Macbook blue/white screen or restarts

[fincoder]

I have one of those annoying jobs where more issues became apparent after initial diagnosis. I'm not that experienced with Mac so I assume that was my downfall.

Macbook Pro (late 2011), customer said it wouldn't boot and battery not working well. When I turned it on, it started booting then just went white. So I took out the HDD and Crystal Disk Info found it had bad sectors, cloned to ensure data recovery and installed new SSD (250GB 860 Evo). I thought I'd found the problem.

So I quoted for replacement battery and ordered it.

I booted from a OSX High Sierra USB installer, first time the screen went white, tried again and it all worked perfectly including restore from the old drive clone. The Macbook was working well, booting up, logging in, checked a few things. All good.

New battery arrived, installed it, charged to full capacity then ran from battery for a while streaming video from WiFi to test. All went really well, so called the customer to say it was fixed and ready to pickup. The customer wanted a new user account with only Chrome bookmarks copied from the original user account so I said no problem, will be ready first thing tomorrow morning when she was coming in. The customer did express surprise that I'd been able to fix it, saying she was told it wasn't fixable... I wasn't told this originally.

I started trying to export & import Chrome bookmarks but it took longer than I thought because I couldn't figure out what folder to use that was accessible to the new user account...

Current Problem for readers wanting to skip to the main issue:
Suddenly it switched off, now when turning it on it gets the Apple logo with loading progress for a bit, then while screen for a while, then reboot. Or sometimes instead of the white screen I get a blue screen with vertical lines. Same things happen with Command-R recovery mode, and booting from MacOS installer USB.

It looks like a GPU failure to me, so presumably not fixable after spending all the time and parts on drive and battery replacement.

Posting here just in case someone has a suggestion...

 

[Markverhyden]

It's toast. By replacing the battery you reset the SMC. You could try flashing PRAM but that might not last.

 

[pcpete]

if it is a 15" or 17" it is almost guaranteed to be a bad gpu. About the only thing you can do is put a 2012 logic board in it(all 2011 are garbage). The lvds connector is ever so slightly but you can get the 2011 lcd cable to fit in the 2012 logic board with a bit of finesse

 

[pcpete]

It's toast. By replacing the battery you reset the SMC. You could try flashing PRAM but that might not last.

I am not saying you are wrong, but I have never had any issue by disconnecting a battery or replacing one affect the SMC. Maybe I am misunderstanding you.

 

[geranium]

I am not saying you are wrong, but I have never had any issue by disconnecting a battery or replacing one affect the SMC. Maybe I am misunderstanding you.

Resetting the SMC is a good thing. It can clear some issues, at least temporarily, but if they are related to hardware damage, they will return...

 

[fincoder]

In hindsight I believe there were hints of GPU problems before replacing the drive and battery. But because the OS install and recovery from the old drive went so well, I assumed the previous symptoms were related to the failing hard drive. The GPU problem has gotten worse, still happening after leaving it turned off overnight.

It's odd that the OS install completed and I could use the computer, before it suddenly crashed and won't boot. I think I'll have to tell the customer it isn't fixable, remove the new battery and SSD, and just charge them for data recovery.

 

[Markverhyden]

I am not saying you are wrong, but I have never had any issue by disconnecting a battery or replacing one affect the SMC. Maybe I am misunderstanding you.

Resetting SMC is standard procedure for problems like this, so resetting is a good thing. SMC reset's by default when the battery is replaced in a laptop. Well, Apple does say you need to press the power button when the battery is unplugged. But it's safe to say that the amount of time it takes to replace the battery drains any caps that might be providing power to keep those settings.

 

[pcpete]

Resetting SMC is standard procedure for problems like this, so resetting is a good thing. SMC reset's by default when the battery is replaced in a laptop. Well, Apple does say you need to press the power button when the battery is unplugged. But it's safe to say that the amount of time it takes to replace the battery drains any caps that might be providing power to keep those settings.

