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bitt3n

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 14, 2008
6
0
My 2007 Macbook Pro Santa Rosa just developed a problem where it failed to wake from sleep. I power cycled it, and it would not POST. I removed the battery and discharged the capacitors by holding down the power button, but laptop will not POST. The front light on the unit's latch powers on (steady light), there is a noise from the DVD drive as if it's checking for the presence of a disc, and a small amount of hard drive activity, but the display remains off.

It's been sitting on my desk for months. There's been no physical or liquid damage to it. I did notice prior to this that the DVD drive would occasionally check for DVD's for no reason (unit was sleeping, suddenly the DVD drive starts making noise), but I figured that had something to do with installing Mountain Lion about 2 months ago, since that's when I started noticing that issue.

What's the best way for me to diagnose the problem (motherboard, power supply, or something else)? I doubt it's worth getting it repaired by Apple, given the age of the unit, but if I can figure out what's broken I might swap out the offending part.
 
The macbook shouldn't run Mountain Lion, but that may not be the issue.

You say the display is off, might be worth shining a torch or something bright on there, you never know the backlight may have died?
 
The macbook shouldn't run Mountain Lion, but that may not be the issue.

You say the display is off, might be worth shining a torch or something bright on there, you never know the backlight may have died?

that's a good idea. unfortunately it looks like the backlight is not the problem.

according to apple's specs this macbook pro should run mountain lion OK. Other than the DVD drive issue, I was having no problem with it prior to this.
 
that's a good idea. unfortunately it looks like the backlight is not the problem.

according to apple's specs this macbook pro should run mountain lion OK. Other than the DVD drive issue, I was having no problem with it prior to this.

Sorry mate, somehow I overlooked 'pro' in the title and body. Like chrisperro says, it's likely the graphics card.
 
If you had your laptop on mute before you last turned it off it won't chime - as your Mac has the sleep/wake light on, and the DVD is searching for a disc when you turn it on, it is booting.
 
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