2007 Macbook Pro 17" problem

I have a late 2007 Macbook Pro 17", not sure how but my permissions are all screwed up and I am unable to fix them, so basically I can't use the app store to upgrade or get software updates I need. Permission repair doesn't seem to fix them? Is there anything else I can do to fix my permissions problem?

Have you tried....
Mountain Lion Recovery
Boot up from your computer by holding down the command+r keys. This will take you to the recovery drive.
Select Disk Utility & hit Return.
In Disk Utility select the HD on the left & click on Repair Disk (bottom right).

Similar Messages

2007 MacBook Pro ctrl key not working

Hi all,
I have used various iterations of bootcamp with my 2007 macbook pro without problem. I have also sucessfully installed Windows 7 64-bit using bootcamp and got it working almost perfectly (sound, video, magic mouse) despite it not officially being supported by the version of bootcamp that came with Snow Leopard.
My only problem now is that the control lkey isn't working. I've tried various keymappers to map it to another key (generally the Apple key) to no avail. And when I say it isn't working, I mean it's not working at all. Key mappers don't recognise when I tap it, I can't Ctrl-C to copy or Ctrl-anything to anything.
I have installed the Apple keyboard driver and everything else works perfectly, including the F-keys, Fn, alt and the Apple key (which opens the start menu). Any suggestions for how I could fix this would be greatfully received.
Thanks,
Alexis

Sadly it turns out that it's not working in OS X either. I had convinced myself it was a software issue but it is apparently hardware. Shows how seldom the control key's used in OS X doesn't it.
If anyone has any suggestions as to how I might have a bash at fixing it, please let me know.
Thanks,
Alexis

Late 2007 MacBook Pro S-Video adapter no output.

I've troubleshooted everything I can, so hopefully one of you can help me!
My Fiancé's mom has a late 2007 MacBook Pro running Mountain Lion. She has an older tv, so I was wanting to mirror the display so she can watch Netflix on her TV.
After digging around on the Internet, other users said the APPLE M9267G/A adapter solved this problem without the need for a converter box, or upscaler. Needless to say, it doesn't work..
I've tested the cable, port on the computer, and they both work. I've tried running just the yellow Composite video out instead of the S video through the video in on the TV, and a VCR... Nothing.
I used my old Powerbook 1.67, which has an S Video out to the TV, and it works perfect. When I plug the adapter into the Powerbook's Dual Link DVI port, same port as the MacBook Pro, it doesn't work..
I chose S-Video, even though the TV has Component inputs, because other forums said it wouldn't work without an expensive converter box.
They said this would be the solution.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks!

Same problem, though with an early-2008 MBP. Things worked fine with 10.6.x and as soon as I went to 10.9 the external display stopped working.
The first time I plug in the adaptor (whether or not there is a video cable attached) the screen goes black and nothing shows up on the external screen. When I unplug the adaptor, I get the display back on the MBP but it's at low resolution and it has put me at the general login screen. When I put the adaptor back in the second time, it essentially locks up the display to where it is black and no key presses or adaptor removals brings the display back. I have to reset the MBP by holding down the power button. I submitted a bug report too, but have no faith Apple will do anything. Big fail, Apple.

I have a 2007 Macbook Pro that is running 10.7.5 and I am trying to use a 10.6.3 DVD to install Snow Leopard to an external hard drive.

I have a 2007 Macbook Pro that is running 10.7.5 and I am trying to use a 10.6.3 DVD to install Snow Leopard to an external hard drive. I've followed every possible instruction on every which website. The problem is when I boot to Install disc, I am unable to choose which hard drive I'd like to install the OS on. It says that it is unable to Install and automatically takes me to Restore and suggests that I restore to Time Machine backups. Any and all help is appreciated.

lovinlife5959,
have you tried booting from the grey Mac OS X Install DVD that originally came in the box with your MacBook Pro? See if you can install its version of Mac OS X (either 10.4.9, 10.4.10, or 10.5.0, depending upon when it shipped from the factory) onto your external hard drive. If that works, boot from your external hard drive, run Software Update on it, and then try updating your external drive to 10.6.3 via the white Snow Leopard DVD.

