Strange problem renders MBP Useless / Wont Turn On..

Question

About two weeks ago, Apple Update installed some updates to my MBP when I shut it down. I left it updating and when I returned the computer screen was black and the standby light which normally fades in and out was just solid white.
I searched the internet for solutions and tried all the ones I could (Taking the battery and power supply out & holding the power button; Taking out one RAM or the other, etc..) but none of these solutions worked so I took it into the Apple Store. They told me they had no idea what was wrong with it but suspected it was the main logic board, they took it in for repair and a week later I had my MBP back and working.
Normally when using my MBP I just shut the lid to standby it and rarely shut it down or restart it (I'm guessing that from then til now I didn't shut it down).. When I first restarted it today the exact same problem happened. As you can guess I was very annoyed and nothing I do to it will fix it. I don't want this to keep happening and I don't want to keep have to get it repaired (especially when my warranty runs out as a logic board is aroun £600).
So does anyone have ANY idea what could be causing this problem to keep happening to my MBP?
No hardware was attached at the time of it breaking (normally I have an external HD); I installed Leopard around new year which served me well until now; The only thing I can think of is my power supply being broken and causing the laptop to somehow break and I can't think of any kind of software that would do this?!
Thanks

Answer 1

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
It sounds like your Mac froze and Apple thought the problem was the logic board and did the repair.
Evidently, the problem is not the logic board, unless you got a second defective one, which seems unlikely. I don't know what the problem is, but evidently it wasn't found and fixed by the repair. So you need to contact Apple and tell them that the logic board replacement did not cure the problem. If you are nearing the end of your warranty period, be sure and get a case number. The case number will document that the problem first occurred under warranty. When you document that the problem first occurred under warranty, Apple will honor the warranty until that problem is fixed, even if the warranty runs out in the meantime.
Another possible culprit for freezing might be your hard drive, so you might want to be sure you have all your data backed up and keep it backed up.
Open Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder). Click on your hard drive by brand name and then on the First Aid tab. Click on "Repair Disk Permissions" and repeat until there is nothing left to repair. When complete, click on "Verify Disk" and repair if necessary. You will need to boot from your install disc and navigate to the Disk Utility on it to repair the start up disk. Also check that the S.M.A.R.T. status is verified. If S.M.A.R.T. status is not verified, or if you get any messages in red that cannot be repaired, call Apple.
Also, you could run the extended version of the Apple Hardware Test, just to see if anything shows up. If you get an error code, call Apple.
Another possibility might be software corruption. I am no expert on software, but the usual approach is to do a fresh installation of the OS. You can do this using an Archive and Install, but you should back up in advance just in case. Another thing might be to download the combo update for 10.5.2 from the Apple site if you have been doing your updates from Software Update instead. Always verify the disk and repair permissions both before and after installing any software.
I don't know if any of this will help or not--just some things to try. But you do need to be persistent at pursuing it so it can be resolved under warranty.
Good luck!