The MacBook does not boot. The screen stays blank (black) – not the grey, active screen like normal. To power off, I hold the power button down.
After 5 boot attempts the MacBook finally shows the grey, active screen and boots OSX.
This started after I installed Ubuntu 11.04 on a 2nd partition.
Here is the sequence of events and my attempts to fix the problem:
- OS X on partition 1.
- rEFIt installed and set to appear on every boot – everything still working fine.
- Installed Ubuntu 11.04 on partition 2 – at the end it said Grub was installing on the hard-drive.
- MacBook, after shutdown, and restart sounds a long tone and has a blank (black), unlit screen (ie not grey/active). It does not boot or do anything. Holding Option key does not work. After 5 power cycles, the MacBook finally boots to OSX.
- I synced the partition table with rEFIt and shutdown.
- Same as step 4, after many reboots I can load rEFIt then OS X or Ubuntu.
- I ran rEFIt
enable-always.sh
script to bless it again – result same as 4. - I used OS X's Startup Disk utility to select OSX hard-drive – result same as 4.
- I then used OS X install-DVD to totally format hard-drive and re-installed OS X – result same as 4.
- Many more attempts of steps 5 to 9 – result same as 4.
Further details on number 4 (above):
Note, Option (AKA Alt) key works on a normal bootup, but it is after/outside my problem.
A "normal boot" can be described as:
- OSX loads
- or, holding Option key shows the EFI boot-selection
- or, holding Command+Option+P+R keys resets NVRAM.
However, the problem I have is that "normal boot" fails for the first 5 power-cycles. (After a failed boot, I can kill power by holding the power-button down.) During failed boots, NOTHING works (no keys, no OSX) - just a blank screen.
Its like the EFI code crashes or freezes. But on the 5th power-cycle a "normal boot" always works, like some fail-safe is triggered. Then after I shutdown OSX, the boot issue repeats - ie another 5 power-cycles before I can get back to OSX.
Note, on the first (only the first) failed boot (one of five) (after shutdown) the MacBook Pro makes a tone (an error-tone I assume).
Here is my system:
- Model Name: MacBook Pro
- Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,4
- Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
- Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
- Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
- Boot ROM Version: MBP53.00AC.B03
- SMC Version (system): 1.49f2