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White Screen when I turn on My MBP

S

Smgkw

macrumors member
Original poster
May 25, 2008
38
0
I Bought My refurbished 15 in MBP last june, a couple days ago I tried to turn on my laptop, and outa the blue it stopped working. Id hear the start up chime and the screen would light up. But thats all I got a white screen.

I live in Kuwait, we do not have any mac/ apple stores, all we have here are authorized resellers. They are taking advantage of the situation by upping the prices and profiting atleast 100% on most of the Items.

They told me that my hard disk malfunctioned, they say its not fixable, and to replace it I would have to pay 120 KD ( around $450)

I asked about apples worldwide one year warranty, they told me they need the receipt (which I dont have) and it would take two months and they might be able to do it.

Could I get a white screen from a hard disk malfunction? Is the warranty really that hard to obtain, specially without a receipt (doesn't each laptop have a serial number) Finally if all they said is true does a new 250 gb hard disk really cost that much? If anyone has any suggestions please help me as I am in a terrible plight. Thanks all :)
 
Smgkw said:
I Bought My refurbished 15 in MBP last june, a couple days ago I tried to turn on my laptop, and outa the blue it stopped working. Id hear the start up chime and the screen would light up. But thats all I got a white screen.

I live in Kuwait, we do not have any mac/ apple stores, all we have here are authorized resellers. They are taking advantage of the situation by upping the prices and profiting atleast 100% on most of the Items.

They told me that my hard disk malfunctioned, they say its not fixable, and to replace it I would have to pay 120 KD ( around $450)

I asked about apples worldwide one year warranty, they told me they need the receipt (which I dont have) and it would take two months and they might be able to do it.

Could I get a white screen from a hard disk malfunction? Is the warranty really that hard to obtain, specially without a receipt (doesn't each laptop have a serial number) Finally if all they said is true does a new 250 gb hard disk really cost that much? If anyone has any suggestions please help me as I am in a terrible plight. Thanks all :)
Click to expand...

sounds like a video issue, harddrive would not likely cause that issue.

does your macbook pro sport a 8600GT?

MMM
 
Well, first off, I would call Apple ASAP! Especially if you didn't buy AppleCare! That being said! Drop the money on AppleCare immediately!(Will still be cheaper than paying those guys to put a new HDD in it!) Especially if that's not the problem.

You can go to Apple's Support page and check out your warranty info, the serial number is shown when you click on the Apple, and then go to About This Mac. Type that into their website and it will give you a rough estimate of when the warranty runs out. But I am not 100% because I've never needed my mac fixed while I was overseas, but I assume that they will do what they tried to do with my iPhone, ship you a box, and then you put the computer in it and ship it back, and then they fix it and ship it back to you.

Hope this helps a little, as for the white screen, I can't remember, exactly, from my time as an Apple Tech, but I would say that it is most likely the LogicBoard, not the HD...which is way more expensive. Has it gotten wet?
 
3rdLittlePiggie said:
Well, first off, I would call Apple ASAP! Especially if you didn't buy AppleCare! That being said! Drop the money on AppleCare immediately!(Will still be cheaper than paying those guys to put a new HDD in it!) Especially if that's not the problem.

You can go to Apple's Support page and check out your warranty info, the serial number is shown when you click on the Apple, and then go to About This Mac. Type that into their website and it will give you a rough estimate of when the warranty runs out. But I am not 100% because I've never needed my mac fixed while I was overseas, but I assume that they will do what they tried to do with my iPhone, ship you a box, and then you put the computer in it and ship it back, and then they fix it and ship it back to you.

Hope this helps a little, as for the white screen, I can't remember, exactly, from my time as an Apple Tech, but I would say that it is most likely the LogicBoard, not the HD...which is way more expensive. Has it gotten wet?
Click to expand...

