I have an Early 2011 Macbook Pro that shuts off shortly after it boots up. Essentially it'll turn on, the Apple logo will show and so will the load bar. However the load bar doesn't budge and the Macbook will turn off about a minute or two later. I can't boot into Recovery but I can into Safe Mode. Internet recovery does work however there's not much for me to do. I can't reinstall my OS and I can't run any commands in Terminal.
I'm almost positive this is a graphics failure because in safe mode the screen does a lot of funky stuff (like vertical lines and screen tearing).
I should also mention that the fans run at full speed when I boot, no idea why. I believe a SMC reset should fix this.
Now the bigger deal is that my Macbook doesn't have a battery so I can't run any resets. I want to first be able to disable the graphics before I buy anything else. But if it's absolutely necessary to do so I will.
Best Answer
I too had a battery-less MBP early 2011. The full speed fan effect is normal in this case, AFAIK. Seems to be by design. It's only when I installed a battery, even if it was faulty (third party) that I could do something on the machine. I would advise you not to loose any more time and order/borrow a battery.