Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Problems, one after another.....:/

TehFalcon

TehFalcon

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 6, 2011
1,148
1,117
United States
Alright! Where to start. I Got a Near New Condition MacBook on eBay for $200, Whats the catch? Bad Battery and broken CD Drive. I Didn't care, bought it, and got it about a half a week ago. Loving it, its running Lion 10.7.1 and its great. Either way I Ordered 4gb of PC2-5300S Hynix Ram and A New Battery, I Didn't care about the DVD Drive as practically everything now is download or USB. I Got the Battery and ram today and Installed the ram made sure it was in correctly and all the way in, I Get a blank screen, no bong sound, and A Fast Flashing sleep light, looked up what it mean and it means the ram isn't all the way in or needs to be reseated, I Reseated the ram, swapped the chips in different slots and same thing happens. I Took out one of the 2gb chips and it booted fine, well by fine i mean not so good. It boots i login and open safari. Safari starts crashing and eventually i just it down and I get 3 long beeps and a 3 Sleep light blink every 2 seconds. I Swap the 2gb with the other 2gb and it doesn't boot and does the fast sleep light blinking. I Put back in the 2x 512mb PC2-5300S Hynix ram and it boots and works wonderfully, I Figure the ram is bad, so i am going to get them replaced. Now for the next part, the battery is brand new, so I Am charging it to start its first power Cycling. Well the magsafe light isn't on most of the time on the power adapter and once it reached 80% it turned red (red means charging if I'm correct??) So i disregard it, then it hits 84% and the Power Percentage blinks from Not Charging to 84% and the light on the magsafe is switching from green to red.. Its now at 85% and the magsafe off and its still changes from Not Charging to 85% but not as fast as it was on 84%

Any Ideas??? :/ Sorry for the long post, at least you know how my day went!

MacBook Specs:

MacBook "White" 2.0ghz C2D (Mid 2007)
2gb ram
250gb 7200rpm HDD
Mac OS X 10.7.1
 
Last edited:
The white MacBooks suffer from the logic board defect, I have one that started to show the battery faults as you describe them, we were able to used for a while until it was not charging at all, but we were fully dependent on the power from the MagSafe adapter. After some months it died.

The repair is to get a new logic board, that will cost way more than what you paid for it, and also they are not as available as other components.
Check here for spare parts and repair instructions:
www.ifixit.com

Check here for RAM testing:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Testing_RAM
 
McGiord said:
The white MacBooks suffer from the logic board defect, I have one that started to show the battery faults as you describe them, we were able to used for a while until it was not charging at all, but we were fully dependent on the power from the MagSafe adapter. After some months it died.

The repair is to get a new logic board, that will cost way more than what you paid for it, and also they are not as available as other components.
Check here for spare parts and repair instructions:
www.ifixit.com

Check here for RAM testing:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Testing_RAM
Click to expand...

Kidding me! D:::::

But it runs great? The battery and Ram were the only issues.. Plus Tell the truth the battery is chinese it isn't Apple Branded.. So it could very well be the battery, plus the magsafe power adapter is definitely old. If I Put new ram and get a new magsafe could it help?? Gosh i don't wanna loose my macbook D':
 
WAM2 said:
Kidding me! D:::::

But it runs great? The battery and Ram were the only issues.. Plus Tell the truth the battery is chinese it isn't Apple Branded.. So it could very well be the battery, plus the magsafe power adapter is definitely old. If I Put new ram and get a new magsafe could it help?? Gosh i don't wanna loose my macbook D':
Click to expand...

I did replace the MagSafe adapter, it seemed to work fine for some days, but it didn't last long enough. I am talking about my MacBook experience (actually was my wife using it), but while in a similar situation I searched a lot online, and there was a common condition, this was late 2006 MacBook 2.0Ghz Intel Core Duo 2 processor, also the plastic case always cracks on the palm rest area.
And to be honest with you, I am not sure if there was a spill accident on my wife's MacBook, as our kids were all over it and it is highly likely that some drinks were spilled onto it, or my 1 year old at the time, maybe was chewing on the cord, and with the saliva created a short.

Give it a try, your MacBook might be in better shape than mine, every computer has their own history.
- MagSafe adapter
- New Battery
- Good RAM
Perform the Hardware Test, and good luck!
 
I *think* those early macbooks, that use the core duo (which require the hacked installer) will only run with 3.33GB of ram or less, since they're 32-bit systems.

