Yellow vertical lines at start up; apple hardware test does not identify any problems

Make an appointment with Apple Support, or with your preferred hardware service provider.

You’ll be able to learn your options and alternatives then.

There were GPU errors found in various of these:

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/05/20/apple-ends-2011-macbook-pro-repair-program/

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203254

It’s also a ~nine year old laptop.

Yes, the new 16” is smaller than your 17”, too.

So your eyes are lying to you, and the photo that was posted here was ‘shopped, eh?

Seems... unlikely.

The user hardware tests do not detect all potential errors.

Apple and authorized providers have better diagnostics, and have access to service info.

Check with your preferred hardware service provider.

They’ll usually look at a problem at no charge.

Could be the GPU, could be a cable problem, could be some other component.

It’s a ~nine year old computer, and possibly with a ~nine year old replacement GPU that’s been in use for ~two years.

I’d expect this’ll probably be headed toward a replacement Mac; for a new or newer Mac. If there’s not a cheap fix.

Have a complete and current backup, of course.

Video isn’t the only part of an old Mac that can fail.

So to summarize your question, you want a test that tells you that there’s a hardware fault here, when there’s obviously a hardware fault here? You want a test, when your own eyes, and your own photos show display artifacts.

If the Apple Hardware tests don’t pick up this fault, then you’ll need access to the Apple diagnostics. Which may or may not report this, as tests don’t catch everything.

But those Apple tests aren’t available to end-users, and this isn’t going to end anywhere other than a trip into your service provider.

Call Apple Support. Or your preferred service provider.

Whether or not you have the new or newer Mac option available to you, you have a Mac with a graphics failure, and which may well involve the replacement of the main board. There’s no separate graphics card used here. The graphics processor is affixed (glue; no ZIF, etc), and the video RAM is soldered to the main board. I don’t recall off-hand if the video cabling itself is detachable, or if one end of that cabling is permanently affixed to the display. I’d suspect it’s affixed ~permanently to the display, but am not going to tear down a MacBook Pro 17” here to verify that. What happened last time was probably a mainboard swap, or maybe a bottom case swap. Whether it’ll be a mainboard swap, or a display swap, this time?

The Apple Genius Bar folks will usually run a hardware test for free.

Do you have the same issue with an external display?

If so, then you most likely have a GPU issue which means defective Logic Board.

If the external display is Ok, then you most likely have a defective laptop Display Assembly or LCD.

The video memory on that MacBook Pro is soldered, not socketed.

You’re thinking of main memory, which was socketed.

You’ve previously decided to spend money on repairing a ~seven year old computer, and now two years on, maybe more?

There were graphics hardware problems found with and there were hardware recalls for this series, as has been linked.

Safe Mode might get this booted, and is certainly a reasonable test.

If that and an SMC and NVRAM reset doesn’t get this booted, try booting from an external device.

As for platform migrations, I’d expect the occasional hardware issues with a ~9 year old Windows x86-64 system, too.

Three to maybe five years is a typical x86-64 replacement cycle for businesses, both client and most server systems.

Try booting into Safe Mode to see if you can boot to the Mac Desktop..