[kat101]

hi all,
i have a macbook and lately it is refusing to go past the white screen. it turns on makes a noise and goes to a plain white screen. i have tried turning it off and on, removing the battery and holding down the shift key. I would really appreciate any help it is really urgent because i have work i need to complete on it. i dont have the disks because i borrow it from school and i would really like to keep everything on my computer safe i have not been able to back it up. if anyone could help thank you

 

[sinclair_tm]

Have you tried resetting the SMC?

 

[kat101]

smc ? im not sure what that is ? could youi please explain to me how to do it ill give it a try thank you for answering so quickly

 

[kat101]

i just tried what you suggested and it is still doing the same thing

 

[sinclair_tm]

What noise does it make?

 

[kat101]

it sounds like the fan is running but when i last turned off my computer it was on silent so i believe it is the noise it makes when it boots up on silent ?

 

[sinclair_tm]

That's a good question. Once that was the case, but on some of my newer Macs, they still make the noise out the speakers, even when headphones are plugged in and the volume is muted. But if there is no bong, then I'd say it's not passing the hardware self test, and needs to go to Apple for repairs.

 

[kat101]

ok i think that the sound is the booting up sound as this has happened to me before when the computer was last muted. so do u know what else it may be ?

 

[kat101]

this time i had a question mark flashing is that bad ?

 

[sinclair_tm]

Flashing question mark means that the Mac can't find the OS. When next you start it, as soon as you push the power button, hold down the option key, and keep it held until you get a gray screen with a couple of arrows. Hopefully there will be a disk icon to click on, if not, then your hard drive has died.

 

[kat101]

ok i tried what you suggested and nothing happened so if the drive has died what does that mean ?

 

[sinclair_tm]

You need to replace it and install OS X all over again.

 

[kat101]

will i loose all my files ?this is vital for me :/

 

[sinclair_tm]

If you haven't been doing backups, yup. You may get them back by paying a recovery business to get them, but it isn't cheap. Do you have the OS X restore disk for the version of OS X you are running?

 

[kat101]

no i dont :/ oh goodness im in my hsc year and money is tight ok well thank you for your help