Crashed Macbook :-(

[notebook.fix]

Hi John Doe, how you doing ? Are you back in town? I still have your Dell here ...I have totally forgotten I had it sitting there after all this time.

 

[wineguy999]

You're never one to miss the chance when you can huh ?
Thanks for your comment, at first I did a search for John Doe on the home page & I got zero results. Now it's all over the page.

Just keeping you on your toes!

 

[notebook.fix]

Just keeping you on your toes!

Thank you ...that's very heart warming to hear ... after looking him up I realized that I do know John Doe after all!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ...been to his place often...more than a year & a half ago (maybe two) I remember at the time we were looking for a replacement 17" screen display for his old Dell Inspiron 9400 (9 years old) . I still have it sitting right here, ha ha ha in the same old shelf. I hope to hear back from him soon he must be away somewhere. He always travels. Hope all is well for you these days...are you still in BA? I'm totally out of touch with the politics & scandals in the baexpats scene these days...ha ha ha ... it's always so 'stimulating' to come back and read here. Even though I was born here I still relate more to being an expat than a local - I guess that Aussie part of me can't be exorcised out of me that quickly yet ha ha ha. All the best to all.

 

[notebook.fix]

It has been one tragedy after another... (that´s a little dramatic... but there´s definitely been no shortage of obstacles for me this time around)

In a nutshell: my macbook pro decided to take a turn for the worse and will no longer turn on. No idea why. I found a few places that look at Macs... but I was here 5 years ago when Apple was restricted, and I know to have it fixed is going to cost me an arm and a leg.

Anybody out there who has had a similar experience? Any advice you can give me as far as where to take it, how to save a penny, and the best place to buy a new internal hard drive?

I am not an expert with technology and have no desire to try fix it myself. Nor do I really know much about internal hard drives other than the one I have in my computer (a replacement) is still under warranty--stateside. Nobody is coming to visit any time soon from the States and although I have an upcoming trip to go back, it is not until the end of May. I desperately need my computer for work and for my classes in the meantime.

I know I can take it for a consult for 50 pesos to a place relatively close to my house called Grupo GB... but I am almost afraid to waste my time because I have a feeling they are going to give me a really expensive presupuesto...

Any help, insights, or advice is much appreciated.

Hi how are you?

I know grupo GB...I read your post & became genuinely curious as to the exact nature of your macbook's problem... if it's possible can you describe in some basic details what the symptoms are? Is it a dark screen? Is there any electrical activity when you press the 'on' button? Do you get a green light on the magsafe connector when you attach it to your macbook? I'm not necessarily offering to fix it right now, just hopefully I may be able to give you some pointers. The issue is whether you have important data to save or not. The electronics can always be replaced but not your data. All the best.

 

[Rich One]

Thank you ...that's very heart warming to hear ... after looking him up I realized that I do know John Doe after all!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ...been to his place often...more than a year & a half ago (maybe two) I remember at the time we were looking for a replacement 17" screen display for his old Dell Inspiron 9400 (9 years old) . I still have it sitting right here, ha ha ha in the same old shelf. I hope to hear back from him soon he must be away somewhere. He always travels. Hope all is well for you these days...are you still in BA? I'm totally out of touch with the politics & scandals in the baexpats scene these days...ha ha ha ... it's always so 'stimulating' to come back and read here. Even though I was born here I still relate more to being an expat than a local - I guess that Aussie part of me can't be exorcised out of me that quickly yet ha ha ha. All the best to all.

So glad that this unfortunate misunderstanding was resolved , now we learn that John Doe failed to retrieve his Dell Inspiron...! So all the hearsay will remain as Such.. B)

 

[MorganF]

+1 for the Rich One. If a client drops off an ancient, extra computer to get fixed, and then just never picks it up -- it's not the fault of the repair guys. I (and my employees) have given dozens of computers to Ricardo over the years to fix, and he's always been great, and I would vouch 100% for his integrity, and for his abilities as a Mac and iPhone technician.

There's almost no one else on the forum I'd vouch for so confidently. Well, Ben's airline tickets as well, and another person or two -- you know who you are!

morgan

 

[notebook.fix]

So glad that this unfortunate misunderstanding was resolved , now we learn that John Doe failed to retrieve his Dell Inspiron...! So all the hearsay will remain as Such.. B)

Thank you. It makes me sad to think that some people prefer to speak behind your back rather than speak to you directly. I this case I never recall him calling me & asking "Where's my laptop ? Bring it back!" Instead I totally forgot it was sitting in my shop, I recall that he did call me afterwards for another computer related issue but never regarding that old laptop. On top if it all I had ALREADY informed him that the repair was financially not viable and that the chances of getting a new part for it were slim at the time.

Now, I could have chosen to be extra cautious in my reply posts here or I could be frank and open...being frank & saying the truth leaves you OPEN to all sorts vulnerabilities on this site.

No wonder I stopped coming here & I'm speaking my mind here cause I know that it may be to my own detriment given some of the nasty attitudes of some on this board. Sincerely it makes me sad. But live and learn. In the past most of my computer work came from the expat community, today 90% is from else where. I don't have the 'commercial' interest to 'defend myself' against the innuendo I saw displayed here. I replied openly & from the point of feeling that I too am a part of the expat community even if I was born here. I spent most of my life in another culture with different value systems and so I do feel privileged that I'm able to operate in two different worlds.

