Author Topic: Dead macbook (Read 2912 times)

gejam · « **on:** November 21, 2010, 04:25 »

My mac all of a sudden wouldnt turn on yesterday.
It starts up with sounds but with a black screen for 3 seconds and the it turns off.
It's not a battery issue. I'm f**cked! Any suggestions?

Jack Schiffer · « **Reply #1 on:** November 21, 2010, 07:13 »

Sounds like a screen back light or graphics card

jbarber873 · « **Reply #2 on:** November 21, 2010, 08:36 »

Are you sure it's not the battery? Take the battery out and try to start with power adapter only. Note what the sounds are that you hear- are they the regular sounds? Do your hear the hard drive starting up? What model of macbook? Don't give up!

FD · « **Reply #3 on:** November 21, 2010, 08:50 »

Quote from: jbarber873 on November 21, 2010, 08:36

Don't give up!

Or just go to a local repair shop. That's what I do. What does this have to do with photography or microstock? If the guy can't handle his grief over a simple hardware malfunction, why doesn't he join a whining & support group to share the grief?

cclapper · « **Reply #4 on:** November 21, 2010, 09:53 »

Have you have tried resetting the pram, and all the usual troubleshooting things? Do you think your OS got corrupted somehow? If not then...

I just had the same thing happen with my MacBook Pro. It would turn on, the light would come on, I could hear the hard drive spin up, but black screen. It was a dead logic board. No warning signs, worked great in the morning, came home, tried to turn it on, and bam.

Take it to an Apple Store. They will send it out to a depot and charge you a flat rate of $300, no matter what they have to replace. They told me it would take 3-4 days, but it ended up taking only 2. If you are not in the US and don't have an Apple Store nearby, you may be able to send it somewhere. If you can't do any of those, you truly are hosed.

cclapper · « **Reply #5 on:** November 21, 2010, 09:55 »

Quote from: FD-regular on November 21, 2010, 08:50

Quote from: jbarber873 on November 21, 2010, 08:36
Don't give up!
Or just go to a local repair shop. That's what I do. What does this have to do with photography or microstock? If the guy can't handle his grief over a simple hardware malfunction, why doesn't he join a whining & support group to share the grief?

Maybe he does his post-processing of his photos on his MacBook. Wow, you sound as grumpy as I do!

molka · « **Reply #6 on:** November 21, 2010, 12:23 »

I thought macs never crash : )

jbarber873 · « **Reply #7 on:** November 21, 2010, 20:44 »

this from my computer nerd son-
It's also possible that the ram has come loose. The ram is under the battery in a little space with screws to open. Take the ram out and re-seat it. Detailed instructions are available at the apple support site. If it's not that , you may need a new logic board. You can possibly find one used on ebay.

oxman · « **Reply #8 on:** November 22, 2010, 00:02 »

Quote from: FD-regular on November 21, 2010, 08:50

Quote from: jbarber873 on November 21, 2010, 08:36
Don't give up!
Or just go to a local repair shop. That's what I do. What does this have to do with photography or microstock? If the guy can't handle his grief over a simple hardware malfunction, why doesn't he join a whining & support group to share the grief?

Why do you have to bust the guy's chops with your f-ed attitude? He is stressed and a probably been Googling for hours to find an answer and decided to try here out of desperation only to have some smart azz take shots at him. What is wrong with you. No, really.

gejam · « **Reply #9 on:** November 22, 2010, 06:14 »

Thanks guys,
Yes I do everything on my Macbook, all the post work, uploading etc. and I have been stupid enough not to do regular backups, so I might have to beg Shutterstock to let me download my portfolio, if my HD can't be rescued although I think you're right with the logic board thing. I booked an appointment with the Apple store in London today.

Stuff like this makes you realise how dependent we are on a few people who know how computers work.
I have asked around and have been told stories of costs up to 600 pounds for a repair, but I'll try to stay calm
and let the genius apple guys tell me what has to be done..

CClapper: The symptoms you are describing fits perfectly with my laptop situation..

Thanks for your support

cclapper · « **Reply #10 on:** November 22, 2010, 07:23 »

At the Apple Store here, they plugged mine in and determined that it likely was the logic board and offered to backup my data, just in case something happened in the switchout, for $100. I felt that extra $ was a total ripoff, but then again, I too had not backed up for a few weeks so paid the price just for piece of mind. Of course, nothing happened in the logic board switchout and then I really felt like I got ripped off. This is the first time I have EVER sent an Apple product back for repair since the late 80s when I started buying Macs, so I took a deep breath and considered that I was having a great batting average.

jbarber873 · « **Reply #11 on:** November 22, 2010, 09:03 »

Quote from: cclapper on November 22, 2010, 07:23

At the Apple Store here, they plugged mine in and determined that it likely was the logic board and offered to backup my data, just in case something happened in the switchout, for $100. I felt that extra $ was a total ripoff, but then again, I too had not backed up for a few weeks so paid the price just for piece of mind. Of course, nothing happened in the logic board switchout and then I really felt like I got ripped off. This is the first time I have EVER sent an Apple product back for repair since the late 80s when I started buying Macs, so I took a deep breath and considered that I was having a great batting average.

