I have an aluminum macbook with a 2.4Ghz core 2 duo processor. I am the second owner, but I have owned it for about a year and taken good care of it. The other day I was browsing the internet internet and my macbook just turned off. It didnt give any warning or go through a shutdown sequence, it cut the power and turned off all of a sudden. I should tell you that it has done this once before, about a week ago. However, in that case I was able to turn it right back on without any issues. Now, on the other hand, I cannot get it to do anything. No chime, no gray screen. All that happens is the little white light on the lower right side flashes for a brief second. There is no screen activity, and as far as I can tell by holding my ear up to the hard drive it does not start to spin at all. I have attempted to reset the pram and smc, but I have no idea if it is resetting. It was not hot at all when it shut down, it had been sleeping and I had only just started using it. It was still cool to the touch on the case. Does anybody have any idea what could be causing this? I do not have the money to replace the logic board, so I am hoping it is something else. Any help would be very much appreciated.
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unibody macbook unexpectedly shut down, wont turn on
- Thread starter dbaird323
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it could be bad RAM or the RAM is not plugged in. Worth jiggling the RAM in its sockets or removing and re-inserting, and/or borrowing some RAM off someone.
It's possibly a power problem. If you plug in the charger and press the battery indicator button, do the battery indicators lights light up like a bar graph, and does the topmost light flash (indicating that the battery contains charge, and the flashing indicates that the charger is working)?
Can you see the LCD backlight come on at all? (go into a dark room, try to boot it with your face close to the screen, it should turn from pure black to very dark grey)
It's possibly a power problem. If you plug in the charger and press the battery indicator button, do the battery indicators lights light up like a bar graph, and does the topmost light flash (indicating that the battery contains charge, and the flashing indicates that the charger is working)?
Can you see the LCD backlight come on at all? (go into a dark room, try to boot it with your face close to the screen, it should turn from pure black to very dark grey)
unfortunately I do not have any access to other ram, but it has two sticks of factory installed RAM, and I happen to know that both sticks were showing in the system profile before the crash. I find it hard to believe that something happened to both sticks at the same time. the backlight for the screen is not coming on, not even for a brief moment. I have tried this with and without the battery installed, and all of the green LEDs on the side of the computer light up when I press the button, indicating that my battery has a full charge. Could this be anything other than a logic board? I know that these computers go through a self test check when you start it up, and I feel like it is somewhere early in that check where I am encountering my problem, based on the fact that the white light on the lower right corner only flickers and does not stay on for even a full second. Hopefully I will be able to take it in to an authorized repair center tomorrow and get a diagnosis.
As someone else pointed ut the best thing to do is to take the battery out of the computer remove the RAM make sure it is clean then reinsert it. I have had this happen at least twice to a couple people i know and both times (on different macbooks) it fixed it first shot. Apple has easy instructions for changing ram on it's website just follow thoseunfortunately I do not have any access to other ram, but it has two sticks of factory installed RAM, and I happen to know that both sticks were showing in the system profile before the crash. I find it hard to believe that something happened to both sticks at the same time. the backlight for the screen is not coming on, not even for a brief moment. I have tried this with and without the battery installed, and all of the green LEDs on the side of the computer light up when I press the button, indicating that my battery has a full charge. Could this be anything other than a logic board? I know that these computers go through a self test check when you start it up, and I feel like it is somewhere early in that check where I am encountering my problem, based on the fact that the white light on the lower right corner only flickers and does not stay on for even a full second. Hopefully I will be able to take it in to an authorized repair center tomorrow and get a diagnosis.
I took it to an authorized repair center today to have the problem diagnosed. he said the RAM was first on the list of items to check. I will post the outcome on here so anyone with a similar problem can see what caused mine. Thanks for all the insight.
Looks like the issue was a bad logic board. The people at the genius bar said that because my macbook is in good shape they can repair the logic board and any other problems they might find for a flat rate of $280 plus tax. Guess thats better than paying an even more outrageous price for a replacement logic board.
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