My sister hasn’t had the euphoric switch to a mac experience that everyone else has. In some ways, it almost seems her beautiful black MacBook might even be cursed.
Like anything, switching to a Mac has a learning curve and sometimes that learning curve can just make it seem things aren’t working right. But when screens start flickering and comptuers start shutting down randomly, the learning curve increases exponentially for big brothers.
About 3 or 4 months ago, her MacBook started to shutdown randomly. Apple released a bulletin about random shutdowns in certain MacBooks and advised a firmware upgrade to help solve the problem.
Firmware doesn’t help solve hardware problems and that was what caused her MacBook to shutdown randomly and eventually, not start at all.
I tried everything to help her poor, sick, beautiful machine to come back on including these tricks you might use if you try to start your MacBook and see an empty blue screen or the progress indicator that looks like a pinwheel (I call it the "beach ball"):
- Start OS X in Safe Mode - Shutdown, press power and immediately hold down ’shift’ after the startup sound.
- Try to restart by simultaneously pressing ‘Ctrl’, ⌘, and the power button for 3 seconds.
- Try to boot from your OS X CD - place the CD in the drive, shutdown and hold ‘C’ while restarting.
- Try to force a restart of OS X - shutdown and hold ‘X’ while restarting.
If you can’t get these to work, try them after holding down the power key for 10 seconds and then releasing the power key after you hear a loud system beep.
Lastly, if these still don’t work and you still see nothing but a blank blue screen when you turn on your MacBook, it’s probably not cursed. More than likely, the MacBook has a problem with one of the heat sinks.
The heat sink issue was the root of my sister’s MacBook shutdown problems. Turns out that MacBook’s made prior to a certain week in the production process had a serious issue with a faulty heat sink that causes these MacBook’s to short out randomly. The problem can get progressively worse and cause a complete failure of the system which gives you the empty blue screen.
The Apple store at MacArthur Center in Norfolk has a fantastic staff that assisted my sister courteously and quickly. They replaced the faulty heat sink without an appointment and did not charge her for the repair. They also polished black beauty before they gave it back to her. That alone was worth the trip.
Auntie wrote,
Her name is Mae.
Quote | Link | March 21st, 2007 at 11:46 am
Melissa wrote,
When i start my macbook, the white screen with the apple shows. Its been like this for over 2 days and i can’t fix it..
Does this mean i need a new macbook?
Quote | Link | October 6th, 2009 at 11:36 am
manos wrote,
Melissa said
i have the same problem wtf
Quote | Link | December 3rd, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Joachim wrote,
same here… any solutions?
Have tried everything, I think. My won’t boot in safe mode though…
Quote | Link | December 9th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Clint wrote,
Try looking at the support website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
Quote | Link | December 10th, 2009 at 7:15 am
Maorei wrote,
■Try to restart by simultaneously pressing ‘Ctrl’, ⌘, and the power button for 3 seconds.
This tip helped me get my macbook started! Thanks!
Quote | Link | March 30th, 2010 at 1:57 am
Mish wrote,
I dont see how those steps will help if the macbook WONT START. :-p
Quote | Link | May 15th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Amanda wrote,
So… I bought a new macbook pro about 3 months ago. Evertyhing seemed pretty fine and we got along so well.. and then today she just blacked out.Gone. I’ve pressed the on switch for 10 seconds, nothing. Pressed it with command and control. Nothing… Also I noticed that from a distance you can see a whitish blotch in the center of the screen.. (I’m thinking maybe the screen has failed) …….. my last option is to take her to an apple store, which there are none close to where I live. This will require a lovely trip to Singapore, or maybe even New Zealand which is pretty far away. If anyone has had the same problem.. please comment or email me at awesomosaurus@live.com and if you have a solution that would be AWESOME otherwise I’m going to have to wait until New Years Eve. Sorry for the long boring post.
Quote | Link | September 8th, 2010 at 3:18 am
Brittany wrote,
Same problem, white screen with the Apple. Tried all the tips, no luck. Its been over two weeks. I would prefer not to have to take it to the Apple Store because I can’t afford them fixing it but it looks like thats my only option at this point unless anyone has any idea what I can do.
Quote | Link | September 20th, 2010 at 11:44 am
brigitte wrote,
I have a macbook that just stopped booting up. When i turn the power on, the screen light comes on, but after that, the screen turns completely white with an icon of a folder with a question mark on it that blinks off and on in the center of the screen. I don’t know what happened. How do i fix this and can i still extract my pictures one way or the other?
please help!!!!
Quote | Link | September 21st, 2010 at 7:00 pm