Macbook Pro 17" mid 2009 shuts down on startup

Same identical problem for me, since one year at least. I've just been at the phone with Apple official support: I described the issue and gave the reference of this discussion, but after some checks, I've been told that the issue is not recognized as a known problem, hence there are no plans for free substitutions. Frustrating, my Mac is still very fast!

Hi there,

I was having the same issues as some of you have with their macs. Specifically:

My mac turns off by itself as I turn him on, or during boot (initial part of boot).

My Mac show me a message that battery is damaged (and it only have 294 charge cycles).

The magsafe led light sometimes has issues (don't turn on, or turn on green when shoud be orange, etc).

The mac sometimes don't charge at all, but usually, restarting it resolves this.

So I called Apple Tech Support and my mac is now fixed, (all issues above).

So the instructions they gave me were:

Resetting SMC and NVRAM (MacBook Pro 2009 and later)

Recommendation to perform a reset to SMC and NVRAM. First SMC and then NVRAM.

I - SMC

1. Turn off the computer.

2. Connect the power adapter if it is turned off.

3. In the built-in keyboard, press the left Shift key + Ctrl + Alt and the power button simultaneously and continuously for at least 10 seconds.

4. Release all buttons and the power button simultaneously.

then with the computer still off:

II - NVRAM

1. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Cmd (⌘), Alt, P and R.

2. Turn your Mac on pressing the power button.

3. Hold down the Cmd + Alt + P + R immediately after turning on the Mac.

4. Keep pressing these keys until you hear the startup sound for the second time (strident "beep").

5. Release the keys.

Later I realised that the symptoms were the same as described in a Support Apple page (about SMC) which I quote:

Indicators

After performing normal troubleshooting, these symptoms may indicate that an SMC reset could be necessary.

Fans

The computer's fans run at high speed although the computer is not experiencing heavy usage and is properly ventilated.

Lights

• The keyboard backlight appears to behave incorrectly (on Mac computers that have this feature).
• The Status Indicator Light (SIL) appears to behave incorrectly (on Mac computers that have an SIL).
• Battery indicator lights, if present, appear to behave incorrectly (on portables that use non-removable batteries).
• The display backlight doesn't respond correctly to ambient light changes on Mac computers that have this feature.

Power

• The computer doesn't respond to the power button when pressed.
• A portable Mac doesn't appear to respond properly when you close or open the lid.
• The computer sleeps or shuts down unexpectedly.
• The battery does not appear to be charging properly.
• The MagSafe power adaptor LED doesn't appear to indicate the correct activity.

System performance

• The computer is running unusually slowly although it is not experiencing abnormally high CPU utilization.
• Application icons may "bounce" in the Dock for an extended amount of time when launched.
• Applications may not function correctly or may stop responding after being opened.

Video

• A computer that supports target display mode does not switch into or out of target display mode as expected.
• A computer that supports target display mode switches into or out of target display mode at unexpected times.

Port illumination

The illumination around the I/O ports on a Mac Pro (Late 2013) does not activate when you move the computer.

Sorry about my english.

😉

Like many others, I have tried this. It helps for one or two startups and then one is back to the usual, that is, the computer will not startup on battery alone... I need help in trying to cope with this. I begin to think that only taking the computer apart and cleaning each and every item, as well as purchasing a new case (mine is somewhat damaged) will be sufficient.

Stumbling on this thread, it's so great to know I'm not the only one suffering from this issue! I've been dealing with these exact same symptoms on my early 2009 17" mbp for awhile now. Thought it was related to the ssd I installed and was sure that was the problem when I took it to an authorized Mac repair shop and they ran a S.M.A.R.T. test that indicated the SSD was failing. Was in the process of submitting an RMA request with Crucial, when they told

me S.M.A.R.T. is designed for hdds and returns false errors on SSDs. That got me looking into things further, which led me to this discussion.

@vindzhov: wondering if your higher performance graphics solution worked long term? At this point, since I wiped my ssd, I would need to reinstall the OS to try it, but I'm not going to bother if it doesn't work. Since the only other proven solution seems to be a logic board upgrade, I'm about ready to give up with this computer and move on to a new one. But the reasoning behind your solution seems to make sense, since the issue seems to be worse when running from battery.

This really seems to be a problem with 2009 mbp's. Wish apple would acknowledge it.

Mines Won't go past the Greay screen

I have the same issue that started on me in January and I've been looking for a solution...

Really wish Apple would say something helpful. Their losing good customers over this.

I had that problem as well, acting strange, arbitrary shut down, took forever to start/restart, shut down during restart; it was the hard drive. I would suggest taking it to your closest Apple Store and have it checked. They are machines, after all. Good luck!

marusama, were they able to help you at the Apple Store?

