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Macbook Mid 2010 wont boot, Need help

K

kassvein

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 27, 2015
19
0
Hey,
My friends old macbook 2010 pro wont boot ( 13inch version )

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...o-2.4-aluminum-13-mid-2010-unibody-specs.html

He didnt use it in some time so i dont know is there any water damage example, opened back side and looked for corrosion and didnt see any atleast on back side of motherboard. Re-connected every cable on back side of motherboard, Nothing looks to be broken. I removed battery cable and tried to boot and nothing happens, no fans or any sounds. Power cord has green light stable when plugged to macbook, thats only light im seeing.

I got some life into it when i press power button for 10seconds then connect power cord to macbook ( it has no light at all when i do this ) keep pressing and after 10sec i re-press power button. Then i can hear fan noise at full speed, dont have HDD connected so cant say if that would spin, First time i did this, heard some kind of error beeping sound, nothing after that, screen stays black.

If someone could help me troubleshoot this? Thanks in advance!
 
Update: 1 out of 3 times when i boot with smc bypass ( pressing power on before and after plugging magsafe ) i get beeping sound, 3 short 3 long 3 short noises. Apple suggests its corrupted EFi, with 3 long 3 short 3 long noises but mine is other way around so different problem? Cant find anywhere what this exact code means, i tried also pram reset and turning brightness up, only can hear fan with smc bypass, screen stays black.
any ideas?
 
Oh well, looks like this is sorted.
It had 1x 2gb pc3-8500 ram stick on slot1, i swapped its place to slot 2 and got different error sound, 1 beep but continuous. When i moved it back to slot1 got same 3short-3long-3short beep sound.
Replaced it with pc-10600 2gb stick first in slot1 and got 1 beep continuous error, after that i put it to slot1 and suprisingly it booted to white screen with question mark in box blinking, at that time i got different error sound, like tune or someting numerous times.
It still worked with only bypassing smc, but when i got to white screen i reset pram with command and after that smc with removing battery and pressing power button for 5secs. After that suprisingly i got clean boot to white screen without need to bypass smc, power light started working aswell, its flickering on start. After that i put empty hdd to test if it spins and yes it does.
Hope this helps someone gettings this error message.

My friend said he dont have osx installation disc anymore and i tried Online recovery buttons on startup and nothing happens. I could see some efi firmware updates for 2010 mid model ( this one ) to recover lion fully online, but on stock settings this macbook should have snow leopard, he cant even remember which it was.

Should i buy new snow leopard / lion installation disc OR maybe newer os x even?
Or is there still someting i could try to get online recovery working ?
thx
 
kassvein said:
My friend said he dont have osx installation disc anymore and i tried Online recovery buttons on startup and nothing happens. I could see some efi firmware updates for 2010 mid model ( this one ) to recover lion fully online, but on stock settings this macbook should have snow leopard, he cant even remember which it was.

Should i buy new snow leopard / lion installation disc OR maybe newer os x even?
Or is there still someting i could try to get online recovery working ?
thx
Click to expand...

Get the Snow Leopard (10.6) disks. The 2010 shipped with 10.6 which means that internet recovery would not work since it installs the OS the computer shipped with (10.7 or later). The only other way to do an online install is to do a re-download of an OS you have already purchased from your Mac App store account. If you have it already or have a friend that has the downloaded complete OS install app (10.7 or greater) then a bootable USB flash drive can be created to install the OS.

Once you have booted up from the 10.6 disk and installed 10.6 you can verify everything is working as expected then at some point log in to your Mac App store account and download and install 10.10 (the only free OS) if you want to update to the latest OS. You can also buy and install 10.7 and/or 10.8 via downloads (you need to be operating with 10.6 first).
Here is the link to Apple to buy the 10.6 disks ($19.99 with free shipping):
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
 
Thanks for answer
Seems like 8gb is max memory supported and i cant get slot2 working at all, tried now with 3 different sticks.. so max ram i can get is 4gb with one stick. After i test with snow leopard, is it wise idea to update with 4gb ram to yosemite? Or will it be very slow?
 
kassvein said:
Thanks for answer
Seems like 8gb is max memory supported and i cant get slot2 working at all, tried now with 3 different sticks.. so max ram i can get is 4gb with one stick. After i test with snow leopard, is it wise idea to update with 4gb ram to yosemite? Or will it be very slow?
Click to expand...

According to OWC: "MacBook Pro 13.3" 2.4GHz (Model ID: 7,1 only) Supports 16.0GB", so you could get 1 stick of 8 Gb for the one working RAM slot. You should be fine with 8 Gb & Yosemite, 4 Gb might be a little tight. You haven't indicated how the MBP would be used so I'm assuming normal usage (not intensive video creation, photo editing, or music creation).

Here is the link to the OWC Memory page:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3

I would get it working with Snow Leopard & 4 Gb. Verify that there are no other issues and everything is stable. Later you could decide to proceed with further OS upgrades (Lion, Mountain Lion, or Yosemite) and maybe more RAM. At least you do have an option if you want 8 Gb of RAM later.
 
