Macbook Pro freezing, white screen, circle with line

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Flierfly35 Author

Level 1

4 points

Macbook Pro freezing, white screen, circle with line

MacBook Pro (15-inch, late 2011)

Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB

Serial number: C02H212JDV7M

So I got this MacBook about 9 months ago, I am not the original owner. It had boot camp and windows 7, but I factory restored it and removed boot camp.

Recently, it started freezing and restarting. Then, it would start with the chime and the apple logo and would get stuck at a blank white screen. Booting in safe mode would sometimes work, but safari wouldn't launch at all. I tried a bunch of the suggestions I found online to delete certain files in the cache, but safari would not start at all. It wouldn't even bounce on the doc. It continued to freeze and crash. So I restored the OS X, and that seemed to work. Safari worked again, the computer booted up fine. All was well.

A day or two later, it froze again, and when I restarted it, it went to a white screen with a circle with a line through it.

🚫
safe mode wouldn't work, and holding down the command key and R to get to recovery mode wouldn't work. Also, there was no longer a chime. Once, it randomly made it through and the login screen was strange and flickering. I signed in and tried to adjust the volume, but it had the same circle with a line, saying it could not be adjusted. I shut it off again, trying to boot in recovery mode, and was getting stuck at the white screen again.

I held down the command key, option, and R and tried to boot in internet recovery mode. It took forever, finally went to disk utility and ran first aid on the hard drive.

Still no chime, but booted up successfully. Seemed to work normally until the next day, it froze and restarted again. Had to do first aid in the internet recovery again, then it booted successfully again.

Since then, I've had to use the internet recovery tool multiple times. Sometimes it just goes to a weird textured blue screen and I have to keep retrying it until it gets lucky and I can get to disk utility from the internet recovery. Usually running first aid on the HD seems to work.

I tried to restore the HD and reinstall OS X. Once it finished installing, it just went to the blank white screen. Eventually I restarted it and it said it was unable to install OS X and there was a copy of it on there or something and to restart. Since then, I have not made it on again. It went back to the white screen and circle with line through it. I am currently waiting on internet recovery mode again.

Obviously this seems like a hardware issue, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I'm wondering if it has to do with the hard drive, and if replacing the hard drive will solve these problems. I'm planning on ordering a lightning cable to try booting up the MacBook using a Mac mini... Since I got this MacBook used, I don't have any of the original disks. It also hasn't like a toshiba hard drive that I can see in disk utility. I'm not sure how to definitively figure out which piece of hardware I need to replace... I'm a college student and am taking several online classes, so I'd like to solve this issue as soon as I can because it's been challenging to do everything without a working laptop.

Please let me know if anyone has any suggestions. I've been trying to follow all the suggestion since I've found online so far...

Posted on Sep 30, 2017 3:54 PM

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Answer 1

Flierfly35 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 1, 2017 12:48 PM in response to Flierfly35

Have tried resetting the SMC, resettingthe NVRM / PRAM... tried holding command S and typing fsck -fy... still nothing. Bought a FireWire 800 to try target disk mode. Completely erased the HD and tried to reinstall OS X but it just gets stuck. The only screens it will go to is when holding down option, it will go to "Mac OS installer." But when I click it, progress bar gets to about halfway before going to the white screen. Holding command R causes the circle with line through it (prohibitory symbol). Internet recovery shows the spinning globe and progress bar, but once the progress bar iis filled, the screen goes black and then comes back on with the white screen. It some

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Answer 2

Flierfly35 Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 30, 2017 8:40 PM in response to Flierfly35

I tried to hold down D to go to the hardware diagnostics. It took 45 minutes to do the more in depth test and said no problems were found. But so far I still have not been able to get it to boot up. A couple of times it has gone to the recovery mode and I've tried to reinstall OS X (since I restored it), but it says I don't have permission. Have ordered a FireWire 800 to try to plug it to the Mac mini and use target drive...

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Answer 3

Flierfly35 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 1, 2017 12:55 PM in response to Flierfly35

Submitted before I was done typing. It sometimes goes to a blue screen with lines or a grey with blue stripes kind of screen after sitting on the white screen for a while. Trying to safe boot now causes it to just boot loop.

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Answer 4

Flierfly35 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 1, 2017 10:04 PM in response to Flierfly35

I created a bootable version of high sierra on a thumb drive. Holding down option to go to the startup menu showed it there, but it would still go to a white screen after the progress bar reached halfway.

I removed the hard drive and tried out starting it up with just the thumb drive of high sierra. Held down option and selected it, and it went into recovery mode. I put the hard drive back in, and it went to the white screen again. But after taking the hard drive back out, it seems to just be going to the white screen at about halfway when I choose the thumb drive with high sierra on the startup menu.

I'm wondering if it's the logic board or something since that seems to be a common issue. It doesn't seem to have a lot of the symptoms that I've read about on other posts... the graphics never became wacky. But now it does occasionally go to the blue screen with stripes. And that first time the chime wouldn't make any sound... and sometimes when it would load into the login window, it would be strange and kind of flicker. So maybe it is the logic board.... I don't wanna give up on it but I'm not really a computer wiz and I'm running out of options to try.

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