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John

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John
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  • Were you able to format as Apple Partition Map? It could conceivably be the logic board, or the hard drive cable, but more than anything I find this "Transmac" program suspicious. I've never heard of it or used it, and since it represent…
    in Blue Folder Smiley Face and Question Mark Comment by John September 2014
  • Thanks for the post! Sorry to say it, but those are symptoms of the NVIDIA video defect, which means your board is slowly going out. Specifically the checkerboard pattern means it's 100% definite. It only gets worse with time, to the point where …
    in Boot issue/Video glitch hang -> MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz 17" 2007 ,MacBookPro3,1 A1229 Comment by John September 2014
  • I've never used Transmac, but one common issue that might be the problem is that Power PC Macs (G4s) need the drive to be formatted as "Apple Partition Map" format, whereas MacBooks use "GUID Partition Table" format. If you form…
    in Blue Folder Smiley Face and Question Mark Comment by John September 2014
  • Hi! Thanks for the post! I would need to know a little more information about what you've tried. Was the laptop working previously, and what happened to it -- did it suddenly start giving you the blinking folder? Were there any indications that …
    in Blue Folder Smiley Face and Question Mark Comment by John September 2014
  • Sounds good! A laptop should definitely be able to power on without a battery attached, so that is definitely evidence that you current AC adapter is underpowered. I'll keep my fingers crossed! Hopefully the battery is still good, but I have a fe…
    in Powerbook G4 aluminum 15-inch/167MHz/2GB won't charge battery Comment by John September 2014
  • Hi Mike! Thanks for the post, and congrats on keeping an old laptop running for so long! I would start with the AC adapter. 15" Aluminums are right on the edge of needing a 65W AC (17" Aluminums absolutely need them), and I've found sev…
    in Powerbook G4 aluminum 15-inch/167MHz/2GB won't charge battery Comment by John September 2014
  • Awesome, great to hear! Like I mentioned it's often a coin toss between the DC-in board and the logic board, but fortunately you won the coin toss. :-)
    in Powerbook G4, A1095 will only boot if I Reset Power Manager every time Comment by John September 2014
  • Hmmm...if the spots are caused by pressure to the glass, it's possible replacing the screen glass would remove them, assuming there is no actual damage to the screen itself. It's hard to tell without seeing it. Yeah, it's a frustrating thing, tryi…
    in MBP Display Comment by John July 2014
  • Thanks for the post, and sorry to hear about the laptop! As far as the cloudy patches, you don't mention if you used liquid to clean the laptop, but the way you describe it sounds like liquid damage. Sometimes when cleaning a screen the liquid wil…
    in MBP Display Comment by John July 2014
  • Hi, and thanks for the post! You're lucky it still powers on -- in most cases like that the connection between the power button and board would have been severed, but it sounds like you are an expert beer spiller. :-) Yes, I'd say that's an ideal…
    in A1297 17" MacBook Pro Keyboard Comment by John July 2014
  • I would just take it in to an Apple store. If it's one of the newest model machines it will likely have a different procedure that only they can do.
    in Remove/reset open firmware password macbook pro core i5 Comment by John July 2014
  • See my previous comments -- I don't really have any more advice.
    in Remove/reset open firmware password macbook pro core i5 Comment by John July 2014
  • It means your computer has no RAM installed. You have to leave one module in, at least, because a computer with no RAM cannot operate.