Yes. I spent about 280$, got a new combo 1tb (that's terabyte!!!) hard drive and my machine is purring like a kitten.

PS: They were also kind enough to clean it. Apparently, it was loaded with dust and whatnot that gets into the computer's guts and also adds to the problem.

My issue was definitely not the hard drive (although I initially suspected that). I eventually took my Crucial M500 SSD out and it worked perfectly in an external USB enclosure. I also replaced the SSD with two separate HDDs that were known to be working fine, and the startup behavior persisted (with every restart attempt taking 2 presses of the power button). I'm convinced that it's the logic board, so sadly, I'm writing this MBP off and moving on. Used or refurbished logic boards are running around $400-$500 on eBay right now, and I'm not confident enough in my abilities to swap one out to make it worth the attempt.

My question now: after removing the drives from this thing, is a 2009 mbp with 8GB of ram and a perfect 17" display, but a broken logic board, worth anything for parts?

I'm experiencing the same issue. My MBP is partitioned with Windows 7 pro 64bit, 8GB Ram, and I have already bought an Samsung SSD to put in as the main drive. I started having this problem since September (nearly two months ago). Does everybody here agree that it is a logic board issue, or we still have chances to solve the issue?

Just wanted to inform you that for months I had been trying to determine how to fix my early 2009 17" Macbook Pro, or whether I should purchase a smaller screen new model (I really don't want a smaller screen.) It was your solution that enabled me to re-establish my computer as being reliable rather than shutting down at unexpected times, and failing to completely boot up before shutting down again.

Thank you so much. I have my computer back!

Same Problem as many users. Resetting SMC & Pram help for a restart or 2, but not as a permanent fix.

I also notice that getting a 100% charge helps to bring it up. Once it's up, it runs great. Always waking while attached to AC is critical otherwise it seems about a 1 in 4 chance it will wake briefly only to shutdown and then you go thru the trouble to get it booted again.

I replaced the hard drive and battery to no avail. Finally I just bought a new machine (i love it because it's a 17" and rocks with a SSD), but unreliability forced me over to a new computer. I'm going to try installing 10.6 or 10.7 again to see if that fixes it because it does seem to coincide with the update to 10.8 and/or 10.9 . Not sure if installing the older OS will put the Nvidia back to the older drivers or not.

One more comment to other users, I find that sometimes booting while holding down S (safe boot) will let me get it booted up and then restart into your normal account, otherwise it often will boot and then shutdown like others mention.

same issue here. computer clicks at various times during start-up and turns itself off. takes anywhere between 3-20 tries to get it to boot-up. Previously, after it finally booted up, it worked fine. however, on several occasions, it shutdown while fully booted and in the desktop. no error messages. no panic log report. I knew that my battery was bad, so I brought it to the genius bar at my local Apple Store. The computer was tested and I was told that my problem was that the battery needed to be replaced. Paid the money and replaced the battery. While it was being tested after the battery was replaced, the tech was still having a problem. They told me that they reinstalled the operating system and it was working fine now.

As soon as I got home, I was unable to reboot the computer (same problem as before). Started researching, found this thread. There was a lot of dust balls in the two fans in the rear of the machine (why wouldn't the tech have cleaned that?). Removed those - still no luck. Tried the suggestions here. no luck. I did a clean install of El Capitan thinking that maybe that was the issue. It seemed ok for a while, but as I started loading my software back on the hard drive, the same issue started again. After a successful reboot, I tried to open photos and it "clicked" and shutdown. Based on that behavior, I thought I had a bad memory module. I removed one 4gb stick and left one in. It failed on reboot even after trying each stick individually. I removed my aftermarket hard drive and replaced it with the stock has drive and did a clean install of the operating system. It failed on boot-up, as before. I reinstalled my after market hard drive and did another clean install, and thats where I am right now. I know that's it just a matter of time before it starts again.

After reading this thread, I was trying to remember when this issue started, thinking that perhaps it was related to an OS upgrade - and that makes sense in a way, because for a long time, it worked fine. Also mentioned here was the possibility of a graphics card incompatibility. That also makes sense, but it would seem that this machine would fail at the same place every time if that were the case? This is a very frustrated problem, and like someone else mentioned earlier int he thread - I paid a lot for this computer, and just because Apple decides that a computer from 2009 is "vintage" or "obsolete", it isn't for me. The tech told me that fairly shortly, Apple is going to stop manufacturing parts for this unit. So it makes sense that they may not acknowledge an issue on a unit that they are going to consider obsolete pretty soon. I will keep trying to find a solution and report back here if I do, and I ask that anyone else who finds a solution for them, to repost that here as well.