I turned it off, everything seemed normal, but the next morning it wouldn't turn on again. It won't even start up: absolutely no sound, as if it was completely dead.

I checked the battery indicator and it was completely charged. I opened it up and disconnected the battery, plugged in the MagSafe charger, and there was still no response. I plugged the battery back in and no response. Plugged in the charger and connected the battery and no response.

I took out the hard drive and all my info was there; it would mount on a different MacBook Pro with no problem, and luckily I got all my files backed up.

So I know the hard drive is not the problem. The fan won't even move when trying to turn it on.

I tried taking out the RAM, one by one, no RAM at all, switching them from slot to slot: no response.

Tried out all of the key combinations on the keyboard as well... still nothing.

I don't know what else to try. I read somewhere that the on/off button is connected to the ribbon cable from the keyboard. I checked, and it is plugged in correctly to the logic board. I'm afraid my logic board is dead, but after only a little more than a year????

Any guesses?

Thanks for your help.

⟐ Commented February 22, 2024 at 7:26 MST

⟐ Commented March 12, 2021 at 1:48 MST

I have a MacBook Pro with a RAID 0 SSD setup so I can have a fast IO, worked like a charm for years...

Now I would like to upgrade to High Sierra and the installer informs me that: "You may not install to this volume because it is part of a AppleRAID.".

Is there any way to get around this?

If I do a clean install can I make a bootable APFS RAID?

⟐ Commented May 31, 2021 at 19:02 MST

Around two days ago I was about to move my workhorse to the kitchen, to do some culinary research (read: how to boil potatoes) when my MacBook just turned off when I disconnected the charger. I've had this problem before, which went away after a short while by itself. I just pinned it down to magnets or magic. After a while of being mildly annoyed by it shutting down, I began testing the battery in TechTool, which gave me virtually no information save for the fact that the battery is just maintaining its charge, but not actually getting any.

The battery indicator shows a 100% charge, as does Coconut Battery, which should mean that it's not the SMC. I did an SMC and PRAM reset, though it's unclear if it did anything at all. I'll try an SMC bypass and see if that does anything at all and update on this.

Logic tells me that it's the I/O board which is fooling around, but given my current financial situation, I don't want it to be. So, bottom line, is there any way to be completely sure that it's due to the I/O board, and/or any good way to fix it? Any help will be very appreciated and will hopefully help others in the future too.

For the sake of clarity, I'll enclose two Coconut Battery screenshots for future reference.

⟐ Commented January 08, 2025 at 11:49 MST

Does anyone know the location of the power on pads on the (13 inch mid 2012) Mac book pro.?

⟐ Commented December 18, 2021 at 7:53 MST

It originally came with 2x4gb DDR3, and I replaced with 2x8gb DDR3L, as advised by a friend and after checking several online foruns.

About 6 months later the macbook died and I had to get the logic board replaced.

The thing is: "the guy" at the repair shop said the ram was probably the cause, because using a low-voltage ram on the system originally designed to use DDR3 ram caused the system to have "extra energy running around" and it fried the logic board.

I checked around online in all kinds of foruns and didn't find anyone talking about it. Lots of posts says it's fine to replace DDR3 with DDR3L. My friend still uses his macbook and nothing happened.

Has anyone heard about this?

The macbook is currently using its original DDR3 ram, but I still have the 2xDDR3L with me and I don't know if I should replace it again.

⟐ Commented March 07, 2026 at 15:03 MST

Further clues to aid would-be troubleshooters:

• This is unrelated to "Energy Saver" settings. I have it set to put the display to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity, and the computer to sleep after 15 minutes. Yet this issue occurs as I am working --literally while I am typing. It is not falling asleep due to inactivity; it's more like narcolepsy.
• Interestingly, it doesn't behave as it does during a normal sleep. In a normal sleep, you can wake it back up by tapping the trackpad, pressing a key, or pushing the Power button. When it does its narcoleptic thing, it only wakes back up when I tilt the whole machine to the right.
• Wondering if it might be a motherboard issue (just a blind guess), I drove to my nearest "Genius Bar" today. The guy took it apart, said the motherboard looked great, and told me that it could probably be fixed by downloading the most recent Yosemite update. Unfortunately that did not solve it either.

Any ideas?

