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Macbook Pro (15" early 2011) horizontal lines on screen and not booting...?

Hi there,


I have a Macbook Pro (15" early 2011).


Last night something weird happen. My MBP (screen closed) was connected to my Cinema Display, then all of the sudden out of nowhere the Cinema Display showed black and white vertical bars. I waited a while, but nothing changed, it froze.


I decided to restart with the Cinema Display disconnected. As soon as I did I noticed something wasn't right. The MBP screen looked dull, it also had staggered grey horizontal lines at the Apple logo on startup. Nevertheless it started, the dullness went away, and everything worked properly. Later, I shut it down and didn't think much of the encountered problem.


However, when I started it again, the horizontal lines appeared again, this time in a slight red colour, but it still started up fine and everything worked properly.


This went on for maybe another 2 or 3 restarts until it stopped starting up altogether. It would just stop and freeze at the Apple logo and remain that way.


Please help 😟, what's going on? Anyone experience anything similar?


Thank you for any help,

Ray

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Mar 2, 2014 9:44 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Aug 1, 2017 1:17 PM

I just repaired a faulty MacBook Pro GPU in about 20 minutes.

I did exactly what this guy in the YouTube screenshots did: apply heat with a 350W heat gun for about 5-7 minutes.

But I didn't bother taking the whole dang motherboard out; I just left it in and applied the heat from the other side.

What this does: during manufacturing, after the chips are robotically precision-placed on these motherboards, they're gently run through a solder bath. The hot solder in the bath sticks to the exposed metal connectors on the circuit board and the chips' pins (connectors), forming a connection.

This connection is usually solid and good to go for years, but sometimes, inevitably, the inevitable inevitably occurs: the solder connection weakens and becomes electrically unstable (becomes a bad connection). There are hundreds of pins on these chips, and so hundreds of opportunities for this to happen.

But the chips *themselves* are quite reliable.

So nowadays when something goes bad in a computer, it's almost always not really a bad *chip* malfunctioning, but a bad *solder connection* that's got tiny, imperceptible cracks in it which you could probably only see with a microscope, but which are causing electronic havoc.

The chips' connecting pins (looking like bent legs) simply rest on the surface of the printed circuit board, and this can sometimes make for connections which expand and contract over time due to being heated and cooled.

The solution: heat the board, solder, and connecting pins back up again. GENTLY. CAREFULLY.

5-7 minutes with a heat gun is all it took. I let it cool for another 15 minutes.

Hopefully the fix will stick, but I have to thank this nice person for uploading this helpful video, during which they gave me the idea for just very carefully heating the board up from the other side, rather than pulling it out (this can cause other problems, because you have to then pull out all sorts of connectors and little fiddly bits and ribbon cables that weren't really designed to be disconnected much). They flipped the board over during the reheating (they're calling it "re-balling" for some unknown reason), and I thought this was a bad idea: the solder's hot and the graphics chip could slide around or fall off the board.

Then I realized that if you *don't* disassemble the whole motherboard to access the GPU, it's still being held firmly down by lots of screws and heat sinks on the other side.

So why not just try heating the board from the other side? Heck, if it doesn't work you can always disassemble the whole thing. But if it's not necessary, why go to the trouble?

It worked a treat. I'm typing this on a computer that an hour and a half ago would not boot at all, because the computer looks for the GPU and requires it to function before it'll boot all the way.

If your MacBook Pro won't boot up and has the horizontal lines, don't despair just yet. Just unscrew the bottom cover, grab a heat gun, and heat it up for about 5-7 minutes in the exact same area you see below (only don't pull the whole motherboard out, just heat it up from the back in the area between the two black cooling fans, shown in the screen shot).

It might just work. I'd not use a hair dryer, as a heat gun is smaller and easier to direct; you wanna just heat up the area specific to the GPU, nothing else.User uploaded fileUser uploaded fileUser uploaded file

MacBook Pro 15" Late 2011 Fast Reballing GPU - YouTube

156 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Aug 1, 2017 1:17 PM in response to Cosmic dolphin

I just repaired a faulty MacBook Pro GPU in about 20 minutes.

I did exactly what this guy in the YouTube screenshots did: apply heat with a 350W heat gun for about 5-7 minutes.

But I didn't bother taking the whole dang motherboard out; I just left it in and applied the heat from the other side.

What this does: during manufacturing, after the chips are robotically precision-placed on these motherboards, they're gently run through a solder bath. The hot solder in the bath sticks to the exposed metal connectors on the circuit board and the chips' pins (connectors), forming a connection.

