Mac Pro stuck on white screen - tried everything

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BearsInNeed Author

Level 1

12 points

Mac Pro stuck on white screen - tried everything

Hi

So this is a follow up to this Macbook Pro won't boot. Post includes full history

Summary of last thread:

I have a 2010 Mac Pro. The HDD seems to have failed. I was booting it from an external HDD.

This morning the sound was screwed up so I did the NVRAM reset after reading that could sort it out. This was very pretty short sighted as it seems to have bricked my mac.

I was booting from an external HDD and after doing the reset I read that the boot drive is one of the things reset. I've tried CMD R and that does nothing. I've tried safe mode - nothing. I've tried option top select the boot the boot drive - nothing.

I also tried inserting the Snow Leopard install disc that came with the machine, however the optical drive is completely unresponsive and wont accept it.

I have now actually swapped the original HDD with the internal HDD (which I was using in an enclosure) hopng that would help but it's as it was before.

So I have the white/grey screen and can't seem to do a thing. When I turn on the mac I do get the tone but I never get to an apple logo no matter what I do.

So, again, I ask for your kind help. Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro, null

Posted on Jul 9, 2018 4:02 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

140,921 points

Jul 9, 2018 8:34 AM in response to BearsInNeed

The Location of the Boot drive is the only attribute removed by an NVRAM reset. NVRAM reset does no damage to anything. In particular, it does no damage to the drive.

The internal drive cable is a possible weak link. You should put the drive you want to work with in the External enclosure, and work from there unless/until you can demonstrate the internal drive cable is good, or has been replaced.

To specify what drive to boot from, hold down the Alt/Option key as you Start up. This draws a plain gray screen, then exhaustively rediscovers any drives at any addresses that appear to be bootable, and adds an icon for each to this screen over the next five minutes.

If the disc in the DVD reader can be read and appears bootable, it will put-up an icon for that as well. Often the DVD reader heads get dusty from lack of use and this does not work just when you need it to.

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Answer 2

Jul 9, 2018 8:52 PM in response to BearsInNeed

This all happened because I (admitingly foolishly) did a nvram/pram reset.

No, it did not. NVRAM reset is benign, except that the location of the boot drive is lost -- nothing more.

You have a much more serious problem if you cannot use Alt/Option boot. Its code is all in ROM, and it does not need anything off any drive to do its job.

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Answer 3

Jul 9, 2018 10:24 AM in response to BearsInNeed

Your mac may predate Internet recovery. This means it must find a Recovery HD on the boot drive to get into recovery mode.

Try holding the Alt/Option key at startup. This draws a gray screen, then over the next five minutes, it looks at every possible attached device looking for a potentially bootable Volume. If it finds any, it will draw an Icon for that device. It will draw a separate icon for any Recovery partitions it finds.

Then you select the one you wish and tell it to proceed, and it will try to boot up from the one you specified, but will not remember your choice next time.

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Answer 4

BearsInNeed Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 9, 2018 9:36 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hello thank you for your reply

Okay, So i did the nvram reset while the mac was booting from the hdd while it was connected via a usb enclosure. After the reset themac was almost completely unresponsive after the boot chime... I couldn't get to disc utility or safe mode but i could reset the nvram again. After a while i decided to put the new hdd inside the mac and after doing so it was behaving exactly the same. Doesn't this make it unlikely to be the internal cable if it behaved the same when connected via usb?

How long should i be holding cmd andR before giving up? I've been holding them for a long time

I've tried holding options, it doesn't do anything

The optical drive is completely unresponsive; it won't even draw the dvd into the mac.

The mac pro is 13 inches

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Answer 5

BearsInNeed Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 9, 2018 11:57 AM in response to vibrances

Thank you for your reply. I live nearly 50 miles from the nearest apple store.

Just to be clear. The external drive (in the enclosure) is now in the mac. I had intended to put it inside i just didn't until today.

This all happened because I (admitingly foolishly) did a nvram/pram reset. Can that cause the damage you're suggesting?

Do i have any other options here?

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Answer 6

Jul 9, 2018 8:35 AM in response to BearsInNeed

is this the 13-in or 15-in MacBook Pro 2010?

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Answer 7

BearsInNeed Author

Level 1

12 points

Jul 9, 2018 10:45 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi, I've just tried that again and nothing happens

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Answer 8

Jul 9, 2018 11:25 AM in response to BearsInNeed

I would bring it to the Apple Store to run a hardware test.

If you get a white screen on both inside the external HDD and internal HDD then there is a video card failure.

If you did try to start up from an external HDD that has a clean installation and you did actually log in then the internal HDD is not in good health and needs changed.

A summary of what im trying to say.

Video card problem will not let u log in from anywhere, both internal and external HDD.

HDD problem - if you can actually login from an external HDD (make sure its. a different system and HDD then te one u have inside th macbook).

If its a video card problem then theres nothing to do anymore for this model. Apple doesn't make any new hardware for this model.

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Mac Pro stuck on white screen - tried everything

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