Macbook won't boot up, have tried everything - PLEASE HELP!

[sombrejohn]

Hi all,

I have a white MacBook, about 4 years old, Intel Core 2 Duo. It won't boot up, despite having tried all the steps I've come across on Apple Support, then other potential fixes on various forums. Here's the story:

1) To begin with, it wouldn't boot past the blue screen. I'd get the chime, the apple logo, the spinning wheel, then it would start alternating between the grey screen with the spinning gear and the blue screen with nothing.
2) So I tried a safe boot (waited a long time, but nothing hapened)
3) I tried Verbose mode and got this message:
Firewire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5811 built-in: handleARxReqInt-ARx Request packet error, status=0xe00002c7
alternating with:
Firewire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5811 built-in: handleARxResInt-ARx Response packet error, status=0xe00002bc
(my bold) - this message just ran and ran
4) I tried all the other steps suggested by apple support on this page: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
5) After having done the NVRAM/PRAM reset, after the chime, it would only go to a blank grey screen - no apple logo, no spinning gear nothing
6) So I tried putting in the install disc that came with my MacBook and booting with 'C'. The chime would be followed by the sound of the disc spinning but nothing would happen, and after about a minute the disc would stop spinning. Just blank grey screen all the time.
7) I tried removing the battery and the hard drive, to force it to boot from the install disc - same results as above.

This is where I'm at now - I can't eject the disc (which is undamaged, by the way) and I'm at a loss what to try next. I've tried putting the HD back in and the battery. Same old. Any ideas on what else I can do before I give up and take it to Apple (not so easy from where I'm living)?

Also, what do you think the chances are of my files surviving on my hard drive? How can I try to access them - on another Mac with the same/similar OS (mine is/was OS 10.5.4)

Thanks in advance for reading this and any help you can give!

 

[mentaluproar]

Breathe.

There are two ways to try and rescue files that haven't been backed up. You could try connecting your macbook to another mac via firewire and firing up target disc mode. You could also remove the hard drive and connect it to a sata-to-usb adaptor and mount it as an external drive on another mac.

But first, lets get that CD out of there. at boot, press and hold the mouse/touchpad/clicky pointer thing button. do this as soon as you hit that power button. Do it before you hear that chime and the screen comes on. Do not let go until your macbook spits out that cd.

Next, do a hardware test. One of the CDs that came with your mac should launch an OS9-like test environment. It's surprisingly handy here. Boot that CD and tell us what results you get.

It's probably just a bad hard drive, but that firewire message has me wondering about logic board failure.

 

[sombrejohn]

Thanks mentaluproar for your response, I really appreciate it.

I've tried getting the CD out by holding the trackpad during power up (for 2-3 minutes!), also tried holding the eject button and F12 during power up - all to no avail, it just won't spit it out.

I saw on iFixIt a guide to opening the Macbook up and removing the optical drive, then the CD from the drive, but it looks awfully fiddly and seems that there is the potential to damage some fragile cables/connectors in the process, so I am reluctant to go this route. But will give it a try if it's the last resort.

I have another CD which came with the MacBook - OS X Install Disc 2 - is this the one you mean to run the hardware test?

 

[mentaluproar]

I think some of them have the test on that disc instead of a separate one. At this point,make it in.