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Advice on what to try next with dead MacBook Pro

As described my macbook pro A1260 will not start up. When I press the power button i can just hear the optical drive powering up and if i listen closely I can hear the fans come on and the light at the front edge is on but nothing else; complete silence, no hard drive activity at all.

The battery although not great is charging fine and the green/amber light on power adapter is on when plugged into mains. I have tried all the possible resets to no avail. I have swapped out, swapped around, tried slots one at a time or completely removed the RAM with no difference. About 3 weeks ago the Optical drive stopped working (pulls in a disk, tries to read it makes some buzzing noises then spits it out again) so I tried removing that completely and restarting with no result. I have removed the hard drive and plugged it into the spare slot of my work powerPC PowerMac, it mounts fine and all partitions and files are there, Disk utility and Tech tools pro says the disk is fine.

NOTE.

The powerPc won't let me select it as a startup volume though, it doesn't even come up on the list of drives available but greyed out. I thought this was probably related to the fact that it was formatted and setup in an intel mac and I was trying to start from it on a powerPC- is this the case or may this be where the problem lies??.

Are there any other possibilities?, could it be the HD?, is it just coincidence that the optical drive failed a few weeks ago? or am I looking at replacing the motherboard??.

Any advice is most most welcome

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When you remove the RAM and try to start the laptop does it beep or the front light flash?

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No, there is no beep or flash when starting without the RAM, the light comes on, the fans spin quietly but nothing else.

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It's a power issue so most of the times it need to be troubleshooted with known working parts. I don't think the HD could be the culprit but if you want to check, disconnect it from the logic board and try to power the machine. BTW your PPC wont boot the Intel HD because of the GUID partition.

Are you sure your Magsafe adapter is fully functional ? If you did the SMC reset with no result the problem could be the I/O Board where you connect the magsafe.

I would begin by disconnect from the logic board everything the computer doesn't need to power up (HD, airport card, optical drive, ram, top case, etc) and try to power up directly from the logic board. If the board powers up then you know that something connected to it is the culprit. If there's no power then the logic board may be dead.

Your MBP model has the infamous nvidia 8600 graphic card. I wonder if a faulty graphic card can cause such a power issue. Someone has clue about it ?

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Usually you get some sign of life with an Nvidia issue. A power PC needs an external Firewire drive to boot from not a USB. But you are also right about the GUID and the system may be 10.6 and to high to boot from a G5 (10.5.8 max)

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Many thanks for the comment. It certainly is possible that the Magsafe adapter is faulty but the green/amber light comes on when I connect it to the powerbook and it charges the battery OK. The symptoms are the same with or without the Magsafe attached and the battery has full power. So to me this suggests the Magsafe is OK. If I disconnect the optical drive and take out the RAM there is no difference apart from no noise from Optical drive powering up; light comes on and the fans start spinning. If i disconnect the HD the fan still comes on quietly but there is no light at the front as the ribbon cable that connects the HD also seems to supply power to the LED for the front light. Can't see how to disconnect the left expansion bay and if I remove the top cover I don't know how to power up the computer as the power button is in the top cover.

As an additional note, my daughter had been using the computer in bed and I suspect she let it overheat, she said the fans came on. Could this have

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The computer should shut down by itself when too hot. I think that a temperature sensor will tell the computer to power off if abnormal high temperature is detected.Now if you want to troubleshoot the top case by powering the MBP without top case attached: remove and disconnect the top case and look on the motherboard for a power icon with two solder pads under it or for inscription PWR BTN (for power button). You can see what it looks like here:

MacBook won't boot at all

Once you see the pads connect the magsafe adapter and bridge the two pads. The computer should start (if you're lucky enough...)

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Hi again, had an initial look for the power icon on the mother board but couldn't find it - Will have another look with a magnifying glass tomorrow as my eyes arn't what they used to be.

Are there any specific symptoms that are characteristic of the mother board having gone, rather than one of the other components?.

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matt Nev sera éternellement reconnaissant.
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