MacBook Pro stuck on filled loading bar during boot

Question

My MacBook Pro (Late 2011; El Capitan 10.11.5) recently became unresponsive to the point of being unusable, so I decided to do a clean install, since I&#x27;d been meaning to do one for a while anyway. Once I reinstalled El Capitan, I took my SSD (Samsung 840 EVO; 500GB) out of the enclosure and put it back into my MacBook Pro, but it wouldn&#x27;t boot. At first, it loaded so slowly that I decided to reset the NVRAM, which ended up helping just a little. The loading bar now fills up halfway with the usual speed, but after that it takes a few minutes to fill up. And once it is full, nothing happens. It stays on the Apple logo and the filled up bar no matter how long I wait. I&#x27;ve also put the 500 GB SSD with the clean install into another MacBook (Late 2008) and it works fine, so the issue has to be hardware-related, I just can&#x27;t pinpoint what exactly. I&#x27;ve tried doing an AHT, but both basic and extended testing got stuck after a short time and gave me no results. I&#x27;ve been having trouble with kernel panics, so I suspect something may be wrong with my RAM, since I exchanged the 4GB for 16GB a while ago. But before I go out and spend money on new RAM, I wanted to know if maybe someone has run into this behavior before and knows what exactly is going on or how else I can figure out what&#x27;s wrong.  Almost all of the kernel panics seemed to happen whenever I was using Photoshop or streaming videos in Safari. I would post an old kernel panic report, but an issue with Time Machine has led to the deletion of all my past backups, except for the most recent one. I&#x27;m hoping someone can help me find another way to figure out what&#x27;s wrong.Update: I just tried out another SSD (same model; 250GB) that&#x27;s been working fine in my older MacBook and this time I get an error message as soon as the loading bar starts filling up. It stays for a few seconds and then the MacBook turns off and boots up again; this continues in an infinite loop. I&#x27;ve attached an image below.I really don&#x27;t know how exactly to interpret this, but this looks like another kernel panic to me. Is it my RAM after all? I appreciate any feedback on this.

OGELTHORPE · Answer

Connect the SSD to the MBP externally via USB and see if it will boot the MBP.  If so, the internal SATA cable is suspect. If you can get the MBP to boot, then you can start dealing with the kernel panics:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201753Also an EtreCheck report may prove to be helpful:http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheckCiao.

