Booting Off of Leopard DVD= No Backlight- PLEASE HELP

Question

Level 1

6 points

Booting Off of Leopard DVD= No Backlight- PLEASE HELP

I'm running my copy of Leopard to reinstall the OS and for some reason the backlight will not come on when it boots into the DVD. I do see the screen though, its just very dark...

Other than that, the screen and backlight work as normal when I just boot into the OS already on teh computer...

Please help. Thank you.

Macbook Pro Mid 08, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Windows 7 (Bootcamp)

Posted on Apr 25, 2009 8:26 PM

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Answer 1

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Apr 25, 2009 8:31 PM in response to legaleye300

Try a PRAM reset
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

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Answer 2

legaleye300 Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 25, 2009 8:37 PM in response to nerowolfe

Only problem with doing that is that I have a firmware password set up and to do a PRAM reset, there can't be a firmware password. In order to get rid of the password, I need to boot off the dvd and see the screen in order to get to the firmware password utility 😟

Is that the only idea?

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Answer 3

legaleye300 Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 26, 2009 11:44 AM in response to legaleye300

Using a flashlight, I went to firmware pw utility and removed the pw. Then I reset the PRAM and SMU and its still the same thing...

Weird... Any ideas?

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Answer 4

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Apr 26, 2009 11:51 AM in response to legaleye300

Try this:
Remove the battery and then hold down the power button for 5 seconds, minimum to be sure all capacitors are discharged.
Replace the battery and see what happens.
This does a really "strong" PRAM etc. reset.

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Answer 5

legaleye300 Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 26, 2009 11:58 AM in response to nerowolfe

Already did that...

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Answer 6

Apr 26, 2009 2:02 PM in response to legaleye300

If you have access to the RAM, remove one module and boot the computer. Then shutdown, reinstall the RAM, and boot again. This will reset the firmware password.

FYI, the firmware password utility IS available on the leopard DVD. Insert the DVD and then choose "Go To Folder..." from the Finder's "Go" menu. Enter "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/Application" and then go to the "Utilities" folder, where you can open the Firmware Password Utility.

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Answer 7

legaleye300 Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 26, 2009 2:07 PM in response to Topher Kessler

I never got it to work, but this is what I did:

Booted off the DVD and used a bright flashlight (LOL) and went into the firmware password utility (before reading your post above, ugh) and got rid of the pw. Then reset the PRAM and SMU, which also did not work. I just did the reinstall of the machine with a flashlight up to the screen and the computer is running fine.

I haven't tried booting into the DVD again, so I don't know if its fixed or not. VERY WEIRD- I have never had that happen before with any of the macs (a lot) that I have reinstalled...

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