MBP won't turn on

Got home today and my MacBookPro won't turn on.

Was working fine yesterday. Even cleaned up and recently backed up my hard drive thank god. Not too long ago the optical drive went out and apple put a new one in it. Recently I purchased 4gb of ram as the MBP was starting to slow down a little. I read that the problem could be the ram so I put the factory ram back in and no luck. Still won't turn on.

I didn't turn my MBP off yesterday. Just closed the lid. Got home today, it was off and now won't turn on.

The problem as specific as I can put it is as follows.

If I click the power button the hd spins up for a second making the normal start up sound the light on the front comes on. This lasts for a second or two then it all stops abruptly.

If I hold the power button down instead of just clicking it, it makes the normal start up sounds, there's a very faint whir going on inside and then it stops. Holding it down lasts a good two or three seconds longer than just clicking it. Cicking it is almost instantaneous. Holding it down prolongs it and sounds like itll start up fine.

I removed the battery with the MBP plugged in and tried both clicking and holding it down.

I put the battery in and unplugged the power cable. Same.

I've unplugged everything that was plugged into it. Nothing.

Hoping I can get some help. I won't be able to get to the apple store for a few days I don't think.

Anybody have some ideas? Google wasn't much help

Have you tried booting off the OS disk? Though if it won't power up I guess that isn't an option. If you feel game to try it, may open it up and check for loose connections.

ifixit.com is good source for instructions
http://www.ifixit.com/Browse/MacBook_Pro

I haven't. I'm not even sure where my disk is haha. This MBP is 3 years old.

Would that even work tho? I can't get the thing to turn on at all. My best result is a few seconds of internal noise. Screen never comes on or anything.

Found my osx disk, put it in, hit the power button and held it down. It sucked it in, spun for a second making normal sounds and then cut off in the same time as it has been. Just clicking it gets the same results. I of course can't get the disk out now

I was doing some editing of my post while you replied (bad habit of mine) so may want to reread it.

Sparksmemphis said:

Found my osx disk, put it in, hit the power button and held it down. It sucked it in, spun for a second making normal sounds and then cut off in the same time as it has been. Just clicking it gets the same results. I of course can't get the disk out now

Click to expand...

I think if you hold down the eject button while you attempt to power up it will probably spit it out.

No problem. Disk obviously isn't the problem so it'll be safe in there. I tried a hand full of "maneuvers" to get the disk back out and they all failed.

That site is helpful. Haven't found anything on there yet in regards to being able to fix it tho :/

Sparksmemphis said:

No problem. Disk obviously isn't the problem so it'll be safe in there. I tried a hand full of "maneuvers" to get the disk back out and they all failed.

That site is helpful. Haven't found anything on there yet in regards to being able to fix it tho :/

Click to expand...

I stuck my OS disk in my MBP when the logic board died so I can gaurantee it's safe. Apple returned it to me along with my repaired MBP.

Only a thought that since you had recent repairs you might have a connection or cable that is loose. Worth checking.

I wouldnt even know how to check for it :/

The repairs on the optical drive were quite some time ago tho. Maybe a year ago so the timing seems odd.

Prob not the ram since its been in there for a while and I just tried the old ram too then switched back.

Something expensive is the last thing i need right now

Might not matter but in case somebody reads this and needs to know its a 17" MBP A1261 model.

Sparksmemphis said:

I wouldnt even know how to check for it :/

The repairs on the optical drive were quite some time ago tho. Maybe a year ago so the timing seems odd.

Prob not the ram since its been in there for a while and I just tried the old ram too then switched back.

Something expensive is the last thing i need right now

Click to expand...

I must have misread your first post, got the impression the repair was fairly recent. But, you are probably right no connection (pun not intended).

We have some pretty heavy duty hardware guys on the site who will probably post in with some better ideas, so don't lose hope just yet.

I probably wasnt clear on that aspect. Just added it to hopefully out a cause

The whole thing seems strange tho because it feels like it might boot up if i hold the power button down but if i just click it, it turns back off almost immediately

Sweet thanks, I hope so.

I also plugged in an external drive to see if I could boot it up from that by chance and it didn't work. The hd turns on and spins up fine but doesn't seem to have Antoine of effect on what's going on.

The 3 year age perhaps is a clue. That, combined with the symptoms you are seeing sounds like a dead battery to me.

Not sure of Macs do this or not, but some devices behave like that even when they are plugged in when the battery dies. 3 years sounds about right for a typical laptop battery. No way to test that theory other than take it somewhere or buy a battery.

Just giving the post a bump so you won't get forgotten.

wheelguy12 said:

The 3 year age perhaps is a clue. That, combined with the symptoms you are seeing sounds like a dead battery to me.

Not sure of Macs do this or not, but some devices behave like that even when they are plugged in when the battery dies. 3 years sounds about right for a typical laptop battery. No way to test that theory other than take it somewhere or buy a battery.

Click to expand...

Seems a little odd but could be. I took the battery out and tried it just plugged in. Did the same thing. Also tested the light on the battery with that little button and it lit up fine.

Set up an appt with the apple store Sunday. Either way seems unlikely I cn fix it on my own :/

Based on what I've read and that it's getting power (the fans whir and HDD spins), I would guess probably that you have a dead logic board. If this is the case, and I'm not positive it is, just my guess, you are probably better off buying a new computer unless covered by Applecare.