2007 Macbook pro won't boot

My 2007 Macbook won't boot. When you press the power button it starts as normal, the apple appears and the spinning circle starts. Then the screen goes grey and it sits there. I have to press the power button to shut it down. I took it to a service shop who told me that the hard drive was dying so I replaced the old drive with a new ssd and a fresh install of Lion. No difference. Still won't start. I refreshed the PRAM but made no difference. Any thoughts?

MacBook Pro, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Jun 10, 2012 10:41 PM

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1 reply

Jun 10, 2012 10:47 PM in response to Jack Cruikshank

What you describe is not a sign of a failed drive but it is the sign of a non-functional operating system when the spinning gear appears and either never stops of disappears but the Apple logo remains. But when both disappear I think it means some other hardware failure.


Have you tried booting from your installer DVD?


Booting From An OS X Installer Disc


1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.

2. Restart the computer.

3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.

4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.

5. Wait for installer to finish loading.


I would also try Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) but if that doesn't help you will need to have someone check it out.


If you can boot from the installer disc then you don't have a hardware problem.

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2007 Macbook pro won't boot

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