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macbook wont start up completely..whats wrong?

J

Jmacp2112

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 8, 2010
9
0
Ok, so, I'm new to Mac's and I am having some troubles with my macbook this morning. For starters, when I power it on, the macbook makes it passed the chime noise to the loading screen with the apple logo and spinning circle. It pauses for about a minute, maybe a minute and a half, and then the screen goes black, and the computer shuts off.

Also, i do not yet have a copy of the install disks.
And I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.2

Any help would be really great! I just want to rid this fantastic machine of its slight bug(s), and use it to its full potential!

Jmacp2112
 
Have you checked the obvious things such as checking to make sure the RAM is seated correctly in the macine? As you don't have the disks I would take it to Apple and get them to have a look at it.
 
DewGuy1999: I completed the steps to reset the SMC, however that did not help, the same symptoms appeared. Thank you for the link, however.

DoFoT9: Is there any possible way of acquiring the install disks for 10.5.2 for free?

Thanks again all,

Jmacp2112
 
Snow Leopard

Jmacp2112 said:
DewGuy1999: I completed the steps to reset the SMC, however that did not help, the same symptoms appeared. Thank you for the link, however.

DoFoT9: Is there any possible way of acquiring the install disks for 10.5.2 for free?

Thanks again all,

Jmacp2112
Click to expand...

You can get snow leopard for 29$, if it doesn't work you could always sell the SL on ebay or CL. And if it does work you would have legal media for future problems.
 
I tried to restart my macbook in safe mode (safe boot) by holding down the shift key immediately after pressing the power button (on). I got a black screen with white text, I waited there for a few moments and than the computer just shut off...again. Im not sure what else to do at this point..install disks?
 
Install disks would give you the ability to see if you can get it booted and also, would give you the ability to run Disk Utility. I'm guessing you bought the Macbook used and didn't get the disks? Have you tried contacting the seller for them?
 
DoFoT9 said:
ebay/craigslist/friends would be the only way to get the 10.5 discs
Click to expand...

Maybe not. I don't know if Apple still has them, but a couple of months ago they did. I've seen several posts from people who called the toll free number found on the website (online store) and ordered one. But, the cost of a Leopard to Snow Leopard upgrade would be less. So, anyone with an Intel processor should go that route.
 
Gregg2 said:
Maybe not. I don't know if Apple still has them, but a couple of months ago they did. I've seen several posts from people who called the toll free number found on the website (online store) and ordered one. But, the cost of a Leopard to Snow Leopard upgrade would be less. So, anyone with an Intel processor should go that route.
Click to expand...

So your saying I should just go for the Snow Leopard upgrade?

Also I have another question. Lets say I have a copy of the 10.5 disks on another computer (hp running vista), is there a way for me to transfer the disk info to my mac without having the ability to turn it on? Maybe through ethernet or something like that? Or possibly burning it to a large enough dvd?

Jmacp2112
 
Jmacp2112 said:
So your saying I should just go for the Snow Leopard upgrade?

Also I have another question. Lets say I have a copy of the 10.5 disks on another computer (hp running vista), is there a way for me to transfer the disk info to my mac without having the ability to turn it on? Maybe through ethernet or something like that? Or possibly burning it to a large enough dvd?

Jmacp2112
Click to expand...

I can't tell you how to do this because I don't know, but from what I've heard if you were to Google Hackintosh you'd probably find the answer.
 
Just remembered something else. As far as 10.5 goes, if you've got a retail copy (they're black discs) they'll work with any Mac, but if they're gray restore discs, it will have to be for the same version of MacBook that you have as they're model specific.
 
Well, I've got a white MacBook with OS X 10.5.2 on it. No install disks, so I couldn't give you an indication as to their color.

Does anyone on here have a copy of these disks I could use/buy? Or know where they could be gathered for free, torrent, anything?
 
Now you're asking us to help you be a software pirate. You won't get that kind of assistance here. Buy the SL disc for $29 or maybe $25 at a "big box" discount electronics store.
 
Ok so I got the install disks for OS X version 10.6 from my uncle. But does it matter that these disks came with his (15") MacBook Pro? What I'm asking is can the install disks for a MacBook Pro be used on my MacBook?

Thanks guys!

Jmacp2112
 
Unless they are the retail version then they won't work on you machine as the included disks are machine specific. The retail version should look like this:

base_media
 
Good grief! You have your own computer, so you aren't living in poverty. Spring for the $30 and buy a SL disc. If you don't have the cash, work for it.
 
ok ok ok, relax! Bought the SL at Best Buy..But new problem. When I load the disks at start up it give me the language I wish to continue in, I choose english. Than it asks me to select the disk to install on, I choose he HD (the only option..I think). I agree to the terms and conditions and than it tries installing for about 2 or 3 seconds than gives me this message:

"The contents of this disk can't be changed. Mac OS X couldn't be installed on this disk."

Anyone else ever run into this problem? Any clues on how to fix this? Thanks guys for all the help.
 
Jmacp2112 said:
ok ok ok, relax! Bought the SL at Best Buy..But new problem. When I load the disks at start up it give me the language I wish to continue in, I choose english. Than it asks me to select the disk to install on, I choose he HD (the only option..I think). I agree to the terms and conditions and than it tries installing for about 2 or 3 seconds than gives me this message:

"The contents of this disk can't be changed. Mac OS X couldn't be installed on this disk."

Anyone else ever run into this problem? Any clues on how to fix this? Thanks guys for all the help.
Click to expand...


This problem happens because the Snow Leopard installer detects a small discrepancy in the partition table of the drive, and assumes booting off the drive may not be successful. The fixes involve rewriting the table without formatting the drive, but if that does not work then formatting should definitely work (provided you have a backup).

Fixes:

1. Run drive checks.

The first thing to do is run Disk Utility or, even better, run a third-party utility program to check out the drive to ensure it is functioning correctly. Fixing any errors may require booting off a volume other than the boot volume (i.e., the Snow Leopard DVD or a Drive Genius DVD), and performing the fixes from there.

2. Repartition the drive.

This problem might happen even if the drive checks out with various disk utility software. The way around this is to have Disk Utility repartition the drive, which, luckily, can be done without having to format the drive. To do this, boot from the Snow Leopard DVD and select your language. Then launch "Disk Utility" from the "Utilities" menu and perform the following steps:

Select your boot device (the device above the boot volume name), and select the "Partition" tab.
Resize the partition by selecting the volume name in the rectangular volume representation and drag the bottom-right corner of it to change its size.
Click "Apply" to change the partition's size.
Revert the change by dragging the same resizing corner back to the bottom, and click "apply."
After this is done, quit out of Disk Utility and try installing Snow Leopard again. Since you are booted from the Snow Leopard DVD you should be able to continue immediately without having to reboot your system.

Workarounds:

1. Format and install.

If you have a full system backup via Time Machine or a drive clone, you can format your boot drive and do a clean install of OS X. To do this, first be sure your backups are complete and accessible, and then boot off the Snow Leopard DVD (click the "Utilities" button instead of "Continue" in the Leopard installer, or reboot and hold the "C" key to boot off the CD/DVD drive). When the installer loads, select your language and then launch "Disk Utility" from the "Utilities" menu and perform the following steps:

Select your boot device (the device above the boot volume name), and select the "Partition" tab.
Select "1 partition" from the drop-down menu, and then give the partition a name and format it as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Click the "options" button and select "GUID" for the partition table.
Close this window and click "Apply" to repartition the table.
Close "Disk Utility" and continue with the Snow Leopard installation.
When the installation completes, migrate your data from your backup to the new system.
 
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