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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
156 replies

Aug 5, 2014 7:48 AM in response to ConorMJG

lol i posted a link here showing that people, more than 7000 people or cases (with this very same issue regarding this early or late 2011 macbook pro) have brought up an online petition against Apple. and i got this

"Hi Lu Tu (Tu Lu),

Thanks for participating in Apple Support Communities.

We removed your post Re: Macbook Pro (15" early 2011) horizontal lines on screen and not booting...? because it contained a poll or a petition. We understand wanting to share experiences, but these forums are meant for technical questions that can be answered by the community."


ok sure, then this is my experiences:

if you unfortunately got this problem, try restart it with cmd + s, then shut donw, then hit power button and cmd + alt + R + P

do that twice

then if it not work, close the mac, go to this forum again, and post a next line of comments lol


and here is my technical and hopefully logic question: if a specific error occur only one to one computer , we can call it bad luck and forget about it. But what happen to a specific identical hardware faulty that seems to occur in the same product model many times for many years (now is 2014 right?)?


dear Mr/Ms Host of this forum, if you have such a power to remove or change my post, could you pls do a bit further step and invite someone who could put a clear officially reply to put an end to this matter?

Aug 6, 2014 1:25 AM in response to alfredm99

alfredm99,


No, connecting an external monitor will not work - an external monitor requires the use of the discrete GPU which is 'broken' (well, not really the GPU, but rather the faulty soldering).


Clinton


MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS Mavericks 10.9.4, 16GB Crucial RAM, Crucial M500 960GB SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display

Aug 6, 2014 7:22 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Called then went to apple yesterday. They agreed to send it out and fix it.


my apple care just expiredB(like a month) The cost would have been 310 to fix "whatever" but they waived it.


apparently they they have a flat rate "check- repair" fee.

ILl let let you kne what they find do.


OF coursr urs rot booted for them as I had to do shift opt cont power so I could get info they needed prior to leaving.


Let's hope it failed for them. Guy was like probably graphics interface - so new logic board. They send it out 3-5 days (or so they claim)


My my ya hubby reminded me his 2010 (under apple care) had it's logic board replaced.


ILl ill let you know -- meantime I'm computerless and already revived an email fr a "client" wanting a change to their website (a food kitchen) --

Aug 16, 2014 12:27 PM in response to Vladimir Vovk

having the same problem is apple doing it on purpose for us to buy new1s, because I want to buy a new1 but hoping tI get some resale on late 2011 model if not resale Atleast for it to be in working so my mom can use, but this stupid thousands of user facing the same problem.. Hope apple has a call back and fix the the problems for free.


in 2011 apple called the 2gb nano's and replaced them with the latest 8gb watch shaped nano I was lucky to keep my nano.


Mr. Cook, you will lose out on your so called apple fans

Aug 17, 2014 10:16 AM in response to Cosmic dolphin

I am also having this. Seems to be a logic board issue that Apple is pretending doesn't exist. Lucky for them no one dies from these kinds of things. Otherwise they would be facing congressional hearings. haha. Maybe if I yell at my Senator long enough, he will do that anyway. I would join in on hte lawsuits if I could figure out where to sign up.

Does anyone know if the reballing stuff works?

Aug 22, 2014 10:23 PM in response to Cosmic dolphin

I've had my Early 2011 Macbook Pro 15" for less than a month, and this issue just began to happen to me this evening. I went from having a few lines on the screen to having one part of the screen shifted all the way to the other side to having everything but the mouse freeze up on me to not being able to boot past the grey (white to me) screen, all in a matter of minutes. I've been a PC user up until the time I bought this laptop, and if what all of you are saying is true about this problem, I may never buy an Apple laptop again. I love everything about the interface and the laptop overall, much better than Windows, but none of that does any good if the company won't own up to a mistake and offer some sort of recall on faulty parts that they installed into these machines.


The laptop I've got is ~2 months past Apple Care warranty, and I'm not afraid to pop open the machine and fix stuff on the inside if it means saving a dollar. Is reballing the GPU a 100% sure fix? Has anybody here actually reballed the GPU, and could you explain to me how to go about doing that or direct me somewhere that does explain it?

