Written by me@grafxflow
30 Dec, 2018
68
32,600
If you are suffering from the infamous blue lines on the black screen on startup or random reboots then you maybe suffering from an AMD graphics card hardware issue with your later 2011 Macbook Pro laptop.
Now there are several solutions on the web but this is the only one that worked for me running macOS High Sierra (10.13.6+) and what was worst for me is that the MacBook Pro was stuck in looping reboot... I wanted to use the Time machine backup... if I could ever get it to bootup!
NOTE: One known issue to this solution (and maybe others) is that when the screen goes to sleep/black it no longer wakes up, therefore needing a forced reboot. The solution is to change your energy settings and make sure the screen saver animation options are always active.
Now there are other solutions that say at first boot into Recovery Single User Mode - CMD + R + S. But I had two problems - I had no permissions when trying to disable the csrutil and when trying the same with Recovery Mode - CMD + R I had the blue lines on black screen appearing, but the below sorted it for me.
So first reboot your Macbook Pro into single user mode by holding down the CMD + S keys. The terminal will now be on the screen.
First input.
sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00Then.
rebootNow reboot into Recovery mode using CMD + R. On the screen that loads choose a language then on the screen which appears next choose the following options in the menu Utilities -> Terminal - see below.
In the terminal add the following.
csrutil disableWhen csrutil is disabled we can now move kexts and delete system folders.
Then.
rebootOn reboot go back into single user mode by holding down the CMD + S keys. Now in the terminal add the following, which will fix any disk permissions before we do anything.
fsck -fyOnce done mount the MacBook Pro hard drive by adding.
mount -uw /Try using /sbin/mount if you get mount command not found
Now we are going to move all the AMD graphics card drivers, so best to make a copy of them rather than deleting them all. So first make a backup directory to copy them into.
sudo mkdir /amd-backup-kexts/Then move all of the drivers with a wildcard naming.
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* /amd-backup-kexts/Now once done lets delete the kext drivers cache.
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/To be safe create it again.
sudo mkdir /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Now update the timestamps of the driver cache without the AMD drivers.
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions/Now we are more or less repeating the same as Step 1.
sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00Then.
rebootNow reboot into Recovery mode using CMD + R. On the screen that loads choose the following in the menu Utilities -> Terminal.
In the terminal add the following.
csrutil enableThen.
rebootNow your mac should be booting normally without any issues, if not then there really is more than a graphics card issue.
Important! This is up to you but I would suggest doing a Time Machine backup just to be safe.
Hope this helps anybody else with the same problem.
Note: You will probably have to do this all again when doing any system updates and from my experience even security updates.
07 Oct, 2016
13 Jan, 2019
I am a Full-stack Developer who also started delving into the world of UX/UI Design a few years back. I blog and tweet to hopefully share a little bit of knowledge that can help others around the web. Thanks for stopping by!
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68 Response
Raúl
10 Jun 2019me@grafxflow
10 Jun 2019Tee
10 Jun 2019Thanks for the info, I ran the first line and it rebooted and logged in normally before I got a chance to do the rest of the script, I'm just happy it did, maybe run the rest at a later date, thanks again for big help.
me@grafxflow
10 Jun 2019Yes just doing this section helped me at first but I found after a few hours or maybe a day it would reset itself and the problem would start again.
It could also be the early signs of the AMD GPU issue so best to make a note of this tutorial, for later :)
Tee
23 Jun 2019me@grafxflow.co.uk
23 Jun 2019Glad this helped :) at first I installed an app which allowed you to force the mac to use a certain graphics card, but the problem with this, is when the mac booted up it would change the graphics card to AMD by default so I had to race to force the graphics card each time!!! But the above solution meant there was no longer a need for this app.
me@grafxflow.co.uk
24 Jun 2019One thing to note about the above procedure there are known issues such as the screen going to sleep/black screen so it will no longer wakes up, therefore needing a forced reboot.
Best solution is to change the screen saver options and timeout options, so if it does go to sleep you will get the default screen saver animation instead and therefore it will turn on again.
John
26 Jul 2019me@grafxflow
26 Jul 2019yogesh jadhav
26 Jul 2019but, when i start my macbook pro high sierra 2011 then i looked apple gray logo but after some time mac shows white screen.
me@grafxflow
26 Jul 2019funkmeister
08 Aug 2019Dominic
17 Sep 2019Thimoshi
22 Sep 2019me@grafxflow
22 Sep 2019Try booting up in safe mode again or have you recently done any software update. In my experience these sadly place the graphics card drivers back in place.
me@grafxflow
22 Sep 2019Glad to help :)
Sergio Rodriguez
12 Oct 2019Ben Brinkmann
18 Oct 2019After fixing the dGPU issue a couple of months ago, everything worked fine again. Just today, the brightness keys stopped working and when going to sleep and trying to wake, a forced reboot was necessary.
So I thought, what the heck, I‘ll do the whole procedure again. Started by doing a SMC and NVRAM reset. Now I can‘t even get to Single User Mode, as the screen remains permanently black.
What can i do?
SLD73
18 Oct 2019I did everything as above and my daughter's laptop is now working, however, the brightness buttons won't work and the screen is very dark. Any suggestions? Also some of the other function keys are acting a bit weirdly!
Thaks,
Sarah
Anne
25 Oct 2019Mr_Pinguin
27 Nov 2019me@grafxflow
27 Nov 2019Sorry I am not sure whether this would work or not - never had to try it on that MacBook model.
You could always try it and if not copy the files back again.
