Major problem... help needed! MacBook Pro won't boot!

[Martin1985]

Hi guys (and girls)

I've recently been having alot of problems with my 15" MacBook Pro. It's been crashing a lot and not booting up properly when I restart from the apple menu. After doing a fresh reinstall of OS X and that having no affect, I took it to my closest Apple Service Provider... Having taken a look at it they replaced my Logic Board due to there being a noticeable 'whining' sound coming from it. I got the MacBook Pro back today and it all seemed fine so I started installing applications and retriving files from my Backup...

10 minutes ago while using Adium and Safari, my MacBook Pro shut down without any warning. I tried to boot up again but it got past the 'chime' and shut down again. I have tried it over and over and it does the same each time, it just will not boot up!

Does anyone have any idea of what the problem could be or how I can get back into OS X to backup some new files?

I can't remember the exact spec of my MacBook Pro but if it helps, it was bought in August 2006, before they upgraded the processor.

Your help would be much appreciated.

Thank you very much!

[eric2006]

First, try this:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319

If you are comfortable opening your MacBook Pro, check the RAM and verify it is seated correctly. Try moving the RAM, or taking a chip out.

Another theory is that it's heating up for some reason, and the fans are not kicking in, hence the shutdown. This could be caused if they forgot to connect the heat sensor back to the new logic board. You may have to bring it in to fix this, or open your MacBook Pro completely (void warranty?)

[Martin1985]

After leaving the laptop to rest for a while, I managed to get it to boot up only to have it shut down after a few minutes. I did notice though that the fans were running at full speed, even when it wasn't doing anything. The laptop wasn't getting hot but the fans just seemed to go at full speed constantly until it shut down...

I have been in touch with the service provider and i've been told to bring it back in on Monday and they'll switch the logic board again and make sure it's running properly, so hopefully that will fix it.

I'll let you know the outcome

Thanks alot!

[bbloke]

You could try using the iStat Pro Widget to monitor the fan speeds and temperature. I would have thought faulty hardware would be most likely to manifest itself through kernel panics, but that is not always the case. Random shutdowns, with the fans going crazy, do make me wonder if this is a case of the computer overheating.

[Martin1985]

Thanks for the help guys...

I took my laptop to the guys who fixed it and they replaced the logic board again. All seems to be ok now, i hope!

Apart from one thing i've never seen before... When I boot up my macbook pro now, rather than the apple logo appearing straight away, i get a folder icon with a question mark inside for a second, then the apple logo appears. Is this a common problem? If so, what can I do to fix it?

Also, after my fans going full speed for a few days, I am very weary of how fast my fans are going now. I am running an application called smcFanControl to monitor how fast my fans are going and the temperature. It currently seems to sit at about 76 degrees with the fans going at around 1000rpm - is this normal?

Thanks guys, your help would be much appreciated!

[Debaser626]

Your OS isn't "blessed" You can either choose your HD in the Startup Disk pref pane, hold down x on startup, or hold down option on startup and choose your HD.