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Won't turn on (MBP 2008)

crucius

crucius

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 4, 2010
156
0
Portugal
Hi everyone,

A friend of mine has an early 2011 13'' MBP that is in perfect condition. It always worked fine but since last week it won't turn on. Resetting the PRAM did nothing so she reinstalled High Sierra. She claims it was successfully installed but upon restarting the problem remains.

Any suggestion other than swapping the drive?

Thanks a lot!

Note: an early version of this post stated 2008 as the date of manufacturing
 
Last edited:
crucius said:
A friend of mine has a 2008 MBP that is in perfect condition. It always worked fine but since last week it won't turn on. Resetting the PRAM did nothing so she reinstalled High Sierra. She claims it was successfully installed but upon restarting the problem remains.

Any suggestion other than swapping the drive?
Click to expand...
Are you sure about the MBP year and OS?
The max OS Apple supports in a 2008 MBP is El Capitan (10.11). High Sierra is 10.13. :confused:
 
Ok, a 2011 makes more sense.

I would try booting from an external boot source to rule out a intermittent SATA drive cable (a known problem for these MBPs) a problem with the original drive, or a problem with the new High Sierra. A successful boot from an external drive would point to a internal problem (OS, drive, or cable).

Do you know if the MBP still has the original internal HDD (spinner) or a SSD? I would also be good to confirm that the drive format is still HFS+ and not APFS. Can I assume that she can still boot into the Recovery partition?

Could you provide more information on details of "won't turn on"? Does she see any of these screens on startup?
 
CoastalOR said:
Ok, a 2011 makes more sense.

I would try booting from an external boot source to rule out a intermittent SATA drive cable (a known problem for these MBPs) a problem with the original drive, or a problem with the new High Sierra. A successful boot from an external drive would point to a internal problem (OS, drive, or cable).

Do you know if the MBP still has the original internal HDD (spinner) or a SSD? I would also be good to confirm that the drive format is still HFS+ and not APFS. Can I assume that she can still boot into the Recovery partition?

Could you provide more information on details of "won't turn on"? Does she see any of these screens on startup?
Click to expand...
The drive is the original HDD. When booting it shows only one partition, the main one, but on disk utility it shows two partitions (one of them where the OS is installed and a third). I don't know the format but she can check.

When it boots it shows the apple logo with progress bar. It takes about half an hour to fill up but nothing happens. At least for 6 or 7 hours, that was the maximum she tried
 
If she can boot to Recovery (Command+R) at startup, it would be good to run Disk Utility to check the drive.

EDIT: I misremembered the previous post or confused with other threads, but I do not see a SMC reset tried.
Resetting the SMC (System Management Controller) on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own
Before resetting SMC review the below link:
Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

Note: Portable computers that have a battery you should not remove on your own include MacBook Pro (Early 2009) and later, all models of MacBook Air, and MacBook (Late 2009).
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time for 10 seconds.
4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
5. Press the power button to turn on the computer.
Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.
[doublepost=1516026650][/doublepost]
crucius said:
The drive is the original HDD. When booting it shows only one partition, the main one, but on disk utility it shows two partitions (one of them where the OS is installed and a third). I don't know the format but she can check.

When it boots it shows the apple logo with progress bar. It takes about half an hour to fill up but nothing happens. At least for 6 or 7 hours, that was the maximum she tried
Click to expand...
See my post update suggesting a SMC reset.
 
Last edited:
OP wrote:
"A friend of mine has an early 2011 13'' MBP that is in perfect condition. It always worked fine but since last week it won't turn on."
...
When it boots it shows the apple logo with progress bar. It takes about half an hour to fill up but nothing happens. At least for 6 or 7 hours, that was the maximum she tried"

Does your friend have a backup of any kind?

Easiest thing to do:
Get ahold of a LOW Sierra (NOT High Sierra) installer on a USB flash drive. You will need another, working Mac on which to make it.
Then, ERASE the internal drive back to HFS+ with journaling enabled.
Install Low Sierra onto it.
Restore files from the backup.
Forget about High Sierra for now. Too many problems.

Something else your friend should consider:
If the MacBook Pro still has the original hard drive, replace it with an SSD.
It will run MUCH faster. She will like the change.
 
Nothing works so we will be getting rid of the HDD and install a new SSD. Is the Samsung Evo 850 a good option? Is it compatible?
 
The Samsung 850 EVO is a great choice for a SSD upgrade. I also like the Crucial MX300 and Adata su800.

Pretty much any SSD is going to be way better than a mechanical drive.

If, after installing the SSD, there are still issues, you might want to look into replacing the hard drive cable too.
 
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Audit13 said:
The Samsung 850 EVO is a great choice for a SSD upgrade. I also like the Crucial MX300 and Adata su800.

Pretty much any SSD is going to be way better than a mechanical drive.

If, after installing the SSD, there are still issues, you might want to look into replacing the hard drive cable too.
Click to expand...

Yeah order an hdd cable at the same time they are only 20 dollars and could fix it without the drive. I recommend you change the drive to an ssd anyway the hdd dying is a matter of time only and the performance boost is more than worth the investment.
 
Ok so we have replaced the hdd with an ssd from Samsung. We tried installing the OS via internet recovery but regardless of the network we use it always say the password is wrong. We tried using an unsecured network and it won't even connect. So we tried installing via the DVD that came with the MacBook. In disk utility the ssd options are greyed out (erase and repair) and the ssd won't appear as an option to install the os
 
There might be a firmware update for the SSD. Had that issue on a MP I was updating from HDD to SSD. Google about and you should find directions on how to do this.

It might also work easier if a flash drive/thumb drive was used. If you have a friend with macOS, see if they can create one for you. There are free tools, just have to get the installer downloaded from the app store.
 
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