Well this happened quite a while ago... I have a lovely macbook pro 2.2 Ghz, but after a bit of a tussle with a table and a tangled cord, I seem to have dropped my computer . This put a large dent in the casing of the bottom left of the screen, and broke the hard disk. I took it in to the store, where they declared it a broken logic board (didn't boot CD or net boot, or from an external HD) I took it home and convinced it (i'm very persuasive) to boot (to an extent) Linux from a CD. The Genius with whom I talked agreed to replace the damaged hard drive under warranty (WOOHOO!) So when I received my computer from the repair shop, not only did I have a working computer, but the replacement hard drive had a newer operating system to boot (pun definitely intended...) BUT... for some reason since my computer lost the fight with the floor, it now boots ridiculously slow. When I first got it, it was on and ready to use in no more than 30 seconds, but now it takes around 3 minutes. And now more recently (after no more incidences, and after months of being babied on a desk, and a move an hour away) my mac shuts down at 75% battery life. It tells me its at 75%, the battery meter says 75%, but it will just turn off if it hits 75% and is not plugged in to the wall. But even stranger is that if I let the computer sleep until the battery is beyond 75%, it will work fine, and then will do the same, but now turns off at 21% until I charge it back all the way up... (this comes after many many experiments) Do any of you know anything I should try, or look at? Or at the very least, an explanation? I don't want to take it to the store, because hardware failure is an obvious escape route, and expensive, but also I believe I have pushed my luck enough as it is (and I don't know what they could do cheaply anyway)...
I don't know anything on mac's. But I know that Intel CPU's have a feature where when it overheats it slows down, and it should be same as any computer. Open the machine, and make sure the heat pipe is properly placed and touching the CPU. You may need to re-apply thermal paste. And also that all fans operate correctly. Laptops may be tricky to open, so make sure you mark where every screws goes, you might have many of them. And most importantly, take your time. As for your battery, I think the battery meter detector circuit is damaged. You might be lucky and fix it if it's dust or something that conducts electricity at the wrong place... but don't have your hopes up.
New harddrive may mean new BIOS parameters. Is the BIOS configured correctly for it? I also think you may want to check the battery contacts.
Macs don't have bios. If the computer was dropped hard enough to dent the case it could be anything. Do you still have the install media? If you do, run the hardware test off of it.
Every computer has a BIOS. It is required for the computer to startup. Now if Apple decide to not give you access to it, then that is a different story.
Could you repeat that in english? I know you guys(uk) have been speaking it longer than we(usa) have. Like I said, it could be anything. Most likely not the battery though. If the dent was at the rear of the case it's probably the logic board. Probably a broken solder joint for a component. The left hand side is where the power comes into the laptop, so it could be part of the charging circut. No way to really tell without the laptop sitting on my work bench. You could check fleabay for a busted screen macbook pro and swap out your good parts for it's broken parts. It would only be a dozen screws or so.
I'm inclined to agree with Barry. The slow boot probably means broken hardware. Having had my MBP in bits to replace the HDD pretty much everything is on the main logic board. The only bolt ons are the Airport card and the Bluetooth module. You could try calibrating the battery as per Apples instructions (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490). The battery is dying on my 2.5 year old MBP and I calibrated it as per this procedure last week which reset the counters and got me another 20 mins battery life (up from 30 mins to 50 mins - Woo!)
Alright, Thank You for the responses. The problem with calibrating the battery as apple instructs, is I am incapable of getting it down to 0%. Regardless of what state it is in, it shuts down at about 21% if not plugged in and thus charging . I think I will try to see if it is in-fact some bad connection between processor and heat sink. That sounds semi-plausible because since the incident my macbook pro has not gotten as hot as it used to (well, at least it seems that way) so I guess ill try that when I have access to the proper tools. But, if it is a broken solder joint or component on the logic board, would it be easy to detect visually? Or is that something that I wont know unless I replace it with a working one? Thank you again, I think ill try my luck with the free solutions, and work my up to socially engineering a different genius. Honestly though the problem is not bad enough to warrant the purchase of a new main board, but it still would be nice to be able to narrow it down to that...
Sometimes it is pretty easy. Most of the time it's not though. Start looking where the biggest dent was, it is was isn't it? The dent isn't still there?
No goodbytes, i dont understand why you post on almost every Apple topic when you clearly dont have a clue what your talking about?
Someone corrected me already. Please read the full thread. It changed since the Macs with Intel. Actually when I mentioned BIOS, I was unaware of different technologies.
Wiki suggest otherwise. Considering that no one edited the article with lies. They say that EFI was introduced with the Mac with Intel Core 2 Duo. And I did not find any other method. Again, if the machine doesn't allow you to go in the BIOS and put a picture instead, then that doesn't mean it doesn't use a BIOS.
Old PPC macs use Macintosh Toolbox, aka, old world roms, later PPC macs, iMac on, use open firmware, aka, new world The closest to BIOS apple has ever been is the BIOS compatibility layer in the current EFI Link - http://mac.wikia.com/wiki/New_World_ROM
I hope you're not referring to wikipedia? Cause in a half hour I can make JFK a cross dressing communist transvestite that was sleeping with with Marylin Monroe's bodyguard Stanley, and not her.
You could, but it'd be a waste of time. GoodBytes always trolls about Apple (even in Windows threads). That would be a very interesting story though. I'll give you a tenner if a major news organization reports on it before someone revises it.
