Serious MBP issue: Totally unresponsive.

Mindfulness

Running intel based (early 2008) MBP with OS X 10.5.8 (Combo update installed)

The issue:

Mac was working perfectly last night and placed in sleep mode. This morning it wouldn't come out of sleep mode so the power button was held down to shut it off.

On start up it begins to start but there is no chime. The display does not activate at all and the keyboard is unresponsive (Caps Lock and Num Lock keys do not light up when pressed).

The status indicator light is constantly slightly dimmed, not bright like when the MBP is fully powered and on, not as dim as when it's asleep.

I've tried an SMC reset but that did not work
[turn off, unplug, remove battery, hold start button for 10 seconds, reinsert batter and power cable, turn on]

I installed the Combo update because I wanted to do a target disk mount but when I hold down the 't' key and hit the power button I still get exactly the same problem.

Any suggestions?

How can I get my data off this machine, without resorting to an AppleGenius or shipping my machine to Apple?

Colonel Panic

Remove the HDD and connect it to another computer. You can get SATA -> USB adapters or if you have access to a desktop PC from the past decade, you could just open it and connect the drive directly.

Mindfulness

Thanks Colonel. I don't have a PC but do have access to another MBP. I've never accessed the innards of a laptop before but years ago I often upgradede my PC with RAM and graphics cards etc.

So I guess I'll need SATA to USB cable and go from there. Anything special I should know about removing MBP hard drives? Have Apple made it difficult?

Anyone any other suggestions before I try this?

Losty Dublin

Mindfulness wrote: »

Thanks Colonel. I don't have a PC but do have access to another MBP. I've never accessed the innards of a laptop before but years ago I often upgradede my PC with RAM and graphics cards etc.

So I guess I'll need SATA to USB cable and go from there. Anything special I should know about removing MBP hard drives? Have Apple made it difficult?

Anyone any other suggestions before I try this?

If you have a Time Machine back up, see if you can restore the MBP. Also, try boot up in safe mode so you can at least see if it's dead or not.

Colonel Panic

Mindfulness wrote: »

Thanks Colonel. I don't have a PC but do have access to another MBP. I've never accessed the innards of a laptop before but years ago I often upgradede my PC with RAM and graphics cards etc.

So I guess I'll need SATA to USB cable and go from there. Anything special I should know about removing MBP hard drives? Have Apple made it difficult?

Anyone any other suggestions before I try this?

Is the early 2008 model is a unibody MBP? It should be easy to remove the HDD, but it's probably held in with Torx #6 screws. Have a look on iFixit.com for your model and see if there's any info there.

muggyog

Do you have the original install disks? You could do a hardware check if you boot from these. Can you boot in Single User mode on the MBP?

Mindfulness

Thanks for the replies folks.

I've tried PRAM reset with no joy, booting in safe mode is no use either. The computer will not even boot and the screen and keyboard remain blank. for that reason too my Time Machine backup (46 days old) wont be much use to me, nor will the Apple Hardware test. I have the original Disk but I'm afraid that if I do manage to get it into the machine I may not get it out again as the keyboard is completely unresponsive (I suspect this is why the PRAM, SMC reset, Target Disk mount and Safe Boot all failed).

Next step will be to remove the hard drive (I can get into it no problem) and use the SATA to USB cables to gather the information from the hard drive...assuming that the drive itself is actually okay.

I suspect this is a logic board issue (from reading online). The real pain is that I can't afford to replace this MBP and am now going to have to get a sub 350 euro Windows laptop (blurgh!).

If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.

Losty Dublin

Mindfulness wrote: »

Thanks for the replies folks.

I've tried PRAM reset with no joy, booting in safe mode is no use either. The computer will not even boot and the screen and keyboard remain blank. for that reason too my Time Machine backup (46 days old) wont be much use to me, nor will the Apple Hardware test. I have the original Disk but I'm afraid that if I do manage to get it into the machine I may not get it out again as the keyboard is completely unresponsive (I suspect this is why the PRAM, SMC reset, Target Disk mount and Safe Boot all failed).

Next step will be to remove the hard drive (I can get into it no problem) and use the SATA to USB cables to gather the information from the hard drive...assuming that the drive itself is actually okay.

I suspect this is a logic board issue (from reading online). The real pain is that I can't afford to replace this MBP and am now going to have to get a sub 350 euro Windows laptop (blurgh!).

If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.

Try and use the second Mac to run the hardware test and see if the HD shows up before you do any removing. You are probably looking at a logic failure but give it one more go before the HD comes out.

Where about's are you living, OP?

muggyog

The OP has indicated that it won't start up in Target mode so the second Mac is no good.

This is a real long shot but have you tried an external USB keyboard?

Losty Dublin

muggyog wrote: »

The OP has indicated that it won't start up in Target mode so the second Mac is no good.

This is a real long shot but have you tried an external USB keyboard?

I had seen that he attempted a data mount, Muggyog, but I was referring about using it to try a hardware test. It is worth a go for the sake of 2 monre minutes.