After the mbp turn on and pressing 'T' key and boots up, nothing beyond after apple logo disappeared. I have repeated the process 4x just to see if lucky enough for something good to happen(like a miraculous resurrection). Now my DIY option is to replace the logic board, and the cost of a new one or use is enough to give my wallet a severe whopping cough.
 
A 2011 MacBook Pro?

Could this be a victim of "RadeonGate"? (google it)

Is the free logic board replacement for RadeonGate-affected computers still in effect?
 
You can properly fix the problem temporarily by bypassing the dGPU. If you know how to use a console, this works for me on yosemite and el captain (you need to disable SIP to move files on captain) on my late 2011 macbook pro with a faulty dGPU:

Press and hold cmd+s on boot to get into single user text console.
# mount -uw /
# cd /System/Library/Extensions
# mkdir backup
# mv ATI* backup
# mv AMD* backup
# cd /System/Library/Caches
# rm -rf com.apple.kext.caches
# reboot

The system should now start using the internal GPU. You can reverse the change by moving the files back and deleting the cache again.
 
Duff GPU most likely - very common problem with the 2011 15". Contact Apple and get it checked out under the repair programme, they'll replace the logic board at no cost if affected.
 
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