A student with a year and a half-old MBP came to me this afternoon. Her computer will not come on at all. She says she was using the machine when something happened, teh screen went black, and the pulsing sleep light came on. She then shut down the computer (don't know how she did that) and tried unsuccessfully to restart. She brought the computer to me--pushing the power button does nothing at all. It was connected to a power brick, so it's not a battery/external power issue. I didn't know what to tell her beyond to ask if she had AppleCare--which she thinks her father did buy. But I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I know--very little to go on, I'm afraid.

When you looked at it, was it connected to her power brick? If so, it might be a bad brick that has left the battery completely sapped. Does the power plug light come on? What does the battery meter display when you press the button?

I connected it to my power brick, which if ok. The battery meter shows one flashing light, so it's run down. But that shouldn't matter if the computer is connected to the power brick.

I've emailed the link to the student, Reboot. I'll let you know if if works. Thanks!

My father-in-law's Titanium PB won't respond when the battery is drained and it is plugged in. It's fine after the battery charges up, though. It's an old (original) battery and takes days to charge up. He only uses it when he comes here every year from February to early April.

Yep. I have two MBPs, one is about 3 years old and one is less than a year old. I forget which one (probably both), but I have experienced the same thing. I've left the thing in sleep mode for like a week and the battery drains to nothing. Its completely unresponsive until after its charged for a bit. Then it restarts and all is well.

Well, for whatever reason, the kid's computer came back to life. She wasn't sure what she'd done--not very useful information to figure out what happened.