Diagnosing a dead MacBook Pro Anyone got a good checklist for diagnosing the problem with a dead MacBook Pro ? I've a 15" MacBook Pro Core Two vintage machine that has suddenly stopped booting up. I can hear the Superdrive spin up, but then it stops with a black screen. Doesn't seem to want to boot from either the harddrive or the Superdrive (I've tried a Linux boot CD there).

I'd like to try to figure out if it's a problem with the display, with the logic board or something simple before I decide whether or not to scrap it.

I've tried booting with an external display attached to the displayport and still no joy (black screen).  It doesn't ever get to a grey screen, so I flunk out before ever getting to the checklist below. I tried resetting the PRAM just in case, but no joy there either.  When I power it down, I don't hear the "CHUNK" from the harddrive, but I've still got a boot CD in the Superdrive (any ideas on how to get THAT back out ?) so maybe it never gets to the HD.

Thanks for any advice.
Dane
I had the same issue when upgrading my RAM.
It turned out that the SO-DIMMs were not properly inserted.  

Try the following: 


take out both SO-DIMMs
re-insert the first one and make sure it goes fully into the lower socket
try rebooting

if it works, shut down again and insert the second SO-DIMM (again taking care to fully insert it into the upper socket.)



Good luck.