[X4U] Questions about Mac that has quit working

[Cheryl Homiak]

Hi all.

I have a friend who has a Macbook that she got three years ago; the Apple Care just ran out last week. Suddenly this morning it wouldn't work for her; she's blind so I've asked her to get a sighted person to look and see if there's any indication of life at all. Since I have never owned a Macbook and am trying to troubleshoot for her, I have the following questions (sorry if these sound stupid but I'm trying to cover all the bases):

1. If somehow her battery had been allowed to run down completely, would the computer still work immediately when plugged in?
2. If the battery was completely dead and needed replacing, would the computer still continue to work when plugged in?
3. Could we test whether the problem is the hard drive by putting a Mac cd/dvd in and turning on the computer while holding down the C button? If it was the hard drive, wouldn't we still be able to boot up the cd?
4. Can anybody think of anything else obvious that I should have her check? She seems to indicate that when she pushes the button to turn on the computer, absolutely nothing happens--meaning there's no sound of starting up at all. If there's something else obvious we should check before trying to get a repair estimate, I'd like to know about it. She lives in a rural area and it's going to be a pain to take it in plus, probably like most of us, a new computer or a computer repair without Apple Care, isn't really in the budget, though now I guess it may have to be.

Thanks for any troubleshooting help anybody can give me.


-- 

Cheryl
"Let the words of my mouth,
and the meditation of my heart,
be acceptable in thy sight,
O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer."
(Psalm 19:14  Bible KJV)