Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

help with dropped macbook!

twoodcc

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Original poster
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
26
Right side of wrong
ok a friend of mine has dropped her macbook, and asked me to try and fix it. i think she's already took it somewhere, and they said it would cost $1100 to fix it.

anyways, the battery does charge. and when i try to turn it on, it makes the hard drive sound, but the screen never does anything. the sleep light blinks weird, and that's about it.

any ideas on what i can try? is it worth changing the hard drive? i have an extra. or what about plugging it into an external monitor?

thanks in advance
 
Sounds pretty F-ed to me. You can try those suggestions, but sounds like the screen's broke amongst a bunch of other things. See if buying AppleCare will help.
 
feyn-man said:
Just try it. Who knows.
Click to expand...

No, don't 'just try it'. I can practically guarantee you that it will not work, and will be a waste of time and money.

In the event that you have AppleCare, Apple will charge you for the repair and reinstate the warranty; so if the screen and the hard drive are broken, say, you pay however much that repair costs, and after that you warranty applies to any future problems that would normally be covered. I would recommend looking into an insurance claim of some kind... how old is your friend? If she doesn't have insurance, maybe her parents have a policy that will cover her posessions? Worth a shot, especially if the repair is uneconomical (and if it needs a new screen, it probably is, relative to the cost of a new MacBook).
 
If the drop took out the HD, and the LCD ... it probably also took out the optical drive.

The LCD 400-450 along with 100 for a HD, and that doesn't take into acount anything else being broken and the superdrive will be twice as much as a 100 combo drive.
 
ok well i replaced the hard drive, and that wasn't the problem. i plugged up an external monitor, but is there any key i can press to make it look for the external?

the flashing light is still on. flashes about once a second. i'm guessing it's the lcd.

any ideas?
 
You don't need the optical drive even hooked up for the macbook to boot. When you hook up the external monitor are you getting any picture? If you have swapped the HDD and no difference, it may be the logic board. If the macbook show
obvious signs of impact damage, Apple will not cover the damage.
 
eman said:
You don't need the optical drive even hooked up for the macbook to boot. When you hook up the external monitor are you getting any picture? If you have swapped the HDD and no difference, it may be the logic board. If the macbook show
obvious signs of impact damage, Apple will not cover the damage.
Click to expand...

well there aren't obvious signs of impact damage, but i think she's already took it to the apple store, but not sure.

i get nothing on the external, but i don't know how to make it look for the external at boot.

also, i just put in my os x disk, and now it won't come back out! even when holding down the mouse button at boot! what do i do?
 
Paraphrase since I cannot cut and paste...

Power On Self Test (POST) -- if the machine detects no RAM, the screen will remain black, and the LED will blink once a second. This error may be due to damaged RAM, incorrect RAM, or no RAM.

..tried reseating RAM...
 
Sun Baked said:
Paraphrase since I cannot cut and paste...

Power On Self Test (POST) -- if the machine detects no RAM, the screen will remain black, and the LED will blink once a second. This error may be due to damaged RAM, incorrect RAM, or no RAM.

..tried reseating RAM...
Click to expand...

thanks! i'll try it! i think i have some extra ram anyways. i'll just replace it
 
Sun Baked said:
Paraphrase since I cannot cut and paste...

Power On Self Test (POST) -- if the machine detects no RAM, the screen will remain black, and the LED will blink once a second. This error may be due to damaged RAM, incorrect RAM, or no RAM.

..tried reseating RAM...
Click to expand...

well i tried it, and no dice. same thing, and my disk is still in there.

the disk spins for about 1 minute or so, and then it stops.
 
twoodcc said:
well i tried it, and no dice. same thing, and my disk is still in there.

the disk spins for about 1 minute or so, and then it stops.
Click to expand...

Get some cardboard or paper and fold it once. Stick it in the optical drive and try to maneuver it around the disk and pull it out. But the machine is borked and there isn't much of a way around it unless you look on eBay for some parts or just suck it up and pay Apple.
 
iToaster said:
Get some cardboard or paper and fold it once. Stick it in the optical drive and try to maneuver it around the disk and pull it out. But the machine is borked and there isn't much of a way around it unless you look on eBay for some parts or just suck it up and pay Apple.
Click to expand...

thanks, i did finally get the disk out with a business card.

when i turn on the computer, i get the hard drive starting sound, and the sleep light immediately starts the blinking.
 
twoodcc said:
i get nothing on the external, but i don't know how to make it look for the external at boot.
Click to expand...

it should detect the external and automatically display on it. Sorry to say, but the machine is done for. Sounds to me like damage the motherboard. It's really not worth the cost of a repair. Harvest what you can (sounds like HD and RAM might be ok, and maybe the LCD is ok?) and buy a new one... wish I had something more encouraging to say, but given what you've said, I think that's what it's going to come to.

edit: if it were just the LCD, the MB should come on as normal and display to an external. The fact that it doesn't know what to do at boot says to me that it's not just a display problem.
 
twoodcc said:
thanks, i did finally get the disk out with a business card.

when i turn on the computer, i get the hard drive starting sound, and the sleep light immediately starts the blinking.
Click to expand...

You know if the HDD was an external and/or "blank" its not really useful, it must have OS X already installed.
Try using Target Mode if you have another mac nearby (press command+t at startup until you can see some response) the hdd might still work.
Also put a flashlight behind the screen at the apple logo and see if you can detect clear damage.
-Victor
 
QCassidy352 said:
it should detect the external and automatically display on it. Sorry to say, but the machine is done for. Sounds to me like damage the motherboard. It's really not worth the cost of a repair. Harvest what you can (sounds like HD and RAM might be ok, and maybe the LCD is ok?) and buy a new one... wish I had something more encouraging to say, but given what you've said, I think that's what it's going to come to.
Click to expand...

that's what i'm afraid of also. i thought i'd at least give it my best shot. i think the lcd might be shot as well, though i'm really not sure. i'll try to reseed the ram again tomorrow, just to make sure.

Victor ch said:
You know if the HDD was an external and/or "blank" its not really useful, it must have OS X already installed.
Try using Target Mode if you have another mac nearby (press command+t at startup until you can see some response) the hdd might still work.

-Victor
Click to expand...

it's got os x on it i believe, though i'm not positive. either way, i don't think it's the hard drive
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back