My Late-2105 MBPr 15" is dead

[MacInWin]

Came to my desk this afternoon to find my MBP not running. I had used it this morning and as is my habit, left it running when I left the house. It was plugged into power and set to turn off the display after 5 minutes on both power and battery. Up to that point, it has been running just fine. Came back to my desk about 4 pm, noted that the power let was orange, not green, which was the first clue that something was off. Pressed the space bar to wake it up. Nothing. Pressed on the power button, got the start up chime. Uh-oh, it had shut down. it booted, I got into the log and found that there was a gap in log items between 15:15:08 (3:15 pm and 8 seconds) and the 16:08:24 (4:08 pm and 24 seconds) when I booted it, so it had just happened. But it was acting funky, the external drives didn't attach, it was dead slow, etc, so i decided to boot into Safe mode. I selected the  , then Shut down. Waited for it to stop. Pressed the power button to restart. Nothing. Tried Safe Boot, Option-R boot, no response. Finally took off the back case and the fans are running, but nothing else is going on. So from the fans running, the logic board is getting power and I think the power circuits are ok as the led in the MagSafe connector eventually turned green, but the unit is dead other than the fans running.

Any hints? I think the power circuits are on the logic board, as ifixit.com doesn't show a separate power board in the instructions on how to replace the logic board. It might be the SSD, but I would expect to get the "?" on the screen, but I have nothing, no backlight, no apple logo, nothing. The fans running says power is getting to the board from the battery, and the fact it charges says that the power circuits are working, I think.

Any suggestions? I don't really want to replace this laptop with a new one as I had planned to wait for the Apple Silicon MBPs. There is a local Experimax store that has done good work for me in the past, so I'll take it there tomorrow, but just wondered if anybody had any suggestion I haven't thought of.

TIA

 

[chscag]

Sorry to hear about your MBP. It could be the SSD that has failed, hard to say.

I don't remember if the 2015 models have a removable blade SSD or if it's soldered? I just checked with OWC and it appears your model does have a replaceable SSD (blade type). OWC sells a 1TB kit for $349 and bare drive for $249. But it would be a good idea to narrow down the problem before spending any $$.

Let us know what the repair shop says.

 

[MacInWin]

I don't think it's the SSD. My thinking is that if the SSD is dead, I'd at least get the screen backlight to light up, maybe the chime, and eventually the "?" that there is no drive. Or the internet reinstall process would work (It didn't, nothing did). All I get is fans running. I'll report back after I take it to the shop. The SSD is a blade so that i an option, or if the logic board needs replacement, the blade can be moved to the new board and I'm back in the water. I do have backups, so that's good. Right now I'm getting by on a backup MBP from early-2011 but my backups are of Catalina and this beast can't go beyond HS, so it can't even read the APFS clones.

 

[krs]

Sorry to hear that - that's a real bummer.
If the Mac can't be fixed for a reasonable price, maybe an option is to buy a temporary one to tie you over until the Apple silicon ones come out and then sell it again.
Don't know what new "Apple silicon" Macs will do to the prices of used Intel Macs, but there are still a lot of people who are hesitant to upgrade their macOS to Catalina and beyond, so there should be a demand for a MacBookpro without the butterfly keyboard.

 

[MacInWin]

Yeah, that's my backup plan. Get a "temp" working machine to last 2-3 years, tops, then see how the Apple Silicon systems work. What I plan to do is compare that option to what the repair shop has to say it would cost to get mine going again and make the call then. Just hoping I won't be on this old beast very long.

 

[MacInWin]

Had a brainwave this morning. Did an NVRAM reset and an SMC reset. Whattya know, it booted! Nothing in the logs, but it's running well now, so I'll keep the old girl around for those couple of years.

 

[ferrarr]

One of those resets, clears logs, just like Onyx does.

 

[MacInWin]

Can't run OnyX if you can't boot, so while it's nice that OnyX does something, you have to be able to GET to it for it to be useful in this case. SMC probably reset the power controllers, allowed the system to boot. Hardware test passes just fine (except it complains about the non-Apple battery that Coconutbattery says is just fine). So I think I dodged the bullet on this one. For now.