Sep 2, 2014 3:33 PM in response to Cosmic dolphin

After chatting with several Apple customer support people and getting the answer from a senior adviser of "I don't know of any plans for a recall, I would take it to the Genius Bar," (he didn't refer me to anyone who would know the answer), I just bit the bullet and took the MacBook Pro to the Apple Store. They are putting in a new logic board, which will cost $310.


I'm repairing it only to get what money I can back from it on eBay, and then I'll likely forget about my endeavor in Apple products and take my business to a more reliable company, Lenovo perhaps, at least until Apple can prove that they stand behind their products by offering a recall for the 2011 Macbook Pros that have been affected by this manufactoring error that Apple alone is responsible for. Which I sincerely hope they do, because I love the MacBook Pro, more than any PC laptop I've used. I would buy another one in a heartbeat if I knew Apple would acknowledge any design flaws like this one in their products.

Sep 20, 2014 7:26 PM in response to Cosmic dolphin

I just want to add my 2011 MacBook pro on the list of machines that had a graphic issue. After a few weeks of trying all the fixes I found online my laptop now just turns on with vertical lines and after a few seconds the screen just turns gray. I took it into my local Apple Store and the genius know the problem as soon as I pulled out the laptop. Long story short, 6 months after my apple care expired It will cost my $310 and 5-7 days to get the logic board replaced.

Sep 24, 2014 3:02 PM in response to Cosmic dolphin

Nothing more to add here either except that I am suffering the same issues now with my late 2011 MacBook Pro 15" . Grey horizontal lines on the start up screen and then a grey screen. It all first started when I clicked on the update button to update to the latest Mavericks 3 days ago. At first it seemed resolved by dragging the caches folder onto the desktop. 12 hours later the problems started again (when I closed a window in photoshop cs5). Since then I have reinstalled the OS X and reset the PRAM.... In fact I have pages of notes on what I've tried. Now I can't get anything other than a grey screen (after the horizontal lines on start up) Not happy 😟

Sep 25, 2014 2:39 AM in response to Cosmic dolphin

Okay here I'm lol 😁

I also f***** up in these issues 😝 No Hard feelings... Peace! 😎

A week back when I was using Google Chrome my Laptop turned off. I turned it on again, Got red lines on Apple logo and usually it stops on the blank screen, then it worked when i forcefully turned it off and turned on back on the first attempt.

Again happened to me this 3 days back, My Macbook Pro. When I turned it on it showed red lines and no boot again. In 30-45 minutes by using the below method it worked...

Today again happened this after 3 days of working. What I have done is? Turn off your Macbook (if forcefully do it), Connect the charger, Turn on your Macbook, After red lines when you see a grey blank display leave it on till it dies by itself may be from 5-15 minutes, After that Turn it on again, After Apple logo on the grey blank screen Press Option+Command+SPACE+R+P YES SPACE ALSO (Press all together for 5 seconds then leave then again press for 5 seconds), Then leave all the buttons and turn off your Macbook forcefully and Turn it on Again It should Work as 3 days back I did this and it worked and from The Morning I done this 2 times and every single time i did this It shows me Grey Apple Icon and Boots up normally.

I have Macbook Pro 15" Early 2011 MC723LL/A (My machine is 3 years old out of warranty and in my country 15" Retina is Cheap like $1000 so I just messed up with my MBP to see the solution, I'll buy Retina soon that's why i'm playing with it... Do everything on your own, If you have warranty go for it)

Sep 25, 2014 4:51 PM in response to Cosmic dolphin

Well, my new logic board proved the point everyone else here has made -- after less than a month of using the laptop, my brand new GPU suffered the same fate as the last one. I'm just glad it happened before the 90 day repair service warranty expired. I took the laptop back up to the Apple Store. The guy at the Genius Bar insisted that the repair center must have made a mistake and overlooked something. He took the laptop and sent it back to the repair center. I asked if there would be any way to replace the logic board with one that contains a different model of GPU chip this time, but he said that was impossible. I anticipate I will have to take the laptop back a third time too, so I'm just going to do everything in my power to make this next GPU fail within the 90 warranty period. Hopefully Apple will eventually get tired of dishing out free logic boards to me and replace the laptop for free.

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

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