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MBP early 2011, running El Capitan with GPU problem, boot hangs on grey screen.

I found @LangLangC’s solution (link:GPU problem - Boot Hangs on Grey Screen), but I can only performed the procedure up until Part 1, 8; then came error message: ‘Operation not permitted’.

Here is the The initial procedure from @LangLangC that I followed:

Part 1: Disable SIP, disable dGPU, move one kernel extension

1 To start from a clean slate: reset SMC and NVRAM: shutdown, unplug everything except power, now hold

leftShift+Ctrl+Opt+Power
and release all at the same time;

2 Now power on again and hold

Cmd+Opt+p+r
at the same time until you hear the startup chime two times.

3 Boot into Single User Recovery by holding

Cmd+r+s

4 Disable SIP: enter:

csrutil disable

5 disable dGPU on boot with setting the following variable:

nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

6 enable verbose boot mode:

nvram boot-args="-v"

7 reboot into Single User-mode by holding

Cmd+s
on boot

8 mount root partition writeable

/sbin/mount -uw /

9 make a kext-backup directory

mkdir -p /System/Library/Extensions-off

10 only move ONE offending kext out of the way:

mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX3000.kext  /System/Library/Extensions-off/

11 inform the system to update its kextcache:

touch /System/Library/Extensions/

12 reboot normally:

Note: I only can follow until step 8. On step 9 came error message: ‘Operation not permitted’

A suggestion from @Snacking_IT (on the same link) to perform Command + R only gave me a grey screen again.

Here is the suggestion from @Snacking_IT: If the problem is that you're unable to move those files it's probably the System Integrity Protection that's stopping you. I'm assuming you're on El Capitan or Sierra.

  • Shutdown your laptop.
  • Press Command + R and then the power button to boot into recovery mode.
  • Click the Utilities menu and select Terminal.
  • Type csrutil disable and press return.
  • Close the Terminal app and restart out of recovery mode.
  • Now try booting back into Single-User mode and try to mv command.

Note: I can't go to recovery mode as the suggestion, rebooting with press cmd +R only gave me the grey screen again.

Please help kindly anyone. Regards.

Sepyo
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  • Hi @Monomeeth, since I haven't got any answer for my question/problem with my MBP, could you help me to share it to someone, especially LangLangC and Snacking_IT ? Really sorry if this is not the right move. Appreciate your help. – Sepyo Oct 15 '19 at 20:12
  • Apologies - haven't been on here much during the last couple of days. When you say you get the Operation not permitted error message, are you getting this when trying to perform step 8? Or when trying to perform step 9? Also, after getting the error, did you try continuing with the following steps anyway? Finally, you state in your question that you're: "running El Capitan with GPU problem" - can I ask how you know you have a GPU problem? – Monomeeth Oct 17 '19 at 22:32
  • Hi @Monomeeth thank you for your response. More info about the problem: I got the error message "Operation not permitted' after trying to perform step 9. Then I couldn't perform the step further, so I just pressed the restart button to force shutdown. My MBP was running El Capitan. I know it's having Graphic Processor problem because the screen was having distorted graphic and lines before locking up to the grey screen after rebooting. – Sepyo Oct 18 '19 at 23:54
  • @Monomeeth, I have done a couple things to resurrect my MBP: First cleaned the old thermal paste and put the new one, but it didn't help - the MBP still rebooting to the grey screen. Second, I have tried to reboot from a bootable usb drive which has El Capitan installer in it (so I can run disk utility to check & repair the hardisk, but the MBP still could only show the grey screen. Thanks heaps. – Sepyo Oct 18 '19 at 23:55

0 Answers0