I can only run Windows on my Mid 2007 MacBook Pro :(

So, a weird thing happened recently. A friend of mine was trying to get his old PowerMac G4 working, but his DVD drive wasn't working, so I booted my computer into Target Disk mode so that we could restore his computer using my DVD drive. After we were able to get it installed, I tried to reboot my computer back into Mountain Lion. Upon restarting the computer, I noticed that the OS wouldn't boot. After playing with that for a little while, I backed up my files onto another iMac (again, using Target Disk mode) and tried to reinstall the OS. When I put in the Mountain Lion DVD and tried to boot from it, it didn't work. So I tried my Lion disk, also didn't work. Tried Snow Leopard and was able to get it to install, but I wasn't able to use my keyboard and mouse upon getting to the "Select Language" screen. I finally thought "screw this" and made an appointment with an Apple Genius (who was quite helpful) at the Apple Store near me. I showed up and we tried a bunch of things to no avail. He ran the Apple Hardware Test and that nothing was wrong with the computer. I did have non-apple RAM in my computer, so we tried switching that out. No luck. I also told him that I switched Hard Drives to another 320 GB to try and see if that was the problem. That wasn't the fix either. After trying all of that stuff, I tried installing Windows 7, and ironically enough (since its an Mac), and it worked. I am now using my Mid 2007 MacBook Pro with Windows 7 only and I still can't install MacOS (which I miss big time!). The Genius said that he had never seen this before and was at a loss (couldn't think of another thing to try). Instead of leaving it with them, I took it home with me as I needed a computer for School as I am a High School Teacher. I also am a bit of a Computer Engineering guy (built my own computers, been installing OSes for 10 - 15 years, etc) and while I like to consider myself a modest person, I will call myself a self proclaimed expert.
Has anyone heard / seen this happen?
I've searched high and low on the internet for this and haven't found anything. ****, even the Genius has never heard of anything and gave me his business card and told me to drop him a line if I am able to figure out the problem.
I'm really hoping someone can help me shed some light on this subject as I feel like I have tried completely everything.
Thanks in advance,
Todd

Take your MBP to an Apple store genius bar for a free diagnostic examination. Since these symptoms are 'regular' and not intermittent, they should be able to determine what the problem is and the cure.
ciao.

Late 2007 MacBook Pro intermittent black screen

I have this very odd issue with an intermittent black screen on a late 2007 MacBook Pro (4GB/320GB 7200rpm) Mac OS X 10.6.8 v1.1
Apologies for the length of the post.
In cycles separated by a few days to a week, the screen will flicker to black, initially very briefly, then for longer periods until it is black continuously, where it stays from a few hours to a couple of days then it flickers to normal, again very briefly then with longer intervals until it is steady and normal. It can then be fine for a week or more.
When the screen is working, it's perfect; no lines, stripes, colour shift or any difference to what one would expect. When it is black, the backlight is still operational (and dimming when on battery power) but there is no image - all pixels are solid black. Shining a torch on/through the screen does not reveal any image. When mirrored, the external monitor shows the brightness adjustment moving up and down in response to the key presses but it has no effect on the internal screen.
My external display (Eizo) is always functional no matter what the built-in one is doing and is completely solid at all times.
There is no correlation to temperature (I have SMC fan control), sleep, restart, fan speed, power source or anything environmental. The MacBook is on a fan stand for most of the time. External connections make no difference. If the fault is present before changing any of these factors, it is there after.
I am aware that this machine has known vulnerabilities with GPU and display issues but none present quite like this. I have performed the usual trawl on the net and I now know more than I ever wanted to about attempts to fix it.
Software remedies attempted:
Resetting PRAM and power manager.
No sleep image file (never used this option). I deleted the old swap files that were there in any case but this unsurprisingly did nothing.
Resetting the display settings via keyboard commands or Sys Prefs.
Screen savers and settings are not implicated.
Nothing whatever in the console logs that I can see.
TechTool Pro gives video RAM a clean bill of health and all other components pass including tests on the HD with TTP and DiskWarrior.
Safe boot and booting from systems on backups seem to have no effect but one safe boot restored the screen briefly - I think it was a coincidence.
I updated the OS from 10.6.6 to 10.6.8 while this fault was coming and going and it made no difference. I usually prepare the machine for updates by running the cron jobs, repairing permissions etc.
In expectation of suffering this fault when the external monitor was not connected, I installed iScreen on the MacBook and use my iPad as a supplementary display and that works well too. Having all three operating, when the internal is functioning, is quite fun.
Hardware tests:
I removed the upper plate holding the keyboard and the interior of the machine was very clean with only some small dust accumulations in the fans, which were removed. There was no sign of any discolouration, corrosion, or other unpleasantness on the PCBs. All connectors and wiring looked good.
Every part of the logic board, cables and connectors were percussed, gently deflected and spray freezed, both while the fault was present and not (machine running) with no effect.
Display back was removed and the LCD board given the same treatment. No changes.
Display cable disconnected at both ends and tested for continuity (probe resistance accounted for) and consistency with a Fluke 87 multimeter - passed OK. On a scope, active signals and power were present on all the pins when the display was working but the fault did not occur during this test, which might have been interesting.
No apparent shorting of the display cable but without removing it this cannot be proved.
Problem not affected by hinge position, pressure on any part of the display, twisting, percussing etc.
Used compressed air to blow out the connectors which were reseated carefully.
After all this, the machine remains in exactly the same state, cycling between operational and black with various flickering stages as it comes and goes.
All I can deduce is that as the external monitor has always been OK, the GPU itself is probably working fine and the fault is more likely in the LCD panel electronics. I doesn't feel like a software issue to me but heck, I don't know what is going on.
Does anyone have any experience of something like this?
Thanks,
Joel.