From my experience, Apple products break just as often as PC's. I always get applecare, even though it is a ripoff in itself considering the high price of the hardware. Even with applecare, you have to battle the local "genius" who will try to say the problem is with something the user did. If apple gives you a hard time about it, don't back down. Ask to see a manager. They have a lot of leeway. I had a white plastic macbook that got returned for so many repairs that they gave me a brand new titanium model. If you know someone who is familiar with mac products, it's pretty easy to swap out a logic board. Be very specific about how much you want to spend, and look up the price of used laptops of the same model on ebay before you send it out for repair, because it can be cheaper to but a used one and switch the hard drive over ( very easy procedure).

leaf · « **Reply #12 on:** November 22, 2010, 09:57 »

Quote from: oxman on November 22, 2010, 00:02

Quote from: FD-regular on November 21, 2010, 08:50
Quote from: jbarber873 on November 21, 2010, 08:36
Don't give up!
Or just go to a local repair shop. That's what I do. What does this have to do with photography or microstock? If the guy can't handle his grief over a simple hardware malfunction, why doesn't he join a whining & support group to share the grief?

Why do you have to bust the guy's chops with your f-ed attitude? He is stressed and a probably been Googling for hours to find an answer and decided to try here out of desperation only to have some smart azz take shots at him. What is wrong with you. No, really.

Agreed. There is a computer area in the forum for a reason.

gejam · « **Reply #13 on:** November 22, 2010, 13:49 »

Sorry if I posted it in the wrong category.

Ive had some great news today. Even though my macbook is 2 1/2 years old it is going to be fixed free of charge due to a known failure in the hardware of my macbook. I just saved 350 pounds - thanks guys :-)

bittersweet · « **Reply #14 on:** November 22, 2010, 15:29 »

Quote from: gejam on November 22, 2010, 13:49

Sorry if I posted it in the wrong category.

Ive had some great news today. Even though my macbook is 2 1/2 years old it is going to be fixed free of charge due to a known failure in the hardware of my macbook. I just saved 350 pounds - thanks guys :-)

That's great news! And more in line with my experiences with Apple.

Zeus · « **Reply #15 on:** November 22, 2010, 15:45 »

Quote from: gejam on November 22, 2010, 13:49

to be fixed free of charge

This happens a lot with PCs too

cclapper · « **Reply #16 on:** November 22, 2010, 17:34 »

Quote from: gejam on November 22, 2010, 13:49

Sorry if I posted it in the wrong category.

People do that sometimes. Usually Leaf just moves it to the right spot.

Quote

Ive had some great news today. Even though my macbook is 2 1/2 years old it is going to be fixed free of charge due to a known failure in the hardware of my macbook. I just saved 350 pounds - thanks guys :-)

That is great news. I would be interested in hearing about the known failure of the hardware. Can you be specific about what exactly failed and what they are going to fix? Is your laptop just a Macbook or a MacBook Pro? sounds like it is about the same age as mine.

leaf · « **Reply #17 on:** November 22, 2010, 18:44 »

Quote from: gejam on November 22, 2010, 13:49

Sorry if I posted it in the wrong category.

Ive had some great news today. Even though my macbook is 2 1/2 years old it is going to be fixed free of charge due to a known failure in the hardware of my macbook. I just saved 350 pounds - thanks guys :-)

no worries, i moved your thread to the correct spot. Perhaps my point came across wrong. I was trying to agree with oxman saying that a post like your belongs on MSG.

gejam · « **Reply #18 on:** November 23, 2010, 09:32 »

The problem was apparently very quickly identified as being a fault with the hardware - even after 2 1/2 years - more specifically the Nvidia video card (if there is such a thing). Apparently it happens quite a lot with my specific kind of 17" Macbook Pro from that time period. Luckily I live close to an Apple Store, so it didn't take long to drop my laptop off.
So if any of you experience the same symptoms you might be eligible for a free repair :-)

disorderly · « **Reply #19 on:** November 23, 2010, 14:47 »

Apple's been very good about acknowledging hardware problems. A while back I read a report about hard drive failures in old MacBooks; apparently they started dying left and right after two years or so. And so mine did; it got slow, then very slow, then refused to boot. Took it to the Apple Store and they agreed that it was one of the affected drives. 24 hours later I had it back with a new, larger drive. And 24 hours after that I had its contents restored from a backup.

Which brings me to my point: Time Machine is your friend! Get a cheap external drive, plug it in and set up Time Machine. It's now saved me twice from hard drive failures, and let me recover old deleted files a dozen times more. It's easy, and you'll be glad you did.

cclapper · « **Reply #20 on:** November 23, 2010, 18:57 »

Quote from: disorderly on November 23, 2010, 14:47

Apple's been very good about acknowledging hardware problems. A while back I read a report about hard drive failures in old MacBooks; apparently they started dying left and right after two years or so. And so mine did; it got slow, then very slow, then refused to boot. Took it to the Apple Store and they agreed that it was one of the affected drives. 24 hours later I had it back with a new, larger drive. And 24 hours after that I had its contents restored from a backup.

Which brings me to my point: Time Machine is your friend! Get a cheap external drive, plug it in and set up Time Machine. It's now saved me twice from hard drive failures, and let me recover old deleted files a dozen times more. It's easy, and you'll be glad you did.

Amen to backups. I learned my lesson on that one. But I'm not impressed with Time Machine. It just isn't customizable enough for my taste. I have other software backing up to two different external hard drives though.

I agree about Apple and hardware problems. I continue to be pleased with them.