Thank you for your help

⟐ Commented May 15, 2026 at 3:06 MST

⟐ Answer accepted March 11, 2026 at 6:00 MST

⟐ Commented December 23, 2025 at 8:21 MST

It’s not turning on, the charger turns orange, but trying to reset the SMC doesn’t appear to work, as I don’t get the confirmation blink turning to green.

What do: This is an ‘as is’ computer I bought, so don’t have a lot of history on it except the owner claimed it worked when he last used it. Was stripped of RAM and HDD, so I put them in.

No beeps when trying to start. Nothing! Not powering on at all, but charger indicator is Orange.

Edit: Could this be the problem?

⟐ Commented October 16, 2025 at 7:12 MST

I have a "Apple MacBook Genuine A1278 MB466LL/A MB466 Silver Touchpad & Cable 821-1254-A."

It's the internal trackpad from a modern MacBook Pro. It has some kind of 22-pin connector on the end of the cable. Does anyone know if it would be possible to convert this trackpad into a standalone USB mouse that could be used on another computer?

Here's a similar hack for older model Macbook Pros: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVQKl-HV...

Thanks!

⟐ Commented August 15, 2025 at 21:37 MST

Won't connect to any devices, printer or I phone.

Any suggestions?

⟐ Commented April 30, 2025 at 7:27 MST

My Macbook Pro A1278 stopped working late last month. It has been sitting since then until last night I decided to try to fix it.

Fault #1: Macbook will not power on.

*no response when plugged in with 60W magsafe power adapter or just on battery. Tried another 60W cable, no change.using google i came accross a solution..

Solution #1: Remove magsafe adapter. Remove Battery, Swap RAM Slots(not sure why i was told to do this), Hold Power button 10 seconds, Replace magsafe adapter, Hold power button for 10 more seconds, then power on.

*Now my macbook will power on only without the battery installed, which leads me to believe the battery is not serviceable. Once powered on i was able to log in, view my files and folders, listen to music, everything seemed fine. I did a proper shut down and when powered on again another fault was found.

Fault #2: Macbook will not boot past apple logo screen.

*The macbook makes the "chime", then the apple logo appears with the small loading wheel and a progress bar beneath it, the progress bar will slowly load to 100% then the macbook will power down.

*I tried booting with COMMAND + S then typing "/sbin/fsck -fy"

Throughout the different checks i always get "Incorrect number of thread records (4, 225)" four times after "Checking catalog file", followed by other checks then it says repairing volume.

When it is complete it says "The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired after 3 attempts. The volume was modified."

I type reboot then it will try to boot normally and power down again once the progress bar on apple logo boot screen reaches 99%.

I am not farmiliar with apple products and how the systems work. Could my HD be no good? It worked fine after solving Fault#1 and didnt get removed or dropped.

Please help :)

Thanks!!

Tyler.

⟐ Commented February 22, 2025 at 9:20 MST

Somehow my trackpad become jumpy.I've tried to clean the trackpad and my hand. But it stilll happen. it only happen when my Mac is connected to the internet. but not always when my my Mac is connected it happen (got it?). I've asked the apple store, but they dind't know why either.

⟐ Commented December 18, 2024 at 10:03 MST

Today I booted my Mac to this (see attached image). The Mac literally does nothing now. I can’t shut it down by holding the power button, I can’t restart it. The only way to shut it down is by physically disconnecting the battery.

I notice the progress bar loads and then the Mac restarts if I hold the power button at startup (programing mode), but then restarts back to this thick progress bar.

I can’t access boot manager, so I’m convinced this is an issue with the firmware. I have the Mac OS X Snow Leopard install DVD, but I don’t know how to use it if I can get to boot manager.

What’s my next step?

UPDATE: Bad news.

I have successfully bricked the machine :P

I tried reseting the NVRAM a few times and force shutting it down by disconnecting the battery, and now my power light on the front of the Mac flashes once every three seconds or so. And, no, the machine does not boot any more.

Well, this was undoubtedly a firmware issue, I know you could use firmware restore CDs back in the day, but I don't have that! Could I download a .dmg of one and burn it to a CD?

⟐ Answer accepted November 12, 2024 at 7:27 MST

I’ve got a 2008 MacBook and it doesn’t have a backlit keyboard and was wondering if a 2009-2012 backlit one would fit my MacBook as I can’t find any new ones for 2008 specifically?

Thanks,

Mayank

⟐ Answered November 06, 2024 at 5:01 MST

I’ve got a late 2008 MacBook a1278 with a core 2 duo 2ghz and would like to upgrade to a late 2011 logic board with an i7 which I’ve found for pretty cheap and was wondering if this swap would work or not?

Thanks,

Mayank

⟐ Answer edited November 06, 2024 at 5:13 MST

⟐ Answered October 09, 2024 at 18:36 MST

I have had the same issue with my MacBook Air Early 2008. Of course, I went about a month with About this Mac simply saying MacBook Air. And then one day it simply showed MacBook Air Original. I ran OpenCore on the Mac to get to OS X El Capitan just to see how it ran, and About this Mac showed MacBook Air Original. Turns out OS X El Captain does not do good on the Mac, so I went back to Mac OS X Lion. Even since, the Mac has never shown the year number.

Is this an Internet issue? Apple's issue? The Mac's issue? Or even the OS's issue?

I think it's so weird that it worked fine and then randomly stopped. Any ideas?

⟐ Answer accepted July 18, 2024 at 18:01 MST

But I have access to a used one of these: [linked product missing or disabled: IF161-037]

How similar are they? Can I replace the 820-2361-02 with a 820-2565-A?

⟐ Commented July 06, 2024 at 15:43 MST

⟐ Answer accepted June 14, 2024 at 19:45 MST

⟐ Commented June 05, 2024 at 5:54 MST

⟐ Answer accepted April 01, 2024 at 9:59 MST

When I manage to get it to boot into recovery mode, (The new SSD is formatted to Extended Journaled GUID in the disk utility of the 2008) .It stalls for a long time then I get a cannot be installed error.... (It did at one point load the El Capitan setup but failed half way through (45 minutes).... So I re-downloaded the installer from apple and mounted it to a .app using a 2015 MBP (Monterey 12.7.4) and made a fresh USB installer. Yet still it freezes during initial loading setup....

SO, I am thinking to put the new SSD into a 2012 and install EL Capitan on that and then transfer the SSD to the 2008 model.... Will it boot? What if the 2008 had a different OS before, would the boot ROM or EFI get trashed or have some issue as this gets set during installation correct? I have tried connecting via Ethernet but there is no option for internet recovery that I have seen. At an end here..... Any thoughts?

⟐ Commented March 11, 2024 at 4:33 MST

⟐ Commented February 18, 2024 at 7:57 MST

So, the 5 key on my Mac randomly stopped working. I know this key is probably not as significant as the space bar, for example, but I still would like to fix it.

Here’s what I know: the key does nothing when I press it, and it will randomly type the 5 on its own. For example if I turn on Spotlight, it will type 5 many, many times on its own. Yet, when I hit the 5 key on the keyboard, it does nothing.

I have tried the basic steps, like reseating the ribbon cable, resetting NVRAM and SMC, rebooting the Mac and so on. Do you have any suggestions before I simply replace the keyboard?

⟐ Commented February 17, 2024 at 18:04 MST