Late model 2011 macbook pro Gray Screen W/ NO Logo

[SovangW]

Hi!

I have a macbook pro from 2011, 17" i7.

It currently will not start. I was just browing the web and it shut off. I restarted it only to have it chime and sit at a black screen. After restarting a few times I just let it sit and it finally made it to a gray screen with no logo.

The mac does Chime, but it stops at the gray screen w/ NO logo. Any ideas? The hdd is a new samsung evo that I have had for 4 months. The ram is 18gb of crucial that I have had for a few months. What can I do?

 

[harryb2448]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Start up in Recovery (Command + R) and run repair Disk to check thestate of the hard drive. SSDs do fail (and seemingly on a regular basis).

 

[SovangW]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Start up in Recovery (Command + R) and run repair Disk to check thestate of the hard drive. SSDs do fail (and seemingly on a regular basis).

command + R does not work, but, i also do not have a cdrom drive. I have a 2nd hdd

 

[pigoo3]

command + R does not work, but, i also do not have a cdrom drive. I have a 2nd hdd

Need to know what OS was last installed.

- Nick

 

[SovangW]

I am pretty sure I upgraded to el capitan

 

[pigoo3]

If you upgraded to El Capitan…and the computer will not boot into the Recovery Partition (command + r on reboot)…and won't boot into the main partition…it's possible that the SSD has failed.

You said that you have two internal drives. Is there an OS installed on the 2nd internal drive?

- Nick

 

[SovangW]

If you upgraded to El Capitan…and the computer will not boot into the Recovery Partition (command + r on reboot)…and won't boot into the main partition…it's possible that the SSD has failed.

You said that you have two internal drives. Is there an OS installed on the 2nd internal drive?

- Nick

I wish there was. There is not.

 

[SovangW]

What exactly does upgrading to el capitan do? Flash the bios also or something? I don't understand? If I remove the hard drive, would it make a difference? Or what If i put a hard drive in with no OS? How would I install an OS on it? I have the old 750hdd that used to be in it plugged in right now. I can hear it spin and the macbook screen is black.

 

[pigoo3]

What exactly does upgrading to el capitan do? Flash the bios also or something?

Mac's don't have BIOS. Upgrading the OS is just that. Upgrades the OS to a newer version. Not sure how else to explain it.

I have the old 750hdd that used to be in it plugged in right now. I can hear it spin and the macbook screen is black.

Is this old 750gig HD connected externally? Is there an OS installed on it?

- Nick

 

[SovangW]

Mac's don't have BIOS. Upgrading the OS is just that. Upgrades the OS to a newer version. Not sure how else to explain it.



Is this old 750gig HD connected externally? Is there an OS installed on it?

- Nick

it has nothing on it. was only formatted for MAC. I used it as a backup drive for a while. It is internal.

So you say it upgrades the the OS. When I upgrade an OS i dont expect it to change what the laptop does prior to booting into the OS. That sounds more like a firmware or bios thing. I just dont understand how I am supposed to load an OS onto a working HDD if in face my HDD is broken. I have a few sitting around that I can use to bring the mac back to life.

 

[pigoo3]

So you say it upgrades the the OS. When I upgrade an OS i dont expect it to change what the laptop does prior to booting into the OS. That sounds more like a firmware or bios thing.

Let's not make things too confusing…and let's forget about talking about bios or firmware. Bios & firmware have nothing to do with upgrading the OS in a Macintosh computer.

I'm not exactly sure what "changes" are happening prior to or while booting. What I do understand at this point is there's a problem with the SSD in the computer (not booting properly)…and it won't boot into the recovery partition.

And from the way it sounds…you upgraded the computer to El Capitan sometime in the past…and the computer has been working fine with El Capitan. So the OS upgrade to El Capitan has nothing to do with the problem either…since it was working fine with El Capitan (at least for a while from the way it sounds).

I just dont understand how I am supposed to load an OS onto a working HDD if in face my HDD is broken.

We will get to this.

At this point it sounds like there's a problem with the main drive (the SSD)…and you have the old hard drive installed in the optical drive bay. Here's what I would do. Remove the SSD…and install the old 750gig HD back into the original bay. Apple has ways to reinstall the OS…and I'm not sure the process works when a hard drive is in the optical drive bay.

Apple has what's called "Internet Recovery". Here's an Apple article that explains it:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

HTH,

- Nick

 

[Bob_Stan]

As you apparently have no bootable backup available, I think your only possibility would be to find someone else with a Mac and make a bootable usb key with El Capitan, then use that device to boot your computer from and install the OS on a new drive.

 

[SovangW]

IT does not even get to the gray screen any longer. I put the 750 as the primary and removed the secondary.

It still makes the chime as it did before. The thing about the chime though is that it happens on a black screen. the cmd+r does nothing.

the laptop stays on and I can toggle the light on the capslock button. Not sure if that means anything significant.

 

[SovangW]

As you apparently have no bootable backup available, I think your only possibility would be to find someone else with a Mac and make a bootable usb key with El Capitan, then use that device to boot your computer from and install the OS on a new drive.

I do have the USB that had the previous OS on it. But I cannot boot into it... That is supposed to be done using cmd+r ?

 

[Bob_Stan]

No, for this hold down the option key as it starts up to see alternate boot devices.