CoastalOR said:
According to OWC: "MacBook Pro 13.3" 2.4GHz (Model ID: 7,1 only) Supports 16.0GB", so you could get 1 stick of 8 Gb for the one working RAM slot. You should be fine with 8 Gb & Yosemite, 4 Gb might be a little tight. You haven't indicated how the MBP would be used so I'm assuming normal usage (not intensive video creation, photo editing, or music creation).

Here is the link to the OWC Memory page:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook_MacBook_Pro/Upgrade/DDR3

I would get it working with Snow Leopard & 4 Gb. Verify that there are no other issues and everything is stable. Later you could decide to proceed with further OS upgrades (Lion, Mountain Lion, or Yosemite) and maybe more RAM. At least you do have an option if you want 8 Gb of RAM later.
Click to expand...
 
My other friend has mac os x Lion installation disc, coulsd get it for free. Can i legally use that for installation or does it ask for key ? Since macbook is bought legally i hope it shouldnt be problem.
Is Lion good for testing stability?
 
No version of OS X has ever used a key. There is nothing illegal about using your friend's install disc.
 
Hey again and thx for help,
Im using atm pc3-10600 2gb memory stick on slot1, I tried to use pc3-8500s memory but it never posts with it, that should be ram model manufactor suggests, but i tried multiple sticks and neither somehow wont work.
Got lion os x disc from another friend to test, i used option key and external DVD drive cause macbook internal dvd drive wont work.
I tested some HDD sata1 which has corrupted windows install in it, seems to be healthy, but when i choose os x install it loads for awhile and apple logo appears, then after 5mins either kernel panic comes or it freezes and i need to restart with power off button.

Tested dvd drive on another computer its working fine, same as hdd should be good to go. And i dont see any scratch marks on os x dvd, what could be the problem?
I dont get any error beep code so this pc3-10600 stick should be working atm, also no error lights showing.
thx
 
kassvein said:
Hey again and thx for help,
Im using atm pc3-10600 2gb memory stick on slot1, I tried to use pc3-8500s memory but it never posts with it, that should be ram model manufactor suggests, but i tried multiple sticks and neither somehow wont work.
Got lion os x disc from another friend to test, i used option key and external DVD drive cause macbook internal dvd drive wont work.
I tested some HDD sata1 which has corrupted windows install in it, seems to be healthy, but when i choose os x install it loads for awhile and apple logo appears, then after 5mins either kernel panic comes or it freezes and i need to restart with power off button.

Tested dvd drive on another computer its working fine, same as hdd should be good to go. And i dont see any scratch marks on os x dvd, what could be the problem?
I dont get any error beep code so this pc3-10600 stick should be working atm, also no error lights showing.
thx
Click to expand...

Where did your friend get the Lion DVD? AFAIK Snow Leopard was the last OS distributed on DVD. See the link:
http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion

After 10.6 the OS installer is distributed via the App Store. If you buy Lion from Apple they do not send a DVD, they send "An email with a content code for the Mac App Store." Also note the System Requirements ("Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6.6 or later (v10.6.8 recommended)").

Additionally, to do a clean install from a DVD you have to start from the DVD then install the OS. The non-working internal DVD is new information. I have not had good results trying to install the OS from an external DVD on older Macs that shipped with an internal CD/DVD drive. Maybe someone has better experience/knowledge on installing using an eternal DVD drive.
Here is a link on installing Lion from a User created Lion DVD:
http://macs.about.com/od/macoperatingsystems/qt/Install-Lion-Using-A-Bootable-Dvd.htm

You may have to get your hands on the complete downloaded "Install OS X Lion" app and make a bootable USB drive installer. Hopefully the USB ports work.
 
That's correct, Apple never distributed the Lion installer on DVD.
Lion installs much more reliably from a USB flash drive.

A 2010 MBook came with a special build of Snow Leopard. You won't easily install Snow Leopard that you might purchase from Apple. It will be too old to install directly. Much simpler to ignore Snow Leopard completely, and go to Lion, or something newer.
And, your 2010 MacBook SHOULD be able to use Internet Recovery, assuming that the installed firmware is up-to-date.
You can try that by restarting, while holding Option-Command-R
If you see the spinning world icon, then just wait for your MBook to connect to Apple's servers (it can take several minutes, so be patient.) When you get to the installer screen, it SHOULD offer you Lion.
 
Yes, looking more closely at this dvd it doesnt seem legit, although it has apple logo. Thought it was original. I tried online recovery keys but screen remain black after beep sound.
I tried single user mode and it showed no errors, did fsck which show nothing also. When i press exit install dvd starts working but freezes after couple of lines.
I read that THIS macbook model 2010 mid 13inch can use online recovery with some new firmware update, IF it has installed lion or newer os x. Can i somehow make bootable firmware update with windows ? usb or dvd/cd
even if i have that.. still dont have lion or later installed though.
 
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