Early 2008 MacBook Pro boots to black screen.

[unoplayer]

I left my laptop on in my room while I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, I saw the message that told me I must restart the computer. The message froze the computer, so I shut it off by holding the power button and tried to turn it back on again, but it only boots to a black screen. I don't hear the loud hard drive noise, but I hear the fans. Without AC power but with the charged battery, the computer shuts down after a few seconds. The light on the button that opens the lid is dim-to-none when the lid is open and bright when the lid is closed.

I tried many troubleshooting methods discussed on this site, like removing and reseating the RAM and draining the battery, along with the things that the Apple website suggested, like resetting the SMC and PRAM, but nothing works.

I brought the computer into an Apple Store, and after the NVIDIA test was negative, the technician told me that the problem is most likely the logic board. I also took the computer into an Apple Authorized Service Provider, and the technician there said it could be the logic board, hard drive, or boot connector. He also said that there is a very slight chance that the graphics card could have caused the logic board to fail. He tried my computer with another battery and concluded that it's not the battery's fault.

The Apple Store is charging me about $330 for a flat-rate repair. Should I troubleshoot further using suggestions you may have or pay Apple for repairs? If I decide to have Apple repair my laptop, do I need to take it back into the store to pay the repair charges, or can I do it over the phone and mail the computer to Apple?

Thanks for your help.

 

[zeiter]

I left my laptop on in my room while I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, I saw the message that told me I must restart the computer. The message froze the computer, so I shut it off by holding the power button and tried to turn it back on again, but it only boots to a black screen. I don't hear the loud hard drive noise, but I hear the fans. Without AC power but with the charged battery, the computer shuts down after a few seconds. The light on the button that opens the lid is dim-to-none when the lid is open and bright when the lid is closed.

I tried many troubleshooting methods discussed on this site, like removing and reseating the RAM and draining the battery, along with the things that the Apple website suggested, like resetting the SMC and PRAM, but nothing works.

I brought the computer into an Apple Store, and after the NVIDIA test was negative, the technician told me that the problem is most likely the logic board. I also took the computer into an Apple Authorized Service Provider, and the technician there said it could be the logic board, hard drive, or boot connector. He also said that there is a very slight chance that the graphics card could have caused the logic board to fail. He tried my computer with another battery and concluded that it's not the battery's fault.

The Apple Store is charging me about $330 for a flat-rate repair. Should I troubleshoot further using suggestions you may have or pay Apple for repairs? If I decide to have Apple repair my laptop, do I need to take it back into the store to pay the repair charges, or can I do it over the phone and mail the computer to Apple?

Thanks for your help.

If I had to put $300 or more on a 2008 machine, I'd just use this money and buy a newer one...

 

[Heilage]

This sounds just like the well-known Nvidia-issue. Apple should cover the whole repair on this.

 

[DJ-R]

wait is that Macbook 2008 with 8600M GT card?

if so, there is a pending lawsuit with NVIDIA for recalling on all laptop between certain years with 8600M GT card. Well not recalling but allow customer to claim.

edited:


I just check the spec MBP 2008. It is indeed a 8600M GT. In any case your GPU might just died on the spot while you were away by chance. When they told you about Logicboard need to be replaced. It is because the GPU is soled in with the LogicBoard (motherboard). They will need to replace the whole component.

You should not get charge by this. This is NVIDIA responsibility of selling defective / dying GPU to consumers.

 

[unoplayer]

How do I get Apple not to charge me for repairs since the NVIDIA test failed? And when they fix my computer, do they erase all the data on there? I haven't backed up mine.

 

[lauph]

If you won't have a sense of guilt, then go ahead and claim that the display was corrupted when it happened and died.

 

[bildungsroman]

I left my laptop on in my room while I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, I saw the message that told me I must restart the computer. The message froze the computer, so I shut it off by holding the power button and tried to turn it back on again, but it only boots to a black screen. I don't hear the loud hard drive noise, but I hear the fans. Without AC power but with the charged battery, the computer shuts down after a few seconds. The light on the button that opens the lid is dim-to-none when the lid is open and bright when the lid is closed.

I tried many troubleshooting methods discussed on this site, like removing and reseating the RAM and draining the battery, along with the things that the Apple website suggested, like resetting the SMC and PRAM, but nothing works.

I brought the computer into an Apple Store, and after the NVIDIA test was negative, the technician told me that the problem is most likely the logic board. I also took the computer into an Apple Authorized Service Provider, and the technician there said it could be the logic board, hard drive, or boot connector. He also said that there is a very slight chance that the graphics card could have caused the logic board to fail. He tried my computer with another battery and concluded that it's not the battery's fault.

The Apple Store is charging me about $330 for a flat-rate repair. Should I troubleshoot further using suggestions you may have or pay Apple for repairs? If I decide to have Apple repair my laptop, do I need to take it back into the store to pay the repair charges, or can I do it over the phone and mail the computer to Apple?

Thanks for your help.

Did you get to the chime, or did you hard disk just spin and nothing else happened?

My mid-2008 MBP is in the same situation - the HD will spin, fans come on, but the screen stays black and there is no start-up chime. I sent it to the Apple service center (there's only one where I live, in Warsaw) and they said they tested it and it's not the NVidia card (though my model qualifies) but the logic board and they want $930 to replace it.

