MacBook won't start

Hi,

Repairing a MacBook (A1181).

It won't start. All that happens is grey screen. Then Apple logo. Then rotating roundel. Eventually it crashes out with the following message:

panic (cpu 1 caller 0x47f5ad): "Process 1 exec of sbin/launchd failed errno 85\n"@/sourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.15.3/bsd/kern/kern_exec.c:3145

There is a whole heap of other stuff and if totally necessary I will repeat it.

Have tried going into Safe Mode but get largely the same error.
Have tried a recovery (Cmd, R) but with same result.
Tried reloading OS (OS X 10.4.10) No joy but noticed that disk has been badly scratched by new optical drive (Grrrrrr!).
Tried running AHT (Version 3A127) and thought I was getting somewhere when a blue screen appeared, but was short lived when the system told me that the hardware did not support this software.
Tried Opt D to try and run diagnostics - No luck

I suspect something may be wrong with the hard drive but can't seem to get access to any diagnostic software to confirm or deny this.

Anyone got any ideas?

Regards,

Neil Harland

It's definitely a hardware problem if you can't get it started in Safe mode. It could very well be a sick hard drive since the machine is an older model.

You could try starting the machine in Single User mode and run fsck from the command line. That does not require using a disk to startup from.

Starting up in single-user mode:

1. Shut down your Mac if it is on.
2. Press the power button to start the computer.
3. Immediately press and hold the Command (Apple) key and the "s" key for single-user mode. (Command-S)

Once in single user mode, type the following:

At the command-line prompt type:

/sbin/fsck -fy

Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found:

** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK
If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message:

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).

When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return. Your computer should start up normally and allow you to log in.

Let us know how it goes....

Sick MacBook

Thanks for the info.

Will give this a try tomorrow (hopefully) and let you know progress.

Regards,

Neil

Hi,

Well looks like the MacBook is well and truly sick. Can't get into single user mode. There's a whole heap of code but unfortunately there are plenty of what looks to be error codes. The most significant IMHO are the following:

hfs_mountroot failed: 5
Cannot mount root, errno = 19

dsk 0s2: I/O Error
0 [level 3] [Red UID 0] [facility com.apple.system.fs] [Err type IO] [ErrNo 5] [IO Type Read] ......


There is quite a lot of this stuff.

In the end, there is no command prompt just:

Kernel Version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.8.0: Tue Jun 7 16:33:36 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1504.15.3~1/release_I386
System model name: Macbook5,2 (Mac-F22788AA)

Then it tells me the uptime in nanoseconds

I'm guessing the hard drive here is gubbed. Am I correct, and if I am is it a simple swap and reload the OS as in Windows PCs or do I have to buy a hard drive from Apple?

Regards,

Neil

I'm guessing the hard drive here is gubbed. Am I correct, and if I am is it a simple swap and reload the OS as in Windows PCs or do I have to buy a hard drive from Apple?

Click to expand...

It does appear your hard drive is trashed. And no, you don't have to buy a replacement from Apple. Any SATA 2.5" x 9.5 MM hard drive should work just fine. They're inexpensive so you can probably get a fairly large one for less than $75.

Also... you need to do something about that optical drive if it's not working right or you won't be able to install OS X on the new hard drive.

Go to iFixit: The free repair manual and look up your model and then the instructions for swapping out the hard drive.

Hi,

Thanks for confirming what I was suspecting. New HDD ordered. Will try to load OS from anexternal DVD drive.

Regards,

Neil Harland

It's been a while...... but I just got back from hospital..

...and am now picking up the jobs that didn't get resolved before I went in.

The MacBook is a puzzler. I installed a new Hard Drive and then tried to install the operating system (OSX Vers 10.4.10). Got nowhere both with the internal optical drive and an external drive. The MacBook obviously saw that there was a disk there and once clicked on it was obviously reading but then nothing else happens. No menus or anything. I had been told to look out for 'drive utilities' so that I could format the drive so that the MacBook could recognise it. But Nothing. Suspecting that perhaps I'd got a duff disk, I obtained OSX vers 10.4.8 and tried loading that. Still the same story.
So I am a bit stuck really and beginning to wonder if there is something else wrong with the unit that I haven't figured out yet.

Any advice gratefully received and please don't assume stuff, I'm not a Mac techie!

Regards,

Neil

I suspect the SATA cable from the hard drive to the logic board may be worn out. That particular cable is always on the top of the "replace" list with older machines. They do wear out internally and if defective, there's no way you can do anything with the new hard drive. Unfortunately, there's no test for it other than replacing. And, they're not cheap. See if you can find one on eBay or go to iFixit: The free repair manual.

Another supplier is Mac Repair - Mac Parts and Service for Apple Macbook, iPhone, iPad

Hmmm. still won't work

Hi,

I have replaced the SATA cable and also sorted out why the original optical drive was scratching CDs and DVDs (The long slit had got deformed so that the CD or DVD was scratched by the brown plastic insert on lower lip!). I have tried to install the OS from original CDs in both OSX vers 10.4.10 and vers 10.4.8 from both external and the internal drive. It is obvious in all cases that the media is detected as a disk image appears and I click on the icon below. The drive obviously starts doing something but the screen remains plain grey until the MacBook restarts and the whole thing repeats. It's possible but unlikely that I have two duff coopies of OS. What else could be causing this?

Regards,

cctster