Black Screen of Death

Macbook Pro 15inch OS X 10.4.10 Tiger

Firefox crashed on me earlier. I went away from my macbook pro for awhile and when I came back the screen was black. I tried clicking, tapping every button, yet in never woke up; therefore, I pressed the power button the turn it off, then back on. The screen remained black.

I went through the on/off process a couple of times, then tried to whole trick where you turn it on and reset the PRAM by holding down Apple, Option, P, and R simultaneously. This did nothing for it; screen still black.

Then I tried removing the battery while it was on; then put it back and turned it on again; no change in scenery here.

Finally, I tried turning it on and inserting Mac OSX Install Disc 1. Nothing changed. The screen is still black and to make matters worse, I can't eject the disc now no matter how long or how many times I hold to the eject button or the keypad button after turning the mac on.

Please help. I would rather not pay apple to assist me as I am a college student with no money and no Apple Care Protection Plan.

Thank you and I look forward to your advice.

any advice is appreciated

Not a whole lot to troubleshoot if it boots up to a black screen no matter what.

I'd have to call Apple and make an appointment to take it in. Could be another dead nvidia card. Apple has extended the warranty on them. If it's not, you'll at least find out what the problem is and an estimate for them to fix it.

Ok thanks. I was able to get the OSX Disc out by using the old "credit card trick" (not sure how smart that was but it worked). Also, the "num lock/F6" and the "caps lock" buttons are not lighting up. Could that be due to a dead nvidia card or something entirely different?

Something different, but I'd bet if your issue is that nvidia card that they'll probably fix for free, you might be surprised when it's returned and have those fixed also.

So I took it to the apple store; they ran a graphics test: OK, they check both RAM Cards individually: OK. The Apple employee said that it could possibly a problem with the Logic Board and that for a flat rate fee of $310, he would send it out to wherever they fix them (California, I believe) and they would replace the Logic Board and whatever else isn't functioning properly (i.e. the keyboard given that NumLocl/CapsLock don't light up) for $310. I think I am gonna do that even though school starts next week and it'll be gone for an unknown amount of time.

Also, I then took it into this place called the "Mac Exchange" which fixes and sells used/new Macintosh equipment (they are MAC certified/registered/etc). He plugged it into another monitor and nothing showed up. He then plugged a USB into my Mac to a Mac Desktop. The first time, nothing showed. He ran all the tests described in the Macbook manual. The second time he plugged the USB cord into mine and the desktop, the contents of my hard-drive did indeed show up on his desktop...weird that it worked this time.....Finally, he said that when turning it on, all that you can hear is a faint humming/weak fan, and not the hard-drive booting up (which makes a "click-click" noise).

I think I am just going to have Apple send it out even though the guy at the Mac Exchange store said that a price of $310 is outrageously low and unbelievable for a new logic board. Hopefully it is not gone too long...I start school next week Thursday.