Thomas,
Thanks for your post and I'm sorry you have suffered the same problems.
My trust levels are not very high because it's clear there is some systemic display problem with this model, which is why Apple are fixing them. As I mentioned, we have no idea if the replacement boards are any different to the originals. From your experience it would look like they are not and my suspicion is that it is very unlikely that Apple made a new batch of these logic boards a long time after the model was discontinued. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, I stand to be corrected.
As you say, the difference between our two faults appears to be that a physical deformation of some part of the machine does something with yours but never did with mine. At one point I felt that a short in the internal display cable seemed like the best explanation for the problem but it looks like it's more complex than that because of the behaviour of our external displays and subsequent strange booting behaviour.
If, as I have read, the soldering of the GPU was faulty and leads to progressive failure of the graphics sub-system, then all kinds of strange behaviours could arise and produce the intermittent problems we have seen. Micro-fractures of the chip interconnects would suggest that tiny movements might change the presentation of the fault. If soldering really is the issue, then keeping the machine as cool as possible will extend the life of the connections. Consequently mine will sit on a fan-stand for the rest of its days, which is no problem because it just had Win 7 installed on it and I don't want to be seen in public with it in that state ;-)
All we can conclude is that a logic board swap fixes the problem for some indeterminate period, so the problem is on that board. Whether it is a design fault with the NVIDIA chip itself or a manufacturing fault with the board is not clear but we can probably forget LCD panels, cables, sleep issues, power supplies and all the other peripheral issues unless there is yet another design issue that causes the GPU to fail.
Are you intending to present your machine to Apple for another go at a fix?

2007 MacBook Pro Screen becomes distorted and Computer becomes unresponsive

Hi,
I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this. This is hard to explain with words alone, but I will try: I'll be using my 2007 MacBook Pro with no problems, when all of a sudden the screen will start to flicker and the display will become distorted where everything seems like it is tapering into seperate small rectangles. If I am playing music through any application (iTunes, Safari, Ableton Live, Adobe Premiere, etc.) the music will continue to play and I can still move the mouse around but I cannot click on anything or stop the music and none of my keyboard brightness or volume commands will function. Basically it's a partial freeze. This is very troubling as it is becoming more and more frequent. I did drop my computer once a year and a half ago but have not had any trouble of this sort (or at all for that matter) until about 2 months ago, so I'm not sure if this is related. It happened to me twice before I upgraded to 10.6.4 from 10.4.11, only then it was more serious and when I rebooted afterwards it would give me that ominous gray screen with the restart logo and several languages saying I needed to shut it down. Now when it happens I can restart my computer just fine (assuming I force shut it down with the power button for 6 seconds), but sometimes when it restarts the weird screen effect I described will happen during start up and then go away once it is running again. If anyone has any idea what is causing this please let me know, this computer is very important to me, as I do 85% of my work on it. Help! Thanks!!!!
Matt

Welcome!
You may have the "nVidea Curse." Here is an Apple article explaining the issue and providing for free repair for a period to four years from data of purchase:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377
It applies to MBPs with an nVidea 8600M GT graphics chipset. Apple Store have a diagnostic test for teh problem.

