[MikeD]

Wife's 2006 Macbook (originally OSX, may have had updates...?) is showing a white screen without going to the logon. It had been acting funny recently with Itunes and Iphoto and some websites on Safari...she says she updated the software but had the same problems afterward.

Now all we get is the white screen on startup, sometimes with a pointer and sometimes without; the trackpad will move the pointer if it's there.

She tried putting the OS disc in but now it just spins the disc while showing the white screen... I reset the PMU (battery out, held down power button for 10 sec or so) and did the command-option-P-R thing and it successively shut down/chimed again 4 times, but nothing changed.

All available info now says "send to Apple" but we're not in a position to do that right now.

Anything left to do that I'm unaware of?

MD

 

[Quo Fan]

I thought that Macs never had any problems.

 

[dicey]

My pc did the same thing last week(except black screen) turn out my hard drive was overloaded and crashed. Unfortantly the only way to fix it was a new hard drive, at least in my case. good luck.

 

[binary visions]

I'd suggest bad hard drive except the OS disc won't even load up. Then again, I don't know how the MacOS actually goes about its installation; with Windows, the first step is some low level stuff that doesn't require disc access. If MacOS initially tries to copy to the hard drive, it could be preventing the installer from continuing.

Is there a way you can get your hands on another hard drive and just slap it in there for grins? Even a small one would work for testing.

 

[Arkayne]

It sounds like a trip to the Apple Store so you better make your appt.

I'd try the following:

1) Turn on the system and hold down T to put the system in Target Disk Mode. Hopefully you'll get a bouncing yellow Firewire icon. If so, connect it to another system and back up your data. Visit the Apple Store.

2) Is there another Mac in the house? Put that system in Target Disk Mode and connect it to the MacBook with a FireWire cable. Boot the MacBook and hold down the Option button. You should be presented with a list of bootable volumes. Select the other Mac. If that works, use Disk Utility and try to repair it.

3) Let's rule out your lcd. Attach the Mini DisplayPort adapter (if you have one) to an external monitor. Turn on the system and immediately close the lid. The MacBook will make the external the main screen. If you get the same white screen, then we can blame the Logic Board or HD.

Got AppleCare?