my mbp is dead

[aiterum]

so bascially, i am wondering if there is anything else that i should try before i take this into the apple store tomorrow morning. but here is the skinny.
my computer will not boot at all, neither into leopard or into my XP partition. I cannot get my computer to even load the bootloader thing (holding down alt to choose which partition to boot off of). and it will not recognize or boot off of the installation disc that i have either. I cannot get anything to go past the apple logo on the start up screen (where is safe mode when you need it)


so is there anything tha ti should try before i take it to the store tomorrow. Also there are some files that i didn't have backed up and would like off the hard drive but i don't have a firewire cable anywhere to target drive my mac off an old powerbook that is sitting around ni the basement. should i do this (buy a firewire cable somewhere) before i send it off to the store? (i suspect that it is the mother board or the hdd, so chances are i could lose it)

but yes. my computer is 100% dead as far as i can tell. You might guess that maybe i installed something or modified somehting somewhere but i haven't touched it, and in fact i haven't even been in OSX for the last 2 days, so i don't think that i've touched anything that would effect OSX or the partition table, or the EFI, or anythin gof tha tsort.

advice please

 

[aiterum]

and now my OSX installation disc is stuck in the CD drive. fan-****ing -tastic

 

[matthewscott661]

don't know about the boot issue but if you start the computer while holding down the trackpad button (or just the trackpad if it's a unibody) then the disc should eject.

 

[aiterum]

yea that doesn't work. nothing works (alt doesn't work to get into partitions, c doesn't work to load off cd and it won't go into target disk mode either holding down t)

related question; does the computer actually need to be connected to another computer to go into target disk mode or can i do it by itself. theres no point in me buying a firewire cable to salvage the hdd if it won't go into target disk mode in the first place

edit;
I also replaced my ram with the original 2 x 1 GB sticks and that made no difference

 

[matthewscott661]

Yeah you can do target disk w/o being connected. Before all the OS updates, I could even do target disk on my UB MacBook, and it doesn't even have a firewire port! So if it doesn't work, don't waste your money on the cable quite yet (they are quite pricey).

 

[Zenor]

Have you tried a PRAM reset ?

 

[aiterum]

Have you tried a PRAM reset ?

i didn't actually so thanks for suggesting this. unfortunately, it did the thing where when it starts up, goes black again and then starts up the second time. and then it does the same as before, hangs on a blank white screen.

 

[aiterum]

so i took it in today and it'll take 7-10 days. they think its more than just the hdd so i assume that means motherboard. my OSX install disc is still in there and i told them this, but what are my realistic chances of getting it back?

 

[gusious]

100%. They ought to give you back your cd.

 

[maflynn]

Bummers man, I hope it comes back sooner and better then before