Booting up with blinking crossed circle and Apple logo.

Hi, I’m ALEARCHIS. My MacBook Pro mid 2012 model A1278 running MacOS Sierra 10.12.8 with a ROM 4GB and 240GB SATA SSD. The computer was operating fine not until I installed The latest macOS Catalina on it. Though it was still operating at it’s peak with the macOS Catalina, I later installed Logic Pro 10.8.4. But still the computer was operating fine with software. No System delays especially when I’m Working on my music projects. It was really working fine ,but All of a sudden one day I was working on my music project Then I decided to delete one of the folders from the music software Boom that’s where the Problem begins, it took like 30mins deleting the folder , my MacBook Pro could not respond to commands eg the trackpad can’t give feedback . Nothing the computer is just stacked! I had to force shutdown by pressing the power key for 10 seconds then switch it on again, after process the computer was booting up with a blinking crossed circle and Apple logo, I tried to reinstall the macOS mountain X lion but all didn’t work. I tried to Erase the SSD and run repair on it but it keeps on telling me error messages needs repair . so I had to cleanup the motherboard , remove Rom And the RAM then disconnect the battery from The computer and connect it back Then reinstall the macOS Sierra again, surprisingly it was able to install and now the computer is working fine but it cannot allow me to restart it. Once I restart the computer, booting up is a problem unless I have to force switch off and then switch it on again. But if I shut it down as usual , it boots up without any problems. The problem is that I should not restart the computer! So what can I do?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Jan 19, 2025 7:49 AM

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Jan 19, 2025 2:03 PM in response to ALEARCHIS

The two most likely possibilities are a bad SSD or a bad hard drive SATA flex cable. The SATA Cable has an extremely high rate of failure in the 13" 2012 model. You can quickly & easily confirm by removing the SSD and connecting it externally using a USB3 SATA to USB Adapter, drive dock, or enclosure. If the laptop works fine booting to the SSD when connected externally, then one of those two scenarios is the problem.


If the laptop still has issues when booting the SSD externally, then it may mean the SSD is bad or incompatible, or it could be due to some other hardware or software issue.

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Jan 19, 2025 9:34 AM in response to ALEARCHIS

Whew, hello,


Have you run Disk Utility's Disk First Aid on all connected drives?


In Disk Utility>View, select Show all Devices, highlight the top left entry.


Run Disk First Aid on all items in the left panel, from top down.


Are you running any VPN, Anti-Virus, or Cleaning apps?


We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...

Using EtreCheck - Apple Community


EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/


Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community


Earlier versions of etrecheck...


https://macdownload.informer.com/etrecheck/versions/


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Booting up with blinking crossed circle and Apple logo.

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