Macbook '06: Black screen, disk drive noise over and over again, no chime.

I've been having this issue with my black Macbook of 2006: it would randomly shut down while in the middle of surfing the internet, listening to music, writing Java code, etc. Then I would try to boot it up again, but the disk drive kept making noises over and over again (instead of just once) and screen would stay black. It wouldn't go to light blue, that chime noise would never come...the screen just stayed black, disk drive kept making noises, until I hit the power button and shut off the computer.

This happened around October of 2009. I believed that my Macbook was gone for good...but that turned out not to be the case.

Because just today, I randomly tried to insert an extra hard drive to see if the original hard drive was causing the problem. But the extra was too big and didn't fit. So I put the battery back in, but before I did, I accidentally hit a small button on the battery, and one green light (out of five green lights) on the battery went on. So right away I put the battery back in, and turned on the computer right away to see what would happen. And it pretty much magically booted up, no issue whatsoever. It's alive!!!!!

But I'm afraid these issues are going to happen again. Questions I have:

1) Has anyone else had the problems I have had with their Macbook?
2) What is that little button on the battery for, and what does it mean when one out of five green lights on the battery is on?
3) Just what the heck did I do that happened to fix my Macbook, and how can I ensure these problems won't occur again?

Thank you very much,

Ariana

The button on the battery when pressed indicates the charge on the battery. If all lights are lighted, (all green) you have a full charge.

What did you do to fix your MacBook? Hard to say.... you may have an intermittent problem that will rear its ugly head again. It does sound as if you may have had some problems with the hard drive or perhaps something more serious.

Just keep using the machine - and make frequent backups - If and when it goes out again, post back and we'll take another look at it.

Regards.

I have the same issue!

My 2006 macbook has the same issue, but it happens over and over. It will crash randomly, and the superdrive will make a short "bzzt" noise repetitively about every second continuously until you reset it manually by holding down the power button. Sometimes even after a hard boot, it will continue... what I have noticed is that, though probably not wise, if you bend/warp the chasis a little bit with your hands, or push down firmly over the top left of the keyboard (above the superdrive) it will restart the computer and the noise will stop and go away. Then the computer will operate normally for hte next little bit until it eventually happens again.... Have you heard anything else on this issue? Is it still happening to you?

Thanks!