Yeah, that stuff is pretty standard procedure. First step is to check for power, then to check if the machine will boot. If it won’t get power, the problem is generally more dire (but still, could be something simple and inexpensive — you don’t know until you start swapping out parts).

Given that the AC adapter light didn’t turn on, I’m starting to suspect the DC-in board (maybe the battery connector, but not terribly likely). Neither are expensive at all, and you’d probably regret replacing the machine over one of those.

Good for them to set expectations that it could be a logic board, though — if it’s not one of those minor parts, it’ll probably be a logic board.

But now the MacBook is back and I have no idea why. Been using it for over a week with no problems.

My first thought is that the machine might have sustained accidental damage — either a drop, or a liquid spill. Pretty sure you’d mention that, though. Machines sometimes work for a while, and even stop working for a short time, when they’re dropped or have a slight bit of liquid spilled.

Did the machine get any power when you pressed the power button? Did you hear any fan activity, or see the LED on the front light up?

Also, try resetting the SMC next time the machine won’t power on. Unplug the machine, take out the battery, and hold down the power button for 5 seconds. Put back in the battery, plug in the power cable, and press the power button.

If that doesn’t work, remove the battery and see if the machine will turn on. Also, make sure the RAM is firmly seated — remove both chips and reinstall them. Be sure to press them in all the way — you’ll probably need to put a few fingers on the top of the machine to make sure they’re really in.

Uh, what else, what else. If the machine does get power, but won’t boot, I’d suspect the hard drive, first. Remove the hard drive, hold the Option key when booting, and see if you can boot from the CDs/DVDs that the machine originally came with (or another machine booted in FireWire Target Disk Mode).

I can’t stress enough that AppleCare is worthwhile. For many people, the parts and labor cover the cost alone. If you don’t remember if you’re still covered, you can check at apple.com/support if you’ve got your MacBook’s serial number handy.

But yeah, I see this kind of stuff all the time — give me a shout if I can help at all.

It all started when I came in on a Monday morning and mentioned to our client support that I had troubles powering it up. I thought is was the on/off switch. They were concerned it was the motherboard. They checked it out and told me that since I was about 3 months aways from the 5 year mark they were simply going to replace it.

That was Decmber 2008. I still have the old laptop. It took me a few days over the holidays to transfer various apps and files to my new PC. In May I needed to use an older version of Visual Studio that I refuse to put on my new laptop. Finally, in July I “multi-tasked” on a project from home.

Here’s the thing though — last weekend I tried to power it up and it wouldn’t.

This is just my personal experience, and it was with a Dell running Windows XP, so YMMV.