MacBook Pro A1278 EMC 2555 (late 2011) but has startup sound

[frenchscottie]

A customer brought in the above mentioned MacBook Pro with no display.
Done tons of laptops and pc's etc. but only 3 or 4 Macs and I don't like turning away a customer. When you turn it on you get a slight flicker of light and it plays the startup sound and if you shine a torch through the logo on the back you can see the apple logo is on the screen, but that's as far as it goes.
I've tried resetting the SMC and PRAM, but still the same.
I have tried an external monitor connected to the display port - via an adaptor - to a DVI monitor, but nothing. I don't see what fn and F key to press
to switch output the only ones I can see it could be are F3 with 3 squares on it of different sizes, (I assume this is the key) and F4 with 6 small squares on it.
I've checked the screen cable and seem ok.
Is there anything else I should be trying before I declare a bad motherboard or could it just be the LED backlight on screen faulty?

oops title should say no display on screen (why can't the title be edited?)

 

[Markverhyden]

F3 and F4 are just OS X features which change the way things are displayed (forgot the names they use). OS X will automatically detect and display to an external monitor upon power up.

The only thing other thing I would do is pull the HD and try booting again using the flashlight to see what you get. Obviously a back lighting issue but a bad HD will also cause a Mac to boot and hang at the Apple logo. Beyond that you've covered the basics.

 

[frenchscottie]

F3 and F4 are just OS X features which change the way things are displayed (forgot the names they use). OS X will automatically detect and display to an external monitor upon power up.

The only thing other thing I would do is pull the HD and try booting again using the flashlight to see what you get. Obviously a back lighting issue but a bad HD will also cause a Mac to boot and hang at the Apple logo. Beyond that you've covered the basics.

Thanks for that. But would a bad HD blank the screen (turn of LEDs)?
I'll check that in the morning.
Is it likely to be just a new screen?

 

[Markverhyden]

Thanks for that. But would a bad HD blank the screen (turn of LEDs)?
I'll check that in the morning.
Is it likely to be just a new screen?

I've never seen a situation where a HD failure tanks the LCD. I also should have been more specific on the OS X booting thing. The external monitor shows up after the OS starts loading. Either way there is a back lighting problem. It all depends on what happens with the HD is not present.

 

[frenchscottie]

With hard disk removed you can see the file icon with a ? on it flashing, when shining torch.
I just noticed a small bit of corrosion on the motherboard close to the LCD cable, so it looks like liquid damage.

 

[Markverhyden]

In that case you may be able to put in a new HD. But the video issue is still a problem. Forgot to mention if you have partedmagic you can boot from that to get to an OS and see if the external works if you do not have a bootable OS X image. Either way it's not going to be cheap since it sounds like a new logic board is needed.

 

[frenchscottie]

In that case you may be able to put in a new HD. But the video issue is still a problem. Forgot to mention if you have partedmagic you can boot from that to get to an OS and see if the external works if you do not have a bootable OS X image. Either way it's not going to be cheap since it sounds like a new logic board is needed.

Yeah looks like the board, I'll see if customer wants me to sent it away for repair, as that will be cheapest method £85 inc postage plus my fee of coarse.
Thanks for the replys.

Mo