This connection is usually solid and good to go for years, but sometimes, inevitably, the inevitable inevitably occurs: the solder connection weakens and becomes electrically unstable (becomes a bad connection). There are hundreds of pins on these chips, and so hundreds of opportunities for this to happen.

But the chips *themselves* are quite reliable.

So nowadays when something goes bad in a computer, it's almost always not really a bad *chip* malfunctioning, but a bad *solder connection* that's got tiny, imperceptible cracks in it which you could probably only see with a microscope, but which are causing electronic havoc.

The chips' connecting pins (looking like bent legs) simply rest on the surface of the printed circuit board, and this can sometimes make for connections which expand and contract over time due to being heated and cooled.

The solution: heat the board, solder, and connecting pins back up again. GENTLY. CAREFULLY.

5-7 minutes with a heat gun is all it took. I let it cool for another 15 minutes.

Hopefully the fix will stick, but I have to thank this nice person for uploading this helpful video, during which they gave me the idea for just very carefully heating the board up from the other side, rather than pulling it out (this can cause other problems, because you have to then pull out all sorts of connectors and little fiddly bits and ribbon cables that weren't really designed to be disconnected much). They flipped the board over during the reheating (they're calling it "re-balling" for some unknown reason), and I thought this was a bad idea: the solder's hot and the graphics chip could slide around or fall off the board.

Then I realized that if you *don't* disassemble the whole motherboard to access the GPU, it's still being held firmly down by lots of screws and heat sinks on the other side.

So why not just try heating the board from the other side? Heck, if it doesn't work you can always disassemble the whole thing. But if it's not necessary, why go to the trouble?

It worked a treat. I'm typing this on a computer that an hour and a half ago would not boot at all, because the computer looks for the GPU and requires it to function before it'll boot all the way.

If your MacBook Pro won't boot up and has the horizontal lines, don't despair just yet. Just unscrew the bottom cover, grab a heat gun, and heat it up for about 5-7 minutes in the exact same area you see below (only don't pull the whole motherboard out, just heat it up from the back in the area between the two black cooling fans, shown in the screen shot).

It might just work. I'd not use a hair dryer, as a heat gun is smaller and easier to direct; you wanna just heat up the area specific to the GPU, nothing else.User uploaded fileUser uploaded fileUser uploaded file

MacBook Pro 15" Late 2011 Fast Reballing GPU - YouTube

Aug 2, 2017 3:54 AM in response to Brian Carter

Update on whether the heat gun fix kept working: within several hours the same problem reoccurred (that is, horizontal bands upon startup resulting in an inability to reboot).


However, I simply opened the computer, applied the heat gun treatment (a bit closer to the underside of the GPU this time round–– about 3/4" or 1" away for 10 minutes instead of only 5-7 minutes), and let cool for 30 minutes before restarting the computer.


Again it worked, however worth noting is the following:


• After the first (5-7 minute) heat gun application to the underside of the GPU, upon reboot I temporarily got a band of static in the upper-mid screen.


• The band of static was precisely the same as the one Brandontwitterdoctor posted a few posts prior to this one (and I've reposted below). However, for me it only lasted for a second or two, and then disappeared; after that my late-2011 MacBook Pro booted up just fine. Again, this was post-heat gun fix, first time round.


• After the second time round with the heat gun (10 minutes, 350W heat gun, set to low heat, approximately 3/4" - 1" from the underside of the GPU) I didn't get that same static band, and the reboot was quicker.


• I suspect that the lack of the static band after the second, closer, and longer round with the heat gun means that the fix will be much more permanent.


• At this point I'd recommend a longer heat gun treatment (10 minutes applied to the underside of the GPU–– see my above post to which I'm replying). I think it's likely to work more often and be more reliable.



We'll see. I'll keep you all posted. Meanwhile, I'm again typing this on a late-2011 MacBook Pro which a mere 18 hours ago would not boot due to the horizontal-band display problem seen on the first post of this thread.


See my above post (the one I've replied to) for a link to a YouTube video showing the location of the GPU, which is between the two black cooling fans on the underside of the computer with the underside cover removed.
User uploaded file

Mar 12, 2014 7:46 PM in response to griff w

Hi there,


Thank you for your help 🙂


I went through the steps mentioned in both articles you provided, unfortunately there was no improvment and the problem persists.


I've been reading through other threads on this site, in particular:


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?start=0&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4637833?start=0&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2768351?start=2040&tstart=0


I am experiencing exactly what these people are going through. My problem is identical, and it looks like I'm in the same boat. It absolutely frustrates me and, honestly, makes me feel sick.


It's out of warranty now by 9 months. It cost me $2500 brand new. With it I also purchased a Cinema Display for over $1000, as well as, a number of other Apple specific items amounting to appproximately another $1000.


