macbook pro late 2011 display scrambled

Question

xmikew Author

Level 1

12 points

macbook pro late 2011 display scrambled

Hello,

From sw_vers:

System Information:

ProductName: Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.10.5

BuildVersion: 14F1808

From system_profiler:

Intel HD Graphics 3000:

Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 3000

Type: GPU

Bus: Built-In

VRAM (Dynamic, Max): 512 MB

Vendor: Intel (0x8086)

Device ID: 0x0126

Revision ID: 0x0009

gMux Version: 1.9.23

AMD Radeon HD 6770M:

Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6770M

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x8

VRAM (Total): 1024 MB

Vendor: ATI (0x1002)

Device ID: 0x6740

Revision ID: 0x0000

ROM Revision: 113-C0170L-573

gMux Version: 1.9.23

EFI Driver Version: 01.00.573

Background:

One fateful night I was watching netflix on the couch and my late 2011 model macbook pro screen went black all the sudden and then the system rebooted. Halfway through the unscheduled reboot, the screen scrambled and I could not use the system since I could not see anything. I rebooted many times but the screen always remained scrambled. As time went on, the screen just stay scrambled as soon as the display came up (not halfway through like it used to).

I've tried following steps:

1. pram reset

2. SMC reset

3. Disabled AMD Radeon drivers by removing from /System/Library/Extensions/AMD (sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* ~/backup/AMD)

4. Disabled Intel3000 drivers by removing from /System/Library/Extensions/ (sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelHD3000Graphics*.* ~/backup/Intel)

After removing the drivers, I ran: sudo kextcache -v 1 -m /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions/ and rebooted.

5. Reconnected the ribbon cable going to the lcd

Nothing affected display. Still scrambled.

I've read a fair amount about some issues with these mbps that the logic board gets some bad solders after repeated heat/cold cycles and the chips no longer have good connection points. I'm not sure if that is my issue or not because the system actually boots and I can access it.

- I can ssh to it just fine (how I got output from system_profiler and sw_vers)

- I can connect from my iMac (from finder) just fine (been accessing files off it)

Other symptoms:

The mbp never goes to sleep mode when it's up

The external display port does not appear to work. I attempted to hook up thunderbolt cable to DVI along with external mouse/keyboard and could not get anything to display to my monitor (to be fair, I've never tried this so not sure if it worked to begin with).

Before I attempt my final hail mary fix (baking the logic board), I wanted to ask the community if I'm missing anything.

Is it probable my logic board is cooked?

Thanks,

- Mike

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Jan 4, 2018 6:33 PM

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Answer 1

xmikew Author

Level 1

12 points

Jan 5, 2018 7:35 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hello!

Since the boot screen is scrambled -- I'm assuming integrated graphics is also broken. Additionally, I did try to disable the discrete graphics by removing the drivers as listed above but that did not seem to affect the output. I have not tried to patch EFI parameters. Is it often they are both messed up? I assume if it was just my display, the external display port would work.

What diagnostics can I run? sysdiagnose doesn't seem to have any relevant information (or I don't know how to find it).

I tried booting in safe mode (holding shift when booting) but to no avail - screen remained scrambled as in output above.

Thanks for any input,

- Mike

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Answer 2

xmikew Author

Level 1

12 points

Jan 6, 2018 4:48 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks Grant,

I'll try that before baking it. If main ram where an issue, running sysdiag and it being up with no kernel panics for many days at a time would not seem possible. I've seen stranger things though. I'll at least try re-seating it. Since boot uses integrated graphics, the integrated graphics are also not working.

Could it be the screen somehow? If it were the screen not sure why it would cause a reboot when it first failed and also I would expect external display to work.

Thanks for the feedback - I'll let you know how it goes.

- Mike

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Answer 3

xmikew Author

Level 1

12 points

Jan 10, 2018 1:38 PM in response to xmikew

I've decided to send my logic board in to a repair company that repairs these logic boards with some fancy equipment. Will update when I get it back and what the result is. Actually I'm swapping my old one for one that is already repaired.

Thanks,

- Mike

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Answer 4

Jan 4, 2018 7:01 PM in response to xmikew

Your Mac has dual graphics -- two different displays systems inside.

The Integrated (Intel 3000) shares System RAM for its display buffer.

The Discrete (AMD 6770M) has its own 1GB of display memory for its display buffer.

The usual failure is that the Discrete GPU loses its integrity, leaving the Integrated GPU working perfectly fine, if you could just get it to not switch between them. If you can get something to work, there is a little Utility that can force Integrated graphics most of the time. There is also a much more convoluted operation you can use to force Integrated Graphics, which involves patching EFI parameters.

In general, activités like Alt/Option Boot and Recovery Mode use only the Integrated GPU, un-accelerated.

Safe mode does not load the graphics accelerators, and the screen display is a little wonky and slow because of that.

Attaching an external display forces the use of the Discrete GPU, because it is the chip that has the external output Hardware attached.

have you run the available diagnostic?

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Answer 5

Jan 5, 2018 8:09 AM in response to xmikew

One of the simplest things your Mac can do is Alt/Option boot. It will use the Integrated graphics, and does not use a driver at all. the code is all in ROM, so it cannot be derailed by anything you load.

When Integrated graphics show a striped screen on that Mac, its screen buffer is in Main RAM. This could indicate a problem with main RAM.

If you have the original boot DVDs, or have never erased your boot drive, you can invoke the diagnostic by holding the D key at Startup.

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