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I have a 'slight' issue with my macbook and was wondering if anyone could help me please.

Model: A1278 (EMC 2419*) MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.3 13" Early 2011 OS: Yosemite

The machine one day abruptly switched off while in use. The power button is ineffective and gives no response. To power the machine up, I removed the battery and attached the power cable.

With the cable attached, the machine turns on. I have password protected the hdd, so the first thing it reaches is a pre-boot user selection. It allows me to use the trackpad and keyboard to enter this information.

From here, the machine begins to boot. It displays the apple logo and progress bar but abruptly shuts off around half way through the boot sequence. Once it has shut off, the power button is once again ineffective. To restart I have to remove and reattach the power cable.

Resets: I have tried resetting the smc, pram, nvram to no avail.

I have run an extended diagnostic hardware test which found no problems

Recovery: I do not have a recovery partition. I have tried internet recovery. I can enter the wifi details and it downloads the software I assume. Once it begins to boot, it shuts off before it gets to the recovery menu.

I have also tried recovering from a USB, the machine shuts off before the menu.

HDD: I have removed the hard drive and have attached it to my iMac via USB > SATA, I have found no issues there and can access the data.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Drew
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    Sorry to say but it sounds like you have a bad logic board. – l008com Mar 22 '18 at 09:30
  • I was hoping that wasn't the case, but it seems right. Thanks. – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 09:33
  • Can you boot from the hard disk while attached to your MBP via USB rather than internal? – FiddleDeDee Mar 22 '18 at 09:33
  • Have you tried a different power adapter, connected to a different plug in your house? Worth a shot just for the sake of completeness. – l008com Mar 22 '18 at 09:34
  • – Ian, I'm not sure I follow. Do you mean, can I boot via USB? – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 09:37
  • – 1008com I haven't. You are suggesting the power cable may be at fault, cutting out while running? – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 09:38
  • Recovery, safe mode, etc. will have no effect; this is a hardware issue. When you disconnect the battery, do you reconnect it? If the problem presents while the battery is disconnected, you may have an issue with the DC-in board See this post for more details: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/195062/119271 – Allan Mar 22 '18 at 13:05
  • @drew yes. Sorry if you at'd me I would have come back sooner. But it does seem like a hardware issue. – FiddleDeDee Mar 22 '18 at 13:14
  • @Allan I have not tried reconnecting the battery, I will give it a go. I suppose if it was a power issue, it would revert to battery once the DC-in fails. Thanks – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 13:19
  • @Ian thanks, and apologies I didn't realise the site had that functionality. – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 13:19
  • Sounds like what has just happened to my machine : it’s the ssd on mine and it luckily booted this morning and completed a full backup - now it just chimes and stops ... before it would boot to 1/3 of the progress bar and crash... – Solar Mike Mar 22 '18 at 13:26
  • I just wanted to clarify that the battery was not connected. Since this is the case (you've removed the battery from the equation), you need to start looking at hardware like the DC-in board (most likely) and the logic board (less likely) – Allan Mar 22 '18 at 14:13
  • @SolarMike From what I can gather reading various forums, quite a few issues have similar symptoms. I originally thought it was HDD related, but I've removed and tested it on a different machine and found no issues. A replacement drive is a simple enough fix. Good luck! – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 14:13
  • Thanks @Allan I will give the DC-in a test if I can. – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 14:15
  • @Drew reason I suggested using your drive connected by external USB would be to remove the hard disk cable from the equation, as I've had 2 go on me. – FiddleDeDee Mar 22 '18 at 15:17
  • @Ian Oh! Sorry I completely misunderstood you. I will give that a try, thanks for your help. – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 17:03
  • @Ian Unfortunately booting from the HDD via USB has the same problem. Starts up, begins to boot, suddenly turns off. I'm not sure whether to buy a new DC-in board, or succumb to the more 'logical' conclusion that my logic board is indeed fubar. – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 17:52
  • Well, I have made some progress. Edited above. – Drew Mar 22 '18 at 18:34
  • @Drew ah well, sorry to hear that. Was worth checking though. As to the DC-in/logic board I couldn't answer that. Take it to apple for analysis and repair. Leave your hard disk out :) – FiddleDeDee Mar 26 '18 at 11:38

1 Answers1

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The problem was the keyboard.

I detached all of the internal cables. The keyboard, the trackpad, the keyboard backlights, the optical drive, bluetooth and hard drive.

I attached the HDD and a Keyboard via usb and started the machine by attaching the power cable. From there, success, it booted to desktop.

I then started to reattach all until I found the culprit. Macbook now working minus the internal keyboard.

Drew
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