Macbook Unibody(white) 2009 won't boot from/into anything

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Level 1

4 points

Macbook Unibody(white) 2009 won't boot from/into anything

Hi everyone,

My first time here on the community. I usually don't use these channels as I'm able to quite easily find my solutions otherwise,

but this time I've encountered a problem I just can't seem to find a solution for. All comments and attempts will be greatly appreciated.

We just got a White Macbook Unibody (2009), (S/N 45049RL0F5W) from an online auction site and I was given the task to test it.

It's in pretty good nick and bears no signs of any damage, waterspill, powerfailure/overload etc. I powered it up and it sounded the POST chime (usually a good sign) and went to the blinking folder/question mark symbol. I tried to insert an original Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) install disk just to test the optical drive. I pressed 'C' and the apple logo showed up and the loading sun symbol under it as I could hear the drive attempting to boot from the disk.

After about a minute, the screen went dim and gave me the error message that I had to restart the machine. I did this and tried with several other original original boot disks but the same thing kept happening. I tried booting from a bootable USB Flash Drive with Mac OSX 10.6, but it wouldn't do it. I tried connecting an external USB Optical Drive (powered through own power supply) that didn't work either.

I tried accessing the boot menu by pressing 'Alt/Option' but it only shows the arrow everytime I try. I guess that shows that no boot options are available?

The other funny thing though, is that I try to boot it in Target Mode, Verbose Mode & Single User Mode but it just won't do it -it just goes straight to the blinking folder/question mark symbol. I've tried this with an external wired keyboard, but no response. The built-In keyboard activates CAPS-lock when pressed and so does the external wired keyboard so the keyboards must work, especially also since it registers that I hit 'C' and shows no boot options but shows the arrow. I also try to boot from a network by hitting 'N' just to see if that worked and if the keyboard was dead, but it shows the globe symbol before it goes back to the folder/question mark symbol.

I tried resetting the PRAM/NVRAM and the SMU but with no luck.

I am out of ideas on what to try except replacing the logicboard, which obviously isn't gonna happen.

Does anybody have any suggestions or ideas on what to do? I feel that I've kinda exhausted every possibilty...

Cheers,

Nich

MacBook, White Unibody 2009

MacBook, iOS 5

Posted on May 22, 2013 12:02 AM

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Answer 1

May 22, 2013 1:33 AM in response to nich23

Hi Nich,

First time in the community for me too.

Have you tried running Disk Tools to check the disk health?

Have you tried an SMC reset? (Check this article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964)

Fede

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Answer 2

nich23 Author

Level 1

4 points

May 22, 2013 5:17 PM in response to federicogiust

Hi Fede,

Thanks for your reply! The problem with this machine is that it has no OS installed, or at least it won't boot into any that is installed.

I've tried the SMC reset, but still no change unfortunately.

Nich

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Answer 3

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,486 points

May 22, 2013 5:57 PM in response to nich23

Sounds like a failed hard drive.

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Answer 4

nich23 Author

Level 1

4 points

May 22, 2013 7:55 PM in response to SeaPapp

Hi Mike,

Yeah, I agree, but it's odd that it would affect the Optical Drive too?

I don't get how it refuses to boot into Verbose Mode and Single User mode

Thanks!

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Answer 5

nich23 Author

Level 1

4 points

May 22, 2013 8:18 PM in response to nich23

UPDATE: I was able to test a disk with Hardware Detection Tool and that worked! So I got verification that the Optical Drive at least works.

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Answer 6

A H1

Level 1

53 points

Oct 12, 2013 11:08 AM in response to nich23

I don't know if you figured it out but my guess is:

1. Unibody does not have a Firewire port... which means it will not boot into Target Disk Mode, since without FW, TDM is not supported

2. it is possible that the 10.6 installer disk (unless it's the original that came with the machine) has a version that isn't recent enough to run your MB. I checked the serial number, and it appears to be a 2010 model, which requires 10.6.3 minium OS. so if the installer disk doesn't have minimum of 10.6.3, or you have the wrong original installer disk (since you think it's 2009 MacBook, but based on the SN, it's a MacBook7,1 - 2010 model. you may have the wrong installer DVD), it won't boot, and when it can't boot it tries to boot from the internal drive which does not have an OS, and it stops....

you should be able to, however, boot the machine via USB using an external drive... for diagnostics, install, etc.. So don't know why it would not accept your bootable USB flash drive unless again, it doesn't have the latest 10.6 (10.6.3 minimum) that the machine requires to boot. with the external Optical drive, if you still have the wrong installer DVD, then you'll runinto the same problem with the internal.

hope this helps.. good luck...

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