Macbook shut off - won't turn back on

[Sean Dempsey]

My Macbook is just about 3 years old. It's had 2 new hard drives, and just got a new battery.

This morning, I turned it on, got into OSX, opened up a Safari, and suddenly the screen went black and the computer shut off.

The battery is still fully charged, and is barely a month old. I checked the RAM and hard drive to make sure they are seated properly (they are). I pulled out the ram, and noticed some VERY small little spots of a liquid/oil substance on the ram pins. I did not spill anything on it and it has not been exposed to any liquid. And even if it was, how could minute traces of it get onto the RAM pins when the ram is inserted into it's slot? Could a transistor or capacitor have finally burst or leaked/perspired whatever stuff is in there? I didn't just "spill something on it and didn't notice." The thing was sitting on my chair all night, and worked for a few minutes right on my lap before going dead. There was no spill.

The power button does nothing now. The computer is 100% unresponsive. A brick? Or is there something else to try?

 

[optophobia]

My Macbook is just about 3 years old. It's had 2 new hard drives, and just got a new battery.

This morning, I turned it on, got into OSX, opened up a Safari, and suddenly the screen went black and the computer shut off.

The battery is still fully charged, and is barely a month old. I checked the RAM and hard drive to make sure they are seated properly (they are). I pulled out the ram, and noticed some VERY small little spots of a liquid/oil substance on the ram pins. I did not spill anything on it and it has not been exposed to any liquid. And even if it was, how could minute traces of it get onto the RAM pins when the ram is inserted into it's slot? Could a transistor or capacitor have finally burst or leaked/perspired whatever stuff is in there? I didn't just "spill something on it and didn't notice." The thing was sitting on my chair all night, and worked for a few minutes right on my lap before going dead. There was no spill.

The power button does nothing now. The computer is 100% unresponsive. A brick? Or is there something else to try?

Have you tired plugging it in or are you just trying it off battery ?

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Yeah did both battery and plug, same result.

 

[68000]

VERY small little spots of a liquid/oil substance on the ram pins

What color are the spots? Can you take a picture of the pins to show us?

 

[Sean Dempsey]

What color are the spots? Can you take a picture of the pins to show us?

Clear. I already wiped it all off and put the ram back in. I can let it sit for a while and pull the ram out again and see if there's anything there. But at this point, I am assuming whatever happened to it is unrepairable and the thing is garbage now. Not sure if there's really anything you can do when it won't even power up to get to a boot select screen or anything else.

I know I have heard of capacitors bulging or bursting before, and this thing had gotten to run extremely hot over the last year or so, even with the SMC fan controller.

 

[Pixellated]

Sounds like a dead logic board to me... The Apple store can diagnose it free. Then you can buy the parts off eBay and fix yourself.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Sounds like a dead logic board to me... The Apple store can diagnose it free. Then you can buy the parts off eBay and fix yourself.

The nearest apple store is 2 hours away in Vegas. Perhaps I will consider this though, replacing the logic board and the fans would basically restore this thing.