Apple Macbook A1181 - Stuck on Grey screen

davester

Would snow run on a 2006 Mac?

No need to be insulting. Leopard

cem

Davester I have no idea..I'll google to check..I am not fussed about upgrading, more fussed about getting data back and then getting it work

Any idea on the question above reg. removing hard drive?

chorlton

You could try booting into target disk mode - hold down the 't' key as you boot up. This should make it come on with a blue screen with firewire symbol on it.
Then - if you can get access to another mac (i'm pretty sure it only works mac to mac) you can connect them together via firewire and yours will appear as an external hard drive... If you can't get to another mac then at least if you can boot into target mode there's a fair chance it's not a hard drive failure...

Marty_J

davester wrote: »

A Mac Head is someone who has a Mac ,possibly never owned a PC, more than likely owns an iPod of some sort probable a 1st gen and a 4-5 gen and knows how a Mac actually works to help out the people that got are not so good with Tech and probably had a second hand Mac from a Mac Head friend/co-worker who just bought the lastest Mac with bells on.

I currently own two PCs (and have owned more than that over the years), one running Windows and the other running Linux. So I'm disappointed I'm not a Mac head, though like isofa, I'm hoping my collection of iPods will up my score somewhat.

As for the OP's problem, I'd start with the RAM. It's possible there's a bad stick in there, and Macs can be a bit finicky about RAM. Remove all the RAM, and replace it one stick at a time. If it doesn't work with the first RAM module, try swapping it for the other. If it boots up with one of the sticks of RAM removed, you've found your culprit. Ensure that each stick is firmly seated.

If that doesn't work, the next step would be to check if it can boot from a Mac OS X DVD. You say you don't have one though, so that's a problem. Is there anywhere you could borrow one from? If it can boot from the DVD, then your OS X has messed up, or else you probably have a faulty HDD. Buying Snow Leopard is an option (about £25); you could always sell it on eBay if it doesn't work out (assuming you don't subsequently get the Mac fixed).

If you try all that and it still doesn't work, its likely your Mac is very sick and needs some love and attention from an Apple Store or authorised service provider. A new logic board could be in order (not cheap) though an Apple Store should be able to properly diagnose it for you.

If it comes to that and you need to get your data off it, using target disk mode, as Chorlton describes above, is the easiest way to do it (assuming it works). If you don't have another Mac, you'll need to a PC with a Firewire port and a copy of MacDrive (to enable Windows to read the Mac disk). There's a free trial available which should give you ample time to copy your data.

davester

do u own a mac marty?

Marty_J

davester wrote: »

do u own a mac marty?

Yes, I have an iMac, which replaced a slot-loading G3 iMac (an indigo one if you're curious).

Marty_J

Leopard wrote: »

Don't fall for it, Marty. :rolleyes:

Haha…too late!

davester

Leopard if he had lied and said he never owned one, it would be apparent as only Mac owners know about Macs, which is why I said at my first post Marty will sort it out.

patflanel

davester wrote: »

Leopard if he had lied and said he never owned one, it would be apparent as only Mac owners know about Macs, which is why I said at my first post Marty will sort it out.

OH NO !!!
How do I tell that to my colleague who repairs Macs? He does not own one and never has.
Or my teacher friend who has a PC at home but works on Macs at school.
I had no idea you needed to own one to know about them.

Such a statement. Oh dear you must have taken the MS "Expert Zone" tuition course :T
Also reported here

Sorry Marti J, did not see you had posted about this in another topic

davester

Well i used to work with a lot of computer peeps, and 3 had Macs the rest only had PCs including myself. One of the Mac users wasn't that computer literate as the rest of us, Only the other 2 Mac users could help him even with the simple tasks of whats the touchpads right mouse click equivlent as well as memory and why it was really slow all the time, ( turned out the main board memory failed and it was only running on the memory in the upgrade slot so 512MB with 256Mb operational.)

The peeps above work with macs at work alot so really the same as owning one in a way.