Chosen Solution
2011 MacBook Pro limited signs of life (new to me logic board) No chimeFans running (normal speed)Black screenBattery chargingPower light workingSMC reset - no change (there is a color change at the AC adapter plug)PRAM reset - no change (dead screen, no chime)USB connections - no response - ports act deadRemove RAM it does beep. new RAM no change. switch places no change.Caps lock - no light. keyboard - no back lightCan hear the CD rev at start up - but the only system disk I had was for MacBook it rev’d and kicked it out, I put it back in and it got stuck. I did get the CD out manually. I disconnected optical drive from the logic boardThe logic board does get power either by battery or AC. I have tried battery only and AC only. no startup. no change.Board gets warm - “normal” warm I did the: Unplug the battery.Unplug the MagSafe power cable.Hold down the power button for about 10 sec and continue to do that.While still holding the power button down, insert the MagSafe power cable and hold it for another 10 sec.Release the power button after those 10 sec and make a “normal” press as if you would normally turn on your computer. The result was fans going full blast and no change. I have no clue what’s going on. No life. Nothing, other than fan, power light and charging, I have the correct charger. I have tried disconnecting various components from the logic board an no change. I have NEVER had a logic board this dead. HELP!! CR
Hook it up to an external display and check if the GPU is bad - if the symptoms are the same, it’s dead. The GPUs have a 100% failure rate in these 2011’s and it’s more like a matter of when it fails. The other problem is fixing it requires refurbished parts, which fails the same way anyway - don’t even try and save this board. Transfer your RAM (if higher capacity AND 1600MHz; 2012 doesn’t take the 1333 modules the 2011 accepts) and hard drive, and move on from this machine. The solution to the problem that is actually effective is to replace the 2011 board with a 2012 and be done with it - the GPU won’t fail because of a hidden defect waiting to come out and bite as it does on these 2011 machines. Alternatively if you can’t find the board, you can buy a complete 2012, update it fully software wise to the level you had the 2011 at to get the EFI firmware current and just migrate hard drives - it’ll be like nothing happened but you don’t have a dead base system with a guaranteed failure point with a minor performance bump. I would even say if you own it while it works, get a 2012 and be done with it - or change the board. If the failure provided a reasonable amount of warning I may say it’s okay as a non production gamble, but they’re too flaky to even trust for non production use. The transition is nicer when it works - put the 2011 in target disk mode and get a FW 800 or TB2 cable to migrate the user profile. The caution here with a base system replacement is to change the HD cable! The 2012’s are either using the original SATA II cable, the SATA III lookalike (SATA II) or a true SATA III cable. Best to change it while you’re in there and add electrical tape where the cable rests, and put something on the optical drive and upper case where the cable meets to protect it. Keep the original parts if you get a DOA warranty and try to stick to sellers who don’t use warranty seals or you may need to wait to do the component migration. This guide covers the replacement procedure for the HD cable.