I can't get the serial number because my mac doesn't open all I get is a lit up white screen is there a serial number like somewher under the batery or somethng
 
K so I get the serial go to apple website check if I still have the warrenty if not I get apple care and they'll send me abox which ill put my mbp and resend.
Will the shipping cost be on me?

No it hasn't gotten wet and it didn't fall, this was just outa the blue :s
 
Smgkw said:
K so I get the serial go to apple website check if I still have the warrenty if not I get apple care and they'll send me abox which ill put my mbp and resend.
Will the shipping cost be on me?

No it hasn't gotten wet and it didn't fall, this was just outa the blue :s
Click to expand...


all of apple warranty is prepaid, you wont have to pay anything.

if your not under warranty you cannot add apple care, it can only be done within the first years warranty period. to extend it a total of 3 years including the year covered from purchase.
 
Is there a way that I don't lose my saved data on the laptop? I haven't backed it up so I would be losing a lot of ireplacable files...
 
Smgkw said:
Is there a way that I don't lose my saved data on the laptop? I haven't backed it up so I would be losing a lot of ireplacable files...
Click to expand...

back it up before you send it...if you have another mac...if not you will have to have the harddrive removed and backed up.
 
MacModMachine said:
back it up before you send it...if you have another mac...if not you will have to have the harddrive removed and backed up.
Click to expand...

I took it to anothr shop, they told me the problem is with the hard drive, so I put it in a case and I'm going to try to back up the info on my freinds macbook. If that works then ill return then ill return the harddisk and send it to apple to be fixed under warranty.
:) thanks all for your help
 
So I have been doing some thinking, and from what I recall from my time as a portable tech at iResQ (http://www.iresq.com), the white screen, with the chime, would not be the HD, especially if you can hear a chime and back it up...have you tried plugging in an external monitor? If you plug it in and it works, then its the LCD cable, which has a tendency to go out from time to time, and if its still a white screen you know its the Logic Board. The Cable is cheap and realtively easy to replace, the LB, is pricey and if it is, and you really haven't gotten it wet, and you still have Apple Warranty, I would call them immediately.
 
Have you tried resetting the PRAM and repairing permissions? That's the first thing that I would try to do...
 
3rdLittlePiggie said:
So I have been doing some thinking, and from what I recall from my time as a portable tech at iResQ (http://www.iresq.com), the white screen, with the chime, would not be the HD, especially if you can hear a chime and back it up...have you tried plugging in an external monitor? If you plug it in and it works, then its the LCD cable, which has a tendency to go out from time to time, and if its still a white screen you know its the Logic Board. The Cable is cheap and realtively easy to replace, the LB, is pricey and if it is, and you really haven't gotten it wet, and you still have Apple Warranty, I would call them immediately.
Click to expand...

One thing I forgot to mention is that I have boot camp intalled to my mac. To switch to windows I have to restart my laptop and hold alt till I get two icons to choose from either mac or windows.
Well when the mbp malfunctioned I tried turning it off then on again and holding alt, when I did that the wouse cursor showed. It still froze but maybe that rules out the monitor malfunction ?
 
I got the white screen too. It ended up being a bad memory module. Only had the MBP for 1 month when this happened. Apple replace the memory module and it was fixed. Underwarranty of course.

brett
 
jbrettz said:
I got the white screen too. It ended up being a bad memory module. Only had the MBP for 1 month when this happened. Apple replace the memory module and it was fixed. Underwarranty of course.

brett
Click to expand...

You were right I took it to another shop (not official mac shop) a computer technician, he told me that it was in fact a bad memory module so he replaced the old one with a new one for 40 kd ( $100) that was the up side.

The down side my mac is a refurbished mac that did not come with a Mac OS X Cd. The shop owner used his own cd or something like that. So should I keep his Operating System or should I contact apple n see if they can provide me with one. Cus I dont have many of the programs that came with the mac like pages, and garage band and a working quicktime player. If I were to contact apple where can I do that? is there an email cus long distance calls are expensive ;s ? Thanks all again for ur help :)
 
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