Does anyone know the maximum hard drive size for a 2007 Macbook Pro (A1226)?

I have a 2007 Macbook Pro (A1226). Is there a limit to the sized hard drive that can be installed? If so, what is the largest hard drive I can put into it? I have a 500GB HD that I upgraded to from the 320 GB that was in it when I bought it. I'm now trying to install a 1 TB or 750 GB drive, but after cloning with 'Carbon Copy Cloner' and installing it, I get the "?-folder" flashing when I start up. I'm pretty confident in CCC because if I use it to clone to another 500GB HD, it works fine. The problem only occurs when I try to use larger drives. Is 500GB the largest HD I can use in this machine? If so, can anyone point me to a spec sheet so I can be sure the next Macbook I buy can be expanded to suit me.
Thanks in advance.
Brian

You said: "I've never tried the restore function in disk utility. Would that be the same as cloning the drive?
YES! See the my old instructions below. What you might try after step 5 is to restart you MBP holding down the Option key. Select the new HDD icon and see if it boots. This way you will know that the new HDD is operable.
Ciao.
INSTALLING A NEW HDD IN A MB
1. Make certain that you have backed up all of your important data.
2. You will need a HDD enclosure. One with a USB connection will do. A 9 pin Firewire is better.
3. Install your new drive in the enclosure and connect it to your MBP.
4. Open DISK UTILITY>ERASE. From the left hand column drag the new drive into the 'Name' field. Make sure that the format is 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'. Click on the 'Erase' button.
5. Click on the 'Restore' button (on top). Drag the old drive into the 'Source' field and the new drive into the 'Destination' field. Click on the 'Restore' button on the bottom right hand corner.
Depending upon the amount of data you are transferring, this may take a couple hours or more. A Firewire will speed up the transfer. This will result in both drives having identical information on them.
6. After the data transfer has completed, you may swap the drives. Start the MBP and you have finished the installation. The initial boot may take a bit longer than you are accustomed to, but that is normal.
7. When you are satisfied that the new hard drive if functioning properly, you can erase the old drive and use it for any needs that you may have.

Performance unacceptable after installing lion on late 2007 MacBook Pro

I have a mid-2007 MacBook Pro with 2Gb of memory and a 2.4GHz Intel Core2Duo. Since installing Lion, Safari is all but unusable, it takes forever to load, every page I try to load stops the entire computer with the spinning beach ball, I haven't even tried flash sites. iTunes hangs every time I download a podcast at the processing file stage. I keep iTunes open to feed my AppleTV, but after a few hours of watching I have to restart iTunes because everything starts to hang. To say nothing of what happens when iTunes starts automatically downloading podcasts. Syncs with my iPad have been hit or miss. The entire machine seems slow and sluggish. I tried running one app at a time, and that helped some, but it didn't fix the problem. I am assuming this is a RAM issue and have ordered more, but Apple said it would work with 2Gb of RAM. I don't call this working.
So my question is does it save memory to run apps in full screen or should I keep them as just windows? I have tried to kill all the extras, and I have been trying to just do one thing at a time, but I have honestly never had this kind of reaction to a new OS when the machine was in spec. And I have been upgrading since system 7. Is 4Gb going to be enough? Is the processor just not fast enough to handle it? Upgrading to a new machine is not an option at all, and I really like the working bits of Lion I have seen, but am I stuck?

I haven't done permissions yet, but I have rebooted several times. I had an issue with the superdrive not recognizing DVDs, so I zapped the PRAM and did the SMC thing. Plus, I've tried rebooting just to see if that would help, but it has not.
I have been watching istat and there's some free memory but not a lot. I was fine under snow leopard, I never had any troubles until I started running a lot of stuff at once. I agree that this is almost certainly memory. It gets worse the more things I try to do at once. Everything hangs whenever there's an operation to be done (syncing, downloading). It just feels like the machine is choking.
I saw an article earlier on one of the Mac RSSs that the writer was having problems with Safari consuming up to a gig of memory just sitting idle with a few tabs open. I'm not going to bother with Safari until I put the memory in, Chrome runs pretty well, even if I can't really do the full-screen thing. I guess at this point I'm just looking for help for what I can do to conserve memory until more arrives. And I'm a little annoyed at Apple for saying Lion works with 2Gb of RAM when it really doesn't. If you can't use the browser or the iTunes, how can you even hope to run Photoshop? iMovie takes 5 minutes to load and when it does it's full of visual glitches.
I guess I'll try permissions and see if that helps. Thanks for your ideas though.

