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sliceswiththings's avatar

How can I fix this booting up problem with my old Macbook?

Asked by sliceswiththings (11723points) February 5th, 2021

Hello,
I bought my first Macbook in 2007. I haven’t touched it since 2014 when I replaced it. Now, I want to try to sell it (or donate it) but want to see what’s on it first/transfer files.

When I hit the power button, it gurgled for a bit and then made powering up sounds. However, nothing happened on the screen. I clicked and held the power button again and it made the “powering down” sound.

I don’t know any of those tricks of what buttons to hold while booting up, in case it’s a simple fix like that! Any ideas? It is plugged into the wall and the charger light is on. And yes, I tried the screen brightness key, smarty pants. :)

Thanks in advance!

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5 Answers

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Sounds like the screen is toast.
You can transfer files to another using the other computer and powering up the Macbook.

elbanditoroso's avatar

Possibly the monitor, but possibly not.

Two thoughts:

1) if you really haven’t turned it on in 7 years, the hard drive maybe sort of frozen into place. Even rusted, The sound you heard might have been it trying to start spinning but failing. If that’s the case, you can try not-to-gently hitting the side of the MAC to maybe free the hard drive heads, and then try to boot again.

2) How long did you wait after you plugged it in, before you pressed the power key. Some computers – especially ones with dead batteries, need a minimum amount of charge (even if plugged in) to start powering stuff up. And screens take a good bit of juice to turn on.

So – if it has been plugged in for a while, try again.

\Otherwise, try some of these while trying to boot: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255

kritiper's avatar

Sometimes batteries are so bad they won’t contain a charge or even try to charge. I had a mobile phone like that. Plug in the charger and it would indicate it was charged but when you unplugged the charger, there was nothing.

sliceswiththings's avatar

Thank you for the suggestions so far! I had it plugged in for hours before booting it up. The battery is fine, it definitely has power (there’s a light on the side as well) when it’s on and it stays on when unplugged as well. A friend suggested connecting it to an external monitor, so I might try that!

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