Strange "Alarm" on new MacBook at power on

[pw1981]

I just gave my wife a MacBook for her birthday. Its a 2.4Ghz with 2GB of RAM. (White if that matters)

Its only been booted about 5 times by us. On three of those occasions, immediately after pushing the power button, the screen comes on but does not display anything and a loud beeping alarm sounds while the standby light (next to the IR receiver) flashes in unison with the alarm.

To correct the problem, it is only necessary to push the power button again to turn off the machine. Then turn it back on and it boots normally.

I did some searching on the interweb and didn't find anything, so any help or advice is appreciated before I take it to the not-so-Genius bar in Tampa.

Thanks in advance!

-Phil

 

[matt321]

It's trying to do a firmware update... This happens when you hold the power button down for ~5 seconds or more. My guess is you're either holding the power button down for too long or that the power button gets stuck down when you turn it on.

 

[Yoda3984]

I have this happen to me when the power button on my MacBook gets stuck. Kind of annoying to try and get un-stuck, too. . .

 

[pw1981]

Just an update on this....

I took it to the Apple Store and they diagnosed the problem as a bad logic board as the computer was booting with an EFI error and would not allow them to load an EFI update.

The tech recommended I have the Apple Online Sales people issue an RMA and a replacement rather than repairing a 3 week old laptop. So, since then, I have been trying to get that return and exchange accomplished.

Today, after my third call to Apple, I am finally in posession of my shiping label for the return. Heaven only knows when I will get the replacement at this point.

Are Apple's returns usually this complicated?

 

[muldul]

My return was amazingly quick and uncomplicated. I called apple about my problems with my macbook on the thursday afternoon, they emailed me a number told me to write it on the macbook box with the macbook in and give it to the UPs man who would arrange a pick up. They dispatched a new macbook and it was on my door friday morning, i had time to transfer all my data from my old macbook to my new one before the UPs guy collected it.

 

[hlsingmast]

My brand new MacBook Pro did this today - I took it in and they said the alarm means its something with the hard ware - could be a number of things. In my case, they quickly diagonosed it as the additional RAM that my company had installed in the computer. They took it out, replaced it and I was on my way with a working Mac!