Dead TiBook?

[Demon Hunter]

I need a diagnosis for my dad's 550 TiBook (VGA). The computer won't start up. I hear the processor for a moment, the optical drive, and that's about it. The fans kick on after a minute. The monitor appears to work (it showed a grey-lined screen once), although we couldn't get it to work with an external display.

I suspect the hard drive or logic board, although there was no distinct noise coming from it, except perhaps a high-pitched buzz.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Can you boot from the OSX CD holding down the "C" key on the keyboard?

If you hold down Command Option P R through boot up, can you get it to "bong" again and restart?

 

[Demon Hunter]

Thanks for the quick reply

It will take in the CD but after pressing C doesn't appear to start up. It just spins.

Zapping PRAM didn't work, we also tried the programmer's button (same thing?)

Still no screen. We didn't know how to video mirror though, is it function F6 or something?

 

[California]

Sounds like the hard drive. If you have an external hard drive in a firewire enclosure, try to boot from that. Not a big deal, btw. You can open up the bottom case and put a new hd in yourself, very easy deal. Love those Tibooks.

But if you can't get her to boot off an external firewire hd, it may be, but somehow I doubt, it is the logic board.

if it is the logic board and maybe the harddrive is also dying, Apple will repair and replace it for 300 plus dollars -- giving your dad a new warranty. That might be the way to go. I just did this on a 1ghz Tibook.