Q: MacBook Pro Early 2011 grey screen / restarting
I took my laptop to Apple Store, they ran a Diagnostic Test came out that it was a hard drive failure. I went ahead and put a SSD. Everything seemed to be working great. Fast boot up, etc but only a few hours later from being on the computer my whole computer screen goes black as if its shutting down and then it restarts. After logging in it gets stuck on grey screen. Why would this be acting like this after I put in a new SSD?
Here are the specs of my laptop:
Any help is much appreciated.
Model N
Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Posted on Aug 23, 2016 1:08 PM
Being "stuck" at the gray screen could be attributed to one or more of the following:
- Hardware failure.
- Startup drive is not recognized as valid and bootable.
- Essential OS X software is missing, incorrectly moved, renamed, or corrupt.
- A firmware update is needed.
One thing to try is to boot up your MacBook Pro (MBP) in Safe Mode. To do so, reboot your MBP, and then, hold down the <Shift> key immediately when you hear the boot chime. This will bypass all but the essential system software, so if a problem is with a third-party system extension, then this will suggest that you need to tackle your software and add-ons to fix the problem.
Safe Mode mainly just bypasses problems; it does not fix them. However, it should get you back "up and running" and have an opportunity to remove added software or make any configuration changes.
If Safe Mode does not allow your Mac to boot, then the problem is more deep-rooted and will require a bit more drastic troubleshooting measures.
Posted on Aug 23, 2016 1:28 PM

