Zombie Macbook back from the dead... sometimes will not boot

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First of all, hello! :)

Secondly, I own a 13" white unibody Macbook from late 2008. In the past couple of weeks, it has slowly been losing its functions. As of this moment, is has died and returned from the dead 3 times. By dead I mean, it would not boot, no chime, nothing and then by some magic four days later it turned on, only to not work next time I booted it.

When it is "dead", sometimes holding down the power switch will cause weird auroura-borealis-type flickering on the screen and sometimes the battery will not realize that the charger is plugged in.

Also, none of the function keys are working, the backspace does not work at all and the J is being very tough. I am afraid to pick up the laptop because I might shake something loose and cause it to power off.

I have read that this can be a power supply, power switch issue, and I've also read it can be an issue involving improperly installed RAM, but I have the original 1g of RAM the computer came with and have only removed it once about a month and a half ago. I've also read it can have to do with the keyboard connection and that would explain the failing keys. I am currently backing up my files in case next time it dies it doesn't feel like coming back. Does anybody have any kind of insight? This is very frustrating. My father tells me the keyboard is a software issue because I've cleaned it out thoroughly, I've got a second opinion that the power supply is wonky but neither seem right to me. Halp!

Edit: Oh dear, it has stopped recognizing the charger :( Well, I have 18 minutes. LOL.
 
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Back to my old 2.2GHz C2D MB after selling my MBP and wondering what my next Mac will be :)
Could you have you spilled any liquids on it at any stage?
 
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toareds marginality

Could you have you spilled any liquids on it at any stage?

I really don't think so, while I haven't been the gentlest with it I don't recall ever having liquids anywhere near it. It is almost two years old and is looking pretty worn, but I don't remember ever spilling liquid into it.

The thing is, my keys went gradually. One day I logged in and my L+R arrow keys did not work, the next day the J was sticking, two days later my function keys were gone.

At the moment the whole computer is being very strange. Sometimes it will not charge, so I switched out both battery and charger and the computer decided it was not going to turn on again so I have no way of knowing if there is an issue with battery or charger. Right now it's not turning on so I'm just poking around trying to make it work.
 

cwa107


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14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Could you have you spilled any liquids on it at any stage?

The symptoms sure do sound that way. Sticky keys, power issues, etc. If it were mine, I'd be opening the case looking for evidence of liquid intrusion.

Aside from that, there's not a whole lot you can do. Reseat the memory, maybe try a different power supply. But I'd put money on liquid damage -- maybe you didn't do it, but it was exposed to extreme humidity or a family member did it? Hard to say.
 

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