Q: MacBook Pro Early 2011 will only boot in Single User Mode
So my Mac decided to die I think. Here is what I have tried. It is the early 2011 version so the HDD and memories can be swapped out (which I tried to no avail).
I used this page to boot from all the modes:
Startup key combinations for Mac - Apple Support
Safe Mode - The system hangs during boot up (Blank screen)
Startup Manager - The system hangs with any boot disk internal or external.
Internal - the system hangs with blank screen.
External - the system hangs with blue screen.
Apple Hardware test - All hardware passes the tests.
OS-X Recovery - Blank screen / does not load.
Reset NVRAM - The system reloads as it should and then hangs with a blank screen.
Single-User Mode - Boots fine. I can run fsck and the HDD is fine. It passes all the tests. Not sure if there is anything else I can run from this mode as it is the only way to get a working environment on the system.
Verbose Mode - I can see that the system hangs in loading different modules. Particularly those related to networking and wireless. I'm not sure if this is coincidence, timing, or in-fact there is something wrong with the network devices on it.
I was also able to pull the hard drive and successfully boot from that harddrive on my MacBook Air. So I know the HDD is working properly and the OS on there is working as well.
Any suggestions? Or is this system effectively dead?
MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
Posted on Aug 19, 2015 8:35 AM
It turns out I was the victim of the AMD GPU issue on this model. I took the computer to my local store and they are replacing the logic board for free. If you have a similar issue please see the Repair program details here:
https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/
I hope this helps.
Posted on Aug 21, 2015 1:00 PM