broken graphics card . . . use targe disk mode?

[laumeikiang]

so my friend's graphics card appears to be shot, broken, out of commission. but when you hit the restart button, you can hear the start up sound and when the computer is "on" you can hear the volume go up and down. so it would appear that her hard drive is still in tact. her apple care is out and she doesn't want to pay the 900 dollars it would take to fix her graphics card. but she still wants to get all her info off of her computer, so i proposed to turn her computer into a target disk. but it doesn't appear to be working, her hard drive doesn't show up on my computer. the cable is fine, because it works with my external hard drive. so i'm stumped as to what to do, or if the broken graphics card means that we can't use target disk. any thoughts?

 

[Cave Man]

If this is an 8600 gpu MacBook Pro it may be a covered item.

Pull the drive and put it in an external enclosure to access the files.

 

[laumeikiang]

I wonder if your graphics card is broken, you should not see anything in the display though the computer is working.

the screen is completely black. you don't see anything, but if you press the volume button you can hear the sound getting louder/softer. it's really unfortunate.

 

[laumeikiang]

If this is an 8600 gpu MacBook Pro it may be a covered item.

Pull the drive and put it in an external enclosure to access the files.

i thought the same things. but apple won't cover it, which is weird because it was recalled. maybe it was just the person she talked to? also i know that you can pull the HD, but i've never done it. is apple likely to do this for her? or is it simple enough for the average person to do?

 

[squeakr]

Have you tried an external monitor? When I was at the Genius bar a year ago someone brought their MB in with this issue and it was the panel. With an external monitor attached, it showed up fine.

 

[Cave Man]

i thought the same things. but apple won't cover it, which is weird because it was recalled. maybe it was just the person she talked to? also i know that you can pull the HD, but i've never done it. is apple likely to do this for her? or is it simple enough for the average person to do?

Do you know its model identifier? You can see videos on the Other World Computing web site that shows how to remove the drive. But you have to know which model it is.

I'd push it if it's an 8600 gpu MBP. Call Apple again and tell them you think you have one of the 8600 MBP and its graphics card has failed. It may not work, but it's worth a try because she'd likely get a current MBP if they replace it.

Have you tried an external monitor? When I was at the Genius bar a year ago someone brought their MB in with this issue and it was the panel. With an external monitor attached, it showed up fine.

I suppose that's worth a try, but if it won't boot in Target Disk Mode, then I doubt it will boot OS X.

 

[ViciousShadow21]

i think your best bet is to do what Cave Man said. put it in an external inclosure and see if you can access the files that way.

 

[squeakr]

I suppose that's worth a try, but if it won't boot in Target Disk Mode, then I doubt it will boot OS X.

He said he could here he start up chime and when it was on they could raise and lower the volume (so to me it sounded like it was booted at that time, just not displaying anything, hence my suggestion. Apple has a program they can run to determine if it is the Nvidia fiasco, as long as it will power on and start up they can run it from my understanding.