MacBook Pro 17 - 10.5.8. Won't start from HD or DVD

Hi, I have a 2009 MacBook Pro 17, which isn't feeling well at all.
It all started when I forgot my account password (It's my personal machine but an overly 'helpful' IT guy at an old company I worked at set himself up as Admin on my mac and then left, as I did shortly after - so I've never had admin access which was never a problem really).
As I don't think I still have the discs that came with the laptop (moved house a few times / they could be in storage) I looked at trying to reset my account password in single user mode. The first step of this was to do a 'fsck -fy' and here it told me I had a 'disk0s2: I/0 error.' and 'Invalid node structure' and the volume check had failed.
So that was a concern, I then borrowed a friends install disk (I think it was 10.6?) and tried that, at this point the laptop would recognise and boot from the DVD - but I couldn't access disk utility.
So I thought I'd buy a copy of 10.5.8 Leopard from ebay - that came this week - and trying to boot from that disc has had no success - if I hold the option key at start-up nothing happens I just get a grey screen and spinning icon. Stranger still if I hold the 'C' key down on start-up the machine goes to grey then chimes and continues to chime like a PRAM reset!
So now when I try to boot the machine normally from the HD I get the Apple logo and spinning wheel, which is on screen for a while, then the machine powers down.
I can still get it to start in single-user mode, and it used to get me to the account login screen once I typed 'exit' in this mode. But now when I do type 'exit' it returns to a grey screen and then shuts down.
I don't have a back-up of my hard drive so my priority is trying to rescue what I can. I don't want to waste money on Disk Warrior or something if I can't boot from the DVD?
So what can I do? Any help gratefully appreciated.

Any reinstallation is not going to be successful if you have invalid node structure. You have bigger fish to fry here than worrying about DVD access.
Mr Simpson wrote:
The first step of this was to do a 'fsck -fy' and here it told me I had a 'disk0s2: I/0 error.' and 'Invalid node structure' and the volume check had failed.
You also mention that the 10.6 disc would read from the DVD but not allow you into Disk Utility? What happened when you tried to access it? Was it selectable and then didn't do anything?
We can't really narrow down whether it is the DVD or anything else at this time.
If you don't have a backup of the information it is probably toast if you cannot get Disk Utility to work. I would normaly suggest DIsk Warrior but that is a $79 gamble if you are not sure if the drive is working or not. It may be your last hope to recover whatever you can from the drive.
Also, what was the original OS installed on the machine before it crashed? Was it 10.6 or was it the 10.5.7 you mentioned?

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My MacBook Pro 13in Mid-2010 won't start unless I hold the power button for about 10 seconds! Help Please!

Hello.
I have a MacBook Pro 13-inch (mid-2010):
Processor: 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4GB 1067 Mhz DDR3
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Yesterday I opened my computer (was sleeping as usual) and the screen just flasehed white and the computer powered off. The magnetic electricity thingy was connected and was green, so it was fully charged, and connected to the electricity.
Since it powered off, I tried turning it on again, and again, one second after starting to boot up, screen flashed white and the computer powered off.
I read somewhere I should hold down the power button longer, so I did, and it booted up. That's why I am able to write this. But every time I turn it off or put it to sleep, it does the same thing when I boot up.
If I don't hold the power button for 10 seconds or so, the computer won't work.
Then today, I did a backup of my entie hard drive, just in case. Later, I started using Excel, and about 1 hour after I was on it, suddenly it got really slow. Like I would click on a program like Safari, and it would take over 30-45 secs to start and be ready. And my computer is usually really fast!
I went on the Internet again, started in safe mode, boot up with option+command+P+R to reset PRAM, and nothing worked. Then suddenly on one turn-off/turn-on (since I can't restart because the computer only starts if I hold the power button for 10 seconds), again it is working at normal speed.
What can this be? Any ideas?
I really appreciate your time and help in advance
Gaby

GabyBA wrote:
I forgot to say I had already tried that as well. Just in case, I just tried it again and there was no change :S
Are you running the Apple-supplied RAM? Have you run Apple Hardware Test? I don't know what else you've tried, but this may be time to do a fresh install of Lion if you have not done so since installing Lion.

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http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/stats/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2 .2-15-santa-rosa-specs.html
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Message was edited by: ahanuban

That's a good question, and I don't really know the answer to it. You say you get a flashing sleep light 3 times? Makes me wonder if you need to reseat the RAM?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1547
It mentions that on some computers, you will just get the flashing lights and the tones won't be played again. For sure your Mac won't boot up if it doesn't see the RAM, and if your volume happens to be on "Mute", I would assume you wouldn't hear the tones anyway let alone the start up chime.
It sounds like power is getting to the logic board if you can see the sleep light. Do you hear the hard drive spin up? If your machine seems to be on except for the display, then it may have booted up as much as it can, even if you don't see anything on the display, as could be the case if you have the NVIDIA problem. If you get to where the machine seems to be on, it's probably time to try to get the NVIDIA test done.
The slowness you were experiencing could have been due to RAM becoming unseated and not recognized or possibly going bad. Reseat it, and if you replaced Apple RAM with other RAM, then try the original RAM if reseating doesn't work.
Here's a link on getting a Mac to start up--you've probably already tried all this, but it might work as a checklist:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1365
Here's another link for troubleshooting no video issues:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1573?viewlocale=en_US
Your description seems like more of a no video issue, but check out both articles to see if there is any possibility you overlooked anything.
Good luck!

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1. MBPs with larger monitors are more highly correlated with logic/graphics board problems.
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Hello. I have searched and searched and cannot find a solution.
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Given that is is a common point of failure, I would imagine a large Apple Store should keep a stock of HD's on hand.
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Message was edited by: Ryesen_Grear

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