Boot up issues

I had my friend come over today to see if his hard drive was failing. His computer will boot into the white screen with the folder with the question mark on it. He has the 2009 MBP 13 (same model as me).

I took out the hard drive, plugged it into mine via hard drive adapter, verified and repaired disk (no issues were found on verify or repair) via disk utility. So I plugged my old hard drive into his and it booted once, I restarted, and it booted back into the white screen the with folder with the question mark on it. I then plugged mine into his and again same thing, white screen with the folder with the question mark on it. I then put his hard drive into my mac and it boots up just fine.

Neither of us have the installation disks (his are at home in Vegas) to run the Apple Hardware Test. I have a feeling it is his logic board, but am not 100% sure.

Any other recommendations to try to troubleshoot this, or is it his logic board? And yes, I'm working on Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup right now, was just wondering if there was a quick fix.

Edit: Looks like Safe booting then restarting worked. He is going to use it for a while then restart it to see if it works again. Will update in a few hours.

Edit 2: He got spinning beach ball for a few minutes, restarted and it went back to grey folder.

Edit 3: Took out one stick of RAM and it booted up instantly. He is trying to do some homework, which caused it to freeze in Edit 2, going to see how it goes.

Edit 4: Neither stick of RAM seems to be defective. They both boot but they both get the spinning beach ball right before anything comes up (dock, top bar etc)

Edit 5: reset PRAM. no-go

Only other thing left I could think of is doing a clean install, but he doesn't want to lose Microsoft Office, as he has no access to his restore disks at the moment.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

You can download Apple's TechTool Deluxe package off the web and run it yourself:

https://support.apple.com/techtooldeluxe/main?id=dl

Download. Install. Run. Let us know the results.

 

Neither him or I have applecare so I cannot download it.

 

I strongly suggest you get the installation disks to run Apple's Hardware Test. In the meantime you can check the SMART attributes of the drive using Onyx:

Download OnyX for Mac - OS X maintenance & optimization tool. MacUpdate Mac Software Downloads

 

Well I ran it with the Snow Leopard install DVD I bought. It went into the install screen but when I went to Utilities -> Disk Utility, the HD wasn't there. It's odd because his HD worked in my MBP so I'm thinking either bad SATA cable or bad logic board. I guess his dad told him he has applecare so he's going to take it to the Apple Store tomorrow