I have a mac book pro 15 inch a1226. It will not start up, just a black screen. I can hear the drives and fans running, but that is it. I have rebooted the pram, smc, tried safe boot, forced drive start up, and single user mode. nothing. the only thing i could get it to do is reboot by typing reboot at the command prompt in single user mode. I could not see the screen, but it did what it was supposed to. I can hear the chime when it reboots. I do know my battery is shot. it will only run for about a minute on a full charge. will a dead battery cause the display not to work even with an 85W magsafe?

If its not booting (i.e. turn it on, give it a minute and try to adjust the volume and see if you hear it adjusting), it is most likely a logic board issue where the GPU has gone bad. We do offer a logic board repair service, but its pricey.

If you do here it adjust the volume, it is probably just an issue with either the LCD, cable, or the magsafe board.

just a little more info. probably a crappy coincidence, but still may be important. I run Windows vista via boot camp on the computer. The last time the computer was functional I tried erasing the windows drive with drive utility in order to gain disk space. it would not let me delete it. before restarting the computer I ejected the windows drive for whatever reason. probably to see if it was erased. the computer never started up after that. its still probably a bad logic board since it wont boot off the DVD drive or anything else. Im just looking for a glimmer of light before I throw this one in the trash and buy a PC. Have a first generation G4 tower that still works fine. I think Mac laps are junk. Im posting this on a Dell laptop that is two years older than the 2007 Mac Book that just took a dump. Original battery still fine.
Sorry about the bad attitude, just a little pissed a 2000$ laptop Quit for no reason.

You can try and go in and just disconnect the hard drive and then see if it'll boot up. It could be something faulty with the drive making it lock up during startup.