Macbook won't turn on all the way

[revilo324]

I have a used silver Macbook Pro, possibly from 2010 it's got the silver keys.

Yesterday evening I was using it and then shut the lid and went away to go eat dinner. About an hour later when I returned to it and opened the lid the screen would not turn on, however I could hear that it was on and the white light at the front was blinking. I held down the power button to shut it down, removed the battery and let it sit for a few then turned it back on, the screen didn't turn on, but the white blinking light and fan did.

I tried reseting the smc and the pram just to see if anything would happen and nothing did, which led me to believe that the problem might actually not be with the screen, but the hardware of the macbook. I also hooked it up to a monitor to test if it was just my screen that had the issues but the monitor had a "no signal" message.

What should I try next? I really don't want to take it to apple if it's going to be super costly, I know it's way out of warranty.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

You mentioned the blinking sleep light. Is it blinking in any pattern? Is there also an audible beep - short, long, or pattern?

C

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Also try starting in safe mode
1) Make sure your sure Mac is shut down
2) Press the power button
3) Once you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone
4) Let go of the Shift key as soon you see the grey Apple logo and the progress indicator

After the logo appears, you should see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.

If you can get to safe mode do the following, IE can see the desktop.

1. From the Apple () menu, choose system preferences.
2. Choose displays from the view menu to open the preferences pane.
3. Select any resolution and refresh rate that your display supports.
4. Then restart your computer.

 

[revilo324]

Hello and welcome.

You mentioned the blinking sleep light. Is it blinking in any pattern? Is there also an audible beep - short, long, or pattern?

C

Hi, and thank you for the welcome. Now when it's "on" and the lid is shut the white light shines with no blinks which is irregular since it would usually fade in and out. When I have the lid open, the light is on but dimmed. There are no beeps or start up sounds, the only sound it make is the one that you hear when it you usually take it out of sleep or load a cd.

Hi,

Also try starting in safe mode
1) Make sure your sure Mac is shut down
2) Press the power button
3) Once you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone
4) Let go of the Shift key as soon you see the grey Apple logo and the progress indicator

After the logo appears, you should see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.

If you can get to safe mode do the following, IE can see the desktop.

1. From the Apple () menu, choose system preferences.
2. Choose displays from the view menu to open the preferences pane.
3. Select any resolution and refresh rate that your display supports.
4. Then restart your computer.

The start up tone never happens, but I tried it anyway. The screen won't turn on so I can't see if the logo is displaying or not

 

[Cory Cooper]

It's starting to sound like a logic board issue. If it has silver keys, then the latest it could be is from 2008. Unfortunately, all models of the non-unibody MacBook Pros are vintage, which means that cannot be repaired by Apple. There are some third-party Apple Authorized Service Providers that still offer repairs for this model with refurbished and/or new parts.

You could try removing one stick of RAM to see if it may startup. It probably won't work, since you are not getting a startup chime.

C

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

I would do as Cory suggested as the low brightness and non blinking power light sounds to me like a Ram issue ( possibly failing).

 

[revilo324]

Thanks for all the advice and sorry for the late reply, access to a computer is limited now. So I removed both sticks of ram and re inserted them but nothing happened. If it is the ram however, would replacing them with new ones theoretically fix the problem?

 

[Cory Cooper]

If it beeps three times and the light flashes three times, then replacing the RAM might work. If it is a steady light, no beeps, and no startup chime, then no, it's the logic board.

C