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Help me diagnose a problem with my old macbook pro

J

jrm27

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 3, 2008
579
31
Hello all,

I need help diagnosing what is wrong with my macbook pro. A buddy of mine handed it to me when he upgraded about a month ago. He had been having trouble with it and finally decided he'd had enough. I wiped it clean and did a fresh install of snow leopard. That didn't really help too much!

So, here's the problems:
1. Having trouble booting up... even safe booting. It will often just hang at the apple screen... the spinning wheel stops spinning and just freezes. Will often boot up after letting it sit and trying again a few times.

2. Once it is booted up it works just fine for a while. However, it will sporadically freeze. When it freezes the screen goes nuts. It flickers, turns pink/purple, etc... Then the only way to turn it off is to do a forced shutdown by holding the power button.

Any ideas? Might this mac be savlageable, or it is it time to give up on it?

-jon
 
Another idea would be to make an appointment at an Apple store and let the genius tell you everything they find.
 
Bring it to Apple. Sounds like a hardware problem to me... Run hardware diagnostics to check for problems, and then bring it to Apple. Always good to be fixed for, let's say, 300 bucks, than to buy a new one for over 1000!
 
When the computer is up and running, open the Apple Menu top left, About this Mac, More infor. and post the results here:
For example mine, a 2009 MBP shows:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,4
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
The we can give you much more accurate help.
You may have one of the models that have the infamous nVidea graphics cards that is under an extended warranty, if so Apple will fix it for free. But without more info it is hard to say what the source of your problem is, could be anything from a bad HD to a motherboard. :eek:
 
Thanks guys! I would include that data, but now I cant even get the darn thing to boot up. It just hangs at the apple boot screen. A safeboot won't even work... Shoot. The nearest apple store is 150 miles away, but it sounds like it might be worth the drive.
 
Sounds like a logic board issue to me. That's going to be very expensive to fix, if you don't have Apple Care for it. My friend's MBP had the same issues, and Apple wanted $1150 to fix it (it was 4 years old at the time). He bought a different brand computer instead.
 
No apple care remaining... boo!

When I pull the battery, the following is inside... does this info help?

2.4ghz Core 2 Duo/2gb/256MB VRAM/160gb 5400rpm
 
okay, finally got this puppy booted up. I booted it in target mode and ran disk utility to repair the disc. it didn't find any problems, but would boot up in safe mode afterwards.

So, here's the info:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: macBook Pro 3,1
Processor Name: Intel Coer 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 ghz

I'm still trying to get time to make the drive to the nearest apple store (120 or so miles away). In the meantime, can anyone tell me if this info helps diagnose? Thanks!

-jon
 
+1 for the logic board. you can look at my earlier posts to see how i fixed it! i learned my tricks from puttputt, he has great info! and search the web for baking your logic board. if you got a screwdriver and an oven you should be fine.:)... but its def the logic board together with the 8600gt nvidia graphics chip. no doubt. google 8600gt problem macbook pro. or search macrumors theres tons of info!
 
jrm27 said:
No apple care remaining... boo!

When I pull the battery, the following is inside... does this info help?

2.4ghz Core 2 Duo/2gb/256MB VRAM/160gb 5400rpm
Click to expand...

If it has the nvidia 8600gt card in it, they will replace the logic board for free. Bring it in to apple, that sounds just like it. They all have a 4 year extended warranty on the logic board due to a faulty graphics card. At least on the display side of things.

The rest of the problems sound like a hard drive going bad. If I'm correct on both counts, you just got a MBP for the price of a hard drive.
 
well, here's hoping. I just called apple support and they think it could very well be the nvidia problem. I've got to get it down to an apple store and see what happens next.... Thanks for the direction all!
 
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