Question

Macbook pro won't turn on

Asked by: Da-Bu

I have macbook pro (late 2007), 2.2 2gb ram and bootcamp is installed. I put it to sleep last night.

Today when I tried to start the macbook pro this is what happened.

1) the light on the front of the macbook pro glows faintly (constant)
2) the DVD spins (there is a Leopard dVD in the mbp)
3) Fans are working
4) Hard disk is working

The macbook pro does not get past these 2 stages, it does not start up, the screen stays black, the keyboard does not respond, however the processors do get warm when it is left in this state for a period of 5 minutes or more.

I have tried the following,

1) held down the power button until it beeps - it didn't beep
2) reset the pram - nothing happened
3) tried starting in safe mode - nothing happened
4) tried holding down the mouse button upon starting - nothing happened
5) held down cmd option and the other one before starting - nothing
6) Reset SMC (PMU) nothing happened
7) Tried to boot up with Leopard DVD (dvd is now stuck in laptop, I can't take it out, non of the ordinary ways of taking the DVD out works)

It seems like the keyboard is not responsive, the caps lock and num lock lights are not working. No power is coming out of the usb ports, when I try to start the mbp I plugged my ipod in and it didn't charge.

I've also noticed that the sleep light gets brighter/dimmer as you tilt the screen more/less. With the screen almost closed, the sleep light is very dim, however with the screen fully open, it is much brighter (tho not as bright as it should be).

This is the second time I'm having this issue, the first time, just 2 days ago I have fixed it with SMC reset.

Please note that currently, taking my laptop to apple is out of option as where I'm currently, the nearest apple center is 500miles away.

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Asked On
2009-01-04 at 05:39:36ID24023521
Topics

Apple Hardware

,

Apple Laptop

Participating Experts
3
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: strungPosted on 2009-01-04 at 06:33:08ID: 23289863

There is a well known problem with the video board on MacBook Pros that Apple has acknowledged. They should repair it for free. I will try to find you the link and post it.

 

by: Da-BuPosted on 2009-01-04 at 11:36:20ID: 23291052

Hi Strung, thanks for your advice...

I have read all the posts and I don't think this is the same issue of MBPs with defective nvidia graphics. In those cases macbooks are running - the keyboard is functioning and they hear startup tune which is not the case with my machine...

 

by: strungPosted on 2009-01-04 at 11:52:33ID: 23291116

There is another thread about a loose keyboard cable. Let me see if I can find it.

 

by: strungPosted on 2009-01-04 at 12:03:15ID: 23291153

Also, have you eliminated bad RAM? Try pulling one of the RAM chips.

 

by: Da-BuPosted on 2009-01-04 at 12:12:55ID: 23291179

I tried to swap memory chips, put one at a time, changed slots, tried all combination's with ram, nothing is working... I even tried to power my MBP without any ram chips and oddly, it didnt produce any kind of alert, it doesn't even realize that the ram memory is not inserted...

 

by: pheidiusPosted on 2009-01-04 at 16:53:18ID: 23292228

Ouch that is certainly bad. The fact that the board does not detect the abscense of ram during post argues for a bad mother board. I would try starting it in target mode from another Mac and see how it responds. Also have you have tried starting it without any battery at all?

 

by: Da-BuPosted on 2009-01-05 at 00:55:51ID: 23293826

Thanks Phedius,

Yes, it is the same,when i start it with or without batery. Regarding the target mode, Im not sure if I will be able to get into it as I need to press T during the bootup and so far, non of the key combinations during the boot up worked so I kinda doubt this will work (I dont have other mac available, Im the first switcher among people I know, so what I'm currently trying to do is to install Mac osx under PC as virtual machine, after that I'll try the target mode.

 

by: Da-BuPosted on 2009-01-10 at 15:06:26ID: 23345771

It was the bad logic board (motherboard), for the future unfortunate mac or pc user... if you have symptoms as I described above, it is almost certain that your: motherboard, logic board, cpu or PSU is dead or dying. Case closed :(

Thanks for help!

 

by: HelpdesksupportPosted on 2009-03-06 at 16:22:08ID: 23822464

Hi
If you have a spare sata drive put it in. I had the same problem once i swap out the hdd and install leopard it worked again. Good Luck

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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