Dead laptop (Mac)

[mojave]

This is a question for the techies/IT/tinkerers. In 2007 I bought a new Macbook and it worked great. Two years ago it fell and does not work or turn on anymore and I haven't tried to do anything with it since then. When it first happened it wouldn't start up, but it would turn on, it just did the loading screen indefinitely. Now it doesn't do anything (not surprising). Do you think it's salvageable? It was a great little laptop but at the time I was afraid of the cost of getting it fixed and didn't even get it looked at (dumb). A Mac tech I knew from a company we work with said it was fine it just needed the OS reloaded, or something. I think the hard drive needed to be replaced. I need to get a laptop for personal use but don't want to spend any money right now. I'm also seeing if my company sells old laptops but I doubt it (plus I'd prefer my Mac).

Thank you for your help.

[NorCalDad]

Do you have an Apple Store near you? I would take it there and get a diagnostic for free. Here's one Apple discussion where someone had a similar problem: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/30 ... 0&tstart=0

If you figure out what's wrong and don't want to pay Apple, you could go to iFixit.com to find parts and try to repair the computer yourself.

[snyder66]

I thought MACs never die. Sorry, Had to do it...

[JMacDonald]

I thought MACs never die. Sorry, Had to do it...

As one famous person put it updated:

Old soldiers (Mac computers) never die; they just fade away.
Douglas MacArthur

[sscritic]

Are you sure you know what a MAC is?

[eclipsis]

My guess is the initial fall damaged the hard drive (boot screen but not able to actually boot) and now the battery is completely dead (nothing happens when you turn it on). Do you have the power plugged in and still nothing happens? Power cord is lighting up?

[blacktupelo]

If you have another Mac you could connect the two with a Firewire cable and start the problem Mac in target disk mode (see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661).

If you don't have a second Mac, go to an Apple store or Apple authorized dealer.

[mojave]

My guess is the initial fall damaged the hard drive (boot screen but not able to actually boot) and now the battery is completely dead (nothing happens when you turn it on). Do you have the power plugged in and still nothing happens? Power cord is lighting up?

To my great surprise after being off for almost two years, I plugged it in with battery in and without and it did turn on! It did not do this about 6 months ago which is strange...however it still does not go beyond the gray Apple screen with the spinning wheel. I also was able to fully charge my battery, which was maybe a few months old when it fell.

I have an appt tonight to get a diagnosis at an Apple store. I'm pretty much expecting to have to get a new hard drive and reload a new OS.

[Wading Ashore]

FWIW - my 2008 iMac had a near-death experience (!) in October. I took it to the local Apple store and they strongly advised me to buy a new one. Since I'm a bit stubborn, I tried a local tech shop. They replaced the hard drive, added some RAM, and rejigged the printer software that initially highlighted the problem. It's now better than new.

[Bammerman]

I had a very nice Mac Aluminum Powerbook that finally died on me. I disassembled it (thank you iFixit) and sold the parts piece by piece on eBay and made a pretty good pile of money from it. I was careful to specify exactly what I knew about the condition/working order of each part and to include good clear photos. The display and the case brought the most money.

[mojave]

Well my laptop is now working and only $60 later! I was quoted $300 for them to replace the hard drive (the girl said "obviously I suggest you do it on your own if you can") and though no data was salvaged they loaded the OSX back on for free the next day. All I had to pay for was the hard drive.

That's a good tip about selling for parts when this goes to the wayside.

[McCharley]

Looks like I'm too late here, but those of you replacing drives should consider a solid-state drive (SSD).

They are more expensive, but the higher performance is really noticeable. And they use less power and are more rugged than standard hard drives, useful qualities in a laptop!

On home computers you can use a small SSD for your applications and a large, standard drive for storage.