In any case I'm heartened by the good will of most of the expat community & friends.

 

[TomAtAlki]

It's really too bad that you were maligned without evidence. It's not the first time that has happened.

I appreciate knowing about your expertise on Macs, especially on you ability to fix motherboards, etc. That's a skill that is almost impossible to find. It is really good thing that in this town we have 2 excellent people to work on our Macs. Lord knows, you don't want to take a Mac to one of the Mac shops.

T/

 

[srtamollygreen]

Hi how are you?

I know grupo GB...I read your post & became genuinely curious as to the exact nature of your macbook's problem... if it's possible can you describe in some basic details what the symptoms are? Is it a dark screen? Is there any electrical activity when you press the 'on' button? Do you get a green light on the magsafe connector when you attach it to your macbook? I'm not necessarily offering to fix it right now, just hopefully I may be able to give you some pointers. The issue is whether you have important data to save or not. The electronics can always be replaced but not your data. All the best.

Thanks for replying. This computer is oooold--9 years old and counting. It has had 2 or 3 hard drive replacements and has accompanied in all my travels on three different continents. I am pretty sure the current hard drive is under warranty--state side that is <_< ). Having said that, I was not surprised when it wouldn't turn on anymore. A few years ago when this happened, I let it rest about 3 days and when I tried again, it miraculously turned on. However, a few weeks later it crashed again and I had to have the hard drive replaced.

So, this Friday morning I decided to give it a try again. It turned on. I immediately backed it up and have been working on it since. I truly think it has to do with the hard drive and maybe something being out of place (the disk?). I try not to bump it too much but I know I do.

Symptoms (the computer was always charged or attached to a charger):

- Initial white screen with the apple logo and the loading bar when trying to boot. The bar would never fully progress and the computer would never load and power on. Sometimes I would wait for 15 minutes and then get a black screen. Sometimes I could see the mouse. Other times it just shut off after 15 minutes.

I have a feeling it will continue to work for the next two weeks or so before it crashes again...

Any details on what's wrong with it?

If it's specifically a problem with the disk, it'll still turn on but will show a grey screen with a question mark. I have a new 256Gb SSD that I bought and didn't end up needing for my wife's MacBook, if that's any help. Replacing it is easy, no special tools are required. ifixit.com is a great resource.

You can check the disk health in recovery mode by holding [cmd] + [r] when it starts. If it doesn't get that far it could be something else; I've had two logic boards that developed faults had had to be replaced.

Thanks for your response! How much would you sell the hard drive for? How do I know it would work for mine?
Thanks for the tip about checking the disk health. It wasn't even starting for me so I don't think I could have checked. I am going to try it now though just for curiosity. Thanks again for your helpful response!

 

[notebook.fix]

Thanks for replying. This computer is oooold--9 years old and counting. It has had 2 or 3 hard drive replacements and has accompanied in all my travels on three different continents. I am pretty sure the current hard drive is under warranty--state side that is <_< ). Having said that, I was not surprised when it wouldn't turn on anymore. A few years ago when this happened, I let it rest about 3 days and when I tried again, it miraculously turned on. However, a few weeks later it crashed again and I had to have the hard drive replaced.

So, this Friday morning I decided to give it a try again. It turned on. I immediately backed it up and have been working on it since. I truly think it has to do with the hard drive and maybe something being out of place (the disk?). I try not to bump it too much but I know I do.

Symptoms (the computer was always charged or attached to a charger):

- Initial white screen with the apple logo and the loading bar when trying to boot. The bar would never fully progress and the computer would never load and power on. Sometimes I would wait for 15 minutes and then get a black screen. Sometimes I could see the mouse. Other times it just shut off after 15 minutes.

I have a feeling it will continue to work for the next two weeks or so before it crashes again...



Thanks for your response! How much would you sell the hard drive for? How do I know it would work for mine?
Thanks for the tip about checking the disk health. It wasn't even starting for me so I don't think I could have checked. I am going to try it now though just for curiosity. Thanks again for your helpful response!

Hi, I may have missed it but what is the exact model of your macbook pro please? Is it an A1278? If it is, and lets assume that the computer turns on but doesn't start up the operating system, then it could be as you've said already - centered around your hard disk or it could be the flex cable that connects your hard disk to the motherboard. This is also a very common fault with the A1278 macbook pro unibody (silver) (I'm assuming it's a 2008 unibody macbook pro).

As conail rightly mentioned, you could try and do a diagnostic on the hard drive but be aware that if it IS failing you should first ATTEMPT TO BACK UP YOUR PERSONAL DATA before testing the drive just in case it's on it's last legs cause you may loose the last few vital minutes/hours of life it may still have left in it. Once it dies it's extremely difficult to rescue your data.

If once you start your backup process you find that it takes far too long to copy across then this may be a sign that you have bad sectors building up. In this case I WOULD RECOMMEND THAT YOU CLONE the disk onto another one with a proper cloning / data recovery program like DDrescue or any good program that can jump the bad sectors and get to as much of your good data as possible before it attempts to rescue the data stuck in the bad sector areas, this is to save vital time while the disk still works.


I hope I have been able to shed some light on it for you.

All the best.