# Startup problem with early 2011 macbook pro laptop



## nealt (Oct 14, 2018)

I originally posted this in tha Apple forum but noone had a successful suggestion.
The computer used to work fine. Now the bootup process shows the apple and the status bar about half full. This takes minutes. The computer stalls there. Eventually it gives me a full white screen for a while then shuts down.

I tried booting off of an external HD with the same results. I tried booting off the original install disk with the same result. No luck on safe mode or recovery mode. I did a bit of memory experimenting with swapping memory modules with the same results. 
I took the HD out of the laptop and put it into my Macpro 3,1. The HD appears to be ok.
I booted into the verbose mode (command S). I ran fsck and the disk seems ok.

Some have suggested that the AMD graphics module may be bad. This is not replaceable and Apple will not attempt to repair it saying it is obsolete.

So anyone have any ideas?


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## DeltaMac (Oct 15, 2018)

Search for "radeongate". You will find that your 2011 Macbook Pro is right in the middle of that issue.
If your 2011 is a 15- or 17-inch, then your choice is to repair or replace the logic board. If you live near a larger city that might have a decent board-level repair shop, you can try to get the logic board video chip replaced. As you know, Apple won't do anything for you - other than sell you a newer laptop, which may be your good choice, too.


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## nealt (Oct 28, 2018)

Well this is my daughter's laptop. She decided to by a Dell Laptop for $500.00. Macs are too expensive and too expensive to repair.


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## DeltaMac (Oct 28, 2018)

Apple DID have a repair program for the video issue which included those 2011 models. They dropped the 2011 models from that program at the beginning of 2017 -- actually providing repairs at no charge, about a year or two longer than would normally happen with other repair programs that Apple offers. As it turned out, the repairs sometimes had to be repeated, because the original issue was never addressed, and customers got replacement parts that might still fail with the same issue.


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## AHB (Feb 8, 2019)

I took my 17" 2011 in to the local dealer that ran the tests on it to see if it had the symptoms to get a free repair.  It never had any problems while there.  So I guess it was alright!  

I found a repair service on eBay that sent me the packaging to send the entire computer to them.  They replaced the bad GPU with another one and my 17" is as good as new!  Still such a capable unit after 8 1/2 years.  The cost was around $375 total for the repair -- WAY worth it to be able to keep using my 17".  Best computer ever....


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