could freezing on apple logo be a motherboard problem?

Hello, I would like to ask how likely is it that a Macbook 2.0 has a terminal illness if it freezes on the apple logo at start up, as I am thinking of buying one that has this problem with the hope of being able to repair it myself even though I am no expert.

The reason I consider doing this is I had the same problem on a previous computer that turned out to be due to a dead hard drive that was not difficult to replace.

But I am thinking maybe there are other more serious causes for freezing on start up that may not be so easy to fix?

In this respect my worst case scenario would be a faulty mother board as there is no way I could fix that. Could a faulty motherboard cause a Macbook like this one to hang on the appple logo at start up?