New odd problem.

hoping someone has a clue.

my second MBP 17" ( MD311LL/A ) i7 2.4/8/750 has developed an odd issue, and our closest Apple store is about as helpful as a hemorrhoid. ( dont really want to send this unit off for 4-6 weeks either )

here goes, I had a KP on friday and had to do a hard shutdown, ( not unusual some days ) but when I restarted all was well until OSX was up and looking for password, I had no keyboard, if I waited 60-90 seconds i heard the error chime and some of my password dots would appear if you enter password VERY slow as in one key press every 10 seconds I can get in to the OS and use it for 20-30 minutes with depreciated performamce before it hardlocks again.

what ive tried
1: reset PRAM and SMC
2: reset permissions ( boot from a USB installer works )
4: check RAM with memtest
5: swap ram with other MBP 17
6: nuke and pave ( wipe, format and reinstall )
8: change HDD/ nuke and pave
9: install SSD/nuke and pave

now the bloody wierd part, I mentioned that the installer booted/worked fine... I can boot, install AND use Ubuntu 11 and windows 7 on it???

so what I have is a MBP 17" that runs everything BUT OSX!

Apple store 2 hours away started off with oh, just fix permissions etc, once i gave them my troubleshoot list the idiot mgr informed me I must have tampered with the machine trying to mod it or overclock it. Then sent me off with the usual we cant honor your warranty BS on a replacement

Apple Canada wants me to send it in for possible repair and informed me of a 4-6 week turnaround.

and the OTHER Apple store is 2.75hrs away and im wasting too much time, money and fuel already. Any ideas or should I just shoot it for my sanity?

 

component damage (malfunction)

 

You have multiple machines, so why can't you send it off to apple as a last resort?

 

Apple with a 4-6 week turnaround?! What? Never have I...

Mine all come back within one business week. What's up with Apple Canada?!

 

agreed, another tech suspects the firmware portion in EFI that lets OSX see the computer as Apple mfgr'd is corrupt or damaged

I tend to setup dedicated machines for certain projects, and for me its a pain. for now ive hackintoshed the 8740w as im certain it has to go back.

not sure, 3 weeks if their in a hurry, 10 if their not or waiting for parts.

 

Can you reflash the EFI/SMC?

EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs

 

i think she already did that. It could be some component or a software related issue. My computer would freeze after startup and it turned out to be a bad hard drive.

 

cant get OSX to work right long enough to try, and you cant reflash from any other OS.

on that note its on its way back.

 

Ah. Well, in that case... I hope it's not the 4-6 weeks you said. They really should have better turn around time in Canada!

 

When you say "nuke and pave" are you restoring from a backup, or doing a fresh install of Max OS X? Since you say it runs fine with Linux and Windows 7, that indicates it most likely isn't a hardware issue. Apple has pushed out bad drivers via Apple Update before, and if you happend to get a bad driver that you keep restoring from your backup, it would continue to not work. I would suggest that if you are restoring from a backup, do a fresh install and do not restore your backup and see if that sorts it. A couple of years ago Apple pushed out a wireless driver that caused my MacBook (white polycarbonate) to freeze when turning it off and then on. They pulled the driver a day after they initiallly published it, and later pushed out a fixed version. However, the Apple Geniuses solution was to restore to an early time-machien backup, and NOT do the update again until the fixed it. Good luck!

Rich S.

 

by nuke and pave I mean a clean load of OSX from both an Apple supplied media and a Lion USB drive I created from app store download. both installers are confirmed good.

I am rather aware of the occasional bad driver over the last 20 years that wifi one attacked me too

 

Update.

just got it back today, ( just over 7 weeks gone )
was a " corrupted EFI security feature " requiring mainboard replacement.