Murasaki B · Answer

Thank you for the quick reply!Connect the SSD to the MBP externally via USB and see if it will boot the MBP.  If so, the internal SATA cable is suspect.To be honest, I&#x27;ve had to exchange my SATA cable twice already, so I was hoping it wasn&#x27;t the issue and didn&#x27;t even test it. Turns out it&#x27;s faulty yet again. Is there some kind of bigger issue here that&#x27;s causing this or am I just cursed with bad SATA cables?If you can get the MBP to boot, then you can start dealing with the kernel panicsI&#x27;ve tried a lot of proposed fixes for the kernel panics, everything except new RAM and an actual clean install, which I did. I manually transferred all my data onto a clean installation, so now I&#x27;m hoping they&#x27;ll be fixed.Also an EtreCheck report may prove to be helpfulI&#x27;ve used EtreCheck a lot, but it never showed me any obvious issues. At least nothing I could make sense of. This is what a new check gave me:EtreCheck version: 3.0.5 (309)Report generated 2016-09-24 15:31:16Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.comRuntime 2:34Performance: ExcellentClick the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.Problem: Computer is restartingDescription:Kernel panicsHardware Information: ⓘ    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)    [Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty &amp; Service]    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,1    1 2,8 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2-core    16 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]        BANK 0/DIMM0            8 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok        BANK 1/DIMM0            8 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok    Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported    Wireless:  en2: 802.11 a/b/g/n    Battery: Health &#x3D; Normal - Cycle count &#x3D; 2667Video Information: ⓘ    Intel HD Graphics 3000        Color LCD 1280 x 800System Software: ⓘ    OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 (15F34) - Time since boot: less than an hourDisk Information: ⓘ    Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB disk0 : (250,06 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: No)        EFI (disk0s1) &lt;not mounted&gt; : 210 MB  - 4 errorsDrive failure!        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /Volumes/Macintosh HD 1 : 249.20 GB (39.09 GB free) - one error Drive failure!        Recovery HD (disk0s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;  [Recovery]: 650 MB    OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5970H   ()USB Information: ⓘ    Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad    Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller    ASMedia AS2115 500,11 GB        EFI (disk1s1) &lt;not mounted&gt; : 210 MB        Macintosh HD (disk1s2) / : 499.25 GB (196.87 GB free)        Recovery HD (disk1s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;  [Recovery]: 650 MB    Apple Computer, Inc. IR ReceiverThunderbolt Information: ⓘ    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_busConfiguration files: ⓘ    /etc/hosts - Count: 271Gatekeeper: ⓘ    AnywhereKernel Extensions: ⓘ        /System/Library/Extensions    [not loaded]    com.realtek.driver.RTL8192** (1024 - SDK 10.8 - 2016-09-24) [Support]    [not loaded]    com.realtek.driver.RTL8192SU (1081 - SDK 10.8 - 2016-09-24) [Support]System Launch Agents: ⓘ    [not loaded]    8 Apple tasks    [loaded]    155 Apple tasks    [running]    75 Apple tasksSystem Launch Daemons: ⓘ    [not loaded]    45 Apple tasks    [loaded]    157 Apple tasks    [running]    88 Apple tasksLaunch Agents: ⓘ    [running]    Wlan.Software.plist (2011-09-14) [Support]    [running]    com.bjango.istatmenusagent.plist (2016-09-24) [Support]    [running]    com.bjango.istatmenusnotifications.plist (2016-09-24) [Support]    [running]    com.bjango.istatmenusstatus.plist (2016-09-24) [Support]Launch Daemons: ⓘ    [running]    com.bjango.istatmenusdaemon.plist (2016-09-24) [Support]User Launch Agents: ⓘ    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-09-24) [Support]User Login Items: ⓘ    iTunesHelper    Programm  (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)    BetterTouchTool    Programm  (/Applications/BetterTouchTool.app)Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ    FlashPlayer-10.6: 22.0.0.209 - SDK 10.9 (2016-08-04) [Support]    QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-05-05)    Flash Player: 22.0.0.209 - SDK 10.9 (2016-08-04) Outdated! Update    Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-05-05)Safari Extensions: ⓘ    New XKit - New XKit Team - http://new-xkit-extension.tumblr.com/ (2016-09-24)    Translate - SideTree.com - Apps for Mac and Web - http://SideTree.com/extensions.html#Translate (2012-01-21)    AdBlock - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com (2013-09-11)3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ    NoneTime Machine: ⓘ    Skip System Files: NO    Mobile backups: OFF    Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off    Volumes being backed up:        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 499.25 GB Disk used: 302.38 GB    Destinations:        Total size: 997.71 GB        Total number of backups: 1        Oldest backup: 23.09.16, 20:28        Last backup: 23.09.16, 20:28        Size of backup disk: Adequate            Backup size 997.71 GB &gt; (Disk used 302.38 GB X 3)Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ        15%    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(20)         7%    mdworker(12)         7%    WindowServer         2%    kernel_task         2%    System PreferencesTop Processes by Memory: ⓘ    3.47 GB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(20)    850 MB    kernel_task    311 MB    Safari    229 MB    mdworker(12)Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ    6.96 GB    Free RAM    9.03 GB    Used RAM (3.92 GB Cached)    0 B    Swap UsedI guess I&#x27;ll just have to wait and see if the kernel panics have been resolved. If they happen again, is there anything but the RAM that could be causing them?

OGELTHORPE · Answer

Aside from a possible issue with the third party RAM, the EtreCheck report does indicate that there is a well worn battery inside the MBP with 2667 cycles.  What impact, if any that may have I cannot say.  I would open the MBP and inspect it if for any signs of expansion.See if there are any kernel panic reports that can be posted per the link I provided.Ciao.

Murasaki B · Answer

The battery looks completely fine to me. And after some fiddling around, I managed to access my old backups after all, but according to my StdExclusions.plist, anything within ~Library/Logs/ is excluded from backups by default, so I have no logs of my kernel panics. I didn&#x27;t copy them to my external drive either, like I did with most of my files.Thank you very much for your help anyway. I might check back if the kernel panics happen again and post the reports.