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Level 1

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MacBook Pro Keeps Freezing, Restarting to Blue Screen

I have a Mac Book Pro - it's 10.6.8. It's probably about 1.5 to 2 years old. My problem is two-fold - first of all, it keeps freezing. This happens when I'm on the internet...chrome became unusable, so i went to firefox, which eventually became unusable, so i moved onto safari...and now i'm starting to get problems again. It will freeze and I will have to manually shut it off.

The second problem I have is on re-start...I will get the chime and the grey screen with the apple. it will then go one to a blue screen and sit there (it won't continue starting up to my desktop). I will then have to manually shut it down and re-start it...it will then typically do the same thing (end up sitting on the blue screen). After I turn it off and on anywhere from about 3 to 7 times it will eventually go to the desktop and become usable.

i've noticed recently that now, rather than going and freezing on the blue screen at restart, it will go to a grey screen (after i see the grey one with the apple) and just sit there.

Anyone know what could be going on, what to do, etc.

I need to take it into an apple store and let then have a look, i think. my problem is i'm in the middle of a big project and really can't go without my laptop for the next couple of weeks...so am wondering if there are any "self help" suggestions people might have.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 13, 2013 6:53 PM

17 replies

bestofall

Level 2

181 points

Oct 17, 2013 6:32 AM in response to mfrc79

You can order them from Apple, I don't think an Apple store sells them.

Jan 24, 2014 5:50 AM in response to mfrc79

Hi,

I know this is an old post but I'm very curious how this situation turned out. It seems I have the EXACT same problem.

Early 2011 MacBook Pro. I have both Mountain Lion and Snow leopard on separate partitions.

The problem started, like yours, when I tried to make a video I was watching in Chrome go full screen. The entire screen went black and I couldn't wake up the screen.

After that the problem has returned intermittently.

Zapping the PRAM/NVRAM (whatever it's called) helped get back in. Then I reparied disk/permissions from the Recover Disk. And things would work for a bit.

Also someone on the community forum adviced unchecking the graphics switching box in the Engergy Saver settings.

But problems persist.

Booting normally results in a start-up screen with large vertical blue and red stripes down the screen...and then the startup never makes it to operational mode.

BOOTING IN SAFE MODE does not work. I get the blue screen with black stripes.

Booting in RECOVERY MODE is not working- I'm able to select the Recover disk or a USB boot disc I made...but then the grey screen persists and we never get to operational mode.

I'm about the zap the pram/Nvram again. I bet that'll help get me back in. But I'm not sure what to do.

Everything's backed up but it would be a huge pain to do a clean install. Sounds like that may not work anyway.

I also had just ordered a new SSD drive for a new boot drive but I want to make sure this thing isn't sick first, before installing that.

MacBook Pro Keeps Freezing, Restarting to Blue Screen