Crashed and now just a blank grey screen

Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
My lovely g/f called me today and told me that she was on her laptop and it just turned off, and now when she turns it on, the screen is just grey, nothing, not even this spining thing at the bottom.

We basically tried everything I could over the phone w/o the disks. It is running os x 10.3.9. We tried resting PMU, PRAM, apple-s. Nothing. She said that she was on it for about 4 hours.

I think it is the hard drive because the laptop has been running warm near where the HD is for about a month or two. Two months ago, it stopped turning on all together and then I took it apart, jiggled some things around, and then it worked again, shortly after that it was getting warmer than usual(I think!) near the HD.

What do you guys think? Do you think repairing disk permissions is even possible?(It wouldn't boot up into single user mode)

I just put a bid of like 20$ on an ibook g3 HD to see if my theory is correct, Ill try it out when she comes home next weekend.

edit: The capslock and the numlock keys respond. the lights turn on.

edit2: We plugged a random flashdrive into it and booted it up with holding option to boot from an external drive and we have a "curvey arrow thing and an arrow to the right"
 
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
19
Reaction score
1
Points
3
Your Mac's Specs
13.3" Macbook 2 GHz Intel Core Duo. 2G RAM
try to remove the battery and re-plugin it again.
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2007
Messages
1,444
Reaction score
59
Points
48
I had this problem and what was wrong was I hadn't upgraded my firmware and for some reason my computer responded like this. I brought it into the apple store and they reset my pram and that got it to boot up, thats the only difference with my computer than yours, and upgraded it there It was fine. Then my ethernet connector didn't work so I brought it in and they sent it off for a week and replaced 50% of my computer and now it works fine. I would say bring it in to the apple store tell them all the problems( leave out that you messed with it) and they should be able to fix it.
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
well its an ibook g3 and thus out of warranty. if it non upgraded firmware, i can prob upgrade it from accessing it externally
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
Well skye, you and your gf might want to look at this Apple page, Expanded iBook Logic Board Repair Extension Program - Frequently Asked Questions as some of the models in this repair program includes some iBook G3s.

If the iBook isn't included in that repair program, maybe try the ol' Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU) trick.
unfortunately apple has not mentioned any way to get it repaired. and if you read the post i have tried reseting the PMU =/
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
no prob. im not as anal as some w/ the neg rep
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
anybody have a clue as to what is wrong?

is there a way to update the firmware via firewire mode?
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
yeah i read all of that, but if the computer isnt booting, how can i update the firmware?
 
Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
189
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
New York, New York
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro, iPhone
This might have been said already, but I had a very similar problem. Excessive heat (almost too hot to touch), fans going on constantly for the most minute executions, etc. Basically the only thing they said I could do was send it in..now I'm not sure what exactly they replaced but I'm leaning towards my processor. I'm not good with computer jargon/ name of parts, but it had 1.2 Ghz in the part name so I'm figuring it was my processor.

Even though I was having these problems, they were still able to boot me to a different screen, one that recognizes my HD, etc, but was having a problem recognizing it.

Sorry if I'm rambling on, but maybe your problem might be the same :(
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
well i dont think it is the logic board, she says that she can charge her ipod at the grey screen via usb still...hmmm
 
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
Messages
430
Reaction score
13
Points
18
Location
Fort Bliss Texas
Your Mac's Specs
iPhone X, Watch 3, '18 MBP w/touchbar, '17 iPad Pro 10.5
Can the ipod be charged, or charged and updated? The logic board wouldn't affect just charging the ipod, thats simply power. Updating requires processing and a logic board.
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
well i dont know if it can be updated due to nothing appearing on the display
 
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Messages
60
Reaction score
2
Points
8
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4; 1.07 GHz; 512 MB; Radeon 9200; 40 GB HDD
Hey skye23412, I had a similar problem with my ibook which required me to get my hard drive replaced. I was reading your post (and re-read it to make sure I understood it), and I didn't see anything in there where it said you ran a hardware test? If you run an extensive hardware test this is where it will tell you if it is a issue with your software or hardware for sure. I would go and replace the hard drive yet since you have to take out 937498 screws and just a pain in the balls.
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
i will, run the test when i have the laptop infront of me.

i being the idiot i am forgot to give teh g/f the os x cds. i have taken the lappy apart before and swapping out the HD wont be too hard
 
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Messages
60
Reaction score
2
Points
8
Your Mac's Specs
iBook G4; 1.07 GHz; 512 MB; Radeon 9200; 40 GB HDD
ah got ya... well let us know what the results are on the test; good luck!
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
no dice on getting the computer to boot off of a CD.

i opened it up and there was a burnt rubber smell coming from the middle of the logic board.

bad HD?

bad onboard RAM?

the screen is more blueish grey than grey

any ideas?
 
OP
skye
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
62
Points
48
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Macbook 2.0ghz coeduo 1GB RAM 80 GB HD SuperDrive
do you guys think that putting a new HD in it would be worth it? or is it dead?

somebody, anybody!
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top