Major problem with black macbook startup, possible hard drive problem, in a pickle

[davidhabibian]

Recently my family friend gave me his old black macbook for my birthday. It wasnt bad, it was just fine, only it ALWAYS has to be charging and plugged into the wall otherwise it shuts off. I dont care much about that, its basically a desktop for me.
I had it for a day and a half when a friend recommended i do a software update. I didnt download anything stupid, i just updated itunes, quicktime, and 2 other things. at the end of the update it needed to restart so i did.
When the computer was starting up again, it wouldnt move past the grey screen with the apple sign and that little wheel as if it was loading. i thought maybe thats what macs do after an update, so i left it for a few minutes. after like 20 minutes of being away i came back and the computer was still at that screen. i shut it off for the night and the next morning i had the same problem. I cant get to the homescreen or anything past the grey screen right when you start your computer up. does anyone know what the problem is/what the fee to repair it might be?

 

[Sky Blue]

Hold down command+s, turn the computer on. When the text has stopped scrolling, type:

fsck -fy

hit return.
Once it has finished, type:

exit

Hit return.

 

[belvdr]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1492

Boot in verbose mode.

Where does the system stop booting?

 

[Kat King123]

Hold down option+s, turn the computer on. When the text has stopped scrolling, type:

fsck -fy

hit return.
Once it has finished, type:

exit

Hit return.

lol option-s its command-s
and you type reboot not exit

 

[Sky Blue]

lol option-s its command-s
and you type reboot not exit

You're right about the key, it is command. However, exit will continue the boot process which is what we want, not rebooting the computer.

 

[davidhabibian]

Hold down command+s, turn the computer on. When the text has stopped scrolling, type:

fsck -fy

hit return.
Once it has finished, type:

exit

Hit return.

ive done the command s, when the text stops scrolling it does not let me type.......?

 

[belvdr]

What's the last items on the screen?

 

[Sky Blue]

ive done the command s, when the text stops scrolling it does not let me type.......?

You should get something like this:

At the top of the screen where it says root# you should be able to type in fsck -fy.

 

[davidhabibian]

What's the last items on the screen?

when i hit command s the last thing says "extension "com.apple.drtiver.appleUSBTCKeyEventDriver" has no kernal dependency

when i just run it on it stays on the grey screen with the apple logo and the wheel loading forver and ever

 

[davidhabibian]

You should get something like this:

At the top of the screen where it says root# you should be able to type in fsck -fy.

i held command s and didnt get a screen that looked anything like that, and it wont let me type

 

[Sky Blue]

So the Mac is off, you hold down the command key and the s key at the same time, you turn the machine on, you keep the keys held down and you don't get a black screen with white text?

 

[davidhabibian]

So the Mac is off, you hold down the command key and the s key at the same time, you turn the machine on, you keep the keys held down and you don't get a black screen with white text?

i do get a black screen with white text, but it does not let me type and the text is completley different from the picture that you posted