I purchased a Macbook for DDs last year. Yesterday DD16 told me that all she gets on there now is a flashing question mark. I have tried all options in the booklet as well as on the Apple site and cannot get it to boot up.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get this to boot up?

Called Apple and just as I suspected, the hard drive is fried. Macbook has an appointment at Apple this afternoon. Thanks to the guy helping me out on the protection plan it won't cost me anything. (He saved me $800!)

Can you hear if the hard drive is spinning/doing anything?
Was it acting normal before this happened - or has it been acting 'buggy"

I'm not a Mac user but a computer is a computer more or less..

I'm thinking she might have got a virus or something inside went bad- hard drive maybe if that is making no or odd sounds??

I found this-
[Troubleshooting a MacBook or MacBook Pro that won't turn on
Symptoms

There are some simple troubleshooting steps you should try if your MacBook or MacBook Pro won't turn on. Use these steps if:

Your Apple notebook's display has no picture after you turn it on.

You don't hear any fan or hard disk activity sounds after you turn the computer on, and the sleep light doesn't turn on.

The computer doesn't seem to have any power when you try to turn it on.
]
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1365?viewlocale=en_US

Following the instructions, I did put in the start up disk and it doesn't even recognize that there is a hard drive. I cannot hear the hard drive "thinking" and "spinning." There is no noise other than when I put the start up disk in the optical drive.

DD16 was using the computer and it said there was an update so she clicked on update and that is when it crashed. Although we are using Tiger, there was an update sent out yesterday afternoon for Leopard according to the tech guy. After he told me that (and I should have asked) I wonder if somehow it tried to update Leopard on the Tiger which caused it to crash. This all happened around the time the Leopard update was put out yesterday afternoon.

It seems that may be a problem with the Macbooks - I googled "macbook won't boot up flashing question mark"
quite a few results on it-
http://www.google.com/search?q=macbo...ient=firefox-a

Jo - Thanks for that link. There are quite a few who have had the same trouble. I'm surprised as I thought Mac's were somewhat more solid, user friendly, and over all has the least amount of issues.

you're correct, TK...

Macs are all-around better, more user-friendly, more stable, and safer from viruses.

on the viruses, that may be because Macs are owned by only, what, 10% of users?

so there's less CREEPS designing attacking viruses.

but Macs CAN have problems sometimes, they're not perfect...

I've been a Mac girl since getting a Performa in the late 80s, and my daughter worked at the Geek Squad to save up $$ for college.

the horror stories I've heard from her are MOSTLY about computers OTHER than Mac.

I've been coasting on the same eMac for nearly seven years, and I do okay, lol.

the only time I've had a problem is when lightning struck nearby in 2005, and we managed (by phone, from California to Belize) to to a System Restore from the original disks, which, luckily, my daughter packed SAFELY in my CD case, with all the manuals...

good thing *I* didn't pack 'em, or heaven KNOWS where they'd be found in a time of need !!

good luck on el problemo, and hope they manage to resurrect your Hard Drive, and restore your stuff !!

Great news! We got the computer back today. It needed a new hard drive. DDs are so happy and thrilled to have their computer back.

Since DD18 dropped off the computer as well as picked it back up, I don't know what happened to the old hard drive. DD18 being 18 never thought to ask.

We now have 2 more years on our protection plan and a 1 year warranty on the new hard drive.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

BTW - Kay, way back when while I was in high school part of our Geometry class was dedicated to learning computer programming. This was the late 70's and we had to use those punch cards. LOL. My 1st experiences with computers were the Apples. After I quit nursing school, I got a job doing clerical work and had to learn how to work the computer. It was fairly simple to do as I was a quick learner. (All that changed with a few lesions. LOL)

now you can celebrate with some big MAC...LOL

Hard drives take the biggest beating in a computer. That is one of the things in your computer where it is better to leave the computer running, then turn it off. Everytime you power up the computer the hard drive has to get itself spinning up to speed before it can retrieve the information needed to actually start the operatiing system.

This process of getting up to speed is the hardest thing on the HD. I am not to sure about the updates causing the problem, as it doesnt have anything to do with the operation of the unit.

I am sooo glad you were able to get it up and running again. Life would be pretty hum drum without the internet and all the friends at NT

Im havin a big MAC attack!!!!