New To Forum & New To Mac

[TimOfFlorida]

Greetings all. I'm new to the forum and need some insight. I have been a Dell PC user for my entire computerized life. I had been writing DOS programs before Windows even came out (yeah, I'm old )I can build a PC and many friends have me fix their CPU's or resolve issues for them. I have always wanted to stray into Mac territory because of the remarks others have made about how good they are. Now, I have been afforded that opportunity..."Kind Of"!! A friend gave me a Macbook Pro and I was told by a friend that use macs that it is an older model (Model: A1260). The laptop was given to me with no power adapter and of course, wouldn't start up. He used his adapter and let the batt charge for about 4 hours (he said charge light on his adapter turned green) just to see if it would do anything. All it does at this point when you press the power button is make a sound like the HDD is spinning up (does this for about 3 seconds) but that's it. Before I start putting money into this older laptop, I wanted to see if anyone thought it was worth it to do so. Could it be RAM? My friend also mentioned that if the batt is discharged and won't accept a charge, it may not allow the unit to start up. What do you think? Thanks for the help

 

[Weaselboy]

So you never even get the blank grey pre-boot screen at all? Does it seem that the battery is running out of power before the system can even start to boot?

Confirm this is a 2008 15" Macbook Pro? That is a nice machine and would be a very serviceable computer if you can get it going.

I would be inclined to buy a new battery from Apple and see if that gets things going. If that works, consider maybe throwing a cheap SSD in there with a memory upgrade, and you would have a nice machine.

If you had bad RAM you would get three beeps at startup during POST.

 

[TimOfFlorida]

So you never even get the blank grey pre-boot screen at all? Does it seem that the battery is running out of power before the system can even start to boot?

Confirm this is a 2008 15" Macbook Pro? That is a nice machine and would be a very serviceable computer if you can get it going.

I would be inclined to buy a new battery from Apple and see if that gets things going. If that works, consider maybe throwing a cheap SSD in there with a memory upgrade, and you would have a nice machine.

If you had bad RAM you would get three beeps at startup during POST.

Thanks Weasel. Don't get any screen. Just the sound of the (I think) HDD spinning...that's it. As for confirming the date, it say's on the label under the unit it is a "Model:A1260" Built in 2008. I found an image of it on Yahoo Images by searching the model number and it shows it is an 15" screen. As for the batt, do you think that if the batt is bad it would keep the unit from booting even if being used with a power adapter for the unit? My friend tried using his and it wouldn't boot even when plugged in.
UPDATE:...The only light I see come on is on the very front of the unit (where the button is to open the screen). It comes on when the HDD spins up then goes out. It's almost like it is trying to start.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks Weasel. Don't get any screen. Just the sound of the (I think) HDD spinning...that's it. As for confirming the date, it say's on the label under the unit it is a "Model:A1260" Built in 2008. I found an image of it on Yahoo Images by searching the model number and it shows it is an 15" screen. As for the batt, do you think that if the batt is bad it would keep the unit from booting even if being used with a power adapter for the unit? My friend tried using his and it wouldn't boot even when plugged in.

Hard to say... if the battery is completely shorted, then yes I can see that stopping things from running even when on the charger. That is a decent machine and I think worth the price of a battery to see if you can get it running.

I know with a good, but dead, battery the machine will not start on the charger until the battery has charged a couple minutes. So if the battery won't take any charge at all the machine would not start.