My brain is screwy sometimes. I took the meaning in your post completely wrong. Yes, resetting is a good thing

 

[pcpete]

to clarify my last post, the 15 and 17 inch 2011 macbooks have a known defect with the graphics chip, but not the 13 inch

 

[HFultzjr]

I'll place my bet on a bad hard drive cable.
This once caused me severe headaches until I found out.
It's a known issue to cause problems.
Easy fix if that's it.

 

[trevm999]

I'll place my bet on a bad hard drive cable.
This once caused me severe headaches until I found out.
It's a known issue to cause problems.
Easy fix if that's it.

Can't say I've ever seen vertical lines when the HD cable being bad. He's also got the problem when booting to USB, but he could remove the cable from the logic board to be sure. However my vote is also GPU

 

[overburnz]

to clarify my last post, the 15 and 17 inch 2011 macbooks have a known defect with the graphics chip, but not the 13 inch

Second that, the 2011 models have gpu problems you can try to perform a rebailling ou replace the gpu but it’s a temporary fix

 

[fincoder]

Resetting SMC is standard procedure for problems like this, so resetting is a good thing.

Ah OK, I misinterpreted your 'it's toast' post too. I thought you meant I toasted it by disconnecting the battery...

Now I think the intention of your toast post was to say 'it has a hardware problem, and the battery replacement would have already reset SMC so there's nothing else that can be done'. Is that correct?

 

[fincoder]

I've now tried:
Disconnecting the battery and charger overnight.
Starting with battery disconnected.
Disconnecting the new SSD and drive cable.
Resetting the PRAM.

I think the GPU has failed.

It's frustrating that I was able to get the OS installed and data recovered to a new SSD, and created a new user account, logon/logoff and switch user a few times trying to access a shared file between the accounts for 15 mins. Then boom, dead.

Part of the problem was virtually no problem description from the customer ("won't start"), then getting a white screen when tested and finding the HDD had bad sectors and assuming that was it. I suspect the GPU was intermittently playing up for the customer until she couldn't boot one day and brought it in, then came good again for a while after I replaced the HDD.

Should I have twigged when the Apple startup progress image was just switching to a white screen?

 

[overburnz]

in this particular situation, and those of us that work constantly with apple produts, it was a no brainer, but when we only have one or two every other day it's more difficult :/ you could try a rebailling but it's not a permanent solution

 

[fincoder]

Thanks, I got burned

 

[overburnz]

suggestion: next time google first when it comes to apple produts if you do a quick search on the apple support site or here you could find some good answer and tips but this is the kind of thing that happens to all of us from time to time

 

[trevm999]

Thanks, I got burned

At least the client had previously been told it's unfixable, which should make this conversation easier than it usually is.

 

[Markverhyden]

Ah OK, I misinterpreted your 'it's toast' post too. I thought you meant I toasted it by disconnecting the battery...

Now I think the intention of your toast post was to say 'it has a hardware problem, and the battery replacement would have already reset SMC so there's nothing else that can be done'. Is that correct?

Yes, that is what I meant. As @fincoder said it's easier when you've spent some time on them.

But it's important to remember that an Apple computer is just another computer with same chips used with almost all OEM's. The symptoms you described happen in the Wintel world as well. Been years but I'm sure many remember the infamous problems with Nvidia GPU's some 10 years ago.

And getting false hopes happens as well. My neighbor had a Macbook Air which just ran slow as molasses. Of course all tests pointed to no problems. Thinking it was a problem with the SSD I used the one from my MBP. Initially it looked ok but I told her we need to let it run for a few days. Sure enough the same thing happened. Tried with a TB drive as well, same symptom eventually.

Don't get hung up on the whole "Apple being special/different" thing. That was true back in the Motorola and PPC days. But not today.

 

[HFultzjr]

Can't say I've ever seen vertical lines when the HD cable being bad. He's also got the problem when booting to USB, but he could remove the cable from the logic board to be sure. However my vote is also GPU

Missed the part about booting to USB. You're probably right. Macs are not very familiar to me. Just throwing that out there.