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Please help! Attempted to fix screen blackout, now computer won't boot at all

S

spacebetty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 22, 2010
10
0
My MacBook PrO running Snow Leopard started having display issues this morning, screen flickering then half black then all black. It was only the screen because if i shined a flashlight on it, i could still see the content and things working. Rebooted, still the same.

THEN i see a bunch of suggestions online to turn off computer, unplug AC adapter, remove battery, press and hold power button for 5 sec, then reinstall battery, reconnect power, and turn on. I did this and now my computer won't boot up at all! When i press power button it makes the startup chime repeatedly and that's it :(

It won't start in safe mode either.
 
Last edited:
spacebetty said:
My MacBook PrO running Snow Leopard started having display issues this morning, screen flickering then half black then all black. It was only the screen because if i shined a flashlight on it, i could still see the content and things working. Rebooted, still the same.

THEN i see a bunch of suggestions online to turn off computer, unplug AC adapter, remove battery, press and hold power button for 5 sec, then reinstall battery, reconnect power, and turn on. I did this and now my computer won't boot up at all! When i press power button it makes the startup chime repeatedly and that's it :(
Click to expand...

Sounds like a straightforward bring it in to Apple for repair scenario :(
 
spacebetty said:
My MacBook PrO running Snow Leopard started having display issues this morning, screen flickering then half black then all black. It was only the screen because if i shined a flashlight on it, i could still see the content and things working. Rebooted, still the same.
...
Click to expand...
This is a piece of failed hardware. Bring it to an Apple store. Once you hear the price of the repair, you may decide it is time to upgrade. Then again it may be a reasonable cost to repair.
 
Looks like your 8600M just kicked the budget. Translation: new primary logic board time.

Take it to Apple, see if they'll take pity on you even though the repair program concluded last year. If not, better start looking at the current lineup, because you're going to need a new computer.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. :<
 
Seriously, call Apple, the failure rate on that year/model was 99.99% and it's amazing that it's made it this long. If you haven't had a previous repair (and especially if you had AppleCare on the computer) they will sometimes waive the repair fee for that particular issue.
 
Asuriyan said:
Seriously, call Apple, the failure rate on that year/model was 99.99% and it's amazing that it's made it this long. If you haven't had a previous repair (and especially if you had AppleCare on the computer) they will sometimes waive the repair fee for that particular issue.
Click to expand...

Sorry, which particular issue? At the Apple store yesterday they guessed it was a failed logic board.

They can send it out for repair and for a flat fee of $310, everything they find that needs to be fixed will be. Sounds like a great deal, but if i could get them to do something for free that would of course be better :)
 
spacebetty said:
Sorry, which particular issue? At the Apple store yesterday they guessed it was a failed logic board.

They can send it out for repair and for a flat fee of $310, everything they find that needs to be fixed will be. Sounds like a great deal, but if i could get them to do something for free that would of course be better :)
Click to expand...

Most likely you will have to settle for the $310.

The 8600M GT had a production issue. As a consequence Apple decided to offer free repairs for affected laptops out of warranty, but only for machines less than 4 years old. All remaining machines with that GPU are now older than 4 years old. There is a small chance that an Apple store employee will waive the repair fee for this well known problem, but it is not guaranteed.
 
spacebetty said:
Sorry, which particular issue? At the Apple store yesterday they guessed it was a failed logic board.

They can send it out for repair and for a flat fee of $310, everything they find that needs to be fixed will be. Sounds like a great deal, but if i could get them to do something for free that would of course be better :)
Click to expand...

Sorry-- graphics card failure. It happened to every computer with the 8600M graphics chip, Apple or otherwise, and there was a big hullabaloo and a class-action lawsuit that resulted in the computers with that issue being fixed... for a time. There was a deadline to act on that and if I recall it expired last year.

If that turns out to be the issue, it might not hurt to put on your best smile and bring up the repair program, but don't count on anything. $310 isn't horrible anyway.
 
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