Chosen Solution
Got a tough one here guys. I’m working on a Late 2011 MacBook Pro that’s exhibiting some odd behavior. Pressing the power button, I hear the standard boot chime, but instead of getting the white/grey startup screen, the screen stays black. However, once the OS has loaded, the screen comes on but stays white. If I hook up an external monitor, I get a regular desktop and I’m able to login and work as normal. On restart with the ext monitor connected, I can see the Apple logo and progress bar (on the ext monitor of course; the laptop display stays black during boot and only comes on once the OS has loaded.), and for all intents and purposes I can find no other issues with the laptop. I have tried replacing the RAM, hard drive cable, and hard drive all with working components from my own personal 2011 MBP, so I know the replacement components are good, but the problem persists. Any ideas?
You’ll need to pop the bottom cover and inspect the display cables connection. If you can take a good detailed picture of the connector area and past it here for us to see Adding images to an existing question
To compare yours to Update (06/18/2018) Sorry to say you have quite a bit of corrosion and it looks like you’re missing some of the traces. This is going to need some delicate work to clean and patch up the pads. You likely need a new connector and maybe the cable as well. You may need some of the SMD components that are damaged as well.
