MBP won't boot - stuck in a grey screen loop

sarkozy

Two nights ago, my Macbook Pro (late-2011, running Yosemite) went kerplunk.

I was just browsing the web and it suddenly shut off. Rebooting initially showed the normal boot-up bar, but it would stop less than halfway and the screen would go blank.

I couldn't boot in safe mode; I could then run (internet) recovery mode and run 'Repair Disc' (which found permissions errors); I reset PRAM and SMC; and I ran Apple Hardware Test, which found no errors. Finally, I managed to boot from an external drive, an OS X boot disc, from which I could reinstall OS X.

This worked. All of yesterday, the computer worked fine until late last night (around 12am, same as the night before); I was backing up the entire machine to Time Machine and it just cut out. In retrospect, I remember Chrome giving warnings of scripts having to be shut down and then Chrome crashing repeatedly before the Mac went for good. This time, it restarted back into OS X, with a window saying the machine had to be restarted, but it was sluggish - this time, I managed to save the report, which was a kernel panic, but I cannot tell you what about. All the same problems, only worse. Internet recovery won't boot or anything. Only Apple Hardware Test, which I'm running an extended test of right now (no errors the last time I ran it).

I can't think what's wrong or what to do. The only change has been a RAM upgrade last week by an authorised Apple service agent. I've emailed him about this, but I can't wait as I have urgent deadlines before Tuesday. I also can't afford an expensive repair or new Mac.

Sad Professor

Bad or incorrectly installed RAM would be my guess. You can try removing one chip at a time and see if that resolves it.

sarkozy

It seems the likely culprate, alright, given the 'coincidence'. Still, extended hardware test is returning no error.

5uspect

I had kernel panics a few weeks after a RAM upgrade on my old 2010 13" a few years ago. It was just faulty RAM, I swapped back in the old RAM and RMAed the faulty memory. Do you still have the old modules?

Sad Professor

sarkozy wrote: »

It seems the likely culprate, alright, given the 'coincidence'. Still, extended hardware test is returning no error.

You'd need to run memtest/Rember.

sarkozy

How do I run memtest without being able to boot the Mac?

Sad Professor

If it won’t boot up at all, then you can’t obviously.

I’d say it’s safe to say it is a RAM issue, though.

trmartin

Have you tried launching your MBP in Safe boot mode?

sarkozy

As above.

sarkozy

So, out of exasperation, I held my MBP aloft and shook it vigorously.

Guess what happened?

A bit of a glitchy screen as the GUI flickered into life, but I'm here to type the tale. I'm in Safe Mode and running memtest.

Faulty/loose RAM?

sarkozy

So, now I'm told it's a graphics card/logic board issue. The whizzkid is happy it's not a RAM issue.

It looks like Apple extended the replacement programme for late-2011 the MacBook Pro 15", which mine is. Apple has confirmed that it's due a replacement if this is the issue. But before that, CompuB has to run a test which it has to pass by failing. But if the Mac won't boot (which it kind of does at the moment), then I don't get nuthin', apparently.

sarkozy

FYI: the update is the fault ended up being my Logic Board. Thankfully, it was accepted by Apple as the manufacturing flaw they extended the replacement programme on and it was repaired for free by CompuB. Fairly promptly, too.