Macbook Battery

[frostbyte32]

My wife went to use her Macbok the other day and went to start it up and it wouldn't turn on. She assumed it was dead and plugged it in and everything appeared to be normal. The lights came on like the computer was charging and so she hit the power button to start it up. The computer acted like it was getting ready to start up, but never did anything. She waited a few minutes and nothing happened and so she hit the power button to manually restart it. She said it acted slow, but could tell that it was being very slow. She she said it finally loaded up and she was able to input her password and get into her computer. She was uploading some pictures from her digital camera into iPhoto and after about 15 minutes of being on her computer it just shut down. She checked and the computer was plugged in and had power, but it wouldn't power up. The light on the power adapter was a VERY faded green color when it was connected to the computer. It was so faint that I could only tell it was lit up when I woke up in the middle of the night and there were no lights in the house on.

We have scheduled an appointment with the Genius bar in Indianapolis, but we're over an hour away from there. I'm assuming we'll have to drop it off and come back again to pick it up. Any ideas as to what could be wrong with it? We have over a year's worth of pics on there of my daughter and some aren't backed up. Is any of the data at risk for being lost? Any idea how much we're looking at since we didn't extend the Apple Care?

 

[AppleFanatic10]

My wife went to use her Macbok the other day and went to start it up and it wouldn't turn on. She assumed it was dead and plugged it in and everything appeared to be normal. The lights came on like the computer was charging and so she hit the power button to start it up. The computer acted like it was getting ready to start up, but never did anything. She waited a few minutes and nothing happened and so she hit the power button to manually restart it. She said it acted slow, but could tell that it was being very slow. She she said it finally loaded up and she was able to input her password and get into her computer. She was uploading some pictures from her digital camera into iPhoto and after about 15 minutes of being on her computer it just shut down. She checked and the computer was plugged in and had power, but it wouldn't power up. The light on the power adapter was a VERY faded green color when it was connected to the computer. It was so faint that I could only tell it was lit up when I woke up in the middle of the night and there were no lights in the house on.

We have scheduled an appointment with the Genius bar in Indianapolis, but we're over an hour away from there. I'm assuming we'll have to drop it off and come back again to pick it up. Any ideas as to what could be wrong with it? We have over a year's worth of pics on there of my daughter and some aren't backed up. Is any of the data at risk for being lost? Any idea how much we're looking at since we didn't extend the Apple Care?

Since you don't have Apple Care they will probably charge you up to $750 for labor and etc. My advice to you would be to buy another computer but first make sure that Apple can somehow recover your data. Another thing to remember: ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATA

 

[frostbyte32]

Since you don't have Apple Care they will probably charge you up to $750 for labor and etc. My advice to you would be to buy another computer but first make sure that Apple can somehow recover your data. Another thing to remember: ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATA

We have some of it backed up...we bought an external hard drive, but she hasn't backed it up in 2 months...so it wouldn't be the end of the world but def not ideal...hoping $750 is way too high of a guess

 

[frostbyte32]

Since you don't have Apple Care they will probably charge you up to $750 for labor and etc. My advice to you would be to buy another computer but first make sure that Apple can somehow recover your data. Another thing to remember: ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR DATA

Will they charge her to diagnos it?

 

[AppleFanatic10]

Will they charge her to diagnos it?

Nope.

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We have some of it backed up...we bought an external hard drive, but she hasn't backed it up in 2 months...so it wouldn't be the end of the world but def not ideal...hoping $750 is way too high of a guess

I wish $750 was too high of a guess but then again Apple is on the expensive side... I once had to bring my Macbook in for a repair and it was still under warranty and they wanted to charge me $750... If you guys don't mind searching the MacRumors Marketing forum then you could probably get another macbook for cheap or eBay. It's better than paying Apple an outrageous amount of money, and you'll probably get a better deal that way. Hope I've helped you guys a little.

 

[flatfoot]

... Is any of the data at risk for being lost? ...

If the hard rive died, then the data is lost, or at least it would cost you an outrageous amount of money to have it recovered by a professional data recovery company.
If the mainboard died, the hard drive is probably still OK and you can just put it into an external enclosure to copy your data.

No matter what the geniuses tell you – get the HDD out and try to connect it to another Mac.

 

[frostbyte32]

If the hard rive died, then the data is lost, or at least it would cost you an outrageous amount of money to have it recovered by a professional data recovery company.
If the mainboard died, the hard drive is probably still OK and you can just put it into an external enclosure to copy your data.

