CPU Kernel Panic MBP Early 2011 13"

Restarting while holding "D" should take me to the Apple Hardware Test, but it doesn't. It just crashes every time. However, when I use "Option+D" it does work.

When I do the hardware test (the short version) it gives me the following result:

No trouble found.

Pass Number: 1,

Total Time Testing: 3mins 18 secs

When I do the extended version, it never finishes. I've given it a day or more to test on several occasions. It just stays on the memory portion of the test.

Depending on the method I use to start the computer, I either get the error pictured above, I get the 3 beeps for RAM that I mentioned, or I get the following Kernel error:

panic(cpu 1 caller 0xffffff80002c4dd5): "Machine Check at 0xffffff7f818dbc7f, registers:\n" "CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0xffffff807e376000, CR3: 0x0000000000100000, CR4: 0x0000000000000001, RBX: 0x0000

Debugger called: <panic>

Backtrace (CPU1), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff8078c32ec0 : 0xffffff8000220792

0xffffff8078c32f40 : 0xffffff80002c4dd5

0xffffff8078c330a0 : 0xffffff80002daf2f

0xffffff808003bdb0 : 0xffffff7f818c9f65

0xffffff808003be80 : 0xffffff7f818cba5c

0xffffff808003bf30 : 0xffffff80002c6422

0xffffff808003bf50 : 0xffffff800022d375

0xffffff808003bf90 : 0xffffff800022ccdb

0xffffff808003bfb0 : 0xffffff8000820057

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement(195.0)[70D39B65-894A-335D-A051-0C8B8CAFEA82]@0xffffff7f818c8000->0xffffff7f818f0fff

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Boot args: container-dmg=file:///Mac%20OS%20X%20Install%20Data/InstallESD.dmg root-dmgfile:///BaseSystem.dmg

Mac OS version:

11G63

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 11.4.2: Thu Aug 23 16:25:48 PDT 2012; root:xnu-1699.32.7~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: FF3BB088-60A4-349C-92EA-CA649C698CE5

System model name: MacBookPro8,1 (Mac-94245B3640C91C81)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 24900898069

I have tried many, many different solutions, including (but definitely not limited to):

• Reinstalling from my bootable USB (Holding "C" when starting)
• Reinstalling from a different bootable USB
• Booting in recovery and internet recovery modes and reinstalling from both the recovery disk and my bootable USB
• Completely wiping the hard drive and reinstalling from the recovery disk and my bootable USB in both recovery mode and internet recovery mode
• Canned air to EVERYTHING.
• Clearing NV/P RAM
• Reseating RAM
• Swapping to equivalent RAM
• Upgrading to (2) 4GB sticks of RAM (maximum supported)
• Apple Hardware Tests
• Reset SMC (It never resets--It never turns on, no matter how long I hold down the left "Shift+Option+Control+Power")
• Booting in Safe Mode

I have been working on this for about a week and have tried a lot more than what was mentioned above. That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. I can't figure out what else to do. I really want this computer to work.

One huge leap forward, ten steps back.

I felt like I was having multiple issues at once, and solving the easier ones would help solve the harder ones. I felt like the hard drive was having issues because of all of the errors and forced shut downs. I swapped it with the one in a mid 2009 15" MacBook Pro. At this point, I discovered that the hard drive in the original, 13" computer was a 320GB, which doesn't match up with any specs I can find with a MacBook Pro 8,1.

Anyways, I put the 500GB hard drive from the 15" into the 13" and it wouldn't start still. It brought up a black screen with a white Apple logo and a white loading bar that looked like this one pictured below, except that it was white against a black screen, not grey.

It sat like that for several hours before I decided it was hung up. I restarted, and it brought up the Clover menu, which I thought was completely disabled, and it won't not normally or in recovery.

Simultaneously, I put the 320GB drive from the 13" into the 15" and bored to recovery mode. I did first aid on the drive and reinstalled Lion. Then, I upgraded to El Capitan, because that was the most recent version of OSX that computer could install. It worked perfectly, booted up, and that hard drive is great now.

I swapped the hard drives back to their original computers and hesitated to turn on the 13" lest it re-break the 320GB hard drive. I've been trying to boot to normal and recovery mode (among other things) on the 15" to no avail. It hangs up on the Clover logo every time unless I hold down "option" on start-up. That did what it's supposed to, and when I try to boot normally, it crashes. When I try to boot to recovery, the trackpad, keyboard, and external mouse don't work, and it's just stuck on the screen where you choose a language. I can't do anything, and it isn't frozen (it eventually goes to sleep, and pressing the power button wakes it up). That hard drive will probably need to be reimaged, but I'm not sure how I'm going to do that yet. I'll probably end up booting to an external drive and repairing from there I'll post back if that works.

I turned on the 13" and it booted perfectly. It logged in and everything, and after a few minutes, it froze and did the 3-beep error. I restarted, cleared the NV/P RAM and reset the SMC. I started it up, and the same thing happened. Since then, it never fully logs in. I type in the password, and it just either errors out right there or shuts itself down. My next step is to just try replacing the RAM again now that nothing else is wrong. I'll get back to you guys if that works too, but it'll be a few days before I can get that.

I have not replaced the drive cable personally. That's good info, but it doesn't have any noticeable flaws. I'll revisit that does it make sense for it to be causing the issues I'm having? Like you said before, it seems more like RAM. I don't really know, though.

Ok, so update: I ordered some RAM. Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Q8D2326?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Per EveryMac (and later, Apple), that's the maximum RAM this computer can handle.

I just installed the RAM, and here is what is going on with it:

On normal start-up, it boots to the login screen, and when I put in my password, it either does the 3-beep RAM error and shuts off after a while, or it shuts off and says "Your computer has restarted because of a problem. Press a key or wait a few seconds to continue starting up." And boots to the login screen again.

Attempting to go to recovery using "Command+R" causes it to load for a while, and then just restart. Or it does the 3-beep error until you restart it.

"Command+Option+R" takes you to the internet recovery, but the options are weird. I have 10.11 installed, but one of the options is "Reinstall Mac OS X Lion." There's not an option for El Capitan at all. The disk repair utility says there's no errors.

Holding "Option" and selecting the Recovery drive gave me a kernel error.

Holding "Option" and booting to the normal disk gave the same errors at the login screen.

Restarting holding "D" boots to login screen or gives a kernel error and restarts (restarted before I could get a picture).

"Option+D" boots to the Apple Hardware Test. No information from that. "No trouble found."

I'm going to keep playing around, but that's what I've done so far. I might try reinstalling El Capitan or something. Let me know if you guys think of anything.

Here's the Hardware info from AHT in case you need it:

Early 2011 MacBook Pro 13"

Model: MacBook Pro 8,1

CPU Type: Dual Core Intel i7

CPU Speed: 2.7 Ghz

L2 Cache (per core): 256in

L3 cache: 4MB

Boot ROM version: MBP81.88Z.0047.B27.1201241646

SMC version: 1.68f99

For the (2) 2GB sticks, I have a friend with the exact same computer (Make/Model/time-period, etc. I borrowed his RAM, and I verified that it was exactly the same specs. I also checked online for OEM specs for this computer. They were: 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM PC3-10600

Because I was hoping just adding more RAM would help, I looked online for some better RAM that the computer is rated for, and it ended up being (2) 4GB same speed and everything else.