Vincenzo
29 Nov 2019Vincenzo
04 Dec 2019Nico
15 Jan 2020Best regards
Andrey
24 Jan 2020This Magic works !!!!
Great article :))
Damon
30 Jan 2020me@grafxflow
30 Jan 2020Yes this is something that will be effected. The other graphics card which causes the issue also controls external monitors etc.
Damon
30 Jan 2020me@grafxflow
30 Jan 2020If I understand you correctly with the text - is it on a black background? then you should now be able to boot up normal and not worry about the text.
As for the hard drive I can't see there being an issue. But I would also (if possible) do a time machine backup to another hard drive to be safe.
Damon
30 Jan 2020me@grafxflow
30 Jan 2020Andy
27 Mar 2020me@grafxflow
27 Mar 2020Did you delete all the AMD extensions?
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* /amd-backup-kexts/
Andy
27 Mar 2020me@grafxflow
27 Mar 2020If you just do
'sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00'
and
'reboot'
Does the pink screen still happen?
Andy
27 Mar 2020me@grafxflow
27 Mar 2020Sounds like it's something more than just the graphics card, or different than what the article covers.
Sorry I can't help you on this one :(
Andy
27 Mar 2020Andy
28 Mar 2020Performed a SMC and NVRAM reset, followed all the commands again but changed sudo mkdir /amd-backup-kexts/ to sudo mkdir /amd-backup-kexts1/. One or the other solved it but its now working again.
me@grafxflow
28 Mar 2020Good to hear... can't be without your mac :)
I am guessing it was the 'Performed a SMC and NVRAM reset'
Pete
31 Mar 2020Rufus
27 Apr 2020me@grafxflow
27 Apr 2020You should be able to update your macOS but I am guessing you will need to do this all again since I know it will create all the deleted files again.
Paulos
04 May 2020me@grafxflow
04 May 2020Best to leave it as is regarding security.
The only thing - maybe make more space on your hard drive with apps you don't need or use so you can store more music etc.
Josemi
04 Jun 2020Damon
28 Jun 2020caterina
18 Aug 2020Macaroni
22 Aug 2020Numbiano
23 Aug 2020Damon
20 Sep 2020My ssd was already installed so I never tried anything after fixing the gpu issue.
TAG
25 Sep 2020Brian Paxton
29 Sep 20201) My MBP runs OS X El Capital 10.11.6 and I'm unable to update.
2) I had a guy "heatgun" the GPU and it worked for a week or two, then the problems started to occur again. I let it sit for a week and after cooling it is rebooted now. Is there a better way to approach this fix and GPU switch if mine is able to boot for the moment?
Thanks for sharing this excellent information.
Cheers!
me@grafxflow
29 Sep 2020I had a similar issue with an ibook back in the day with its graphics card, due to heat would start to separate from the motherboard therefore causing a major issue with the startup screen. It was fixed by adding pressure but eventually came back again. So you may have had the GPU welded back to the motherboard, I sadly still think it will keep coming back. It's a simple case of a badly built laptop that was done for this model proven by the amount of people with the same problem.
Eric Aguilera
08 Oct 2020me@grafxflow
08 Oct 2020Are you making sure to delete the ' /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.*' ?
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD*.* /amd-backup-kexts/
If these are still in the '/System/Library/Extensions' then it will keep crashing.
If need be try the following and see if the AMD extensions are still listed.
ls -a /System/Library/Extensions/
Eric Aguilera
08 Oct 2020Thanks for the fast reply.
So im not that good with single user mode so I did the entire process again and im up and running in the os.
I navigated to /System/library/Extensions and I do see lists of files in there that start with AMD so im guessing I didnt delete them correctly.
Can I delete within the OS?
Thanks for your support
me@grafxflow
08 Oct 2020I don't think you will be able to delete them via the desktop, because they will be loaded and in use once it starts up. But if you follow the tutorial then it should work fine.
The really important part is the csrutil disable since without this disabled you won't be able delete the files either way.
AJ
28 Oct 2020Many thanks, it worked really well.
My sound is not working correctly, have a no entry sign at bottom when clicking the volume up and down key and other times it works fine?
Has anybody else have this issue? Do you have any possible solution
Graham
21 Jan 2021The only problem is that I have lost the brightness controls and the screen is very dark. Is there anything I can do. Using a 15” MacBook Pro 2011 running High Sierra.
Graham
21 Jan 2021Echio
27 Jan 2021Anyway, I have two questions:
1. Is there any point in re-enabling system integrity protection? What are the chances that I'll ever run into issues without it?
2. Could I install Windows through bootcamp after this, or would windows drivers try to re-enable the AMD GPU or something?
Also, I'm a bit confused by the sleep issue fix. What is it that can't sleep? Computer, Display, or Hard Disks? Thanks!
Benjamin Lopez Jr
20 May 2021Thanks to this fix my old Macbook Pro that I use for music creation and entertainment is back again.
One thing however, I can’t use my Apple Cinema 27” display no more. Is there a way to bring it back in use again? Is there a fix for this? Or once you make this fix, you can’t use an external diaplay??
me@grafxflow
20 May 2021Sadly the above fix affects the graphics cards capabilities. So sadly I am guessing no :(
Dazzer
20 May 2021thank you so much for this, I can now use my MBP even after having baked the logic board twice (the fix didn't last).
2 questions:
1. how do I restore the original setting (in case I need to)? Is there a guide for that?
2. I now would like to try and upgrade the HD with an SSD, do I need to restore the default GPU settings before upgrading or can I just do it straight away by installing the OS from recovery mode on the new HD?
Any suggestion would be much appreciated, thanks so much!
D
Jorge
21 Jul 2023Thank you for your post. Do these instructions address the thermal management of the disabled graphics card?
Thank you.
me@grafxflow.co.uk
21 Jul 2023