Help! Macbook won't start after attempted hard drive replacement.

nergllak · Apr 1, 2008

I attempted to upgrade the hard drive in my Macbook from 80GB to 250GB with a 250GB WesternDigital Scorpio 2.5 SATA. Once installed I attempted to turn the machine back on by pushing and then holding the power button down. The battery was at full charge and the power supply plugged in. It would not start. Nothing lit up at all. So I removed the 250GB and replaced it with my original 80GB. Still nothing. Anyone have this issue, or any ideas to solve it?

Thanks.

A few specs:
13 inch Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz purchased July 2006
2GB RAM

Fuzzbear · Apr 1, 2008

First guess would be make sure the ribbon cable to the keyboard is fully connected?

nergllak said:
I attempted to upgrade the hard drive in my Macbook from 80GB to 250GB with a 250GB WesternDigital Scorpio 2.5 SATA. Once installed I attempted to turn the machine back on by pushing and then holding the power button down. The battery was at full charge and the power supply plugged in. It would not start. Nothing lit up at all. So I removed the 250GB and replaced it with my original 80GB. Still nothing. Anyone have this issue, or any ideas to solve it?

Thanks.

A few specs:
13 inch Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz purchased July 2006
2GB RAM

nergllak · Apr 1, 2008

Fuzzbear said:
First guess would be make sure the ribbon cable to the keyboard is fully connected?

yep, it is, thanks. Macbooks don't require you to open up the whole computer to swap the hard drive: it is right next to the RAM. But yeah, I checked, and it is connected.

Still need help...

chrmjenkins · Apr 1, 2008

My guess is that you're not seating the HD back into the computer properly. Are you putting your new hard drive in the old cage and making sure you insert it all the way?

This should help:
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/130

Edit: Even without the HD, the computer should still boot and say it can't find an OS as far as I can remember, so refer to the battery comment below.

Fuzzbear · Apr 1, 2008

The only other obvious thing I can think of is to make sure all of the battery contacts are indeed making contact.. I do not believe you can power on a MB without the battery in place, and if for some reason the machine cant tell the battery is there...well it wont power up.

Forgot that the MB's didnt need you to dissasemble the top cover to do a HD swap, I just did it to my MBP over the weekend so I had it on the brain.

EDIT: Also did you try the other things apple recommends? resetting the PRAM? Holding Control+Command and the Power button for 3 seconds...etc etc etc

Other than than yeah make sure the HD is seated all the way...hell for sh$#s and giggles...did you try powering it on without a HD?

nergllak said:
yep, it is, thanks. Macbooks don't require you to open up the whole computer to swap the hard drive: it is right next to the RAM. But yeah, I checked, and it is connected.

Still need help...

nergllak · Apr 1, 2008

chrmjenkins said:
My guess is that you're not seating the HD back into the computer properly. Are you putting your new hard drive in the old cage and making sure you insert it all the way?

yep, done all that, thanks. actually read that page an hour ago looking for an answer to my problem. my friend the computer tech and I even popped the keyboard off after neither drive worked, in order to make sure it was seating properly.

chrmjenkins · Apr 1, 2008

nergllak said:
yep, done all that, thanks. actually read that page an hour ago looking for an answer to my problem. my friend the computer tech and I even popped the keyboard off after neither drive worked, in order to make sure it was seating properly.

This isn't sounding good.

I would leave the keyboard off and attempt to boot. See if the HD spins up, fans go, or if there is any activity at all.

myuserid08 · Apr 1, 2008

Make sure the RAM is seated correctly, you may have knocked the catch when you removed the drive.

nergllak · Apr 1, 2008

Thanks for all your suggestions. My friend tried everything on this page:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303234

already. He tried it with both hard disks but never without a hard disk. He also took the RAM out and put it back in.

When we were putting the new hard drive in initially, we put it in upside-down. That didn't work, of course, and we ended up having to take it apart to put one of the rubber guides on the side of the drive bay back in place. Do you think we could have caused some irreversible damage when we did that?

I could still try these things:
Leave the keyboard off and try to power up
Take the hard drive out and try to power up

Gonna take it in for service tomorrow...

logana · Apr 2, 2008

nergllak said:
When we were putting the new hard drive in initially, we put it in upside-down. That didn't work, of course, and we ended up having to take it apart to put one of the rubber guides on the side of the drive bay back in place. Do you think we could have caused some irreversible damage when we did that?

Hi - I did that the first time too (hard disk upside down) but worked ok when I put it in the right way round.

Which rubber guide did you dislodge - the one next to the optical drive or the one behind the power led ?

The power cable for the hd runs along the top of the optical drive - has it been dislodged or have you crushed the HD connection possibly ?

Other than that take it apart again and check the cables - maybe one is crushed or dislodged.

nergllak · Apr 2, 2008

Update:

I took it in to the Apple store, and they were nice enough to take it to the lab to check if it was a faulty top case. It was, as their tests showed, but I thought I could get a better deal elsewhere (they wanted ~$200 for parts/labor) so I looked, but didn't get a better deal. Turns out on the original Macbook Apple didn't fully cover up all the important exposed components in the battery bay, so a tiny piece of shiny metal (technical terms I know) above the trackpad was exposed. We bent this while pulling the hard drive out, and either that or ESD ruined it. On my new top case this part is covered with a plasticy material... I wonder why... wish I could get some money out of Apple for this for a manufacturing defect. None of you know a way to do that do you?

Well now my computer is up and running again. Thank you all for your thoughtful help. Now to backup my data and get that bigger drive working!

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Help! Macbook won't start after attempted hard drive replacement.

nergllak

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Fuzzbear

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nergllak

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chrmjenkins

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Fuzzbear

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nergllak

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chrmjenkins

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myuserid08

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nergllak

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logana

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nergllak

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