Also, with the battery, you're going to want to try a new DC-DC charger board. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Macbo...ltDomain_0&hash=item25678ceb9c#ht_3603wt_1348

Replacing that (similar) board in powerbook G4s sometimes resolves the charging issue.

All you need to do to replace that is remove the keyboard, and pry out the old one, there also are 2 screws in the battery compartment holding the battery end in place.

Don't bother with the DVD drive, unless you plan on reselling it. Superdrives will cost you $40+ on eBay. I got a MBP 15" for just $50, so that price was very hard to swallow for me, lol.
 
Ive never heard of that RAM type and its might not be completely compatable with your macbook, maybe someone got lucky but its not sounding good to me, i would solve that problem then look at your battery

i would clean the connectors on your magsafe and the connector on the computer with alcohol and a Qtip, but if and only after you solve your RAM problem
 
kbfr08 said:
I *think* those early macbooks, that use the core duo (which require the hacked installer) will only run with 3.33GB of ram or less, since they're 32-bit systems.

Also, with the battery, you're going to want to try a new DC-DC charger board. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Macbo...ltDomain_0&hash=item25678ceb9c#ht_3603wt_1348

Replacing that (similar) board in powerbook G4s sometimes resolves the charging issue.

All you need to do to replace that is remove the keyboard, and pry out the old one, there also are 2 screws in the battery compartment holding the battery end in place.

Don't bother with the DVD drive, unless you plan on reselling it. Superdrives will cost you $40+ on eBay. I got a MBP 15" for just $50, so that price was very hard to swallow for me, lol.
Click to expand...

Well my macbook is the Core 2 Duo Mid 2007 Version. Hmm that battery connector board looks promising but idk. $50 for a MBP? Great job man. I Took me 2 months to land $200 on a macbook and get it.. All these collage and high school kids buying all the Mac Laptops on eBay!

----------
session101 said:
Ive never heard of that RAM type and its might not be completely compatable with your macbook, maybe someone got lucky but its not sounding good to me, i would solve that problem then look at your battery

i would clean the connectors on your magsafe and the connector on the computer with alcohol and a Qtip, but if and only after you solve your RAM problem
Click to expand...

Well the ram is actually DDR2 PC2-5300S 667Mhz SDRAM Which is what the MacBooks come with so it should be fully compatible.

As for the ram problem I Got 2gb of ram working in the macbook with 2 1gb sticks i had laying around, its been running fine for more than a day, so i guess the sticks I got were bad.

----------
McGiord said:
I did replace the MagSafe adapter, it seemed to work fine for some days, but it didn't last long enough. I am talking about my MacBook experience (actually was my wife using it), but while in a similar situation I searched a lot online, and there was a common condition, this was late 2006 MacBook 2.0Ghz Intel Core Duo 2 processor, also the plastic case always cracks on the palm rest area.
And to be honest with you, I am not sure if there was a spill accident on my wife's MacBook, as our kids were all over it and it is highly likely that some drinks were spilled onto it, or my 1 year old at the time, maybe was chewing on the cord, and with the saliva created a short.

Give it a try, your MacBook might be in better shape than mine, every computer has their own history.
- MagSafe adapter
- New Battery
- Good RAM
Perform the Hardware Test, and good luck!
Click to expand...

Mines the Mid 2007 which is the year they fixed the Logic Board problems I Think.. I Got new ram, new battery, and a new hard drive and it runs great, its just keeps doing the not charging thing, but I'm sure a new magsafe adapter will fix that. Mine does have the chips on the top case, but that was an issue until 2009 macbook, and the top cases get free replacements still at the apple stores so yeh!
 
Last edited:
Hacked Installer

I'm interested in the hacked installer you mentioned. I have a core 2 duo but only 1gb of ram. if i could get a hold of that installer I could run lion:) If you could get me a link or point me in the right diretion it would be greatly appreciated!
 
I know the 2.4ghz Macbooks will run 4 GB. I have a late 2007 white 13.3" that I use still to this day with no problems. Not sure, but 3.33 GB comment above could be your problem with 2.0ghz model. Don't think the logic board is any different between the two though, so it's puzzling to say the least.

I recently replaced my battery and magsafe adaptor and haven't had any problems with the new stuff. Old battery stopped charging. Was just green all the time on the magsafe port.

You can get magsafe power adaptor off amazon for around 36 bucks + shipping.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back