08-24-2009, 04:08 AM

I have a MacBook Pro that is approximately 2 years old. It has always worked fine without any issues at all.
Tonight I was installing some scanner software for a Fujitsu S300M scanner. After installing the software it asked me to reboot so I had reboot. At that time I came back a minute later to see just a black screen.
I then after a couple more minutes decided to hold down the power button and turn off the power since nothing was happening. I then pressed the button again and I saw the light turn on on the button that opens the screen but that is all. There was no startup chime, nothing. All I could hear is at the same time the light came on the optical drive makes it's noise that it makes at bootup.
I have tried repeatly to start the computer. I have pulled both the AC Power and Battery for several minutes with still no luck. As I said just the light comes on and the optical drive makes noise and that's it, no startup chime, nothing.
I don't think this should be related to scanner software and I'm assuming it was a coincidence that it happened then but any idea what could be causing this and can I fix it without a trip to the genius bar?

08-24-2009, 04:35 AM

What happens if u power on and hold down shift key?

08-24-2009, 04:39 AM

I just tried that and the same thing happens.

08-24-2009, 04:51 AM

Will it boot off the install disk, have you reset the PRAM?
There are a number of troubleshooting threads on this forum check them out.

08-24-2009, 04:54 AM

What is the best way to reset the PRAM? I found one solution through Google and that didn't work and now I can't remember which one it was but I am hoping there may be multiple ways to reset it. I am looking for my install disk and will try that.

08-24-2009, 04:58 AM

Depending on model there is this one here

08-24-2009, 05:52 AM

I tried resetting the PRAM and that partly solved my issue. Now when I turn it on it does the startup chime and the screen comes on with the Apple logo and even the circle below where it shows activity that it's booting.
The problem is that's all it does. I have had it on for over 5 minutes.

I then decided to plug in an external hard drive that's a mirror of the internal. I pressed the option key at bootup and it showed 3 hard drives, the first two were the internal hard drive and the 3rd the external.

When I tried the external it booted perfectly. It also did not show the internal hard drive in the finder which I think it should do. Does this mean the internal hard drive may be bad? What confuses me is the hard drive does show at bootup with Option key but it shows twice. Why would it do that? I have even tried selecting both of the internals with no luck.