MacBook Pro 2014 stuck in a boot loop and freezes during recovery.

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Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro 2014 stuck in a boot loop and freezes during recovery.

Hey all,

This is an odd one that seems to have got progressively worse.

My MacBook was stuck in a boot loop. I could access recovery mode but occasionally it would freeze and reboot. Finally I reinstalled macOS from a usb. It all installed fine until I got to the stage where I had to select my network and enter it's password. Then the system froze again and rebooted.

I now can't seem to access anything.

Normal boot shows a progress bar that reaches around 20% before freezing and rebooting or shutting down.
Holding shift for safe mode and cmd+R for recovery works much the same as normal boot. Partial loading of the bar then freezing.
Holding cmd+option+R brings up the globe icon and the dropdown box to select my network but this screen almost instantly freezes.
Holding option to access startup manager brings up my internal drive but freezes before I can select anything. (Curiously my bootable usb drive doesn't seem to show on this screen before it freezes)

I have tried resetting both PRAM and SMC.

I've got a Genius Bar appointment booked for next week but just thought I'd try here in the meantime.

Any ideas?

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Sep 17, 2021 4:22 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 17, 2021 4:48 PM in response to Chrisseh

Disconnect all external devices from the laptop. If the laptop is freezing on the Option Boot screen with all external devices disconnected, then you most likely have some hardware issue although there is a slim possibility the file system could be corrupted. Try Option Booting and letting the laptop sit on the Apple boot picker menu for several minutes to see if it freezes (don't use your USB stick yet). Then try connecting your bootable USB stick to see what happens. It may not show up after sitting there for several minutes, but the more important part is whether the laptop now freezes after inserting the USB stick.

Try running the Apple Diagnostics, but I'm guessing this may freeze as well.

Keep in mind the 2014 laptop is considered "Vintage" now so the laptop can only be repaired by an AASP if the necessary part(s) are still available.

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Answer 2

Chrisseh Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 18, 2021 2:03 AM in response to HWTech

Yeah the Option Boot menu was one of the few processes that was still working (hence being able to boot from usb to reinstall Big Sur) however on one occasion I noticed the network selection box under the boot drives and chose my network, entered my password and since then whenever I option boot the screen freezes almost instantly. This happens regardless of having any peripherals connected or not.

The optimist in me hopes it's just a faulty airport card because the issues seem to be triggered when selecting networks or connecting to wifi etc. However if this was the case I would have thought the laptop would still boot just with no network capability.

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MacBook Pro 2014 stuck in a boot loop and freezes during recovery.

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