Dead MBP - Urgent Help Retrieving Data

[digitalpencil]

Hi Guys,

My poor lil MBP appears to have died and is either refusing to wake, or the graphics are screwed.. I was using this evening, closed it, re-opened and it and now the screen won't come up.

Things i have attempted thus far:
1) Power it off, remove battery, reinsert and boot. MBP then boots, chimes but the screen never powers up (sleep light was staying on (but not pulsating) and is now off) volume keys work and the ambient light sensors were dimming the sleep light when it stayed on.

2) Connecting an external monitor which finds no signal.

3) Resetting PRAM/NVRAM.

I'm thinking the graphics card must be fried as it isn't sending out a signal through DVI. I think i'm still covered with Apple Care but the big deal is getting my work!

I have adverts for 50 Cent that need to go out tomorrow and i need this machine for work, everything's on it!

I don't have a FW400 cable here at home but if i connect it to another mac via target-disk mode, should i still be able to retrieve my data tomorrow? How's the best way to go about this?!

Are there any ways of determining whether or not it's the 8600M GT that's fried?

Thanks,

Dave.

 

[phooi]

It would help if you can tell everyone what MBP you are using. By your reference to the 8600, I am assuming you have a MBP with the 8600M GT card.

Sounds like a dead 8600 card. Did you try to reboot the machine? Can you here any sounds (ie., when you press the volume) but have no picture (either on screen or through an external monitor)? If so, it is most likely the video and not anything else.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to extract the data from the computer especially if you can't see anything. Never tried the "target disk" you suggested but I would try anything. I would contact an Apple store or equivalent to see if they can't get your data off the drive.

Good luck!

 

[vant]

If it is super extreme, buy another MBP and attach your HD to it.

 

[monoxera]

I highly suggest you look at this thread - https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8684940

Contains about 30 other users about the SAME exact thing

 

[rolex54]

if you want to get the data off the drive you will need another MBP and install your old hard drive in it
otherwise you can use something like this. Take the hard drive out of your dead MBP and hook it up to this and another mac and you should be able to see all the files

if its just the graphics then target disk mode should work with the keyboard command

 

[KingYaba]

Do you have a torx t6 and a p0 philips? Head off to your local computer store and buy a $20 USB 2.5" SATA enclosure and take apart your machine. Should be $25 and about five minutes of your time to get the HD out.

 

[AaronX]

The 50 cent?
If your HDD is SATA, you don't even need to buy a case if you have a desktop. You can just plug it into a SATA port on your desktop. You need to open both your laptop and desktop, and maybe buy a SATA cable though (or use your CD drive's). I think removing the HDD on some MBPs is really hard though.

 

[HBeagley]

Target Disk Mode on a Dead MBP (No Screen)

just get firewire 400 cable attach to dead MBP get a different Mac example a iMac with a firewire 400 port on, attach one end to the MBP then the other to the (example iMac) boot MBP while holding the "T" key and the MBP HD should apperar on the desktop on the other Mac.

If you are using a recent mac that has a Firewire 800 port you will have to get a Firewire cable that has Firewire 400 on one end and Firewire 800 on the other end.

if that fails pull the MBP's HD out and put it in a external HD enclosure or put it in a different mac and hope for the best.

HBeagley