I told them no thanks, so while I wait for it to be sent back, I'm hunting for a refurbed logic board on ebay... =(

 

[unoplayer]

Sorry for my late reply. I didn't get the chime either. Anyway, I paid Apple for the repairs since I needed my data back and couldn't find a cheap machine with the same specs.

Because of the NVIDIA settlement, I might be able to file a reimbursement claim. Do my problems fall within the guidelines?

 

[RazzaMattaz]

I left my laptop on in my room while I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, I saw the message that told me I must restart the computer. The message froze the computer, so I shut it off by holding the power button and tried to turn it back on again, but it only boots to a black screen. I don't hear the loud hard drive noise, but I hear the fans. Without AC power but with the charged battery, the computer shuts down after a few seconds. The light on the button that opens the lid is dim-to-none when the lid is open and bright when the lid is closed.

I tried many troubleshooting methods discussed on this site, like removing and reseating the RAM and draining the battery, along with the things that the Apple website suggested, like resetting the SMC and PRAM, but nothing works.

I brought the computer into an Apple Store, and after the NVIDIA test was negative, the technician told me that the problem is most likely the logic board. I also took the computer into an Apple Authorized Service Provider, and the technician there said it could be the logic board, hard drive, or boot connector. He also said that there is a very slight chance that the graphics card could have caused the logic board to fail. He tried my computer with another battery and concluded that it's not the battery's fault.

The Apple Store is charging me about $330 for a flat-rate repair. Should I troubleshoot further using suggestions you may have or pay Apple for repairs? If I decide to have Apple repair my laptop, do I need to take it back into the store to pay the repair charges, or can I do it over the phone and mail the computer to Apple?

Thanks for your help.

Here is my answer. It's a little crazy, but it worked for me.
I had the scary lines on the screen of my last computer, and was told it would cost a small of tune to fix it, so I dumped it and bought a second hand 2008 MBPro for $400. It seemed to be in perfect condition for about 4-5 months, and then I got the Black Screen of Death (BSD). I read all the posts, and nine of them worked. So I went to Apple and asked if it was covered under the Nvidia program, but no, the time was up on that, so they could;t offer a fix, except to maybe bake it, yes, you read right, bake it. Otherwise I would have to fork out $550 for a new logic board.

I went home and had an intuition, and followed it, I always follow my intuition. I restarted the computer about 50 times and guess what, it worked again. But, when I closed it, I was back to square one, and this time I had to restart it about 100 times, and start it did. I placed a big coin between the back of the keyboard and the screen so I couldn't possibly close it by accident and just left it running all the time, with a dimmed light. One day I had to take the computer out, so I closed it, and of course it took another 100-150 restarts, and bingo, I thought it was going t work, because the screen lit up, but this time there was a mysterious Apple object in the middle of the screen, like a file or folder icon with a question mark in the middle. So I just kept restarting and the icon kept reappearing, I idd this about 50-100 times over two days and presto, it worked again, but it now works better than ever and I can close the computer and reopen with no problems. I don't know what that icon was, but if you can press some keys to get it to pop up when you successfully restart the computer, I think this is a cleaning icon of sorts.

Maybe even find out what this icon means, and actually try to bring it up on purpose even if your MBPro is working OK. It really was like a reconditioned Mac when the icon disappeared. Amazing. It takes patience, so do the restarts while you are watching TV etc. Just keep pressing the start button as soon as you here the clicking noise, and then hold to close down straight away, unless you get the chime, then wait a few seconds to see if it is going to open. My screen came to light straight away with the chime.

I hope this helps. Saves a heap of money and at least the first restart gives you a chance to back up ;o) But unless you get the icon folder with the ? mark in the middle, don't close the commuter, or you will have to do the restart process again. Good luck.

 

[Astroboy907]

Here is my answer. It's a little crazy, but it worked for me.
I had the scary lines on the screen of my last computer, and was told it would cost a small of tune to fix it, so I dumped it and bought a second hand 2008 MBPro for $400. It seemed to be in perfect condition for about 4-5 months, and then I got the Black Screen of Death (BSD). I read all the posts, and nine of them worked. So I went to Apple and asked if it was covered under the Nvidia program, but no, the time was up on that, so they could;t offer a fix, except to maybe bake it, yes, you read right, bake it. Otherwise I would have to fork out $550 for a new logic board.

..........................

Sounds like you had the Nvidia 8600 failure with the screen lines. And baking it is a tried and true method of re flowing the GPU, there are many threads here about it. It sometimes doesn't work but with a dead computer it's worth a shot, right?

As for the file folder and restarting, no offense, but you really didn't get what it was doing. The file folder means the computer can't find the right OS to boot off of. This is usually caused by a dead or corrupted hard drive, or a bad SATA cable. It doesnt "clean up" anything, just signals a bad drive or cable. As for restarting, you probably just got the once in a while chance where the computer could read all the information on your likely corrupted drive correctly.
As for you, I would highly recommend getting a new hard drive, and googling for info about baking the logic board and the file folder icon.

Hope this helps clear up some stuff.
-T