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Must turn MBP on and off 5 times to startup - how to fix?

M

Molecule

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 19, 2010
107
0
Problem: Macbook Pro has to be turned on and off five times before it will startup. There is a deathly beep the first time you turn it on. After turning it on and off five times, everything works fine.

Specs: MacBook Pro 5,5 (aka Mid-2009 13inch model)

Background: It first happened when I attempted to install Linux allongside OS X. For some reason, this nearly killed the poor thing. I was able to ressurect it by living exclusively in Linux-land for a while. After wiping the disk and putting Snow Leopard on it, the problem still persists.


How can I fix this?


P.S. I don't live near an Apple Store, so a visit to the Genius Bar is out of the question. And other computer technians cost money, which is something I don't have very much of right now.



Thanks in advance for any replies :)
Molecule
 
Last edited:
UPDATE:

Just uploaded video to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPdRlUavork (sorry, I'm not sure how to embed on MR). Also, I must appologise for the awful quality of the video - it was filmed on a cheap (and I mean really cheap) mobile phone. It was the only video camera I had at hand, unfortunately. Still, I think it manages to get the point across. I hope :)
 
That beep in the beginning is very disturbing. Could you get a better recording of it so we can determine which component is causing the problem?

It could be that your hard drive is damaged, which could explain why it's still persisting.
 
Thanks for the quick response :)

I will try to get a better sound recording if I can. I had a look over at the guides over at Cult of Mac after posting my update, and it looks as if it could well be the hard drive...or possibly the RAM. The odd thing is that it only started after I used Bootcamp to install Linux alongside OS X, though the hard drive has been wiped multiple times and has had a couple of different operating systems on it, yet the problem has persisted. Is it possible that Bootcamp somehow permanantly mangled the hard drive?



Molecule
 
Molecule said:
Thanks for the quick response :)

I will try to get a better sound recording if I can. I had a look over at the guides over at Cult of Mac after posting my update, and it looks as if it could well be the hard drive...or possibly the RAM. The odd thing is that it only started after I used Bootcamp to install Linux alongside OS X, though the hard drive has been wiped multiple times and has had a couple of different operating systems on it, yet the problem has persisted. Is it possible that Bootcamp somehow permanantly mangled the hard drive?



Molecule
Click to expand...

Maybe. It's impossible to get physical damage from a software malfunction, so I can't tell for sure.
 
Molecule said:
Thanks for the quick response :)

I will try to get a better sound recording if I can. I had a look over at the guides over at Cult of Mac after posting my update, and it looks as if it could well be the hard drive...or possibly the RAM. The odd thing is that it only started after I used Bootcamp to install Linux alongside OS X, though the hard drive has been wiped multiple times and has had a couple of different operating systems on it, yet the problem has persisted. Is it possible that Bootcamp somehow permanantly mangled the hard drive?



Molecule
Click to expand...

Have you tried the basic fixes yet? Like resetting SMC and PRAM?
Also, you can try turning to page 55 and taking a look at this too.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MacBook_Pro_13inch_Mid2009.pdf
 
I'm fairly certain that your memory is bad.

As it has been already mentioned, software will not cause hardware to malfunction unless you are messing with frequency and/or voltage.
 
Molecule said:
Problem: Macbook Pro has to be turned on and off five times before it will startup. There is a deathly beep the first time you turn it on. After turning it on and off five times, everything works fine.

Specs: MacBook Pro 5,5 (aka Mid-2009 13inch model)

Background: It first happened when I attempted to install Linux allongside OS X. For some reason, this nearly killed the poor thing. I was able to ressurect it by living exclusively in Linux-land for a while. After wiping the disk and putting Snow Leopard on it, the problem still persists.


How can I fix this?


P.S. I don't live near an Apple Store, so a visit to the Genius Bar is out of the question. And other computer technians cost money, which is something I don't have very much of right now.



Thanks in advance for any replies :)
Molecule
Click to expand...

Your power connector is probably failing. This happened to me a few years ago with a Compaq Presario R300 pc. We would have to fidget with the power button quite a lot, and move around the power cord in order to get it on. As soon as it was on though, everything was fine and dandy.

However, after a month or two of that, the entire computer just died. The power connector on the board shorted, frying the mother board. So, before you continue this habit for too long, get it into apple so they can check everything out.
 
Finally managed to get a recording of the beep uploaded (one that actually works). The main challenge was converting the recording into a format the internet would accept. The second challenge was finding somewhere to put it. With those two things out of the way, I can finally present to you...THE BEEP!
http://www.houndbite.com/?houndbite=28171

If anyone knows what this is, any help would be much appreciated :)


Molecule
 
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