dead mac? OS reinstall?

rjk

rjk

rjk

Caporegime
Joined
8 Aug 2007
Posts
25,380
Hi guys,

I am openly going to admit, I cant use macs and i need some help.
Mrs rjk has got herself into a spot of bother with her beloved white slab and she needs some help.
I am pretty much in a position where i am here asking for advice or a troubleshooting list off someone with mac tech experience.

these are the facts:
  • she doesnt know the model name
  • its a macbook
  • it froze up burning a CD-R
  • she pressed eject and it spat the disk out
  • she clicked on a few things to try and close it and nothing happened.
  • she held down the power button
  • it turns on and shows this on the screen
    IMG_0353.jpg
  • the OS is Leopard

anyone able to give me a starting point?
 
Recently had an MBP freeze and give that screen after power off. Took it to Apple Genius at Trafford Centre and even though I had no Applecare they fixed it (for FREE). It was the hard drive data cable that was knackered. New cable and it's back working again.
 
right, after looking at it myself I have a slightly better understanding of how things are working.

the system starts up as normal and goes straight to the startup screen.
it pauses for a few seconds then the progress wheel [in the pic] appears and stays there until you turn the mac off

i inserted the OS disc and started the computer up again, booted into the OS installation environment, select language then went to disk utilities.

selected the HDD and ran the two options it had [verify and then repair iirc]

it ran these two commands and stated that everything was functional at the end of both tasks.

after restarting the computer it still displays the same screen.

so I tried an SMC reset as suggested by Brian8bit in post #2
removed battery and power adapter
held down the computers power button for around 20 seconds and then replaced the battery.
same result.

if i start the computer up holding down the ?command key? [unsure as to its name but it gives you the HDD on the screen to click on as a boot preference] then it is selectable but still returns to the hanging once the apple logo appears.

I cant imagine it to be a hardware issue, the HDD is detected and functional. all of the memory is working correctly and the computer boots into the installation environment.
but I am at a loss now.

trip to the apple store?
 
First try booting into safe mode if it works restart boot normally failing that reset the PRAM & NVRAM.

Safe Mode:
1.) Press the power button.
2.) Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
3.) Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).

PRAM & NVRAM:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
 
rjkoneill said:
right, after looking at it myself I have a slightly better understanding of how things are working.

the system starts up as normal and goes straight to the startup screen.
it pauses for a few seconds then the progress wheel [in the pic] appears and stays there until you turn the mac off

i inserted the OS disc and started the computer up again, booted into the OS installation environment, select language then went to disk utilities.

selected the HDD and ran the two options it had [verify and then repair iirc]

it ran these two commands and stated that everything was functional at the end of both tasks.

after restarting the computer it still displays the same screen.

so I tried an SMC reset as suggested by Brian8bit in post #2
removed battery and power adapter
held down the computers power button for around 20 seconds and then replaced the battery.
same result.

if i start the computer up holding down the ?command key? [unsure as to its name but it gives you the HDD on the screen to click on as a boot preference] then it is selectable but still returns to the hanging once the apple logo appears.

I cant imagine it to be a hardware issue, the HDD is detected and functional. all of the memory is working correctly and the computer boots into the installation environment.
but I am at a loss now.

trip to the apple store?
Click to expand...

Same symptoms as mine, as I posted above. Faulty hard drive cable. I didn't have Applecare and my Mac is 2 years old. Spinning wheel but nothing happens. Could be faulty hard drive or hard drive cable.

The way they test it is .. they get an external enclosure and boot from USB into OSX. If it boots - then all the logic boards are fine .. and it's either the hard drive or cable that are gone.
 
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