Macbook a1181 won't turn on

[ToiletNinja]

I got this macbook from a friend, I have no knowledge of its prior condition or what may have happened to it. I've ordered a replacement AC adapter for it because it didn't come with one, and when I plug it in, it turns from green to orange and back to green, and stays green. I've replaced the magsafe (iirc that's the charger connector), still nothing. I've lurked countless threads and forums, finding nothing specific to my situation so I thought I'd start my own thread. Any advice helps, thanks!

 

[DeltaMac]

Unplug the power adapter.
Remove the main battery.
Plug power adapter in.
The LED on the magsafe should not go orange, only green.
Press and release the power button.
Does the front panel LED come on at all? Should be steady white while the screen remains off. The white LED should go out if the screen lights up (normally)
If nothing seems to happen, wait about 30 seconds, then press and release the Caps Lock key. Does that key light up?
If nothing seems to happen, unplug the adapter again.

reinsert the main battery - plug in the power adapter.
Try the items in the list above.
Do you get any lights on the battery when you press the test button on the battery?

Remove BOTH memory sticks, and try power again, checking for any change in behavior when you press and release the power button. The front panel LED should absolutely be blinking, and you should hear beeps from the speaker.

Be sure to try a different power adapter...

There's also a good possibility that the power button is not working, or not connected inside.

Finally, if you really haven't got anything to work, and particularly if removing all memory doesn't make any change - then most likely a failed logic board.

 

[ellevy12]

Hi
i have same macbook (A1181, late 2006 2,1) and had the same problem. one day the macbook didn't powered on - but still getting charged via magsafe.

what happened to me is that the power button didn't power the machine.
there are 2 ways to get over this problem:

1. buy a new upper case (repleace all the keyboard of the macbook)

2. jumpstart the macbook from the motherboard - you need to short 2 jumpers near the fan

see this LINKhttps://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/53439/How+to+get+MacBook+to+boot+with+no+keyboard


Hope it helps

 

[nisulid]

Is this thread alive?
I got the same issue.
Went for a RAM replacement - changed 512MB for 1G RAM. First it didn't boot... Then, It went on Kernel Panic.
After that, it turned on sometimes, but white screen.
Then, nothing on screen but frontal LED on, reactive to whatever command was made.
Now, nothing!
No frontal LED, no CAPS light, no BLOQ NUM light... the fan doesn't even start.
Did my logic board go bad, just like that? For replacing a RAM?

 

[brian222]

Is this thread alive?
I got the same issue.
Went for a RAM replacement - changed 512MB for 1G RAM. First it didn't boot... Then, It went on Kernel Panic.
After that, it turned on sometimes, but white screen.
Then, nothing on screen but frontal LED on, reactive to whatever command was made.
Now, nothing!
No frontal LED, no CAPS light, no BLOQ NUM light... the fan doesn't even start.
Did my logic board go bad, just like that? For replacing a RAM?

hope this thread is alive because I'm having similar problems. At least today I have a moving cursor. When I start up by just hitting power button I get the flashing ? Hoping to learn enough to fix it. First time Mac user.

 

[DeltaMac]

Restart (hold the power button until the screen turns off - 5 seconds should do it - then press and release the power button.) Immediately hold Option-Command-p-r
You should hear the boot chime sound. Keep holding the same 4 keys, until you hear the chime 2 more times.
When you hear the second chime, release the keys, but continue to hold the Option key.
Your boot drive should appear on the screen.
Click on your drive, and press enter.
That should boot to your system.
If it does NOT (no boot drive icon appears, or it DOES appear, but you still get the flashing ?, then either your hard drive is failing, or there is a problem with the system software.
If the hard drive is original, then it has likely served its time well, and simply needs to be replaced. The old MacBooks are pretty simple to replace the drive. I would suggest that you shouldn't waste time by replacing with another spinning hard drive - use an SSD instead. That will make all the difference in the world for one of the old white MacBooks.