The MacBook Pro won’t open to the desktop but tries to reboot itself—repeatedly—in futile frustration (mine too)

This seems like a dying beast to me, but startup screen after normal chime is white but the black apple is colored horizontal broken lines in a square pattern. Then the screen goes all white; pauses for a while; then it blanks out and the poor thing starts up again with chimes but the result is the same...over and over again until I end its misery and turn it off.

All I’ve known to do is the P-ram maneuver and this is the only thing that has gotten the machine to chime. Before that, it wouldn’t make a sound.