[stgab1]

My MacBook won't boot up. It chimes, gets as far as the gray loading screen, the wheel spins for a little while and the it restarts again. It will repeat this sequence as long as I let it. This happened the day before yesterday and I followed the directions on the Apple Knowledge Base Article #303234 - Troubleshooting a MacBook or MacBook Pro that won't turn on.-----
I even reinstalled Leopard and updates. It seemed to be O.K. for about a day and now the problem is back. I have noticed that the light on the AC adaptor stays amber all the time , even when the battery is fully charged. The MacBook also seem to be running hotter than normal. Would be grateful for any suggestions. Thanks, Mary.

[wgood]

Try running the computer without the battery, but make sure the MagSafe adapter is securely fastened. All you need is for the plug to come out once, and you'll never do it again. If that seems to fix it, the problem could likely be your battery short circuiting or something.

Have you installed any programs recently that could cause the OS to get angry? Navigate to /System / Library / StartupItems and see if there are any unusual programs listed. That could be doing something unruly to your computer.

Do you have a bootable backup or access to a hard drive? If you are able to install Leopard and boot properly using the external drive, the problem could lie with the internal drive.

Hope that helps, and just ask if you need more info!

[CheeseHead]

I would try to startup in Safe Mode. If that doesn't work I would have it serviced. If it's under warranty or you have Apple Care why mess with it...

[stgab1]

Thanks, both of you, for responding to my query. I followed your advice and when the problem didn't go away I called AppleCare. The MacBook is covered. The first agent suggested that I do everything I had already tried and then what you suggested. Since I had already done those things they connected me with a product specialist who had me boot from the Leopard disk, run Disk Utilities from the disk, and then reinstall 10.5 using archive and install, but with "preserves users and network settings" unchecked. Then I had to reinstall all my software and rescue my documents, photos, music, etc. from the Previous System.
So, the problem was a corrupted system. Reinstalling without preserving user and network settings seems to have eliminated whatever was upsetting my MacBook. It's working fine now and I didn't lose anything. I'd recommend this fix to anyone who's having this problem or a similar one. Mary