Black Screen - Get Chime - Can Boot off HDD using another Mac - iMac 24in.

Hope someone can help me here, as I'm at my wits end.
I've got two issues, one with my MacBook Pro 17in, 4GB RAM, 160GB 7200rpm (2008) and another with my iMac 24in. 4GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm (2009).
Firstly the MBP, left work on Thursday last week, got home, powered up the MBP and got a black screen!!! Tried resetting PRAM, SMC, booting in safe mode, removing and re-installing RAM, removing battery and mains power and leaving off overnight etc etc, yet nothing happens. Benn all over the forums and have not found any solution to get my beloved MBP working on it's own. I can boot off the HDD using another MBP 15in, re-install Snow Leopard and as far as I can tell the HDD is fine, as I have run disk utility and it tells me the HDD is OK.
I can't figure this out and it's doing my head in, as I use this laptop for business use and just can't afford to go out and buy another Mac. I should point out that this MBP never had any issues when running on Leopard, but ever since I upgraded to Snow Leopard, I have had nothing, but trouble. I did a clean install, in fact I have done it at least twice, even erasing the HDD securely, both at 7pass and 35pass, yet I have had permissions issues regularly and on the odd occasion, I have also had the problem of the HDD not being recognised.
The iMac is nearly the same, but the screen is working, although the iMac doesn't see the HDD no matter what way I do, again, reset PRAM, SMC, safe boot etc etc. In truth the iMac has been a lot more unreliable, but with the screen working, if I can get any solutions here, then I'll be working to work on that without the need or hassle of working via another.
I think that the MBP is only just still under warranty, but the iMac definitely is, but I need at least one working for business use, so really only want to let Apple have one at a time to look at/repair etc.
Ideally, as the HDD is working in the MBP, if I could get a solution to the black screen issue, then I could do without the iMac for whatever time it takes, so if there is anyone out there that can help, I'd be so grateful.
One last thing, when I bought the iMac 24in., I also bought an iMac 20in., but I never upgraded the 20in. to Snow Leopard and to this day, it has worked flawlessly, without a single issue ever.
Perhaps, I'm getting paranoid here, but there seems to me to be a link between the ongoing and regularly occurring problems with both Macs ant the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Why also, or is it just pure unadulterated coincidence that both the MBP and the iMac 24in have failed at pretty much the same time??!!!!
I'm going mental here, so I hope someone out there has a better fix, then me overdosing on Prozac!!
PS
I'm not a mac expert, not good with a soldering iron either, but I'm capable of following good instructions.

Using Snow Leopard forum is probably your best bet.
I don't care if someone has 20+ yrs, I still like having a good troubleshooting book/manual handy.
Mac: can't get by without bootable backups, even if you use TimeMachine, clone your system. Save you all this fuss and work.
Then invest in high quality disk repair and maintenance program.
Disk Warrior / TechTool Pro 5 / Drive Genius 3 - top 3 probably
There are always going to be normal items you just ignore with Repair Permissions. Useful to do once in a while but not magic. Same with SMC and the rest. Running disk repair is one of those things that it seems should be done before there is trouble, not after, and a weakness in HFS file system and disk directory.
Apple Support is a good place to start looking and then hardware category.
http://www.apple.com/support
http://www.apple.com/support/imac /macbookpro etc
Make sure all your software is current, don't install anything you are unsure of or can do without.
Run Apple Hardware Test off your OEM DVD specific to the Mac.
Now, have you Googled for this?
have you looked at reports about 500GB drives used in some Macs that had issues and were offered firmware update for the drive?
Considered just using another drive connected to iMac?
You can overheat a hard drive with needlessly running 7 and 35-write pass, besides which the best way to map out bad blocks is not Disk Utility.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=imacblackscreen
http://www.bing.com/search?q=AppleiMac+firmwareupdate
I'd direct your replies to iMac and MacBook Pro as well as to Using OS X Snow Leopard areas.

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Black Screen on MBP, Can hear chime and can boot from HDD via another MBP!

Hope someone can help me here, as I'm at my wits end.
I've got two issues, one with my MacBook Pro 17in, 4GB RAM, 160GB 7200rpm (2008) and another with my iMac 24in. 4GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm (2009).
Firstly the MBP, left work on Thursday last week, got home, powered up the MBP and got a black screen!!! Tried resetting PRAM, SMC, booting in safe mode, removing and re-installing RAM, removing battery and mains power and leaving off overnight etc etc, yet nothing happens. Benn all over the forums and have not found any solution to get my beloved MBP working on it's own. I can boot off the HDD using another MBP 15in, re-install Snow Leopard and as far as I can tell the HDD is fine, as I have run disk utility and it tells me the HDD is OK.
I can't figure this out and it's doing my head in, as I use this laptop for business use and just can't afford to go out and buy another Mac. I should point out that this MBP never had any issues when running on Leopard, but ever since I upgraded to Snow Leopard, I have had nothing, but trouble. I did a clean install, in fact I have done it at least twice, even erasing the HDD securely, both at 7pass and 35pass, yet I have had permissions issues regularly and on the odd occasion, I have also had the problem of the HDD not being recognised.
The iMac is nearly the same, but the screen is working, although the iMac doesn't see the HDD no matter what way I do, again, reset PRAM, SMC, safe boot etc etc. In truth the iMac has been a lot more unreliable, but with the screen working, if I can get any solutions here, then I'll be working to work on that without the need or hassle of working via another.
I think that the MBP is only just still under warranty, but the iMac definitely is, but I need at least one working for business use, so really only want to let Apple have one at a time to look at/repair etc.
Ideally, as the HDD is working in the MBP, if I could get a solution to the black screen issue, then I could do without the iMac for whatever time it takes, so if there is anyone out there that can help, I'd be so grateful.
One last thing, when I bought the iMac 24in., I also bought an iMac 20in., but I never upgraded the 20in. to Snow Leopard and to this day, it has worked flawlessly, without a single issue ever.
Perhaps, I'm getting paranoid here, but there seems to me to be a link between the ongoing and regularly occurring problems with both Macs ant the upgrade to Snow Leopard. Why also, or is it just pure unadulterated coincidence that both the MBP and the iMac 24in have failed at pretty much the same time??!!!!
I'm going mental here, so I hope someone out there has a better fix, then me overdosing on Prozac!!
PS
I'm not a mac expert, not good with a soldering iron either, but I'm capable of following good instructions.

Concerning your imac, have you tried installing the OS on an external drive and running the iMac from that? My friend in Texas had her iMac's hard drive vanish, so we installed the OS on an external FireWire drive I happened to have and then restored her data from a recent backup. So far I haven't had time to install the drive in her iMac, so it's been running off of the external for a long time now. Perhaps you could do something like that so you could at least have the use of the iMac while your MBP is in the shop. Once you get the MBP back, you can send in the iMac.
Be sure to report both of these to Apple and get case numbers so that you can document that the issues started while you were still under warranty--especially for the MBP that's about to go out of warranty.
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<Edited By Host>

Hello USME,
'Tis a common problem on old Macs.
Do as Allan says: open the door and blow out all the dust bunnies. Canned air from Wal-Mart or Radio Shack can be handy (though sort of expensive) especially for blowing through the back of the power supply. A cool Mac is a happy Mac.
Be sure your Mac can breathe. The air intake is on the bottom of the case, so be sure a deep pile rug or too many papers on your desk are not blocking the air supply.
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In my experience, power supplies and CPUs are about equally likely to fail. There are a few other possibilities, but they are not nearly so common.
Good luck!... Jon

Black Screen - Get Chime - Can Boot off HDD using another Mac - iMac 24in.

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