MBP (late 2006) start up problems (overheating?)

[geekypastor]

MBP (late 2006) 2.33 ghz 4 gig ram OSX 10.5.8

Recently, my MBP has had problems starting up. It would act like it is starting up then go to the blue screen of death. After powering on and off a few times, I gave up and let it sit. After trying again later, it finally came on like nothing was wrong. I ran disc utility first in leopard and discovered no problems, then I ran disc utility from my Leopard disc during the startup with the same results that the HDD appears to be OK.

After turning it off a few times trying to get it to boot, I discovered that if I let it completely cool down and unplug the magsafe adapter, it would boot up. But if I leave it plugged in even after it's shut down, it won't boot up. I have noticed the magsafe adapter has been getting very hot when the computer is on. Is it possible that my adapter is overheating the computer? Everything else appears to be working fine.

I'm not sure what to do and if anybody has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. Of course it just went out of warranty, so I'm hoping it's not the logic board.

Thanks!

 

[Pax]

It does sound you might have a power supply problem, whether it's the Magsafe or the guts of the computer I don't know. I guess you could have a short circuit in the power supply somewhere. I would suggest that for safety you unplug your Magsafe from the wall socket and the computer when you are not around.

Some things to try....

Have you tried Hardware Test? It's on one of the install DVDs I think the same one that has Disk Utility

Will it boot from the install DVD? hold down Option while pressing the power button, select the DVD drive as boot drive

Have you tried an SMC reset? The SMC controls a lot of the power functions, so it might be that. apple.com will tell you how to reset the SMC for your model.

Does the battery appear OK? You can see its details in "About this Mac" > More Info > Power. Do you have condition "Normal"? If you unplug the Magsafe does it go to a negative current as the battery runs down, if you wait a ten minutes or so until your battery is below say 95%, and then plug in the Magsafe do you get a positive (charging) current? You will have to press cmd-R to get it to refresh, it takes a minute or so each time. Does it say "charging" both under AC adapter and battery sections?

Does the Magsafe light go red/orange/green like it's supposed to as the battery charges?

When you say the Magsafe gets very hot, do you mean the brick, or the actual magnetic plug with LED which attaches to the computer? I would say the brick can get warm, but not hot, during charging.

Can you scrounge up another Magsafe from a friend or an Apple store and try that?

Best of luck.