Reformat 17" 2007 MacBook Pro

I want to reformat my 2007 MacBook Pro, I insert disk and restart and then 'c' and it thinks about it for a second, then i get this glitch/static frozen screen and thats it... Have to restart my computer with no 'c' and starts up fine...
I'm currently on 10.7.5 and my disk is 10.4.9

If you start your computer up normally, can you insert the disc and browse through it without any problems? I know my old Late 2007 MBP had issues booting from my Snow Leopard DVD the last time I tried. It took several boot attempts before it would finally boot, then it took a few hours to load the OS from it. In my case, the drive had just gone bad (it had accumulated a good bit of dust/junk in it (one of the perils of a slot load drive) and basically just quit working altogether. You may be facing the same problem...

2007 MacBook Pro Doesn't like Mountain Lion-- Loud, incessant fan.

Since updating my 2007 Macbook Pro to Mountain Lion, the fan won't stop running loudly. The CUP% looks normal (nothing over 10) and I am only running google chrome. Is this a common problem? is there a common fix?

I fixed the issue. I researched many many forums and found no help on any of them, and sorry-no help on this one either.
What solved the issue - and I hope this helps someone else who has the same problem:
1). Install new hard drive (with or without osx pre installed)
2). Remove all ram
3). Power on and wait 1 minute
4). Hold power button until it turns off
5). Install ram
6). Power back on
7). BOOM! It works again.

I have a mid 2007 MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M graphics. Is it possible to upgrade the RAM and the graphics card?

I have a mid 2007 MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M graphics card. Is it possible to upgrade the RAM and the graphics card?

The RAM can be upgraded as indicated below. The Graphics card can not be upgraded.
Maximum Memory
6.0 GB (Actual) 4.0 GB (Apple)
Memory Slots
2 - 200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM

Late 2007 Macbook Pro: DVI to VGA Adapter

I lost my DVI to VGA Display Adapter for my late 2007 Macbook Pro and can only find adapters for the PowerBook G4. Will this adapter work for my Macbook Pro?
Thanks!

Yes, all of those DVI+A to SVGA/VGA adapters for Macs are the same. I have adapters from the titanium G4, aluminum G4 and intel MBP and they all have DVI and came with adapters that function the same.

Where can I buy an A1290 adapter for my 2007 MacBook Pro?

HELP!
My old computer's adapter has died but I still use this computer as a backup.. the only places I seem to be able to purchase a replacement adapter are Amazon / ebay and the sellers sound dodgy (fake adpater, breaks after a month etc).
Can I not buy one of these direct from Apple???????????
Thanks for any help in advance!
Alice

Alice,
according to this Apple page, your 2007 MacBook Pro originally came with a 85 W adapter with a “T”-head. Apple no longer manufactures these; they’ve been replaced by “L”-head adapters, since they are supposed to withstand stress at the head better than the “T”-headed ones do. Since that page states that the “L”-head adapters can be used on models that originally came with the “T-head” adapters, you can buy the “L”-head analogue for your “T”-head adapter directly from Apple here.

Best way to upgrade our 2007 MacBook Pro to use Final Cut Pro

Hello All.
We have a 2007 MacBook Pro with 2 gigs ram, 160 Gig Hard drive and a 2.4 Mhz Intel Processor, and a 500 Gig Firewire External Harddrive.
Is it feasable to upgrade this Laptop to run Final cut Pro?
My girlfriend will edit small projects,i.e. vacation footage in H.D, Family Photo/Film montages, etc... nothing major
Any advice much appreciated.
Thanx

Yes, Thanx
We will not be using FCP X, I think we have FCP 7,8 or 9, Not sure.
I was thinking about More Ram from Other World ComputingLike this one:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/5300DDR2S6GP/
and maybe this Hardrive:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/HNM101MBB/
Just wanted some feedback about this, or other suggested hardware.

2007 Macbook Pro 17" problem

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for