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Model A1297 Unibody: Early 2009, Mid 2009, Mid 2010, Early 2011 & Late 2011

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MacBook not booting sleep lights blinks

My macbook is a late 2011

It began with The fans spinning, hard drive running. After that some lines in different colors came on the screen. But yesterday I swapped thermal paste on the chips on the logic board and it turn on for a happy half hour. Then it randomly shouted down and won't start.

The problem

If I start it today the fans turn up and the disk spinning. Then it restart with a blinking sleep light. The sleep light blinks five times, black screen. and no chime. Whats wrong on the macbook? The graphics card? Or something else? Any ideas.

Sorry for my english

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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You may want to review your thermal paste job and the specs sheet of the paste. Some paste is conductive so if you are a bit messy (getting it on the pins & logic board) you can create issues.

I would fully clean the board making sure not to get any onto the logic board (wipe off fully, then wash the area down with an oilless spray contact cleaner (test it first, spraying on a sheet of glass - If it leaves a film don't use it!). I use reagent grade 90% isopropyl alcohol in a pump bottle so I know its clean.

Then redo your paste job it doesn't take much! Then lets see where we are.

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Thanks for reply!

I removed all thermal paste and clean the logic board. Then I reassembled and take on new thermal paste. Same thing as above fans running and disk spinning. But this time the chime came on again and again and again, some times I start the machine the lines across the come up, another time the the backlight came on and the chime but no screen. Anything else I can try?

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I'm thinking the heat sink is bad given what you've stated. These sinks use a liquid inside to move the heat so if that leaked out the effectiveness is lost so the CPU tells the system its overheating and will shut the system down.

Are you sure things were working OK before you re-did the paste? Did you damage the logic board in the process?

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Before I do the job there its the same thing as today, lines over screen and won't boot. So before I re-did the job its not´t working. What I knew I don't damage something when I was in the mac.

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OK, the screens image is messed up from the start. What happens when you plug in an external monitor is the image on it OK? If it is the internal display is having problems. If the screen is the same then your GPU logic is failing. That could be a bad tantalum cap or the GPU chip. It'll need someone with good diagnostic skills to diagnose and hopefully repair. Otherwise its time for a new logic board.

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Here's the POST codes:

1 beep = no RAM installed

2 beeps = incompatible RAM types

3 beeps = no good banks

4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block)

5 beeps = processor is not usable

I would reseat the RAM as a first step just in case.

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Thanks for reply!

I tried to reseat the RAM in different combinations but still not work. Anything else I can try? Is the processor bad?

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How hot is it getting? Definitely sounds like the GPU but could be a faulty heat sink.

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I have no equipment to check the temp. But It no getting hotter then my macbook air 13" from 2011. If there is a temp issue why is it not working when its cold?

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How about downloading this App: TG Pro It can help in isolating the cause but the system has to stay running a bit to setup and run ;-}

I use a small non-contact thermometer and I also got a FLIR attachment for my iPhone so I can visually see the heat flow. The thermometer can be found for $20 and the FLIR is around $300 US.

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Now I purchased an ir-thermometer. On the metal body the hottest area is around 30 C when running. The logicboard is 35 when running. So the comupter is not overheating right now.

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