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

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!

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!

Hello I'm having the same problem, my macbook 15'' late 2011 A1286 model freezes while watching YouTube and I had to force shut down. After it gave me this screen:

And then white grey screen and the fans start to run full throttle and very loud that I had to force shut again as the top frame was getting super hot.

I called apple support, they where kind enough to assist me for free and even call me back so I don't have to pay for the call on my mobile phone even when I am not covered by phone support ( which was ok but I have a 2000 euros machine that didn't last 3 years and sadly I don't have apple care ) and after a combination of keys, pressed did reset nvram and gave me this screen:

Ps:( this a picture from another user but exactly same) So after tried safe startup, and gave me a blue screen Internet recovery and other key combinations nothing pass this screen and the following grey screen of death.

My data isn't backed up so that is one of my main worries right now ( does somebody had the same issue and get their data back? ), I'm going to apple store soon but I know the would most likely offer me to change the logic board for a fair expensive fee ( Is reball really a solution? There is some it companies that offer a chip replacement and reball but not more than 6 months warranty and that obviously are not supported by Apple)

I have been researching and seem to be a very common manufacture/assembly problem.... There was a problem with nvidia that made apple to extend the warranty to 4 years offering a free replacement on the affected models back in the day so....

When is Apple going to acknowledge this widespread problem and issues a recall for affected customers?

Add me to the list. MacPro (late 2013). Out of nowhere, first crazy vertical lines--now I have permanent horizontal fine lines all across the screen. I hate to be the barron of bad news, but I don't think this is a 2011 problem alone anymore. It seems 3 years later, Apple has done nothing to fix it. I can only assume it affects 10,000 out of the million Mac's sold. Not that those customers are important or anything.......

If you are looking to get a MacPro (2013+), just a heads up that you might be part of the unlucky "group".

The irony is that I recently made the switch to Apple. I even made a switch from Android over to the iPhone because I enjoyed my MacPro so much. I'm still under warranty--although even if they fix it I am afraid it'll be only a matter of time before its "kaput" again.

Of note, I did upgrade to Yosemite and ran it for a while without problems. I definitely think that its not software related, but hardware. I'll update as the agony continues...

Yeah i got the same problem on my MacBook Pro 15" it's horizontal red line... And can not maverick os. It just startup with apple logo then restart or shut it down... I checked with apple service, they told me to change logic board it costs $780 and 3 months warranty only... What if after three months I got this problem again?

Hey All!

figured out what the issue was. The thermal paste that connects the AMD graphic chip to the logic board heats up and dries out over time. I found someone where I lived who cleaned it up and replaced the thermal paste and now my comp is running great. Also, make sure you clean out your fans every 6 months.. He found huge dust bunnies that were clogging 40% of them.. Which made my comp run a lot hotter than normal. i don't think apple does this fix, randomly found someone where I live who knew the issue and had fixed the problem numerous times. Paid him $115. Anyways, hope this helps people out.

i had my MBP's logic board replaced in june but i'm having problems again...

wake from sleep issues and really bad scrolling horizontal white lines and crashing in safe mode.

taking it back in this week. hopefully it will be fixed someday...

I am having a similar issue.

What I did was apple replaced the video board and when I was in the shop and getting it back this is what showed up.

The said it's a RAM issue now, which I am not sure it is.

I looked over the top comments but they don't appear that they would fix the issue.

Can you guys help

Add my 15" MacBook Pro (matte screen, extra graphic card) to the list

Late 2011 mode running 10.10x

Yesterday, I found it running fans during sleep.

stops at the boot point pictured with scan lines over logo

nothing worked, disconnecting battery overnight, pram & smc resets, even booting from an external drive or, recovery mode com+r,

for those worried about losing data - your system and data are likely fine - try mounting it on another Mac in target disk mode - or removing the hard drive and putting it in another Mac or external enclosure

wI'll see what Apple Store says about replacement and update

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.

MacBook Pro 15" Late 2011 Fast Reballing GPU - YouTube

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.

Hi there Cosmic dolphin ,

You may find the troubleshooting steps in the articles below helpful.

Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570

Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1573

-Griff W.

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!