Help - I think my mac is dead

tk123

Pls help - my poor MacBook won't boot and i'm a bit of a noob so i don't know what to do!! :(:( I bought it on Adverts at the end of october and had no probs until now. At the moment I just have a black screen. It was like this yesterday evening but after turning it on and off a few times it booted up. Then it would be ok for 5-10 mins before I got a message on the screen saying I needed to reboot. I checked forums and they suggested verifying/repairing the disk - I tried this but it failed each time so it looked like I needed to reinstall Leopard. I've come back to it this evening and now all I get is a black screen. I've gone thru support docs, reset the PRAM, and Power Manager and even tried booting with the os cd in and taking the HD out completely but nothing. Is the board gone do you think or possibly a fan - it seems to be heating up a bit when I power it on....!? I've worked in IT for years but have no experiencing taking macs apart so i'm not sure what to do next?! :(

Sad Professor

Okay so what happens when you try to boot from the OSX cd? Are you getting anything at all when you try to start up? A grey screen, anything?

tk123

When I hit the power button I get the grey screen for a split second then it goes black and the cd drive makes the usual noise like its checking for a disk. Nothing happens after that - there's no apple sound or any sign that its trying to boot. With the cd in (whether i hold down C or D as I boot or not) the cd is spins but the screen is the same. I've also tried it with just mains/battery/both.

luckat

What model, what OS?

I'm wondering if it might be something obvious like a screen problem? Though the lack of chimes doesn't sound like it.

The reason I'm asking about models is that there have been motherboard problems in one of the MacBook models, I seem to distantly remember.

Did you buy this new from Apple or is it secondhand?

Don't panic - while Macs do go wrong, and are just as much of a pain in the a. to mend when they do as PCs, what you're experiencing isn't common.

tk123

Its a 2nd hand MacBook 1.83GhZ Core Duo running Leopard - I got it from adverts.ie. i've had no problems with it at all since I got it until I turned it on yesterday. Hopefully it's something simple but if it was the screen it'd chime and there'd be some kind of activity I would have thought?

Sad Professor

Sounds like it might also be a RAM problem. A bad and/or loose RAM chip can wreck absolute havoc with your system as I discovered earlier in the year (see my thread here). Black screen, sudden restarts, kernel panics, RAM can be the cause of it all. Is there an extra RAM chip installed? It's possible it's become loose but try removing it temporarily and see if it makes any difference. It's fairly easy.

babypink

to try and eliminate board issues - boot up holding T down, this should put it into target disk mode so you can connect it to another machine.

failing this, try booting holding down CMD+OPT+O+F......this should take you into OpenFirmware mode, where you can do basic things, essentially why i'm suggesting it is that if it gets into this mode the board is likely ok.

If it won't go into disk mode, or OF mode i'd be starting to think that either the board is done in or somehow OpenFirmware got wiped.

tk123

Firstly thanks for the suggestions guys

Sad Professor wrote: »

Sounds like it might also be a RAM problem. A bad and/or loose RAM chip can wreck absolute havoc with your system as I discovered earlier in the year (see my thread here). Black screen, sudden restarts, kernel panics, RAM can be the cause of it all. Is there an extra RAM chip installed? It's possible it's become loose but try removing it temporarily and see if it makes any difference. It's fairly easy.

.
I was thinking RAM too - how easily should the chips come out thou? I've tried moving the clip thing to the other side- one corner of the ram moves out tiny bit but it's not 'popping out' like tech docs say? I can't see a way of getting the chips out - unless i jam a pliers in :rolleyes::D!?

The problems in your link pretty much sum up what was happening to me so hopefully its just ram!
babypink i tried your suggestions but no joy - the screen is still black.

Breezer

They should pop out very easily. The fist time you move the clips over it takes a little bit of pressure on them - kinda scary but it's OK. Are you sure you're pushing them over the whole way?

If you are then it would appear your RAM isn't sitting right. Which I guess at least means you know the problem. As for how to get it out... You'll need someone with a bit more experience than me I'm afraid. I've opened a PC once and my MacBook twice.

tk123

hooraay - i got some help talking out the modules - one of them is dodgey. I'm so happy my mac is back! thanks for your help guys!

K.O.Kiki

All this from bad RAM? :eek:
Wow, I'm taking note of this for the future!

Sad Professor

Are you sure the RAM was bad? It may just have been loose. Anyway glad you got it fixed.

triple h

I reckon the sad professor should get person of the year in boards

440Hz

triple h wrote: »

I reckon the sad professor should get person of the year in boards

We could have our own little forum awards.. hehe (joke)

Poster of the year:
Most helpful poster: prob SP or Zen in fairness
Most unhelpful poster: cough, ill say nothing in case i get another personal attack there
Mod of the year: (kidding obviously)
Thread of the year:

could go on for ages... hehe

Sad Professor

triple h wrote: »

I reckon the sad professor should get person of the year in boards

*nods, slides over brown envelope*

Nah, me?