MBP early-2011 2.0 i7 - totally dead, no boot any method.
MBP early-2011 Sandy Beach series 2.0ghz i7, 4gb, 500gb.
Hi, after going up to 10.9.4 a graphics issue began with iPhoto. Eventually the screen went patterned and needed a forced reset. After that it will not boot at all, just the grey-screen after the apple logo / chime.
Safe-mode loads the progress bar, but then goes to the same grey-screen.
Recovery-partition does not work, just goes to a solid blue-screen.
Booting from a Snow Leopard dual-layer install DVD does not work, just grey-screen.
Booting from a Lion single-layer install DVD does not work, just grey-screen.
Clearing the PRAM / VRAM, even 3 times at once, does not have any effect.
Resetting SMC has no effect.
I have tried both sticks of RAM, independently, in both slots. This has no effect.
I swapped in a HDD from a 2008 MBP running Mavs 10.9.3. This gives the same grey-screen, though this HDD is from an MBP that also stopped working under Mavs and may be corrupted.
The only step left to take is to try a new store-bought blank HDD and see if that will boot from an OS X install DVD.
If that doesn't work, I have read that a failed HDD-cable can cause this problem - does anyone think this is worth trying?
Does anyone think it is worth trying to remove the battery and force a complete reset of the hardware?
If the HDD or cable is not the fault then I assume it is the graphics-card that has somehow malfunctioned under Mavs and it will need to go into the Apple store.
Thanks for any advice, James