AND my laptop just died

[CaptainInsaneo]

Well I finished making a post then my computer hung so I went to restart it. Alas she did not fire up. Now here comes the conundrum, get a similar old model and transfer th drives into it, get a used macbook off CL, or a cheap one at a big box store. I should say I was up until recently running a hackintosh, which is why the first option is kind of appealing. I dont know ... any thoughts?

[CaptainInsaneo]

I should add I took it down to the board chip and ram and didnt get a post. Then pulled the ram still no post (not shocking as it shouldnt). I will take my ram to the shop and see if the can test it tomorrow. Just one of those days.

[The-Breeze]

Did you try holding down the power button for about 15 seconds or so? That might get you to safe mode. (Now I know absolutely nothing about Macs but that's what I had to do once on my Gateway.)

[CaptainInsaneo]

Yeah did that, if in doubt reboot, reboot, reboot. It took some digging to find info on a 5 year old laptop. However if what I have found is accurate, and I am reading the pattern of blinking lights is correctly, then it is probably just a dead ram module. We shall see if it is a $30 solution.

[BurlKing]

i build my own computers but never put a laptop together i just assume its a little smaller of a build. i also dont go mac either, hate the **** out of it. its very rare laptops make it 5 years so it could actually be a number of things, but if it doesnt fire up at all i would first check your power supply, if that works then go to the mother board and check for breaks in the tiny electrical lines that run all over, or if anything became too hot and connections need to be re-soldered (if thats needed just get a new laptop) then from there you pretty much just have your ram and processor which it looks like you have knowledge of this stuff so i might not even be of much help but i hope its your ram issue, although any ram issue ive had my pc still fires up.

I guess i should maybe ask by "fires up" do you mean it wont turn on at all or does your computer come on but your operating system never loads?

and i supposed i should read more, missed your last post. looks like you've got it under control!

[CaptainInsaneo]

Well I went and got a new ram module and put it in the primary channel slot and nothing so I put it into the secondary and bobs your uncle. IT LIVES. I love it when you can fix something for $30 and a trip to the store.
As a side not laptops are a pain in the ... everything... to work on if it isn't a simple pop off the cover and fix it means you have to fully disassemble something I had to take off the screen, keyboard and unmount the mother board to fix a fan on a laptop once all because you didn't have access to one screw to take off fan and replace it. When it went out a second time I just drilled a hole in the case to gain access to the screw.

And Ram can cause a huge issue in a laptop (and motherboards with integrated video) as it is usually needed to get the graphics to work. So if it is bad you won't even get the bios to display anything on the screen.

I am quite shocked this computer has lasted as long as it has I bought it off of craigslist from a guy who found it on a dumpster dive. It needed a new HDD to work but I replaced the ram and wifi so I could put the mac os on it. Shocking the bargain basement ram crapped out on me after 3 years.

Thanks for the support guys.