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Replaced HDD with Seagate 7200 RPM Momentus Drive, now MacBook won’t boot. Have tried resetting SCM, PRM; tried holding power button for 5 seconds, tried different power adapter - with battery, without battery. For a while, the light on power adapter was blinking orange when I tried to boot, but would not come on. Have reinstalled memory strips, have tried putting alternate memory in; have tried switching back to original HDD. It’s like the machine is not getting any power - no fan, no disk, nothing. Any ideas?
The new hard drive has to be formatted and a system installed to use it. Start up from your system installation disk by inserting the disk and holding down the “C” key on start up. Go to the second screen pull down menu to Utilities ‘> Disk Utilities, select the drive on the left and format it. Now you can install a system.
I know this is an old thread, BUT I had the same exact problem (along with a lot of others on the net) and figured out what it was (without spending $ on an apple tech)! When I put in my new HD, going from a 160GB to a 750GB, put the case back on, no power nothing. I took the case off and plugged the power chord in with no battery, and it started up. The problem was the thin little HDD flex connector that powers the HD. When I peeled back the connector to get it off of the old hard drive, I accidentally ripped it. It was at a “Y” in the connector near the top where the HD gets plugged in, so it was hard to detect and barely noticeably. When I went to put the case back on, the power died again because the top case compressed the stress point that ripped in that connector causing it to short and kill the power. I used some scotch tape to tape it in place at the point that was torn. The part number for mine is 821-0513A if you want to look it up to see what I’m talking about. If anyone else has this problem, I suggest thoroughly checking every point of that connector. It’s about a $30 part brand new. Maybe this link with a picture of the part I am talking about will work. Its a very fragile connector:
https://www.powerbookmedic.com/parts/922…
This is a really old post and google happened to pop it up. Today I had a MacBook Pro 2008 / 2009 with a failed drive. Needless to say, for testing, I had an old sata sitting around and popped it in – just to see if I could get an old Snow Leopard DVD to come up – needless to say the drive had a copy of Windows 7 on it, to my surprise it showed it booting - after a minute or two the system died. From there, you guess it, would not power back on at all. The solution I found, in case someone stumbles across this: is to remove the battery, the hdd AND remove the ram. Power it on – you’ll get two beeps because the ram is missing. Re-insert the ram, hdd, battery, etc, and it should power back on as usual. Hope this helps.
What the heck… If I take off the battery, then the new SSD boots up…. but it’s a naynay with the battery plugged. What is this? MacBook Pro 2009. Upgraded to 8 GB ram, new trackpad, new power brick, bluetooth keyboard and magic mouse, new optical drive and from 250 GB HDD to 480 GB SSD. Mojave with patch, ok. New battery. It is working like a charm… (yeah, I’m not native english). So… WHAT IS GOING ON?
Had the same issue with a 2009 iMac. Many months later I finally got back to investigating this. I removed the LCD panel again, carefully disconnecting everything. With the LCD off and the RAM removed, I powered-on and everything fires up and you get the constant beeping (which I believe is the ’no-ram’ notification). I installed the ram and tried again. It turned on once more! At this point, with a friend’s assistance, I held the LCD in place and connected one cable at a time – then powering up. The result was that the LCD powered back on before I put the V-sync cable in (the last cable you usually connect.). So the result for me was that the Vertical sync cable was damaged which caused the no power, no fans, no nothing, issue. That makes no sense to me but I put the iMac back together without the V-sync cable attached and everything seems to be running fine. Since I don’t do any graphic-intense activities on this iMac, I think I’ll just leave it disconnected. Hope this helps others in the same boat.
Hi Jennifer I’m having the same problem and I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with the formatting either but I was wondering what ended up being the problem?
im pretty late to this party but i have a iMAC just replaced a bad hard drive and screen would not turn on after then my ram chip falls out on its own so i put it back in and bam screen back on make sure ur ram chip didnt come loose while taking your mac apart guys!
Hello everyone, Its seem I have the same problem here. After replacing my hard drive, my mac turn on but it only display on blank screen with a picture of a file with a question mark, Am I doing anything wrong here. Please help and much appreciated.
Just had my Mac book to the apple tech cause it would not charge or turn on. Payed for replacement hard drive. It worked great for one day now won’t charge, won’t turn on , no noise, no fan, no power. As I have read above people had the same problem when replacing hard drive themselves as the apple tech that did mine. Having to head back to. The store again for an analysis and hopeful a quick fix. If I can I will post what they did to repaire it this time. I know it is not the charger cause I tried three other charger using different out lets incase that was he proble absolutely no power. Here go fingers crossed
No answer but the same problem . Replaced the he and the ram. Not my first time. Formatted and installed the o/s on the new crucial drive remote from another Mac and it worked fine. Next home I went to start nothing - no chime, no fan, no screen. I think the power ribbon to the HD makes the most sense. Does anyone have a definitive answer
Same issue with my early-2011 13" MBP. THE OEM battery exploded and almost took out the trackpad and case. I got it out in time and took to Apple. They recommended I buy a replacement off the net. I did. I took the opportunity to also upgrade to a SSD drive. Now my MBP won’t turn on unless I remove both the power cord and the battery. If I do that and put the battery and power cord back in place it will start every time. The next time I shutdown I have to yank the battery and power cord again. We tried SMC reset. It did nothing. I hope someone figures this out eventually. My laptop is fine other than this annoying issue and Apple says it’s now “vintage” and won’t work on it.
