This is absolutely depressing.

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The fun little Macbook that I just received this past Friday has now decided that it wants me to kill it. Explanation? You got it!

I left the room for a moment to grab a snack (because piggies love to eat!) and I come back to my Macbook and the screen is blank and there's a little light flashing on the front. So I assume the display went to sleep, and went about doing all the things I normally do to wake it from it's slumber. Dragging my finger across the trackpad, clicking the mouse button, and moving the arrow keys. I was a bit disappointed to discover that after more than a minute that my screen didn't dance magically back to life. After several more keystrokes and finger pointing, I hesitantly restarted my Mac.

Now, I don't know about you, but I have certain expectations when I press the power button on any given appliance or consumer electronic device. The expectation I had for my Macbook wasn't an unreasonable one, I simply wanted it to do what it always does when I press the power button... which is turn on. Alas, this was not what happened. Granted, I did hear the spinning of the fans and drives and all the little internal gizmos, but nothing was happening on the screen. The only light emanating from the device was the little sleep indicator in front blinking on and off. In fact, after all those fans and disks stopped spinning, there was just eerie silence. This is what we call panic time, where I'm from kids. I pressed the power button to turn it off again (after several minutes of personal correspondance with the Almighty). I made a second attempt at starting up my magical box, only to encounter the same results. We are not amused.

I frantically drag out the very laptop that I am now typing this to you on and my first thought was to come here. Surely, someone had had this happen before. So I searched... and searched... and searched again, but it appears that I'm in a very lonely boat. So I went to the Apple support website and did my search. And behold, there were several people in my boat! The only problem is that instead of being handed oars to get the boat moving, they were handed all manner of things that are similar to oars, but in the long run, just will not move a boat. In desperation, I tried out all of the oar alternatives and I am still looking at a Macbook with a blank screen and a little flashing light on the front, making nary a sound.

Some of the oars I tried, you ask?

~ Holding down option and the power button at startup.
~ Holding down cmd, cntrl, and the power button at startup
~ Holding down cmd, option, and the buttons P & R at startup.
~ Holding down the power button alone for ten seconds.
~ Holding down the C button and the power button at startup
~ Holding down the D button and the power button at startup
~ Putting in the install disk and doing one of the above, but it escapes me which at present.
~ Checking the battery level, connection to the battery, and pressing buttons while holding the battery in my hand.
~ Removing and replacing the RAM.

All of those things to no avail. And let me tell you, I am an absolute plethora of sadness right now. I'll be calling the friendly folks at Apple first thing in the morning to see if they have some sort of magic cure all. I'm thinking they'll either want me to drive to an Apple Store, which if you've seen my preferred method of transportation, a 135 mile drive is somewhat out of the question, or they'll want me to ship it back to them so they can tinker with it for an undisclosed amount of time. I hope it all turns out roses, but for right now it's just completely ruined my night.

If you read through all of this, you deserve a cookie. And should we ever meet, I'll gladly give you one. As for advice, if you have any, great! If not, don't sweat it. I'm sure that it'll be worked out soon enough. At least I still have a computer to use until that one is fixed, though this one is not nearly as fun!
 
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Surely, someone had had this happen before. So I searched... and searched... and searched again, but it appears that I'm in a very lonely boat.
A few people here have had similar issues:

Macbook wont wake up

Will not wake up from sleep

Unable to awake from sleep mode

Sleep issue and aborted DVD burning complications

I would suggest that you try leaving it charge for a while, just to verify that the battery is in fact holding a charge and not misreading.

Also, take out one of the RAM sticks and try booting with only one of them, switching them out after each attempt. If one is bad, taking it out and putting it right back in won't help.

Try booting up without the battery. Just plug it in and try it.

Finally, try the proper method for resetting PRAM on the 'book.
Apple said:
Resetting PRAM: MacBook, MacBook Pro

If the computer is on, turn it off.
Disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the computer's battery.
Press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
Press the Power button to restart the computer.
If all gets no result, then go ahead as planned and give Apple a ring to set up service.
 
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We are not amused.

In fairness, since you cannot get your new computer to respond, you don't know whether it's amused or not. You aren't amused, but your new Macbook might be laughing its battery cover off. :D
 
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D3V1L80Y, perhaps I should phrase my queries better next time... Thanks for the links and the advice. I've just completed your suggestions, save the battery charging one. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, but so far it's looking fairly grim.

ToddG, if it were an audible laugh, my new Macbook would be having a heart to heart with my new hammer... I wonder if that would be covered by AppleCare? ;)
 
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iSebastianGrey, I don't know what to say. Good luck, hope it gets well soon. Keep us informed. :blind:
 

eric


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ditto mathogre.

best of luck my friend!
 
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It sounds battery related to me. Try taking the battery out, with the battery out and the AC adapter unplugged hold the power button for 60 seconds. Press it again for 30 seconds. Then put the battery back in, plug in the AC adapter and try powering it on.
 
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The fine folks at Apple suggested I take the Macbook to my local CompUSA to fix my problem. They don't do repairs to Macbooks on site, so they'll have to send it out. I hope it doesn't take too long!
 
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Very witty first post in a very non-wittifying situation. Well done.

(If wittifying's not a word, it blinkin' well should be.)
 
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i have had a similar problem with my new imac, but it only happened once. It went to sleep and when i tried to wake it, the display came on and then went dark after a few seconds. the sleep light was not doing anything and i couldn't wake it back up. i hit the power button and it came back on. never happened again...
 
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Narf, it would appear that fortune smiled upon you in that regard. Though I'd be worried considering what happened with mine.

At this point, being unsure as to what the cause of the problem was originally, I've come to a reasonable conclusion.

Gremlins. Obviously they escaped from some pocket dimension in my closet and decided to wreak havok on the first beautiful thing that they came across. Fortunately, I was out of the room at the time, otherwise we may be having a very different conversation right now. ;)
 
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The fine folks at Apple suggested I take the Macbook to my local CompUSA to fix my problem. They don't do repairs to Macbooks on site, so they'll have to send it out. I hope it doesn't take too long!

Seeing as the Macbook isn't even a week old I would phone them and ask what they could do about it other than take it to a place where they will mail it in. That's almost DOA (Dead on arrival) I would be pretty upset. I would ask if they could send out a replacement computer and send back the broken one in the box the new one came in.
 
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Finally, try the proper method for resetting PRAM on the 'book.If all gets no result, then go ahead as planned and give Apple a ring to set up service.
That looks suspiciously like the proper method for resetting the SMC on a MacBook.
 
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iSebastianGrey
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Jonny, yeah, I've fairly upset. But as long as the issue is resolved in a somewhat timely manner, I'm not overly concerned. If another issue arises from the same Macbook, however, I will put the Fear of GOD into the next customer service rep that I speak to. But for now, I'm willing to give them some leeway.
 
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Technologist, anyone could just have easily told me to spin in place on one foot rubbing my stomach and patting my head while saying my alphabet backwards. I have no idea what any of that other stuff was supposed to do and it made about as much sense to me as what I just said. I honestly know next to nothing about computers. :)
 

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Gremlins. Obviously they escaped from some pocket dimension in my closet and decided to wreak havok on the first beautiful thing that they came across.


383241988_3fafd95f6e.jpg



:)
 
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Eric, that is exactly what I was thinking of!
 

eric


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yep. i'm a child of warner brothers.

those other 'gremlins' from the 80s movies are hacks!
 
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well hopefully your mac will get fixed or replaced.
 

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