⟐ Answered July 25, 2025 at 3:12 MST

Identifiers: Mid-2012 13" - MD101LL/A - MacBookPro9,2 - A1278 - 2554*

I keep getting this panic error code on an endless cycle of rebooting:

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff8021fbcf35): "process 1 exec of /sbin/launchd failed, errno 2"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2782.18.72/bsd/kern/kern_exec.c:4868

Debugger called: <panic>

Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address

VM Swap Subsystem is ON

then 7 lines of number code

and

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: init

Mac OS version:

Not yet set

Then stuff about the kernel version.

What does this mean? My SSD is only 4 months so I doubt it's an issue with that.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

⟐ Answered May 06, 2020 at 9:05 MST

I bought a used MPB 13'' Mid 2012 this week.

I got the system with 1 4GB RAM stick installed (in the top-slot) and the other slot being empty.

I bought myself 2x 8GB of RAM (Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz DDR-3)

After putting in both sticks the macbook didn't start. No beeps, black screen, just 3 flashing/blinking lights at the LED indicator, with a 1 second pause in between the 3 flashes.

Put the old RAM back in the bottom slot, same problem.

Put the 8GB RAM back in the top slot, system boots normally with 8GB of RAM.

Pretty much tried everything after that, SMC reset, PRAM reset, loosening screws of RAM-bracket.

After that I tried to put 1 RAM stick back in the bottom slot, and tried to boot.

This time it booted, with black stripes flashing in the screen and the boot taking a very long time while the load bar was not progressing (hope this makes sense to read).

So I turned the system off, put the 8GB stick in the top slot and now working fine with 1 8GB slot.

Really would like the bottom slot to work as well, feels like i am out of options.

(Not going to replace the logic board for this problem)

Can anyone help, or has anyone had the same problems?

Thanks in advance!

⟐ Answered January 11, 2025 at 23:32 MST

⟐ Commented March 21, 2024 at 6:07 MST

⟐ Commented February 04, 2025 at 22:50 MST

⟐ Answer edited April 19, 2021 at 21:07 MST

The battery is pretty new ( less than a year; 31 cycles, Condition: Normal ), the laptop never seems to get hot ( no thermal system logs), I've already reset the SMC and PRAM, I've cleaned out any dust bunnies, it's never been exposed to liquids, I've replaced the fan, SSD drive, upgraded the RAM. It's a terrific laptop, just not very portable at the moment as it crashes on battery power!

Appreciate any advice I can get! Thanks in advance.

⟐ Answer accepted December 08, 2016 at 8:29 MST

Last night I was using my laptop and all of the sudden weird horizontal green lines appeared on my screen (photo 1) after I had carried it from one place to another. I had to press and hold the power button to restart the laptop as the computer was not responding to my finger on the trackpad.

Later on last night I was carrying it again and I noticed that when I held it on the left side (photo 2) the screen started doing that funky thing with the lines. So I restarted it again.

Now I am avoiding holding the laptop on that side, but anybody have any idea what is the problem and how can I fix it?

Please note that I do not have Apple Care.

⟐ Answered September 23, 2020 at 15:02 MST

can i install an SDD in a Macbook Pro 13" / Mid 2012, 2.5GHz model? I search the Guides Section and i haven't found any info on that.

Is it possible? If it is what kind of SDD brand and model would you advised me to buy?

Best,

⟐ Commented July 02, 2021 at 7:38 MST

Is it possible to install a newer Airport Card supporting 802.11 ac on MacBook Pro 13" Mid-2012 ( MacBookPro9,2 ) non retina ?

I was looking at installing BCM94360CSAX as it was explained on this post : Can I use its 802.11ac AirPort Card on my RMBP 15 (mid2012)?

but it seems to be possible only on Retina models..

I have a really great connection at home ( 1 Gb/s ) but I can't take full advantages of it with my actual MBP Wifi Card.

Speed Test on Ethernet :

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/45182...

Speed Test on Wifi :

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/45182...

⟐ Commented June 28, 2020 at 16:36 MST

It’s running OS-X High Sierra 10.13.6 prior to Mojave. I suspect is a bad SATA cable. Possibly, the Hard Drive going bad as well. It has a 750 GB storage - but there is only 65-70 GB on disk.

My client only uses it for his business. The main application he runs is QuickBooks. He creates text documents, reads email, surfs the net and that is about it,

The computer takes a long time to boot. It’s slow to respond with everything. Even the finder, clicking on menus, looking inside folders, etc … takes 5-20 seconds to respond.

Even emptying the trash. I have checked the Activity Monitor (looks normal). I have run a Hard Drive Test with Disk Utility. No errors or problems found. I have run Malware Bytes to see if there is a rogue program taking over the system. There were some things, but they are deleted. More tests finds nothing.

