Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacBook Pro 2007 not booting

Z

Zunston

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 29, 2012
6
0
Hi everyone,

I just bought a MacBook Pro from 2007 on eBay today. I tested it when I picked it up, it seemed to work fine. The seller didn't turn it off when he gave it to me but just closed it. Later I reopened it and for no more than five minutes I looked around on Finder. Suddenly it attempted to restart and then froze. I turned it off and never managed to turn it back on.

At first it was just not reacting when I'd press the power knob. Then once suddenly it turned on while it was just lying there. Directly I had a kernel panic : grey screen with the apple in the middle, and white text on black underlining saying things like "panic (cpu caller 0x....)" and "Mac Os Version : Not yet set". Just that and then nothing.
Turned it off.

Now when I turn it on I hear the fan. Sometimes it seems to stop right away, sometimes it goes on but nothing displays on the screen anyway, sometimes the fan seems to go a bit out of control...

What the hell is going on ? Is there something I can do or do I just return it right away ?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Antoine

PS : I told the guy on the phone about the problem, he said that's weird he never had that, and advised me to take out the RAM and put it back in, which I did but it did not help. He did mention having changed the 1Gb RAM for a 2Gb one as the second slot is defect. Also the battery has to be replaced but right now it is fully loaded and I'm using the power cable of my wife's 2010 Macbook too.
 
If my memory serves me correctly, early 2007 was with Ati x1600 and late 2007 like what I have is with Nvidia 8600. The Nvidia ones are known for their motherboard defects while x1600 aren't problem free either, there are also dishonest sellers who use all kinds of tricks to temporarily fix the machine, making it last just enough to get it sold. There are two machine series I wouldn't either buy at all or buy them only as defective with low price, Hp Pavilion dv6000 and Mbp's with Nvidia 8600.

Is the AC adapter 85watts? Mbp needs a working battery to boot if I remember correctly, I do not mine at hand right now. Can you perform Pram and/or smc resets? Instructions from Apple's site.
 
When I try PRAM reset, or any other key-combination-trick at startup the computer just stops.

SMC reset I tried and I think that's what got the computer to actually make fan noise again...

Now when it starts the fan suddenly makes a lot of noise.

The rest of your questions unfortunately I can't answer, and I don't know how to find out...

----------

Thanks for your answer btw!

----------

Ah the adapter is 60W. But I'm in Belgium, I don't know if that makes a difference.
 
Zunston said:
Hi everyone,

I just bought a MacBook Pro from 2007 on eBay today. I tested it when I picked it up, it seemed to work fine. The seller didn't turn it off when he gave it to me but just closed it. Later I reopened it and for no more than five minutes I looked around on Finder. Suddenly it attempted to restart and then froze. I turned it off and never managed to turn it back on.

At first it was just not reacting when I'd press the power knob. Then once suddenly it turned on while it was just lying there. Directly I had a kernel panic : grey screen with the apple in the middle, and white text on black underlining saying things like "panic (cpu caller 0x....)" and "Mac Os Version : Not yet set". Just that and then nothing.
Turned it off.

Now when I turn it on I hear the fan. Sometimes it seems to stop right away, sometimes it goes on but nothing displays on the screen anyway, sometimes the fan seems to go a bit out of control...

What the hell is going on ? Is there something I can do or do I just return it right away ?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Antoine

PS : I told the guy on the phone about the problem, he said that's weird he never had that, and advised me to take out the RAM and put it back in, which I did but it did not help. He did mention having changed the 1Gb RAM for a 2Gb one as the second slot is defect. Also the battery has to be replaced but right now it is fully loaded and I'm using the power cable of my wife's 2010 Macbook too.
Click to expand...


Very bad news... Your mac has a bad video card, the video card cannot be replaced of because apple soldered the video card to the motherboard. This also means your motherboard is bad and can only be replaced with a motherboard replacement which can cost over 500$. I recommend getting a new mac that does not have an 8600GT video card.

Also, a logic board, motherboard, and main board are the same thing.
 
The adapter should be 85w for that machine, depending on what components are inside computers demand different amounts of power to function and for MBP 2007 85w is what Apple has specified, the machine will not draw 85w all the time of course, but when power demand exceeds the 60w your charger can offer, it might result to damage and/or strange behaviour.

But yes, it sounds like possible motherboard defect. Common symptom is black screen while fans are running but basically "everything" is .
 
Last edited:
You remark about the 85W charger made me notice something.

When plugged in, the little light is green, stating that the battery is loaded. But while when plugged in the fan starts and stays, while only on battery power it starts and stops after like 4 seconds.
Not enough power ?

What bugs me though is that when it restarted/froze/didn't start again the very first time, there was still supposedly 1h worth of battery...


What do you think ?

----------

Just saw your new post.

You say "the machine will not draw 85w all the time of course". But here the machine does not even start up really... My screen remains black and nothing happens. To say the least, even the caps lock led doesn't turn on when I press it. Is that something to expect if I don't have enough power ?

Also, when the problem happened I hadn't plugged in the computer yet.


--- Should I bother buying a 85W charger and a new battery on monday or is there a big chance I'd be wasting money again ?

Thanks!

----------
rabidz7 said:
Very bad news... Your mac has a bad video card, the video card cannot be replaced of because apple soldered the video card to the motherboard. This also means your motherboard is bad and can only be replaced with a motherboard replacement which can cost over 500$. I recommend getting a new mac that does not have an 8600GT video card.

Also, a logic board, motherboard, and main board are the same thing.
Click to expand...

Seriously ? I can still return it so no real big deal here but I'd rather fix it if I can though.
I really didn't think it could be the video card since my problem is clearly not just about the display... No chimes either on startup btw :)
 
If there are no chimes and no caps lock etc. I'd say return it. What I said about the charger is still true, but the machine should boot with 60w, I have actually tested couple 60w briefly on my machine too see if the chargers themselves work, I have booted the machine and done some light things like browse the web.
 
Ok I'll do that then, too bad. Thanks for the advice.

Do you have any idea how come it was working fine earlier today and suddenly it's like this ?
 
i have seen the unibodys boot with 60w charger (without the battery) but older macbook pro won't boot with that charger if the battery is dead.
To the OP: disconnect the charger and hold the power for 10 seconds then plug in the charger and press power, should boot with fans at full speed.
My opinion is that the 8600gt is fried ,return it right away,those models of macbook pro are well know for that problem, return it
 
chrisperro said:
i have seen the unibodys boot with 60w charger (without the battery) but older macbook pro won't boot with that charger if the battery is dead.
Click to expand...

So I should try with an 85W then ?

chrisperro said:
To the OP: disconnect the charger and hold the power for 10 seconds then plug in the charger and press power, should boot with fans at full speed.
Click to expand...

What you're describing is to do an SMC reset right ? I tried that, didn't work... But now when I start my fans go full speed anyway but then sometimes it shuts down after a few seconds.





https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2643002?start=0&tstart=0

This seems similar to what I'm experiencing, doesn't it ?
 
if it boots with full fans ,then shuts down is 100 percent sure is the graphics card, return it, don't bother buying another charger.
even if it boots that machine is a ticking time bomb with that nvidia 8600gt
 
I bought same model as yours from eBay last year. When it arrived here, I took it to Apple store right away to make sure everything runs ok and it runs fine but they tested it and found error code 12 or something I can't remember they told me it was possible bad video but video and display still fine so they rather to have replace logic board right away than feel sorry later on. No charge for replacement. I am happy now. :apple:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back