Chosen Solution
I’m wondering if your systems battery is getting weak here. If you review the spec sheet above you’ll see the 2 TB drive does pull a bit more power than the 1 TB/500 GB drives. How about running CoconutBattery and posting a screenshot of the main app window so we can see whats up. Do it with the with the MagSafe plugged in and a second with it disconnected. Update (02/18/2018) Well, the CoconutBattery output is giving us a clue! Note the battery is not fully charged! And the charger is only pushing 0.63 Watts which is quite low given the batteries charge level. Now let it charge for the night and do a fresh capture. This looks like you rarely run it on battery alone as it only has one cycle and for 847 days (2 & 1/3 years). I’m suspecting you need to calibrate the battery. Here’s how: How To Calibrate a Mac Laptop’s Power System But! You still have a problem if you can’t even run the system with the battery at this point. I’m suspecting your SMC logic on the logic board has a problem with the comparator logic which is on the backside of the logic board. Did you have a liquid spill at some point? I suspecting you have corrosion around the chip so its confused as it’s getting the wrong voltage inputs. Here’s the IFIXIT guide you’ll need to follow to get the logic board out to inspect it: MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Early 2011 Logic Board Replacement
My bet is that you are victim of the Apple Planned Redundency Program. I had the same thing happen to the same model when upgrading the hardware in much the same manner as you have. Ran all the official Apple Hardware tests in every variant configuration I could think of. Always tested OK. Apparently that model has a known issue with the graphics chip and my bet is that your machine is stalling when it tries to access the chip on startup (a Tech with access to more reliable testing regimes than Apple provide to the suckers who pay for their machines, spotted the matter in a couple of minutes). Thanks to Apple and its new APFS, there is no going backwards and reliable repairs are nigh on impossible. On principle, I have opted out of Apple and have moved to a quality Notebook to run under Windows. I know they have their problems too but they are not a vertical control hierarchy with cradle to grave fees and charges - along with gratuitous hooks and barbs in the “updates”. Treva Makara