It is honestly unacceptable that this product has lasted me under three years. Fixing is expensive, but worst of all, it's well documented that even after repair the problem reoccurs.


Thank you for your help anyway.


Cheers,

Ray

Mar 12, 2014 8:02 PM in response to Dibenkorn

Hi,


Thanks for your help 🙂


No, it won't boot at all, not in recovery, nor safe. Resetting PRAM and SMC doesn't do anything either.


Yes, I've backed everything up.


It's the same thing over and over again:


Start up > Apple logo with coloured horizontal staggered lines on screen > Spinning gear under logo > Hangs on white screen.


User uploaded file

User uploaded file


Cheers,

Ray

Mar 25, 2014 9:31 PM in response to Cosmic dolphin

Hi Ray,


I feel your frustration. I had the exact same problem with what sounds like the exact same MacBook Pro - the staggers horizontal lines on start-up leading to the grey screen, which prevented me from booting up for hours at a time.


I went to the Genius Bar and of course, the problem seemed to have disappeared. They ran their hardware test and found no problems, so said it was likely software, and to reinstall OS/X. Many hours later, with a fresh version of Mavericks, the problem persisted.


This time, the Genius checked the logs, and whilst they weren't conclusive, the error did show up that time, and it was decided that it was indeed a hardware problem. The part being replaced is:


Item Number: 661-6160

Description: Board, Logic, 2.2 GHz


I hope this helps you find a solution to your problem.


Cheers,

Andrew

May 14, 2014 11:06 AM in response to entreprenerds

Hi Andrew,


I seem to be having the same issue. It does seem rather intermittent and hasn't happened for 2 weeks but I think I'm going to get it checked out because my AppleCare is about to run out. I just wanted to know how long did Apple take to replace your logic board? And did they only do that after they had seen that the problem does exist? Because I can't seem to reproduce the issue at will, although I do have several pictures of the problem.


Thanks in advance,

Ayush

May 18, 2014 5:10 AM in response to AyushN21

Attached is a photo of what my screen looked like - exactly the same as the previous example. To answer your questions:


I took the MacBook Pro in on a Tuesday and expected I wouldn't see it again until Saturday, but it was fixed by Thursday.


Also, because I had returned with the same complaint, I think they were taking it more seriously. It was convenient that they actually saw the problem while I was there, but the Genius did check through the system logs and noticed there was definitely something wrong. Like I said earlier, the log wasn't conclusive, but it was enough to show them that there was a problem. Then seeing it confirmed things.


Hope this helps!

User uploaded file

May 28, 2014 8:34 PM in response to Cosmic dolphin

Hi! I had the same problem of horizontal red lines on my screen during startup. I tried a lot of things including disk repairs http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417 which said it cleaned up the disk, but still didn't fix my startup problem. So I reset my NVRAM http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 which seems to have fixed the problem. I guess we'll see if this is permanent. Cheers!

Jun 6, 2014 7:15 PM in response to Cosmic dolphin

Hi, I had the same problem of horizontal lines on my screen during startup that would not progress past a blank gray screen. I had the logic board and memory replaced, and the problem came back just 2 days after getting the computer (15" MBP late 2011) back. I brought it back to the Apple store where it (of course) did not reproduce the problem, and the computer passed a complete stress test.


Tonight, the problem started up again, and I did a SMC reset which resolved the problem! Instructions are here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964


Briefly: hold down the left sided shift, control, option, and the power button for 5 seconds. Release all 4 at the same time. Nothing should happen. Now tap the power button to turn on the computer normally! Good luck!

Jun 10, 2014 4:58 AM in response to Altered_MS

I tried all of the possible key-combinations to reset my smc and the nvram/prma. Also tried to boot into safe mode and also tried a disk utility, repair disk option. Nothing helped.


But I finally got my mac started by pressing in the power button and keeping it pressed in.


Now, I´ll just have to wait and see if this was a permanent solution or not...

Jun 29, 2014 1:10 AM in response to Mackintosh_User

Mackintosh_User,


You're having the same problems as discussed in this -> https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4766577?tstart=0 - thread. While a logic board may (or may not) temporarily 'fix' the problem, the best thing that you can do is to have your CPU BGA reballed onto the logic board. Many reballers offer a years warranty on their work and it's the only true 'fix' that I know of.


Read a few of the articles on the thread and see if you've similar symptoms.


Clinton


MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS Mavericks 10.9.3, 16GB RAM, 960GB SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display

Macbook Pro (15" early 2011) horizontal lines on screen and not booting...?

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