03-07-2012, 01:37 PM

Hi all. I'm new to the forum and a PC guy by trade (please don't hate me ). I've been asked by a coworker to look into an issue that has been plaguing their 13" MacBook (Model A1181) for a while now. Initially the owners complaint was that the MacBook wasn't always booting and when it did, it wouldn't progress past the login screen. Since the MacBook has been in my possession (a couple months), I've noticed that it very rarely boots up and this has been getting progressively worse from my observations.

Most times when I push the power button, the white LED on the front right corner lights up, but no hardware cycles. Sometimes the light will shut itself off after ~10 seconds, and other times I have to hold the power button for 5 seconds for the light to shut off. The only sound heard at all during this is a 1-second somewhat-high-pitched hum and a quiet-click from the harddrive as the light goes off. The screen does not light up at all.

It seems if I let it sit for a few hours on my desk, I can sometime get it to actually power up and start to boot. The rare times it does begin to power up, I hear the fans and HDD cycle up right away after turning the power on. The startup chime occurs and it goes to the screen with the apple symbol, but usually freezes somewhere around here. I have been unable to get it to safe mode or to flash the PRAM, but I suspect this is largely due to my unfamiliarity with Mac boot procedures and I don't think I ever contorted my hands in time to hit the Option-Command-R-P combo

I have tried booting off just the battery. I have tried booting with the battery and AC plugged in. I have also tried booting with the battery removed and AC plugged in. It seems I can get the same inconsistent results regardless of battery/AC combination.

I have removed the hard-drive and tried powering up, but I only ever get the white LED turning on and then off again after holding the power button in.

In my searches I have come across two somewhat common opinions: Either the logic-board is faulty, or the PRAM battery is completely drained. I have explained to my coworker that if it is the logic-board, repair is likely not worth while. PRAM battery is at least inexpensive to try, but will take a fair bit of my time as the entire MacBook needs to be taken apart to access it.

I'm optimistically leading towards the PRAM being completely dead based on some battery observations over the years, plus the *quote and link* at the bottom of this post. Many times in life I have dealt with "dead" batteries that magically get a little bit of juice restored after sitting completely idle and untouched for a while. Since the most consistent times I can get this MacBook to actually power up is after I have left it completely untouched for several hours, then I can get a few startup-cycles before it goes completely silent again.

Before I proceed with any financial investment to getting this MacBook operating again, I was hoping to get some feedback from some more Mac-Savvy individuals than myself.

Thanks in advance for any potential help!


Colin




*Quote*


What if there is no power to PRAM? There are a few possibilities of what may happen if your battery goes dead and there is no power to PRAM. the most common situation is that you will notice that every time you turn your computer off, your clock time, network settings, monitor settings, mouse speed, or highlight color get set back to the factory defaults. The logic is simple, no power means no memory and your computer just forgets.

The second most likely situation is that your computer will just refuse to do anything at all when you try to turn it on. This is either because your computer needs just that little bit of power to register that the power key on the keyboard has been pressed or the battery, on its way to the grave, scrambled the PRAM enough that the computer has no clue what it is supposed to do.

Source: Tip #17, PRAM and the Battery

03-12-2012, 06:53 PM

Bump to the top...

Thanks in advance for any feedback/suggestions!

03-12-2012, 07:16 PM

A model A1181 MacBook is an early 2008 model that originally shipped with the Leopard (OS X 10.5) operating system. Off hand, I don't think it's the PRAM battery although it is possible, just not likely. PRAM batteries normally last longer than that. I have that exact same model (2.4 GHz) and the PRAM battery is still good although that doesn't mean yours is.

It does, however, sound like it could be logic board related. Possibly the power supply which is integrated on the board. BTW, the unit only has one fan and that cools the CPU.

I have removed the hard-drive and tried powering up, but I only ever get the white LED turning on and then off again after holding the power button in.

Since you removed the hard drive, I assume you tried booting with the original install DVD? Which hopefully the owner still has and gave you?

If you can get it to boot with the install DVD and hard drive removed or still in place, you can then run the Apple Hardware Test from the DVD. Here's a LINK to the Apple Hardware Test explained.

03-12-2012, 07:41 PM

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately the owners did not provide me with the original DVD. I have asked them for this previously, but the only disc they can still find is for "iWork '08".

When I removed the HDD, my goal was to see if it impacted in any way the random boot. My hope was if the HDD was out and the MacBook then proceded to boot prior to giving a "no hdd" message, it would at least point some blame at the HDD and give me a starting point. No dice...

I have managed to get the MacBook to boot 3 times today to the screen with the Apple logo and the revolving progress indicator. At this point it would hold for several minutes before prompting that the MacBook needed to be restarted. After the attempted restart, I am back to rarely getting anything to attempt to boot where only the white status LED lights up (no fans or drives spinning).

Thanks again for the feedback!

03-12-2012, 08:19 PM

You're going to need that DVD. Prod the owner to look for it to see if he can find it. Buying a new Leopard DVD for that machine is going to set him back around $100 on eBay. Install DVDs for Macs are machine specific unless you can get hold of a retail version of the disk.

If he can't find the disk, have him order a retail version of Snow Leopard (10.6) from the Apple on line store which will work on that machine to do the tests and install.

If you need take apart instructions for the machine, the best place is the ifixit web site. They have step by step PDF sheets which are real easy to follow. The link is iFixit: The free repair manual.