New MacBook won't start

tomster1300 · August 23, 2006 4:38PM

My daughter's new MacBook currently will not start up. I had her remove the battery for a few seconds yesterday and replace and that worked. Today, nothing works. Is there an issue with power supplies in the new MacBooks?

Any suggestions other than holding down the power button once battery is removed?

Thanks

thinkingdifferent · August 23, 2006 10:01PM

Is the battery charged? What happens when you use the power adapter?

tomster1300 · August 23, 2006 11:24PM

Yeah, the battery is fully charged and laptop did not start even with the charger plugged in.

As of tonight, she was able to get it up and running by taking out the battery then holding the power button down for about 15 seconds. After placing battery back in, it popped on.

The Apple store "geniuses" say this is not a problem common the the new MacBook and hopefully it will not occur again. Sucks that there are any problems with a brand new machine though.

jpennington · August 24, 2006 6:19AM

Apple has a pretty detailed workflow for a macbook that won't start at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303234 .

I would try resetting the PRAM ( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238 ) and PMU ( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319 ) first.

Unfortunately it does happen to new machines every so often, kind of link getting a lemon when buying a car.

Good luck with it. Apple was recently rated number one for support, so if you do have a problem, apple will rectify it.

dutch pear · August 24, 2006 6:58AM

If it happens again, get them to give you a new one. This is exactly the scenario you get a warranty for.

rbf817 · August 25, 2006 4:34AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomster1300

My daughter's new MacBook currently will not start up. I had her remove the battery for a few seconds yesterday and replace and that worked. Today, nothing works. Is there an issue with power supplies in the new MacBooks?

Any suggestions other than holding down the power button once battery is removed?

Thanks

Had my macbook do a similar thing and it was the superdrive that was faulty. When i spoke to the applecare technician he said that they had had a bad batch of drives. Hope this helps

slughead · August 25, 2006 9:11AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpennington

I would try resetting the PRAM

LOL 'zap the pram'! I do that like 6 times a day because of the old rumors from the OS 9 days that it fixes 'everything'.. sort of like spraying windex on cuts.

Christians go to church, Jews go to temple, Muslims pray for 6 hours a day, I zap my pram.

meelash · August 25, 2006 9:37AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slughead

LOL 'zap the pram'! I do that like 6 times a day because of the old rumors from the OS 9 days that it fixes 'everything'.. sort of like spraying windex on cuts.

Christians go to church, Jews go to temple, Muslims pray for 6 hours a day, I zap my pram.

You shouldn't. I believe the Apple Support site states that this is only to be used as a last resort... (obviously I know you're exaggerating (i hope) about six times a day, but still, just saying...)

tomster1300 · August 25, 2006 4:33PM

Update:

Well, taking the battery out and hitting the power button for a few seconds worked a couple of times. She also did a PRAM reset this morning and now, this afternoon, it will fire up but remains gray.....the OS does not boot up.

I'm having her call the 1-800 number now.

Looks like she got a lemon. Sucks in that there's plenty else to worry about being a first year college student than a damn computer.

marvin · August 26, 2006 4:37AM

Can it boot from the installer DVD?

kimcon · October 25, 2008 8:00AM

Hi!

The first time I bought a macbook 2 yrs. ago, I was soooooo excited, and when I got home, it was like, this really cool moment ( I was a poor student, who had invested a lot of thought in the decision) and after charging it for a few minutes, I went to start it. NOTHING. No lights, flashes, beeps, burps, NOTHING. I took it back, and they reimbursed my cab fare for having to come back to the store (though I pretty much demanded it, since there was no possible way I screwed up the computer since I hadn't even started it!). Happy days until....

Fast forward a couple years.

My husband keeps annoying me, and I, him, over use of the computer, so we decided to get another, the new version (glass/aluminum) last night. I spent a few hours setting up my preferences, downloading programs, etc. I loved it. This morning I woke up early (On a Saturday? Unheard of!) to play with it. Sure as sh*t, it freezes on me. The cursor is over the apple, so by hitting return, I am able to select things from the menu, on a limited basis, but damn! The trackpad won't respond. I would very much like to take a ballpeen hammer to it and see if that does the trick.

I love macbooks, but what are the chances of getting TWO lemons. This makes me really sad. It was very expensive, Now it is going to be a weekend affair. (We go to the 5th Ave. store in NYC, which is a perpetual Gong Show). The apple people are very sweet, and always very helpful, but the inconvenience is wearisome.

OK so I ranted....HERE is my QUESTION. What can be done by using any of the toolbar options at the top of the opening screen, and with a keyboard. I can't "click" or "tap" anything, so I have to resort to arrow keys and the Return key.

ANY SUGGESTION?

Thank you for your consideration!

Kim

marvin · October 25, 2008 9:29AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kimcon

what are the chances of getting TWO lemons.

1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4 I think. It's not really a lemon if it's just a broken trackpad. That term is more for computers that are dead or keep breaking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kimcon

What can be done by using any of the toolbar options at the top of the opening screen, and with a keyboard. I can't "click" or "tap" anything, so I have to resort to arrow keys and the Return key.

ctrl-F7 (you may have to use ctrl-fn-F7 on the laptop) turns on full keyboard access. ctrl-F2 selects the Apple menu and ctrl-F8 does the menus on the right. You can use the tab key and arrows for navigation and return or sometimes space bar for selection. command-tab can switch apps. Expose can select windows.

You'd be better getting an external mouse though in case this happens again.

anaahlawy · October 25, 2008 1:33PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meelash

You shouldn't. I believe the Apple Support site states that this is only to be used as a last resort... (obviously I know you're exaggerating (i hope) about six times a day, but still, just saying...)

Muslims pray 5 times a day, and that takes barely a couple of minutes each time. So its as simple as restarting your Al-macbook

meelash · October 25, 2008 2:35PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marvin

1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4 I think. It's not really a lemon if it's just a broken trackpad. That term is more for computers that are dead or keep breaking.

ctrl-F7 (you may have to use ctrl-fn-F7 on the laptop) turns on full keyboard access. ctrl-F2 selects the Apple menu and ctrl-F8 does the menus on the right. You can use the tab key and arrows for navigation and return or sometimes space bar for selection. command-tab can switch apps. Expose can select windows.

You'd be better getting an external mouse though in case this happens again.

What changes when you hit ctrl-F7? It seems that ctrl-F8 and ctrl-F2 work no matter what.

Also, ctrl-F8 is excellent for people with small screens when the menu on the right gets covered up because you have too many icons.

marvin · October 26, 2008 3:14AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meelash

What changes when you hit ctrl-F7? It seems that ctrl-F8 and ctrl-F2 work no matter what.

That changes the tab selection so that when you tab through say an online form, it will select buttons and controls instead of just the input fields.

New MacBook won't start

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