MacBook Pro 17" Runs Fine but Won't Shutdown/Bootup Properly

[Dougrc12]

I have one of the last of these 17" MBP's made that I purchased in 2011. Shutdown/Bootup problem started very recently and have gotten worse. Originally booting to safe mode cured things, but not anymore. Once it's running, it has no issues! Very weird! User login freezes up in various ways, sometimes with the progress bar on the screen, sometimes just white. Yesterday it started shutting itself off. Shutdown does not complete requiring me to force a shutdown. Seems like hardware, except that a few weeks ago I enabled the shutdown feature that re-opens apps and windows on startup because my wife has an account on the computer and never logs herself off. When I turned that feature off this problem disappeared for a few days and then slowly resurfaced.

The hard disk (SSD) passes Disk Utility and Smart Utility. I've tried switching out my two 3 year old 8GB RAM sticks in the event one has failed and saw no change. Any ideas before I head to the Mac store to shop for a new one? MBP info attached.

Thanks!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Perhaps the following will help:
-Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac
-How to reset the SMC of your Mac

It could also be a hardware/corrupted macOS issue. If you have force powered off several times, macOS may be corrupted. You could try reinstalling macOS over the top of your current installation, and it shouldn't delete any of you data. However, it is always recommended to have a current Time Machine or other backup of your data before attempting that.

C

 

[Dougrc12]

Since I posted this I tried booting via USB from my original hard drive and got the same results. On the Apple support forum I’ve been told the AMD GPU chip in these 2011 MBP’s is suspect and will cause these symptoms If it fails. I’m trying to use single user mode to move an AMD driver to try running with the Intel display hardware. So far I haven’t been able to get write permission on the /System/Library/Extensions folder to make this change. The command /sbin/mount -uw / is not doing it.

I’ll give you suggestions a try too.

Thanks!

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries.

Yes, that definitely could be part of the issue. Be careful when messing with the kext files, as that can render the MBP unstable and or not bootable.

Let us know how it goes,

C

 

[Dougrc12]

No luck after resetting NVRAM or SMC. No luck booting OS X. The signs are there for a serious H/W issue, probably the GPU as I’m seeing more screen anomalies every time I try. If anyone knows how to set my root password from single user mode I greatly appreciate hearing from you! Everything I’ve read so far involves running Directory Utility from OS X, which I can’t do. I need su login privileges to move a kext file In hopes that will cause the MBP to ignore the AMD GPU and boot with the Intel GPU instead. Thanks

 

[Dougrc12]

I did get eventually get the file moved and the GPU bypass patch in, so never mind on the su password issue. I was not disabling SIP properly. MBP is now in an endless reboot cycle, so problem may not have been the GPU. Probably will replace this soon.

Any opinions on the 16” MBPs? I got 9 years out of this 17”. Pretty impressive!

Thanks

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

Yes, it does sound more like a hardware issue at this point.

I haven't seen one of the 16" MBPs in person yet, so I can't comment on it yet. I have heard they are amazing though.

I guess it would come down to personal preference, budget, and what your usage is. All of the current Macs are definitely faster and more powerful than your older MBP. My main Mac is still an iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009) running High Sierra. I did max out the RAM to 16 GB and installed a 500 GB SSD, so it runs well enough for my needs for now.

C