please help macbook wont boot

gav240

"You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button the power button for several seconds or press the restart button."

i have tried to boot from the install disk with no joy and have also tried resetting the pram. i have run the diagnostics(holding D at startup) but they found nothing wrong.
does anyone have any ideas. i'm very new to macs

babypink

at what point during boot are you getting this message?

a photo of the message would help actually --- sounds like a kernel panic at some point but just to make sure.

how new is the computer and have you installed anything new lately? Finally, has it taken a knock?


bp

gav240

it makes the startup sound then continues on for about 45 seconds and then this message pops up http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/tip_images/panic_dialog.gif

its about year and a half old. there hasn't been anything new installed and it didn't take a knock. it was on facebook at the time of the incident!!! it just froze and the power button had to be held in order to reboot.

i have also tried to start in safe mode and tried running fsck but no joy yet.

i was wondering is there any third party utility that might help or does it sound like a hardware problem

cheers for any help

brav

If you tried safe and ran diagnostics you could try repair disk from utilities on the install DVD that came with it, aafter that it would be an Archive and install(default option on snow leopard)

gav240

cant get it to boot from the disk at all

Sad Professor

If the kernel panic happens when booting from the install disc then that means it is not a software problem.

Have you anything connected to the Macbook? Keyboard, mouse, etc.

Is there any third-party RAM installed?

gav240

AAH bugger thats what i was afraid of is there any way to find out what is not working

no nothing connected to it

Sad Professor

My first guess would be a failed RAM chip. Try taking one out and booting up and then trying the other.

nialler

yup prof, sounds like blown ram, though unusual without the chimes to let you know. Gav don't panic it's easy to check, under the battery it should tell you the specs of the mac, let us know so we can tell ya how to pop out the ram and check which or if both DIMMs have bought the farm.

Justa thinkin, did you try boot into AHT? Rather than holding C to try both from the CD, hold the option (alt) key, it should bring up the install disc, your HD and something called apple hardware test (if it's the original CD that came with the laptop), see if you can run that.


N

gav240

yes i tried holding down the option key at boot up it shows the harddrive and the mac disk. either one i select i get the same restart your computer screen.


i also looked at the DIMMs. they both look fine but i took one out at a time to see if it would start with either one but it didn't.

Should the hardware test tell me if there's something wrong with the hardware.

muggyog

When you say you started in 'safe' (single user) mode and had no joy with fsck option exactly what error did you get?

If you can get hold of another Mac you could put the sick Mac in target mode ( press T key while powering up ) and join the two with a firewire cable. This will allow the hard drive of the sick Mac to appear on the desktop of the other Mac. You can try using disk utility to repair the sick Mac drive and you can also view the log files which might give a clue to the problem.

I have a Mac with similar problems which I am going to try and boot from a USB stick with OS X installed. I will keep you posted on this.

miss hell

that kept happening to someone I know who had just gotten a new macbook. he just had to send it off to be repaired. it happened to me for the first time 2 weeks ago, mines been running fine though.

gav240

but what happened was it a hardware or software problem?

i brought it into the shop and the lady said it was a software problem and said it would cost 50 to fix

i cant find much info online so i dont know

Elessar

Did you run the hardware test? What did it say?

gav240

i ran short and long hardware test it said no problems found

gav240

problem sorted brought back to shop "the mainboard is fried"
3 months outside warranty but apple said they would fix it as a gesture of goodwill saved us €575 phew!!!

thanks for everyones advice