I just got this Mac from my grandma because she said it wasn't working. It boots and lets me go into recovery mode but crashes in a similar way whenever a loading bar starts. I've tried booting every different way and cleared nvram. I didn't see any clearly visible damage on the logic board, and I'm willing to try any ideas as long as I can keep the price of fixing this under $100.
My money is still on the logic board having passed away. Apple has been using logic boards that do this for a long time now. It's one of the first things to die on MacBooks.
Yep it’s this. My iMac did the same thing and they had to replace the logic board.
Whatever the hell that even is
The logic board is what they call the motherboard (and everything soldered to it)