White Screen - No Recovery, Spare Boot Drive Also Fails

[cojobt]

Hi,

I'm doing battle with the white screen...

Macbook Pro mid-2010
15", i7, 16GB Ram installed
1TB SSD system, 1TB SSD storage
I think I have High Sierra running at the minute....

Last night I was working on some audio (Reaktor 6), listening via newly connected Bluetooth earphones which I was just tested. The audio maxed out the buffer, I got a warning, closed the lid for a couple of hours.

When I returned to it and opened the lid, the screen flashed, then displayed a black screen with white vertical lines going across the screen. I've never seen that before.

EDIT: the white lines were narrow and evenly spaced across the screen, every 5mm or so, and we're narrow. They did not move, and disappeared on reboot. The desktop appeared for a millisecond after I opened the lid, and then the black screen took over.

I shut it down, attempted to reboot, and have been stuck in a white screen loop ever since.

When I boot, I hear the chime, see the logo, and watch the progress bar get two thirds of the way through, before it hangs, and occasionally reboots itself.

I'm very confused now. I've run the deep Hardware Diagnostic, and the report says no trouble found. I've done PRM reset and any other reset I can find online.

I've attempted Safe Mode but the logo disappears to a white screen. Same for Recovery Mode. Same for Internet Recovery.

I've tried boot drive selection - I can see the drive, select it, and the same thing happens. Even Verbose Boot Mode presents the blue verbose loading screen and data, before it reverts to logo and white screen.

Confusingly, I have used another boot hard drive (the old one for this machine, which I hadn't got around to wiping - it wasn't cloned before I retired it, I just copied files over to the new install), and have the same results.

This is the aspect that is confusing me the most. There are apparently no hardware issues, and the old boot hard drive was fully functional when I retired it.

So...any thoughts? I think the only thing to do is get my hands on another Mac, target the hard drive and recover the files I want. I'm worried that a fresh install won't even work.

Is it beyond help? I initially thought the boot drive was damaged, but now the old boot drive produces the same results, I don't know.
Any suggestions? Give up the ghost and get a new (second hand) MBP? Then target the drive for recovery? Is that my best option?

 

[matram]

White vertical lines would point to HW issue in display or cable to display. In that case using an external monitor should work.

 

[cojobt]

Hi,

Thanks for you reply. Yes, it occurred to me that everything is functioning after boot, except the display, which is why I can't even see the OS X Recovery or Utilities screen after boot logo.

Is the black screen/white lines an indication of display failure generally?

Testing on an external display was top of my list for today! If it works with the ext display, is there any solution to get the built-in display to work?

Regards,

Conor

 

[cojobt]

EDIT: the white lines were narrow and evenly spaced across the screen, every 5mm or so, and were narrow. They did not move, and disappeared on reboot. The desktop appeared for a millisecond after I opened the lid, and then the black screen took over.

 

[matram]

Is the black screen/white lines an indication of display failure generally?

Generally yes. You can search this forum and find several threads discussing similar issues.

Testing on an external display was top of my list for today! If it works with the ext display, is there any solution to get the built-in display to work?

The computer is obsolete so Apple will not repair it. Maybe you can find a third party willing to fix it. Otherwise your options are to use it with an external display or in clamshell mode as a "headless" server.

EDIT: the white lines were narrow and evenly spaced across the screen, every 5mm or so, and were narrow. They did not move, and disappeared on reboot. The desktop appeared for a millisecond after I opened the lid, and then the black screen took over.

I do not know the details of the design. But in principle the image is built up by scanning over the display. When you see regular bands across the display, this scanning is faulty. Think of it as the GPU is trying to address vertical lines and one bit in the address (e.g. line in the cable) is faulty.

 

[cojobt]

Generally yes. You can search this forum and find several threads discussing similar issues.



The computer is obsolete so Apple will not repair it. Maybe you can find a third party willing to fix it. Otherwise your options are to use it with an external display or in clamshell mode as a "headless" server.



I do not know the details of the design. But in principle the image is built up by scanning over the display. When you see regular bands across the display, this scanning is faulty. Think of it as the GPU is trying to address vertical lines and one bit in the address (e.g. line in the cable) is faulty.

