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Dropped old 2009 Macbook Pro. Can you guess the damage?

N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,132
1,155
Wouldn't you know it. The day the new Macbooks
are announced I dropped my 2009 17" Macbook Pro
on the hard floor at work. Slid right off the desk...
..and wham!

I was going to buy a new Macbook in any event, but
not necessarily this week, which I just ended up doing.

So, here is what is happening with the Macbook that
was dropped...

Initially, it would not boot up at all. However, through
persistant power "ons" I can get it to boot up.

It boots up, but slowly. It can take 8 minutes for it
to boot to the password screen.

Everything loads. Sometimes, however, I will be in the
middle of a task and everything freezes up. It either
unfreeze itself in a couple minutes, or, I have to reboot
the computer. Seeing a lot of spinning Mac balls.

Anyone want to venture a guess what damage I did?

Almost seems minor. I suppose I can take it to Apple
to fix it, but with the few hundred they may charge me
I thought it better just to buy a new laptop.

...and please be easy on me. I'm not happy that I had
to drop $3k this week on a new loaded 17" laptop. Was
hoping to wait till the end of the Summer.
 
N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,132
1,155
Hi Neko!

Yeah, I can get the data. I am positive I can
port it all over to the new Macbook using firewire.

Just kind of wondering what damage I did. I am
guessing the hard drive took a nice knock.

The OS is loading, albeit very slowly. Once it
finally boots up, it works quite well though suddenly
the spinning ball will appear and then everything locks
up. As I noted, it will either unfreeze itself or I have
to reboot.

....then there are times it works for a good hour
with no problems.
 
ohla313

ohla313

macrumors 6502a
Apr 24, 2010
778
0
not sure if you did this already but maybe you can open the back and check the SATA connector of your hard drive to see if it is loose? Could just be a hard drive issue.
 
N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,132
1,155
You know what? Gonna cancel my order.

What kind of hard drive does the 17" Unibody
model from 2009 take?

I'll order one ASAP.
 
8

8000rpm

macrumors regular
Jan 14, 2011
107
0
Sorry to hear about the drop. Any external damage?

And yes the advice above is spot on it sounds like a hdd problem. If you can turn a door knob, trust mr you can swap in a hard drive. Since you were looking to buy a whole new machine, upgrade to a nice ssd and you will be drop proof if it happens again too!
 
N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,132
1,155
Thanks to all of you.

Just cancelled my order. Thank God it
did not ship.

I have a torx screwdriver. Found the
guide on iFixit.

Tomorrow I will open up the machine and
press down on the ram to be sure it is in
place as well as make certain the SATA
cable is firmly plugged into the drive.

A new hard drive is less than $120 so I
am much happier to deal with that expense
right now.

External damage? Yeah, a noticeable dent
above the ethernet plug and silver chipped
off the unibody along the top of the screen.

Doesn't make that "bong" sound anymore
when turned on.

Thank God the screen is intact.

I'll update anyone that is interested
tomorrow afternoon.
 
R

ruftytufty

macrumors member
Jan 4, 2005
96
1
Berkeley, CA
I think that no bong essentially means that the firmware is detecting some hardware fault on boot. Surprising that it boots at all, but it's certainly a good sign.

Before opening it up, I'd suggest running Apple Hardware Test: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
and see if that turns up anything.

If not, when you open your MBP, reseat any connector that you can get your hands on (keyboard, optical drive, hard drive), in addition to reseating the memory. Of course, look for any internal physical damage..
 
N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,132
1,155
rufty,

I have to thank you. You saved me $3k.

First, I checked the linked support site and
as instructed, ran the Apple Diagnostic disc
that came with my Macbook. It showed no
hardware issues.

I then opened up my Macbook and removed
the hard drive using a Torx screw.

I took the SATA cable off and firmly placed
it back on. Packed everything back up.

Turned on the Macbook. BONG! I was
amazed that I heard that noise.

The Macbook booted up instantly. It is
working flawlessly.

THANK YOU so much -- and to everyone
else in this thread.
 
N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,132
1,155
Unfortunately the good news was a
false alarm.

Acting up again. Stalls at boot screen.
If I do get it booted up it works, then
screen freezes.

So I am back to plan A of buying another
Macbook as I don't want to take the chance
of just replacing the hard drive and finding
out its something else.
 
P

pricej636

macrumors 6502
Mar 30, 2010
390
1
Florida
NJRonbo said:
Unfortunately the good news was a
false alarm.

Acting up again. Stalls at boot screen.
If I do get it booted up it works, then
screen freezes.

So I am back to plan A of buying another
Macbook as I don't want to take the chance
of just replacing the hard drive and finding
out its something else.
Click to expand...

Still, for $100 you can buy a HD and re-use it in your new macbook if it doesnt work. Did you remove the RAM completely and reseat it? Ive seen quite a few threads of people will boot problems and it ended up it was ram not seated properly, especially after a drop.
 
E

egglybagelface

macrumors newbie
Feb 8, 2011
17
0
yikes, do MBPs really break that easily?

I have a 5 year old Dell XPS M140 that's been dropped a couple of times in its life and I've never had a problem with it. Of course, it's always fallen onto carpeted floor, not tile, wood, or concrete.
 
P

pricej636

macrumors 6502
Mar 30, 2010
390
1
Florida
egglybagelface said:
yikes, do MBPs really break that easily?

I have a 5 year old Dell XPS M140 that's been dropped a couple of times in its life and I've never had a problem with it. Of course, it's always fallen onto carpeted floor, not tile, wood, or concrete.
Click to expand...

Plenty of threads around of dropped machines that worked fine other than some ugly dents.
 
R

ruftytufty

macrumors member
Jan 4, 2005
96
1
Berkeley, CA
I think this >could< be the hard drive, but concluding that the hd is the problem is jumping the gun at this point.

as before, i'd suggest reseating >all< of the connectors that are easily accessible, in addition to reseating the memory.

if that doesn't fix it, then run the extended version of hardware test to see if that turns something up.

finally, run diagnostics on the hard drive: to mostly eliminate possibility of other problems with the dropped MBP, boot it into target mode (if it will), hook it up to another Mac that has Firewire, and run some disk tests on it. e.g. Disk Utility>Repair Disk if that's all you have; some more extensive tests if you have other system test software.
 
N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,132
1,155
rufty,

Thank you so much.

Hard drive ordered. Will have it tomorrow.

In the meantime, right now, the unit has
problems booting up. Takes several attempts
and it is slow.

Eventually, it will boot up and it works perfectly
for an hour or so, then suddenly freezes us.

I am going to attempt to back up all the data
today and then transfer it to the new drive
tomorrow.

Will post an update tomorrow night.
 
Fubar1977

Fubar1977

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2010
885
31
North Yorkshire, UK
Just a thought...
It might be worth taking it into an Apple store just for a diagnosis.
You are not under any obligation to have it repaired there afterwards and you may well get the diagnosis FOC.
 
N

NJRonbo

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 10, 2007
3,132
1,155
Fubar,

That would be a last resort, but good advice.

Interesting Observation....

SuperDuper is copying over contents from
possibly damaged hard drive to an external.

A couple times the screen totally froze up,
but SuperDuper kept transferring.

I was finally able to get the entire drive
transferred over to an external.
 
Last edited:
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