No matter what the geniuses tell you – get the HDD out and try to connect it to another Mac.

The "geniuses" told us the problem was where you plug in the MacBook for power...they replaced it and called us over to drive the hour 15 minute drive...we paid $49 and were happy it only cost us that. We got in the car and my wife tried to boot it up and it wouldn't start. We thought the battery was just dead and decided to go back in and make sure it wasnt having the same issue that they said they fixed. We took it in and plugged it in and the computer still wouldn't power up. They called a tech out who looked at it and then took it in the back. He came back out and said it was the logic board and it would be $280 to fix.

The MacBook is just over 2 years old and we are debating whether it is worth it to invest the $. They also suggested getting the enclosure before proceeding just to get the data off and backed up. I am treating the logic board as their next "guess." they said they had the computer on the night before and ran diagnostics on it and everything came back fine, but that replacing any part could cause the computer to run temporarily...I dunno if that is crap or what.

Would Walmart carry a hard drive enclosure? We are an hour from any big name electronic store. would love to drive over today and pick it up and get it backed up today. Is it hard taking the hard drive out and connecting to another Mac? Also, would I need any special cables or adapters that wouldn't come with the enclosure?

 

[flatfoot]

The "geniuses" told us the problem was where you plug in the MacBook for power...they replaced it and called us over to drive the hour 15 minute drive...we paid $49 and were happy it only cost us that. We got in the car and my wife tried to boot it up and it wouldn't start. We thought the battery was just dead and decided to go back in and make sure it wasnt having the same issue that they said they fixed. We took it in and plugged it in and the computer still wouldn't power up. They called a tech out who looked at it and then took it in the back. He came back out and said it was the logic board and it would be $280 to fix.

The MacBook is just over 2 years old and we are debating whether it is worth it to invest the $. They also suggested getting the enclosure before proceeding just to get the data off and backed up. I am treating the logic board as their next "guess." they said they had the computer on the night before and ran diagnostics on it and everything came back fine, but that replacing any part could cause the computer to run temporarily...I dunno if that is crap or what.

Would Walmart carry a hard drive enclosure? We are an hour from any big name electronic store. would love to drive over today and pick it up and get it backed up today. Is it hard taking the hard drive out and connecting to another Mac? Also, would I need any special cables or adapters that wouldn't come with the enclosure?

Any store that sells computer equipment should have what you need. It is a USB external hard drive enclosure for 2.5" SATA drives. A USB data cable should be included. That's all you need to hook up the old drive to another Mac. Hopefully the drive is fine.

Getting the hard drive out of the MacBook is really easy, but you need a tiny philips head screwdriver and a small torx head screwdriver. I don't know for sure which ones exactly. Search ifixit.com for "MacBook hard drive replacement" or something similar. This way you'll find a pictured step by step guide and a list of tools needed.

After getting the hard drive out of it, I'd suggest you sell the MacBook for parts on eBay. You might still get quite a few bucks for it.

 

[frostbyte32]

Any store that sells computer equipment should have what you need. It is a USB external hard drive enclosure for 2.5" SATA drives. A USB data cable should be included. That's all you need to hook up the old drive to another Mac. Hopefully the drive is fine.

Getting the hard drive out of the MacBook is really easy, but you need a tiny philips head screwdriver and a small torx head screwdriver. I don't know for sure which ones exactly. Search ifixit.com for "MacBook hard drive replacement" or something similar. This way you'll find a pictured step by step guide and a list of tools needed.

After getting the hard drive out of it, I'd suggest you sell the MacBook for parts on eBay. You might still get quite a few bucks for it.

So you wouldn't pay $280 for the looc boar repair? I called a certified apple tech I know and he said it was a good deal and we should do it since it is only 2 years old.

 

[flatfoot]

So you wouldn't pay $280 for the looc boar repair? I called a certified apple tech I know and he said it was a good deal and we should do it since it is only 2 years old.

Sorry, I read over the fact that it's just two years old. That actually is an OK deal for the repair.

You might still want to backup your data and erase the hard disk before handing the MacBook in for the repair, the former for security, the latter for privacy reasons.

 

[frostbyte32]

Sorry, I read over the fact that it's just two years old. That actually is an OK deal for the repair.

You might still want to backup your data and erase the hard disk before handing the MacBook in for the repair, the former for security, the latter for privacy reasons.

Went to all the retailers in our town and no one sold one in their physical stores...only online. eBay/amazon here I come!