Macbook boots to white blank screen

As a graduation present to myself, I bought a used Macbook on Ebay in June for $600. (My mistake. I should have known better.) These are the specs: MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.16 13" (White) Specs (Mid-2007, MB062LL/A, MacBook2,1, A1181, 2139) @ EveryMac.com .

The original owner claimed that it was in perfect condition, etc. I believed him 100%. I received the laptop, turned it on, and used it for about 2 hours. Everything seemed fine. So, I put it on a shelf in my room. I planned to use my old pc until I moved to college in the fall - saving the laptop to be my new school computer.

I moved up to school. The semester began, and I used the computer for three days without any problems. On the third day, it booted up to the blank white screen shown in the picture, and it won't load past that screen. See picture: http://i56.tinypic.com/29fc7tk.jpg

I can't get my money back because it's been too long since the purchase. There's no Applecare on it. But, as a poor college student $600 was a lot of money - and a lot of hours ringing cash registers. I feel ripped-off and humiliated. I sunk all kinds of money into accessories for it.

I don't know, if I should sell the laptop online for parts or try to repair it. I read reports of other people spending $300 to replace LCD's or hard drives to fix this problem. If you take the $600 I spent and the $300 to repair it, I would have just been better off buying a new one. Is this computer worth investing anymore money in? Does anybody know what could be wrong with it or have suggestions on how to fix it? It's been sitting on my shelf for two weeks, and I don't know what to do with it.

During the period that you bought this Macbook (and put it on the shelf) and moved to college:

- was the Macbook plugged into the power?
- if not...did you allow the battery to go completely dead?
- have you tried booting from a CD/DVD?

You did mention getting a few hours use out of this computer when you first got it (2 months ago) and after you got to college. It's possible the hard drive has gone bad. This is where trying to boot from an OS install or OS Restore DVD would help in identifying the hard drive as bad (if you can successfully boot from the DVD, the the HD may be bad or damaged).

Somethings to consider,

- Nick

Thank-you for commenting. The MacBook was not plugged in, while it was stored on the shelf. When I last used it (2 months ago), I had it plugged in, and the battery was fully charged. Then, I unplugged it and stored it on the shelf in a zipped laptop sleeve. The laptop also has a Spec case around the outside. It was not pushed around or dropped. Nothing was ever spilled on it nor was it ever damaged in any way. Which is why, I'm surprised by it not working. I never let the battery drain fully and die, while I was at school using it for those three days either.

I haven't tried booting from a CD/DVD. I left the OSX CD at home, although, I could have that mailed to me, if that is my best option.

My guess is that it has to be either the hard drive or the LCD. But, I used it lightly, maybe 2 hours a day for 3 days before this problem started. When it boots, there's no error message or picture of a folder like other people had when their hard drive failed. The last thing that I was doing on it, the last time that it worked was watching a youtube video, so maybe the video card?

newromantic09 said:

I haven't tried booting from a CD/DVD. I left the OSX CD at home, although, I could have that mailed to me, if that is my best option.

My guess is that it has to be either the hard drive or the LCD.

Click to expand...

Having the OS X CD will allow you try a couple things before more drastic measures are needed:

- if you can successfully boot from the OS X disk...then the problem could be the hard drive
- if you can successfully boot from the OS X disk...you can run "Disk Utility" to examine & possibly repair the hard drive if it is found to be faulty.

The bottom line is...if you can successfully boot from the OS X disk...this would mean that the problem is not any electronics inside the computer...but the hard drive (dead hard drive, or a hard drive that needs to be repaired).

I doubt that it's the LCD...if the display light's up (like your photo shows)...the LCD is probably fine.

- Nick

pantheon carvin

I tried taking the battery out and starting it up. But, I still got a blank white screen.

I also tried resetting the PRAM or something like that - from directions that I read online but that did not work.

When I turn it on, it sounds like it's booting up. I can hear the sounds of the fans on. I don't hear the clicking noise that would typically indicate a hard drive failure.

pigoo3 said:

Having the OS X CD will allow you try a couple things before more drastic measures are needed:

- if you can successfully boot from the OS X disk...then the problem could be the hard drive
- if you can successfully boot from the OS X disk...you can run "Disk Utility" to examine & possibly repair the hard drive if it is found to be faulty.

The bottom line is...if you can successfully boot from the OS X disk...this would mean that the problem is not any electronics inside the computer...but the hard drive (dead hard drive, or a hard drive that needs to be repaired).

I doubt that it's the LCD...if the display light's up (like your photo shows)...the LCD is probably fine.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Okay, thank-you. I really appreciate your suggestions. I'm going to have those disks shipped up here, and I'll give that a try.

newromantic09 said:

I also tried resetting the PRAM or something like that - from directions that I read online but that did not work.

When I turn it on, it sounds like it's booting up. I can hear the sounds of the fans on. I don't hear the clicking noise that would typically indicate a hard drive failure.

Click to expand...

Trying to reset the PRAM was a good thing to try. Another is to try resetting the SMC:

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Yes when a hard drive is bad you sometimes can hear a clicking noise...so that's a good thing that you are aware of that and listened for it. Another bad hard drive sound is when you may not get a definitive "clicking" sound...but you get a very repetitive hard drive access sound (or read/write head) sound that's very repetitive. Where normally the sounds you get from a hard drive are more random than repetitive.

- Nick

I'm assuming the answer to this question is no since you didn't mention anything but are there any beeps or tones when its sitting at that screen?

I just had this happen to mine (same screen) but I had a 3 beep...pause...3 beep pattern as well. It ended up being one of my RAM chips died...