Fix Your Stuff Community Store

Model A1286. Released February 2011 / 2.0, 2.2, or 2.3 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 Processor

586 Questions View all
Question Closed

Options

Why isn't my computer booting?

My MacBook Pro 15" is not booting up. When I press the power button, the Apple logo comes up, then disappears and stays stuck on a White/Grey screen. Sometimes it goes to a screen with blue lines running down across the screen. Here are the list of things I have tried:

SMC reset

PRAM reset

Apple Hardware Test (basic and advanced) = no problems

Holding Option to select boot medium works but when I click either my macintosh partition or recovery, same problem

The same problem happens when I try to boot from my original installation disk.

I tried swapping out the RAM.

I've tried swapping out the Hard Drive.

The computer does see the hard drive since it can see the macintosh partition

Any ideas?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score 0
Add a comment

2 Answers

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Chosen Solution

Options

I've found the hard drive cable failing on lots of these machines with your type of symptoms. I'd replace it: MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2009-Late 2011) Hard Drive Cable

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2009-Late 2011) Hard Drive Cable Image

Product

MacBook Pro 15" Unibody (Mid 2009-Late 2011) Hard Drive Cable

$29.99

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 1

3 Comments:

But the same problem persists even when I take the hard drive completely out and try to boot from the original CD. It just stays on a white screen and sometimes goes blue when trying to boot.

by

My experience with this aggravating machines, is that if the cable is bad, nothing will work correctly, not even the DVD drive. Solving this problem took me weeks.

by

I just tried internet recovery ( was on mountain lion) and the same problem shows up too

by

Add a comment
Most Helpful Answer

Options

You don't describe how or when this started happening. If the laptop has been dropped or wet or if you recently did an update or install of software. Any of those things could be significant in determining what/where the problem is. Sometimes you need to run advance AHT 2 or 3X in a row to get it to find a problem.

Generally the white screen points to a logic board OR a corrupted operating system/defective hard drive/firmware problem. Knowing more recent history could help narrow the potential source of trouble.

That you can to the EFI (option boot) screen sort of eliminates hardware as a potential, try removing the HD and booting from the OEM optical disk. If that works it points back to HD/OS problems.

If this answer was helpful please remember to mark it accepted.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 1

2 Comments:

I took very good care of my macbook. I assure that there is no water damage and that I did not drop it. It started happening a few days ago when I was working on a project. It just shut off all of a sudden and the white screen started happening.

I have tried removing the HD and booting from the OEM optial disk but the problem still occurs.

by

Also, I have not had any software updates recently.

by

Add a comment
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 0

Past 7 Days: 0

Past 30 Days: 0

All Time: 1,314