Macbook Hard Drive Failure Followed By Unresponsive Keyboard

[zetsuboufreak]

I have a Macbook that's about 5 years old running OS X 10.4. It seems like the hard drive failed and it's making "the clicking noise of death". My computer froze, and when I hard reset my hard drive started clicking, and my screen is blank after the chime. Eventually a folder will start blinking with a ? mark.

I wanted to see if I can peek at the open firmware to see if there is anything hopeless I can do, but the keyboard is unresponsive (caps-lock key doesn't light up). USB keyboard doesn't work either.

Any Solutions?

As a side note, I can't try to put in a CD because my CD drive failed last year and I've never replaced it.

Thanks!!

 

[StockDC2]

If you have access to another Macbook, you can restore your restore disks onto a USB drive and run the installer through that.

This is a problem since your keyboard is unresponsive. Have you tried resetting your PRAM? What about the SMC? I would do both of these and if the problem still persists, try getting the restore disks onto a USB drive so you can run AHT.

 

[MacHamster68]

so you got a 06 MacBook i assume a white one so the very first intel based
if you are very lucky its only the harddrive and not the logicboard , as those logicboards in the early 06 MacBooks went first , if that was not replaced in the past i am actually gobsmacked that it did last that long

good luck

 

[zetsuboufreak]

If you have access to another Macbook, you can restore your restore disks onto a USB drive and run the installer through that.

This is a problem since your keyboard is unresponsive. Have you tried resetting your PRAM? What about the SMC? I would do both of these and if the problem still persists, try getting the restore disks onto a USB drive so you can run AHT.

Thanks StockDC2. As far as I know I can't reset PRAM unless I can use my keyboard? Tried SMC and still the same symptoms. My keyboard won't work. I have a friend that has an iMac so it shouldn't be a problem to get the restore disk on a USB drive, but again it comes back to the keyboard not working.

so you got a 06 MacBook i assume a white one so the very first intel based if you are very lucky its only the hard drive and not the logicboard , as those logicboards in the early 06 MacBooks went first , if that was not replaced in the past i am actually gobsmacked that it did last that long

Yes. I got my Macbook in late May of '06, and it's white Intel. My logicboard has never been replaced. So is there a possibility that it might only be the logic board and my hard drive is just clicking for that related reason? But I don't think the logic board would cause keyboard to be unresponsive? To be honest I might be happier if it was my logic board instead of my hard drive 'cause I have no data backed up like an idiot. =X

Would appreciate any other advise if there is any. Thanks!!