Simple fix?

It could be as simple as reinstalling the OS or replacing the HDD, but since the is no folder with a question mark visible, it could be something else entirely, as that folder with a question mark at least indicates a that it is working, just that the OS has not been found.

 

If you have Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will not work with Core Duo MacBooks) or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (will not work with several MacBooks) or their installers on a bootable external medium, you could check, if the HDD is alright or if it is even bootable.

 

Where do you see or where does it mention the question mark, went there no question mark!

Yes, you can boot of an external HD, if it starts up from it see if it has any lag, if there is no lag and everything works it should be OK except for the OS or the HD.
You can also hold Command-V at startup and see where it hangs.

 

I guess you meant that for me?
As there is no visible question mark, it is not a good sign, but one could still test.

If you have Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on any kind of bootable medium, even the installer, take that.
As for the charger, if you have one already, use that. I would only take it after testing it.

 

Somehow my comment was not iclude in this post.

I misread the post, thought it was the OP.

If there is no question mark it could be a corrupt OS or the HD, the OP could also try a safe boot, see if it boots up, and do a verbose boot by holding Command-V at startup.

MacRumors was offline?

 

You mentioned an external HDD you want to take with you. What is on it?

As for a bootable medium, you either clone one of your Macs to an external HDD via CarbonCopyCloner (version 3.4.7 is still free) and SuperDuper! (leaving out your user directory after creating another admin account just for the purpose of checking the MB), or you download Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion again from the Mac App Store (MAS) ( Mac OS X 10.7 Lion might be a bit harder though) and make a bootable install medium on a 4 GB or 8 GB USB flash storage thumb drive.

If you want to make a bootable installation medium, you can follow these steps:

• Lion DiskMaker

• Create bootable installation medium for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
• Create bootable installation medium for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
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It does not have recovery if it's pre Lion, so you can press what you want it won't work.

Try what I say, do a safe boot by holding the Shift key at startup, keep it pressed until you see the spinner, and also try the Vebose Mode by holding Command-V to see where it hangs, write it down and post here.

 

Too bad, only option is to install a new OS on the internal or an external and see if you can repair the HD, provided Disk Utility will see the internal HD.

 

You can't just copy the file over, that does not work, you have to restore it to the thumb drive.
Do you have another Mac, if so it's fairly easy, is the image a DMG or an ISO, if it's a DMG it is not possible to do this on a PC, well not by default, there might be a way but I am not aware of any right now..

 

What is the name of that file, is it Installesd.dmg or something similar?

You could follow the post you quoted but that's for Lion and ML, if you have an earlier image it's fairly simple:

Open Disk Utility, click the USB stick then on restore, you'll see a source and a target there, choose image and point it to the image you downloaded, then hit restore, it will take a bit of time dependable on how fast the USB stick is, I guess it will take 15-20 minutes or even more.

 

Erm, I think I have to explain a bit more here, that is an App to help you to extract and restore Lion to a USB stick, this does NOT include the OS, you need to get hold of a copy of OS X Lion before even using this tool.

BUT, you should first check if that Macbook can run Lion, any Macbook except the first release can run Lion, so what is the model.

Now, lets say yours can run Lion you need to download/purchase Lion first.

 

Ok, so do what I suggested above, open Disk Utility, click on USB, then restore, click on image, a window will open where you choose the Snow Leopard.dmg, and then restore, that's it.

Similar to screenshot below.

Edit: This will create a Mac OS X Installer, not a bootable OS X, it will boot into the installer and allows you to install a new OS on the Macbook and/or repair the HD.