 

[IWT]

Nice one, Jake

Ian

 

[chscag]

You must be living right Jake! LOL

 

[MacInWin]

Well, Charlie, I don't know about that, but what was strange was that the fans ran and the on/off function worked. I had the back off, pushed the on/off button and the fans started up in a second or so. Press the button for 10 seconds, the fans stopped. So the power and function were both there. Over night my brain finally connected up and the idea of the SMC needing reset trickled in. So that, plus the NVRAM reset, were done this morning and it all came back. I guess somehow the SMC got so mucked up that it wouldn't power up the components needed to boot. Strange, but there you go. It's been running fine all day, so I'll keep doing what I'm doing. While I'd like to know exactly what went wrong, I don't need to know strongly enough to risk buggering it up again. I ran the hardware test and the only thing it complained about was, as I said, the non-Apple battery, so it appears no harm was done. I'm in the middle of doing some First Aid on drives that were attached when the first event occurred, but everything seems ok so far. I'm feeling a bit like Neo in Matrix, dodging bullets...

 

[Slydude]

Congrats. Unless of course you were looking forward to a new machine.

I read this thread two or there times yesterday as various responses were posted. It didn't occur to me till just now (after reading the thread).

Downside is you lost your excuse to purchase a new Mac. If you're in need of a few excuses in that department I'm sure I can cook up a few for you. No guarantee these will work. In the interest of full disclosure I haven't had much luck with them.

 

[chscag]

I'm feeling a bit like Neo in Matrix, dodging bullets...

LOL, "The Matrix Revisited". Have fun and enjoy the Labor Day holiday.

 

[MacInWin]

Congrats. Unless of course you were looking forward to a new machine.

I read this thread two or there times yesterday as various responses were posted. It didn't occur to me till just now (after reading the thread).

Downside is you lost your excuse to purchase a new Mac. If you're in need of a few excuses in that department I'm sure I can cook up a few for you. No guarantee these will work. In the interest of full disclosure I haven't had much luck with them.

Sly, SWMBO had authorized the purchase of a replacement, I just didn't want to do that. I want to wait for the Apple Silicon to see how those machines work and then plunk down the bucks. So I'm very happy with what I have and very happy to have it back. Now I just have to wait for Apple to make the Apple Silicon and get them to market.

 

[Rod]

Phew! Saved by a reset. That is valuable info Jake, I well remember that sinking feeling when over 30min of trying various fixes it starts to become apparent that the device has definitely died. The SMC reset probably did the trick but no harm in the NVRAM reset as well.
Anyhow, congratulations, beats paying $100.00 for some smart techie to do the same thing. I wonder how often that happens?

 

[Slydude]

Sly, SWMBO had authorized the purchase of a replacement, I just didn't want to do that. I want to wait for the Apple Silicon to see how those machines work and then plunk down the bucks. So I'm very happy with what I have and very happy to have it back. Now I just have to wait for Apple to make the Apple Silicon and get them to market.

There are only two things I can think of to say about that:

1. If SWMBO has already authorized a replacement, and you haven't purchased before she changes her mind, then you are showing remarkable restraint my friend.
2. Perhaps you should take SWMBO out for an appropriately nice meal. It'll set you back a bit but not as much as a new computer.

 

[MacInWin]

Sly, she's a "keeper" for sure! We've been married almost 54 years now and she has me well-trained, so I think I'm safe. I don't think she wants to break in another husband after all the trouble she's had with me over the years.

 

[Slydude]

Sly, she's a "keeper" for sure! We've been married almost 54 years now and she has me well-trained, so I think I'm safe. I don't think she wants to break in another husband after all the trouble she's had with me over the years.

If she ever decides to consign you to the rubbish bin introduce her to some of the youngsters around. It won't do any good to try and break them in, many don't know how to do the stuff she has gotten used to you doing.

 

[MacInWin]

Well, I am her tech support staff, so there is that...

 

[Slydude]

Well, I am her tech support staff, so there is that...

Same here. I am also the designated spider/bug killer. Gotta be useful somehow.