my old MBP won't start. Can I find its hd from my Mac Pro?

[malch]

Hi there,
My trusty (until today) 2008 MBP won't start. After using it this morning I took my dog for a walk, and came back to a completely black screen (the MBP itself was warm to the touch, by the way); no amount of pressing keys or moving my mouse would wake it up. The only reason I knew it was 'on' is that the little light next to the latch at the front is on. I held down the power button to turn it off, took out the battery, put the battery back in, and pressed the power button. I hear the drive start to make a bit of noise... but then, nothing.
I've tried to zap the PRAM, and nothing gets far enough along to chime.
I inserted my DiskWarrior DVD, and it tried to start, but after a bit of noise... nothing.
So. Any ideas?
I've got a Mac Pro at the other end of my desk. If I attach the two computers with a firewire cable, can I get my Mac Pro to see the hard drive in my laptop?
I know this is called Target Disk Mode or something, but I'm not sure of the right steps.
Any advice would be appreciated!
malch

 

[malch]

My conundrum is this: the official Apple advice re Target Disk Mode says that I should:
"power on the “target” Mac and immediately press and hold the “T” key on the keyboard until you see a gray screen with a floating FireWire logo".

That would be fine if my MacBook Pro would start up to that point. But it won't.

So I guess my question is. Now that my (not-working) MBP and my Mac Pro are connected via a fw cable, is there a way for me to make my Mac Pro 'see' my MBP's hard drive in the same way it would see a normal, external fw drive?

malch

 

[Mac.User]

If your MacBook uses a regular SATA HDD then take it out of your laptop and plug it into one of the empty HDD slots on your Mac pro. Then boot your Mac pro and see if you can read the drive.

 

[malch]

thanks for the advice. I've got an SSD drive in the MBP. So I guess I should try to take it out, put it in a fw or USB enclosure, and connect to my Mac Pro?malch

 

[malch]

I've now taken the Time Capsule that backed up my old MBP, and connected it via ethernet to my Mac Pro.
My Mac Pro sees this Time Capsule (all 921 GB of it), but it's a Sparse Disk Image Bundle, and double-clicking on it doesn't do anything.
Any suggestions would be most welcome...
malch

 

[Scott7975]

thanks for the advice. I've got an SSD drive in the MBP. So I guess I should try to take it out, put it in a fw or USB enclosure, and connect to my Mac Pro?malch

This confuses me. If you have an SSD then how did you hear it make noise?

 

[Mac.User]

This confuses me. If you have an SSD then how did you hear it make noise?

I think he's confusing the fan with the HDD noise.

 

[Scott7975]

I think he's confusing the fan with the HDD noise.

I believe so too. Could be his fan took a crap and the processor is overheated. If so he could wait for it to cool down and try and start it then.

 

[malch]

Hi there,
I was confused—you're right. It must be the DiskWarrior DVD that is in there.
It tries to launch, I think (can't see the screen so I don't know what's going on), and then fails (or not). Anyway, the bottom line is, a black screen, with no noise after about 20 seconds.
I think I'm going to have to try to get the SSD out...
regards, malch

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By the way, though... is there a way for me to get key files from my MacBook Pro's Time Capsule backup? As I mentioned, I can see this Time Capsule from my Mac Pro window, but I can't open it. It's a Sparse Disk Image Bundle...
malch

 

[malch]

O.K. a couple things as of this morning.
MBP had all night to cool down, and didn't start this morning. Same few whirrings from the DiskWarrior DVD, and then nothing. Screen only black.

So... does that eliminate the fan as the culprit?
The hard drive is not the problem. I opened up the MBP this morning after not being able to start it, and took out the SSD. Popped it in a USB enclosure, and it appeared on my Mac Pro desktop in good working order.

If it's not the hard drive and not the fan, is the most likely culprit, then, the processor?
If so, is that an expensive thing to fix?
If it's not the processor, what else might it be?
thanks for any help,
malch

 

[Scott7975]

Does it actually start and just get no screen or does it start and then shut off? Maybe your display took a crap? Maybe the cable to the display went bad? Maybe its the drive cable and your mac cant read anything off the drive? There could be a lot of different things wrong.

 

[malch]

Very interesting, Scott.
Without anything on the screen (that is, it's just black) I've not really been able to tell what's going on. But from listening to it, it seems to me that it tries to start, and then just goes to sleep. At one point I wondered if my password prompt was on the screen, so I entered my password and hit Return, but I don't know if anything happened. I think it's just asleep, though: the little light near the front latch is dimly on, and I don't hear any sounds from the drive.
And now the drive is out, and I'm copying critical files over to my Mac Pro drive.
If I take the MBP in to Apple service, is there some simple test they can do to check the display? (I don't want to spend a lot trying to find out what's wrong, if I end up having to spend my hard-earned dollars on a new machine).
Regards,
malch

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by the way (I hate to start a new thread to ask)—does anyone know how I can get my DiskWarrior DVD out of the MBP? right now the whole thing is opened up on my desk. (no hd, no battery, etc.; but even when it did have a hd and a battery, before I took it apart, I couldn't eject the DVD).
I have to leave town until tomorrow, so if I don't write back right away to thank someone for advice, forgive me. I'll be back Sunday night.
malch

 

[snaky69]

Your 2008 MBP has the nVidia 8600GT graphics card. This graphics card has been known for quite a few years to be a ticking time bomb. A manufacturing fault on the dye makes them all die prematurely.

What you need to fix your MBP is a brand new logic board. Thing is, you're a bit out of luck, as nVidia had a recall and extended the warranty on that graphics card to 4 years from date of purchase due to a class action suit. That program ended last year, on december 7th 2012, so you're out of luck.

The gist of it is this: recover your files by pulling out your hard drive and sticking it in an enclosure, and then, you have a few choices:

-Your MBP is now an expensive paperweight.
-You could pull out the logic board and attempt to reflow it by putting it in the over for a few minutes. It's toast anyway, what have you got to lose?
-Or, you can head over to the nearest Apple store and get them to swap a new one in for either a flat repair fee (about $300) or an exorbitant $900 depending on what the genius feels like that day.