Help! I can't get my early-2009 MacBook to boot up!

[dmk1974]

My early-2009 MacBook had been working fine without any issues, then this morning all of the sudden, I can't get it to boot! Never had an issue like this before and can't figure it out. It's no longer under warranty which makes me a bit nervous too. Here's a video of what happens each time. Any suggestions? Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UZ0mgAjKb4

 

[session101]

hmm....

Reset your PRAM first...no luck?

then, first pull out 1 of your sticks of RAM and see if it will boot...

if not, do you have any of the stock CD's to boot from?

 

[dmk1974]

hmm....

Reset your PRAM first...no luck?

then, first pull out 1 of your sticks of RAM and see if it will boot...

if not, do you have any of the stock CD's to boot from?

Thanks for the suggestions. Here's everything I tried that hasn't worked:

1.) Reset SMC
2.) Reset PRAM
3.) Boot from recovery Lion partition
4.) Boot from recovery Leopard DVD
5.) Pull each ram stick and try to boot with just one
6.) Boot from a different internal hard drive
7.) Boot from an external USB drive

When I hold the Option key at boot, I'll get the drive list to boot from, but then after a selection, it shuts down like in the video.

I then just got back from the local Apple retail store. The Genius also did 1, 2, 3, and 7 with no luck. Their assessment is that it must be the logic board which would cost me $280.00 since it's out of warranty. I challenged them on why it would just all of the sudden stop working and they compared it to a car where things just fail. This is only 2+ years old! Apple products usually last a lot longer!

I just don't get how its working fine one night and then the next day nothing!

 

[dmk1974]

So, for reasons I can't explain, the MacBook all of the sudden booted up fine today! I had it packed up sitting in its original box and then just thought I'd try again. No issues! I don't get it? I cold booted like 10 times too and used it a good 1/2 hour. Keeping my fingers crossed, but is there something internal that could have had a temporary glitch or am I just lucky at the moment and can expect the same failure again soon?

 

[ThomasBoss]

I am not a mac enthusiast, but those sorts of things usually don't happen for no reason...just to be safe, i would back up all my data asap.

 

[yusukeaoki]

It doesnt seem like its a dead HDD since the apple logo shows.
So it maybe a corrupted data.

Try to get a different HDD and try booting it up.

 

[dmk1974]

It wasn't a hard drive issue. At the time (Saturday), it didn't work with 2 different internal drives nor an external drive.

Sunday though, it worked fine with the same 3 when I tried them.