Hi my name is Peter Phillips, My father (Rob Phillips) has been a long time member of this mailing list.
My wife and I use a 2.4 ghz Macbook pro, Late 2007 I think. We are running OSX 10.4 with the latest software updates, I cannot remember the version number. With the standard 2G of RAM it came with. We do a lot of video and sound editing work, using final cut studio 2, work off two external 1TB hard drives one is in a usb enclosure and the other is in a firewire 800 enclosure. We have not changed or upgraded any hardware recently, I had a look at the memory a few months ago. We currently live in China, but my wife is goin on a 3 week trip home to perth in 2 weeks for 3 weeks, and could take the computer to a mac shop there, our apple care plan expire in july. we have been experiencing regular freezes and crashes. Some times I think they may be related to the hard drives, but this is just a hunch, These crashes are more annoying than anything, we just save often, and once we restart, and restart the hard drives it works again for another hour or so. The pressing problem at hand however is that this Monday, upon starting the computer in the morning, it would not boot, and has not since. The symptoms are: press power button, there is some clicks and chirps, (reading the hard drive I think) then the cd drive spins to check for a disk i think (there was none present.) There is no chime, the screen remains black, but the power indicator light is lit. I tried it a few times. with no change, then inserted the tiger install disk to try boot from that, but no luck, the only change is that now the cd spins up and remains spinning. It The only input that seems to work, is to press the power button it starts. or the hold it for 10 secs and it powers down. This morning I started it but did not power it down, and when I looked at it at lunch time it had nearly flattened the battery and it was really hot on the bottom at the back in the middle, (when I believe the processor is) on the weekend we had taken the computer out to several places as we often do, but it is in a soft case, and was in a back pack, and did not suffer and unusual shocks or drops. I have looked online for help, at the apple support page, and tried to Reset the PRAM <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379> and Reset the SMC<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411>, and both do not seem to do anything. Then I found Some information on a forum and tried what was recommended but still no change. I have include the forum address and some of the relevant posts. {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=395417 when i press the power button, the white light comes on and stays on, nothing comes on the screen, all black and i can hear the harddrive boot up. yesterday at work it happened, and when i resstarted my macbook i pressed the option key and pressed the power button and i was able to click on the harddrive to load up snow leopard. and now i cant even get to that screen. i don't know what to do. and i can't afford to have any of the parts replaced and i need all the data that is on the macbook. Quote: Originally Posted by *NedrubWerd* [image: View Post]<http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=9130414#post9130414> Last night my 13" white MacBook unexpectedly shut off and now does the same thing. I turn it on, DVD drive makes a noise (sometimes more than once), I hear the hard drive spin up, no chime, black screen, light on the front is on. It doesn't power off after five seconds, however. Try the ram. Have you changed/upgraded it recently? Try pressing it in more, or removing the new piece completely. Here's something I found on the web for your problem, it might work: 1. Get rid of the PSU. 2. Get rid of the battery. 3. Do the >10 second thing on the Power Button with everything off. 4. Take all the RAM out. (This was what made the difference IMO). 5. Do the >10 second thing with the Power Button again. 6. Have a cup of coffee. 7. Do the >10 second thing with the Power Button again. (I have to wonder if whatever that does takes a lot longer to drain / clear the PMU than Apple thinks.) 8. Stick the RAM back in. 9. Stick the battery in. 10. Connect the power. 11. Blow on your fingers, and fire her up.. et voila: Your Mac is back. Hope that helps some people anyway. Hi all Just a note that I had a RAM module go bad last night. The symptoms were the same as often described. Namely: 1) No startup 2) Status LED comes on, stays lit 3) HDD spins up, spins for a while then stops 4) No screen startup! After trying everything I could find, including pulling all RAM, power and praying , I tried a trick from a user over at "Powerbook Medic". I tried the RAM modules individually. After the first one, same thing. Changed to only have the second one installed and voila, it started up! So the moral of the story is that RAM can still be the issue even if the LED status light is not blinking. }}}}}}}}}}}} I also read somewhere that It could be a problem with the logic board, (I don't know what that is) and that it will need to be looked at by a mac technician. Thank you for your time and help. Regards. Peter Phillips -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]>