    in Remove/reset open firmware password macbook pro core i5 Comment by John July 2014
  • So you're not even successfully resetting the PRAM then. I suspect a bad keyboard. Either that, or it's not detecting the change in the RAM amount. Try it when you put RAM in, and also when you take RAM out -- it's a change that matters, not whet…
    in Remove/reset open firmware password macbook pro core i5 Comment by John July 2014
  • Does it let you reset the PRAM, or does it go to the lock screen immediately and not let you reset the PRAM? If it doesn't let you, you might have bad keys on the keyboard preventing the 4 necessary keys from functioning, and therefore preventing y…
    in Remove/reset open firmware password macbook pro core i5 Comment by John July 2014
  • Well, then you do have a PRAM password, but in your previous post you mentioned not being able to get past the administrator name and password fields, which indicates you were unable to log into the OS, because there is no login field for the PRAM p…
    in Remove/reset open firmware password macbook pro core i5 Comment by John July 2014
  • Hi! A PRAM password lock will only ask for a password, so if it's asking for login and password, you're dealing with the operating system, not a PRAM password. (To make sure, power on holding down the option key and see if it shows a padlock and a…
    in Remove/reset open firmware password macbook pro core i5 Comment by John July 2014
  • Weird. I don't know what "the sensors" means. I wouldn't put a lot of weight on an Apple diagnosis -- they really don't teach their employees much more than to run diagnostics, and they will very quickly resort to saying it's a "bad…
    in Mid 2009 Macbook Pro 15" Runs when plugged in but not on battery Comment by John July 2014
  • Hi Eddie! A G4 can only use up to Leopard, so as far as that goes you're stuck unfortunately. As for the RAM, try swapping the modules in the slots. If it recognizes the other module in the good slot, then you know both modules are good. This is…
    in Powerbook G4 Lower Memory Problem Comment by John July 2014
  • Hi! Thanks for the post! Most battery issues end up being bad batteries, so the first thing to do is Google and download Coconut Battery, which will let you see the actual stats on the battery so you don't have to guess what's going in. If a batt…
    in Mid 2009 Macbook Pro 15" Runs when plugged in but not on battery Comment by John July 2014
  • Hi! I'm not quite sure what you mean by small screen area, but I'd start by resetting the PRAM, which restores the default screen resolution and can help if you get stuck in an odd video mode. Let me know if that doesn't do it. Thanks
    in g3 display screen very small Comment by John July 2014
  • Cool, glad to hear it might be partly salvageable. John
    in jump start 17 inch unibody Comment by John June 2014
  • Well, short of being able to show you the power-on pads in person, that description is about the best I can do. If you dig up a copy of the service manual on the Internet, you'll see a nice clear picture of it. Again, jumping a board is a totally …
    in jump start 17 inch unibody Comment by John June 2014
  • Could definitely be the DC-in board, although it's somewhat of a coin toss. But it's the place to start. Yeah, these old machines are still amazingly functional, especially with 1+GB RAM. People always think they need a new laptop, but for lots o…
    in Powerbook G4, A1095 will only boot if I Reset Power Manager every time Comment by John June 2014
  • Hi Nick! Thanks for the post! I don't have anything of much significance to recommend. From those numbers it looks like it's a 65W AC, which is good, because a lot of people have problems with larger PowerBooks due to only having a 45W AC. I'll …
    in Powerbook G4, A1095 will only boot if I Reset Power Manager every time Comment by John June 2014
  • If you take off the bottom casing and look at the board while it's upside-down, the power-on pads are in the far bottom-left corner, between the screw in the corner and the small sleep sensor ribbon cable. They are vertical. You should disconnect …
    in jump start 17 inch unibody Comment by John June 2014
  • Hi! There are different 17" models, so if you have the last 3 digits of your serial number, I can look up to see where the power-on pads are. A dim light could mean it hasn't been put back together right, but it's also a classic sign of a boa…
    in jump start 17 inch unibody Comment by John June 2014
  • Hi, and thanks for the post! It sounds like your Mac Pro is in what's called "verbose mode" and just needs the PRAM reset. What "verbose mode" is: The Mac OS is based on BSD UNIX, and I don't know if you've ever seen UNIX/LINU…
    in Text on boot Comment by John March 2014
  • Hi! Sorry to hear that. When you say it is bad/cracked, what exactly does it look like? It is normal to be able to see the 4 wires through the top of the connector. Sometimes it's necessary to take a pair of tweezers and push the wires in place,…
    in Dead Macbook A1181 (Late-2007)? Comment by John March 2014
  • Hi, and thanks for the post! If the text on the screen bezel states "iBook", then you have a G3, and if it states "iBook G4" then you have a G4. If you have a G3 and the screen is totally blank when you power on, and you don't …
    in ibook G3 Comment by John March 2014