MacOS – Weird LCD / Boot problems on the MacBook Pro Late 2011

bootmacmacos

My Mac is a MacBook Pro Late 2011 model with the 15 inch screen.

It began all with me, connecting my Nexus 5 to the Macbook. I imported some videos with iTunes (yes, iTunes popped up automatically and I though I just give it a try). In the import process, the mac suddenly hung up and gave me a gray screen! I then restarted the mac and since then, I have these strange LCD problems on the boot up and crashes as well in normal operation. I never had any problems with my mac so far, so it must have something to do with me connecting my nexus to my mac!.

The Problem

It's not reproducible for me but sometimes when I boot my mac, some strange lines appear on the LCD and after that, the mac hangs up (all I can see is a gray screen with no content). The mac also gets very loud at that moment. I have to restart and try it over and over again until I can finally login.

Picture of the boot-screen (I zoomed intentionally so you can see the lines):

Then, sometimes in normal operation, my mac freezes and the lcd displays the same lines as shown above (but with other colors: sometimes just blue, sometimes red and blue etc.). I also can provoke a crash when I connect my Thunderbolt Display to the thunderbolt port. But this does not cause a crash everytime AND sometimes it just crashes with no monitor connected to it.

What I tried so far:

  • Make the apple hardware test (normal and extended) –> no failures were detected.
  • Make a clean install of OSX 10.10.3.
  • Restetted NVRAM and SMC. (both before and after clean installation)
  • Changed the internal storage from an SSD to the original HDD from apple.

None of it solved the issue.

Additional Informations:

  • EtreCheck report: http://pastie.org/private/jvogbqnurymvffvzbslxsq
  • Currently installed OSX Version: 10.10.4
  • Used SSD: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series (256GB)
  • Used Trim Enabler for the SSD (now known as Disk Sensei)
  • I have currently no kernel extensions installed.

  • This message appears on every boot (in SUM):

AppleUSBMultitouchDriver::checkStatus - received Status Packet, Payload 2: device was reinitialized

  • Restoring the mac over the internal recovery partition did not work.
  • Restoring the mac over the air did also not work.

  • Today, /sbin/fsck -fy failed on the startup and I had to repair the volume (Maybe the SSD is damaged?).

  • I'm also experiencing kernel panics. Sample log: http://pastie.org/private/i5j5cuv0isb9ttjnllia

  • Nexus system informations:

    • Android Version: 5.1.1
    • Kernel Version: 3.4.0
    • The nexus is not modded in any way.

Just got another crash with a new type of failure:

Here is a screenshot of the single user mode after the crash: (note the green lines in the background)

Best Answer

This is probably caused by the famous GPU problem these MacBook have. Do a search on Google for Late 2011 MacBook GPU problems and you will find loads of information about this. Apple finally recognized the manufacturing error and has a program in place to replace the logic board under warranty. I had mine replaced a couple months ago with no costs at all.