Sister's MB won't turn on... Suggestions?

[LtRammstein]

Hey all. Thanks for anyone that can give me advice on this issue.

I'm fairly good at fixing my sister's Late 2006 MacBook if it breaks down, but this time is a bit odd.

She goes to college in the middle of nowhere, and there's no good Apple support place she can go to, and I kinda don't want to her to send her laptop to Apple because she does not have AppleCare.

It started a couple days ago, she plugged her MacBook in on her desk and went to class. That night, she needed to read some marketing material, and unplugged the laptop from the wall, laid down on her bed and started reading the material and all of a sudden, the computer shuts off.

She tried restarting it, got the the Apple Logo screen, then shuts off again.

I had her zap the PRAM, thinking it was a power distribution issue on the BIOS, but it won't turn on, period. I'm afraid that zapping the PRAM make the issue worse, but shouldn't have.

I can't think of anything else to do besides having her send it in to Apple.

Lastly, I was searching Apple Support Docs on the issue, and nothing I found to work, and they even suggested zapping the PRAM and PMU.

Could it be that the power supply shorted, or something that distributed power short/fry?

Any help would be great!

 

[BlueRevolution]

Can she boot to the computer's restore disks?

 

[shadownddust]

What about starting up with the battery removed...?

 

[toolbox]

When this occurs is the unit hot?

 

[bizzle]

Remove all power which includes the battery and hold the power button for 10 seconds, reinstall battery and try again.

If that does not resolve the issue it could be related to a few things, main logic board, DC-in board or battery connector/sleep switch. The top case also could be shorting something out. I would remove the top case http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/MacBook-Core-Duo/86, jam a screw driver in the connector where the top case plugs in with the computer plugged in. Use one big enough to fit in the port and touch most of the pins at the same time (T8 size works best). This will jump the pins that are related to the power button and I promise you, if you do it right it will turn on and will not fry anything. If it boots normally, your top case is bad. Again, this part is the least likely culprit.

 

[BlueRevolution]

I would not disassemble the computer unless you have no other option. It's something to be done when you know what the problem is and want to repair it, not for diagnosis. Sorry to be so blunt, but that's terrible advice.