I checked the battery cycles (around 570) and System Info says that is normal. I’m running Apple Hardware Test on the system as I type this. It appears this model has had issues with the SATA cable that exhibits this same behavior.

I am getting ready to order an SATA cable from this site and put in a 250 GB SSD. This should make the computer much faster in my opinion.

Tell me if I am on the right track. )) Thanks for any info.

Received the new HD cable. Installed. Followed Dan's suggestions. Installed the new Samsung SSD.

Booted into recovery mode. Used Disk Utility to format the drive. Then installed Mohave. With a fairly fast internet speed and new SSD, from beginning to finish took about 25 minutes.

Also, following Dan's suggestion, I used Migration Assistant to move data files, and Apps from the old HD in an external enclosure.

The only problem I had was with QuickBooks. A quick search on Intuit's site, I saw info about others having the same problem - migrating from an old to new computer. Followed their steps. And now everything is working great for my client.

iFixit users helped me tremendously! Thanks to all!

⟐ Answered April 19, 2021 at 21:35 MST

A few months ago I replaced the old HD with a new Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500 GB

But yesterday my system wouldn't start! I tried AHT and the result was 4hdd/11/400000004 sata (0,0)

So I put the old HD back in and the MacBook was OK, and it started. I tried to see if the SSD was broken. But I can use it with no problem externally.

Is it possible that the SATA cable is broken or too old for the SSD?

Thank You, Sorry for my english

Version Boot ROM: MBP91.00D3.B0B

Version SMC (sistema): 2.2f44

I tried to upload but it says that I need 10.8.5 or 10.9.5 but i've 10.10.4.

Is it possible to test the SATA cable?

⟐ Commented October 21, 2021 at 0:08 MST

The Macbook that I just bought used 4 days ago started doing this (see pics) yesterday! I was perfectly fine the other days. I’ve tried removing and reinstalling the display, loosening the screws opening the lid and tightening the screws back down and it’s no different. It seems that one side is higher than the other. This computer hasn’t even been out of the house!

Ty!

⟐ Commented January 19, 2024 at 5:42 MST

When trying to install internally I get the popup,

“You may not install this volume because the computer is missing a firmware partition.”

If I install a partition with Disk Utilities I get the same thing.

If I run into someone who helped write High Sierra or Mojave and included these obstacles to make older Macs obsolete, is it Justifiable Homicide if I strangle them with my bare hands? Or should,I just carve an Apple logo into their foreheads?

I have five machines MBP 2011-12 on my bench right now that were upgraded with Seagate SSHD drives. All are now non-functioning because of High Sierra updates and I can’t fix them. I’ve already replaced about a dozen drives out of my pocket because of this. I sent emails out to all my customers with SSHD drives not to upgrade a couple of months ago.

UPDATE

OK I tried just a standard Apple 500 GB drive. Formatted it externally. Put the drive in the MBP 13” 2012 non-retina machine and get the same “You may not install this volume because the computer is missing a firmware partition.” So Pulled it wiped it again and put it in the machine. Did an internet recovery and install the original Mavericks. Dropped on downloads od El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave. Will install them all in order until I get a failure and report back. @ajcooke01 @danj

Still think Tim Cook would look good to me with that Apple carved into him.

UPDATE

El Capitan installed, no problems but noted no firmware updates. Going for Sierra now.

Sierra OK, doing the updates now.

UPDATE 10/5/18

Took the standard Apple branded Seagate MX 500GB all the way to Mojave and it’s running OK.

Now I tried a clean install of Mojave on a Seagate 500 GB SSHD older model. and all went slick. Did Migration. Now when I try to start, it takes forever for the loading progress bar to complete, especially the last quarter of an inch and NO JOY. Cannot get it to fully boot. Will be trying various cures today. This is really depressing as I have installed a couple of hundred Seagate SSHDs both the FireCudas and the older models. When trying to boot in Safe Mode, I get the Apple logo flash on, then a circle with a line through it, then it starts to load, get 1/3 of the way and the machine shuts down.

UPDATE 10/6/18

I put the stand drive back in internally and it booted just fine.

Hooked up the SSHD externally and repair attempts failed. It did show up titled as APFS Media. So the software install has put that APSF on again. After four attempts I was able to reformat it OS X Mac Extended. @danj, not sure what to try now except to take it down to Sierra. Any suggestions?

⟐ Commented February 14, 2023 at 14:36 MST