Mid 2009 17" MBP - shuts off while booting but once booted stays on indefinitely

[plantguy123]

Hi. I have a mid-2009 MBP (MacbookPro 5,2). When I try to boot it starts doing so for a few seconds and then shuts off. If I try to boot around 15-25 times then it eventually successfully boots. If I don't put it to sleep once booted it will run for days on end (perhaps indefinitely).

I'm just using it as a bedside thin client for my desktop so this actually works, but it would be nice to know why this is happening. I saw that people with this laptop have sometimes found boot related problems to be connected to a bad c7771 capacitor, but using a multimeter my capacitor seemed to be fine.

Anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing the boot issues? It happens across different AC adapters that both work fine with other MBPs. Thanks.

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

One suggestion: Run a good check on your hard drive with Disk Utility to see what it says. Also... that model has a history of problems with the graphics card and was actually recalled by Apple years ago where they replaced the logic board. That program is long over.

My many years as an electronic tech have taught me be that capacitors can not be checked with a VOM. Not saying the capacitor couldn't be the culprit, but that capacitors in general can not be checked in circuit using a VOM.

Your MBP is going on 11 years old... enough said.

 

[plantguy123]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll check the SSD. Don't know if the motherboard was replaced during that period.

Good to know about that a good VOM reading wouldn't have any bearing on the health of the capacitor. Why can't they be checked with a VOM? Just curious.

Haha yeah for sure, keeping old gear going can sometimes be more trouble than it's worth.