Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Broken new blackbook??

T

toby jones

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 21, 2007
55
0
I got my new blackbook yesterday :)

Plugged it into a working plug (battery started charging and indicator light turned amber), but it wouldn't turn on. Unplugged it and took it back to the store. They plugged it in and it turned on fine for them. They put it to sleep and woke it up, everything 100% fine. They put it to sleep for me to take it home (what about conditioning the battery????!). I plugged it back in at home and woke it up and everything seemed fine. Completely charged it then took it off the charge to drain the battery.

Turned it off. Later... Tried to turn it on and it wouldn't turn on. Tried a couple times. Whirred a little first time I tried, but no change to the screen. A while later I heard the fan go. WTF??? Must be on. White light at the front of the computer constantly on. By the morning the battery was fully drained. Plugged it in... Still wouldn't turn on.

My friend plugged it in and turned it on. Whirr - blue screen. Nothing else. Turned it off. Turned it on, fine. Turned it off, fine. Repeated that a couple times and everything seemed fine. Took it back to my room and plugged it in - wouldn't turn on. A while later I notice the fan going...

WTF is wrong with my computer??? Aargh! I'm worried that I might have f'd up conditioning the battery too (since when I'm charging it and I unplug it to move it the battery starts draining because the bloody thing hasn't turned off even though it told me it was!)

:-(
 
Looks like your taking a trip back to the store. I would have them reboot it a couple of times at the bar. To me it looks like you have a bad HDD. Have you tried to reseat the HDD?
 
What is a HDD? How would you reseat that? (Excuse my ignorance).

I checked out a couple mac forums (including this one) looking for answers...

When I initiated shut down on my last computer (not a mac) I could simply close the lid and it would complete shut down with the lid closed. I think... That this one isn't doing / liking that. I think that it shuts down okay in cool places (where there is air con like the mac store) but takes longer to shut down in my room (where it is warmer) because it takes longer for the fans to turn off. Does that sound plausible?

The only thing is that shutting the lid too early seems to put it in this freeze state. I learned how to do a force shutdown (and now know that the little white light on the front of the computer tells me it hasn't shut down yet). If it really is shut down then it seems to start (mostly okay).

Though... Sometimes still not okay. Got a series of beeps before. Beep beep beep... beep beep beep... and so on. Force shut down. Turned it on - beeps same again. Force shut down. Turned it on and it booted up fine.

Took two hours to download the 108mb update for Leopard through wireless... Thought that might help.

The trouble is... That it works okay SOMETIMES. And of course it works just perfect when I take it into the store.

Sigh.
 
HDD is short for hard drive. Reseating involves removing the battery and the metal cover around the edge (instructions under the battery) and then pulling out the drive and putting it back in again.

Oh, and my advice is that it sounds like ram or motherboard issue or something and you should take it back to the store.
 
> HDD is short for hard drive.

Okay, thanks.

> Reseating involves removing the battery and the metal cover around the edge (instructions under the battery) and then pulling out the drive and putting it back in again.

Hmm. That sounds like something I'd rather they do (since I have a store across campus).

> Oh, and my advice is that it sounds like ram or motherboard issue or something and you should take it back to the store.

Yeah. When I took it back after it wouldn't start up for me I figured it might be that the RAM wasn't installed properly (I got an upgrade when I brought it and the guy installed it while I waited - but I don't think he turned the system on to check it). But then it turned on for them okay and slept and woke etc okay.

I was wondering about something being wrong with the logic board. Sigh. If I have anymore problems with turning it off / on I'll take it back to the store tomorrow.

I guess I'm just worried that they will want to take a couple weeks to fix it or something like that :-(

Thanks for the advice.

PS... What does your mac do when you request shut down and close the lid before shut down completes? I'm wondering what it should be doing (seems to be what makes it freeze)
 
If I shut the lid of my Macbook before it's SHUT DOWN, I get freezes and an inability to wake it properly.

if you just want to sleep it, don't do anything, just shut the lid. If you want to SHUT DOWN, wait for it to shut down before closing the lid.
 
> If I shut the lid of my Macbook before it's SHUT DOWN, I get freezes and an inability to wake it properly.

Hmm. Okay, well since you have said that (and unless anyone posts anything to the contrary) I shall assume that that is just one of those mac things. And... I shan't do that anymore.

To tell you the truth - it was completely inadvertent. I didn't know that it could take up to 10 seconds for shut-down to complete when fans etc are running even though the screen is blank and it looks shut down. Not in the mac shop with its air con to be sure, but in my hot room... Got it sussed now with the little light on the front indicating that the system is still on...

Trouble is that more often than not I'm getting

beep-beep... beep, beep, beep... beep, beep, beep... etc

Or a completely blank screen when I try and start it up.

Back to the store tomorrow.

(I really am trying to be careful with this thing, too. And... I don't think I'm particularly stoopid - though I have never owned a Mac before...)

:-(
 
Maybe the freezing (if I was right about my shutting the lid too quickly) messed up the PRAM settings and / or I need to reset the SMC or something...

I think I'll just take it back.

I hope it wasn't my fault :-(

If you have to be careful about waiting until the light in the front goes off (even when the screen is blank and the fan sounds stopped) before closing the lid... Then they should say so.
 
Problem Fixed

One of the memory sticks was faulty.
They replaced memory stick and it now seems to be working fine.

:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back