Macbook takes ages to start up and come back from sleep (not your ordinary problems)

[gooju]

My Intel Macbook takes ages to switch on or come back from sleep.. The screen just stays black for anywhere from 2-5 minutes and it seems like it's doing nothing at all then all of a sudden, (what i think is the hard drive) it makes this weird noise for about 5 seconds then it starts up. However to add to this, if it's coming back from sleep, about 50% of the time it wakes up to a grey screen and the folder with the '?' pops up.. And to add to this, 99% of the time my Macbook will not switch on without the power lugged in. (it will however work just fine if it is already started up and then i unplug the power).. The power thing has been happening for honestly a couple years however, before it would be merely a little hesitant to start up without the power plugged in, now it pretty much just won't. The start up issues are more recent.

Specs: Intel Macbook Core 2 Duo 2.16, 500gb Hard Drive (ssd hybrid), 4gb RAM, OS 10.5.8

 

[session101]

if your HD is making noise...its on its way out, so you better backup on disk and look to buy a new one and from what i read, ?'s on your folders is a sign of HD failure, as far as your power issues, what is the status of your battery? also how old is your adapter?

 

[gooju]

On it's way out? I've only had it for about a year, that will be 3 hard drives gone in 4 years, are they meant to go that quickly?? My PC from 2004 is still on it's first.. Anyway the battery is still the original from 4 years ago however it doesn't seem to have any real problems, still holds charge for a good period just fine the adapter on the other hand is on the way out as the part of the cable were it connects to the magnetic bit that goes to the comp is separating.. Also I don't know if it matters, but the RAM is still the same from 4 years ago..