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

Clamshell mode has not been successful. I have a screen covered in vertical lines. The laptop reboots after a minute or two as well. See attached image.

Getting it repaired locally is a problem as there are no repair stores locally. The DIY option will be costly and tricky. I think it's time to accept the 2010 machine has had its day.

I have to say that it's been a fantastic machine for a long time, especially since I swapped the Super Drive for a SSD for the OS. After that I added 16GB of RAM, and successfully ran demanding audio and video applications with no problems...until this week.

 

[matram]

I am sorry to here, in that case the problem is likely on the GPU side.

As you say the computer is old and probably not worth fixing.

I can personally recommend the 16" if you need something now.

 

[Audit13]

Are you sure it's a mid-2010?

The appearance of the Apple logo, loading progress bar, and a white screen or reboot is indicative of a 2011 15" MacBook Pro. My late 2011 15" Pro did exactly the same thing and it's the result of a failed Radeon GPU.

I also had a mid-2010 and the problem it had was during normal use and switching from the integrated Intel graphics to the nVidia GT330m GPU. No problems during boot up, only when macOS switched to using the nVidia GPU.

 

[cojobt]

You're right! It's actually the Early 2011 model, MBP 8,2.

Does that change anything regarding repair? I'm going with the thesis that the GPU is fried and repair/replacement would be the same price as buying a slightly younger MBP, and that its lifespan is not guaranteed.

On a side note, I found my old 2007 15" MBP which I thought I had sold. Although I have to use a USB keyboard as I never got around to replacing the old one, it's still working perfectly.

Regards,

Conor

 

[Audit13]

The GPU would need to be replaced with an updated revision and would not be a cheap fix. I don't recommend sinking more money into the MacBook.

If you can disable the Radeon GPU, the MacBook may be usable. Here's a long post about disabling the Radeon in the 2011 MBPs: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ntel-integrated-gpu-efi-variable-fix.2037591/

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

You have "RadeonGate". Read up on it.

There is at least one thread here on MacRumors (might be in the "sticky threads" area) that discusses how to work around this. Essentially, you disable the discrete GPU forever, and use only the integrated graphics on the CPU.

Other than that, not worth fixing on an MBP that old...

 

[cojobt]

Success!!

After Audit13 queried the year of my MBP, I came across Jeff Geerling's post which described my problem exactly. From there, I followed the RealMacMods guide to disabling the Radeon GPU. I took the easier route and paid the $10 for the prepacked Linux USB boot drive, and disabled the Radeon via Ubuntu. Following the recommended Safe Mode boot and shutdown, I then took to the logic board with a soldering iron to remove the r8911 chip - I have to say, Jeff Geerling's post was invaluable here as I had no idea how to find it. It's tiny, and has no markings.

So now, several hours, $10 and one super tiny chip later, by early 2011 MBP is up and running perfectly again!!

Thanks for the support and guidance. I expected to be selling this for parts, and had already purchased a 2015 MBP on eBay. I'll be returning that...after a few days, just so I can be sure I didn't do more damage than good soldering....

Thanks again!!

 

[cojobt]

In fact, I think this is an improvement. As reported elsewhere, the Radeon card required a lot of cooling. The fans would be running quite a lot, and battery life was pathetic. I couldn't use the Macbook without it being connected to the mains. Now, the fans are quiet and the battery seems to be working well without the mains supply. I wish I'd known about this years ago!!

 

[Guan01]

I have the exact issue, just got it fix by following a thread from this site. Now everything working without the AMD gpu, run much cooler. Hope the battery can last me another year. Its at 996 cycles. This is my main work horse, not going to sell it yet, I might replace the battery if comes to that. 8 years old machin, but performance still on par for my work.

 

[cojobt]

I have the exact issue, just got it fix by following a thread from this site. Now everything working without the AMD gpu, run much cooler. Hope the battery can last me another year. Its at 996 cycles. This is my main work horse, not going to sell it yet, I might replace the battery if comes to that. 8 years old machin, but performance still on par for my work.

Congratulations! I'm sure it was a great relief to get it running again. I almost wish I'd known about it years ago as the machine seems to be more efficient.