My Macbook wont turn on...

[Quenepas]

Yes. After 5 years it has finally kicked the bucket. It made sense to ask here since most people have Macbooks that have taken quite a beating just like mine.

It was functioning perfectly until I had it in my bag for about a week. Then I took it out and no dice. It would show a dimly lit green light in the magsafe. Then I exchanged the battery (old black for another white) and it would charge up the battery but the Macbook still wouldnt turn on with or without magsafe. I have tried the following:

Turning it on without battery - magsafe light show full green but it wont turn on
Did the SMC reset - nothing (10 seconds holding the power button)
Took out the ram and tried to turn it on - nothing (Does it make any sound turning it on without RAM?)

So far I have read the problem is the logic board and that is quite expensive. Anyone here has had the same issue or know any other trick?

Another thing is that I may be obliged to get another Mac but I want to migrate the busted one to the new one. Obviously the problem is that it wont turn on so doing a time machine is out of the question. Can I simply put the hdd on an external enclosure and OSX will work its magic?

Sad, sad day indeed...

[guiltyblade]

If its not on a time machine it maybe a little bit harder. If you put it on a external and run it off another mac I think you maybe able to boot off that harddrive (Hold the option key).

you can also migrate from a harddrive I believe. It should be an option if you start from a boot cd.

Another option is to just swap the harddrive into another mac and set up the time machine preferences, then back up on a separate external.

Sounds to me like a bad logic board, which is like 200 or more to fix. I had it happen as well to two macs. Have you checked the harddrive? Is it working? I would also make sure your hardrive isn't fried.

[fullenglishpint]

Might be a job for the genius bar.

[fullenglishpint]

yeh as guiltyblade said, you can take the HDD out and put it in a caddy or load it into a new machine to time machine it.

[JesC]

i would try putting in a pair of OG apple ram, 2. try to boot from the cd, 3. boot from firewire. if not mail it to me and ill resurect it.

[Quenepas]

i would try putting in a pair of OG apple ram, 2. try to boot from the cd, 3. boot from firewire. if not mail it to me and ill resurect it.

Thx for the offer


I took it apart and seems like, at least visually, there is a blown fuse on the logic board itself. Regulary, I would buy the same LB off Ebay on auctions described as for parts/non functioning/"as-is" and desolder the needed component to be installed on the original motherboard, but, there could be some other damaged component that could not be seen by the naked eye.

This fix is relatively cheap since a non functioning logic board sell for around $15 while a working one cost around $325. The same Macbook sells for around $450.

So the happy medium I went for was this guy:

http://youtu.be/px0ESbAjFtY

Allegedly, if he cant fix it he return the laptop plus full refund. I sent in the laptop yesterday. Lets see what happens...

[JesC]

Thx for the offer


I took it apart and seems like, at least visually, there is a blown fuse on the logic board itself. Regulary, I would buy the same LB off Ebay on auctions described as for parts/non functioning/"as-is" and desolder the needed component to be installed on the original motherboard, but, there could be some other damaged component that could not be seen by the naked eye.

This fix is relatively cheap since a non functioning logic board sell for around $15 while a working one cost around $325. The same Macbook sells for around $450.

So the happy medium I went for was this guy:

http://youtu.be/px0ESbAjFtY

Allegedly, if he cant fix it he return the laptop plus full refund. I sent in the laptop yesterday. Lets see what happens...

also if you have apple store in you area or call apple care...you can take it in even if its out of warranty and they will swap out the logic board for $330.00

[Quenepas]

No apple store in my area. Just "authorized resellers"