Benny7440

Q: screen shows bright little squares pattern and folder with ? sign

My lack of experiences with Apple products soon will be apparent! Try to keep this in mind if you decide to reply...

 

The laptop is a MacBook Pro, and apart from this I've almost no other info on the machine because of lack of labels or manuals: this is not my machine, it's a friends laptop. The only info I've is what appears under the screen when you open the lid, at no other corner or space around the artifact is anything of value.

 

Since I've been trying to tinker a little with an old iBook G4 recently I've learned that there are other ways of "Powering up" that laptop and I'm curious if the same thing can be done with this machine. I'm talking about pressing the Power button while one presses down something else, making it possible to do some adjustments. First of all, I would like to learn how to do that with this machine.

 

Second, have no idea what the OS of this machine chipped with nor what it has right now: would like to know if there's a way of learning what those are.

 

Is the screen thing common? Easily fixed? To this end, I've never used an Apple product with a secondary screen; I guess that one of those ports at the side is for an auxiliary screen: what kind of an auxiliary screen could be connected there? Just an Apple product? the connector for the cable suggests that...Am I right on this?

 

Something else, does this product came with an OS's CD? A recovery CD?

 

Any info on the above issues are going to be valuable for me and my friend! After all, she has a lot of pictures there of her first grandchild - most of you will understand the value given to those...

 

PS. I still have that iBook, but no cable for any possible connection between the machines but I'm curious if that's a possible solution to access the HDD. Could it be done without opening any of the said machines, under the current circumstances?

iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Only 384MB of RAM in total

Posted on May 13, 2016 9:21 AM

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Q: screen shows bright little squares pattern and folder with ? sign

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  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas May 13, 2016 10:25 AM in response to Benny7440
    Level 7 (22,894 points)
    Notebooks
    May 13, 2016 10:25 AM in response to Benny7440

    Benny7440 wrote:

     

    Is the screen thing common? Easily fixed?

     

    Is this the question: "screen shows bright little squares pattern and folder with ? sign."

     

    Maybe you can say more about the issue??

  • by Benny7440,

    Benny7440 Benny7440 May 14, 2016 10:23 AM in response to leroydouglas
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 14, 2016 10:23 AM in response to leroydouglas

    Thanks for replying, leroydouglas!

     

    The first problem is that the laptop doesn't boot-up. I don't know if it's related to the screen problem or not. All that I see is this pattern and a little squared portion at the centroid of the screen showing this folder with a question mark at its center. It should mean something but I don't know what.

     

    That's why I'm also asking for the other boot options, where I might be able to change a little the screen resolution and, then, be able to see the rest of the screen or at least a bigger portion of it.

     

    Any help will be greatly appreciated!

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas May 14, 2016 10:50 AM in response to Benny7440
    Level 7 (22,894 points)
    Notebooks
    May 14, 2016 10:50 AM in response to Benny7440

    Am I correct to assume this is the iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.5.8) ?

     

    Folder with a question mark

    pic.png

    If you see a folder with a question mark appear instead of the Apple logo, it means your Mac couldn't find a local  startup disk. This can happen if the disk selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences isn't available. Wait a few seconds to see if your Mac is able to locate the startup disk you specified.

    If you still see a question mark after waiting a few moments, use Startup Manager to start up your Mac, then re-select your startup disk from System Preferences.

  • by Benny7440,

    Benny7440 Benny7440 May 14, 2016 1:28 PM in response to leroydouglas
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 14, 2016 1:28 PM in response to leroydouglas

    Macbook pro.jpg

    Thanks for replying so fast, leroydouglas!

     

    I'm sorry that I tried '3' times to catch a photo with the said flashing icon there but I don't have a lot of experience with that phone camera. This is the MacBook Pro screen after a few minutes with and without the <Command>+<R> combination at startup. I noticed today that it has a part under the laptop a little bit bent. Who knows, it might not have the HDD there (and nobody told me someone had already tinkered with it). I'll investigate this corner later and let you know if something new & useful arises.

     

    Other options for starting this MacBook Pro? Even though it's not starting I read the link you provided and that connection between computers held my attention: could I connect my iBook to that one (MacBook = ON) and see the hdd contents? Can I start the MacBook with my iBook OS via that cable?

     

    As you can see, I've many questions, some may be stupid enough for ignoring!

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas May 14, 2016 1:38 PM in response to Benny7440
    Level 7 (22,894 points)
    Notebooks
    May 14, 2016 1:38 PM in response to Benny7440

    Benny7440 wrote:

     

    This is the MacBook Pro screen after a few minutes with and without the <Command>+<R> combination at startup. I noticed today that it has a part under the laptop a little bit bent.

     

    A bad battery can swell and cause all kinds of problems.  The screen shot looks like a failing GPU.

     

     

    Target Disk mode Share files between two computers with target disk mode - Apple Support

  • by Benny7440,

    Benny7440 Benny7440 May 17, 2016 12:56 PM in response to leroydouglas
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 17, 2016 12:56 PM in response to leroydouglas

    Today I started to open it up but just got to the Batt. & RAM level even after taking 'most of the Phillips screws'. There're a couple of 'Star' screws that I've not tried yet. Any instructions for disassembling?

     

    I noticed that the Batt.'s shape is OK & it charges as well as energizes the unit without any sign of trouble. There were a couple of screws inside missing, though, which makes me think that someone else has dealt with this unit before. Also followed a lead from a friend to try each RAM alone and interchanged to see if there was something different: no difference. Also tried a lead found on these forum, without any RAM and checked the Power LED and it was flashing regularly (I guess as expected).

     

    Following something else at these forums tried the SMC reset (hope I remember the name correctly) but everything remained the same...

     

    I discovered that I hear at least a fan spinning inside (I guess that there're at least 2 but until I open it can't be sure) but the bottom-back part, specially at the left-side, is getting very hot rapidly. I guess that there's the CPU or GPU or both. Also, found it ~moderately dusty.

     

    I also tried the combination of the Option + Power buttons and I saw and controlled a mouse pointer via the pad, but no useful icon or, if appearing, not doing anything...

     

    ...When I say above that the appearing icon doesn't work I mean that I did all of the following:

    1) started with a pendrive connected (DSL inside --not for Apple) and the screen stayed black;

    2) another linux SDCard attached to an usb adapter, again, not for Apple, with the same results;

    3) put a cd for installing an iPod Nano software but nothing happened;

    4) a cd for both, Windows & Apple machines, for establishing a Dial-up connection, the same.

     

    Also, after doing these last steps I had to wait a few times for it to cool down before trying the next experiment. The LED that is attached to the connector of the Power Supply turned from green, at the beginnig, to orange in the midst of it all.

     

    Is there a chance for me to take the hdd of that machine and insert & boot it up at the iBook? I mean to swap them and not via an Enclusre.

     

    Is dust enough to provoke those temp spikes? Can this machine capable of booting up from an Ethernet connection to the internet using a 'netboot' approach?