What to Do if Your Macbook Won’t Turn On

With Apple being one of the top laptop producers in the world, there’s a good chance that you own a MacBook. Macs are high-quality notebooks, packed with amazing features and specs that make them some of the most popular computers of all time.

But, no computer is immune to failure. What should you do if you have a problem with your MacBook, before taking it in for repairs? What if your MacBook won’t turn on?

We will let you know what steps you can take to get your Mac in working order again.

Check Your Power Source

Your first step is to check your power cable. Most Macbooks have an indicator light to show when the cable is correctly connected. Is your laptop plugged in correctly, and have you given it a moment to begin charging? If so, and the power button still doesn’t respond, it could be a power cable issue.

Try a different outlet in your home. If the Mac is still unresponsive, swap out the cable to check for a damaged charger. Check your charger for any signs that the cable is frayed or damaged, or if there is any debris lodged in the connector.

If your battery is completely dead, it may need a few minutes before it’s ready to restart, so give it some time and then try to power on.

Power Cycle Your Mac

Your Mac may need to be power cycled if it was shut down suddenly or is in a frozen state.

If your MacBook has a removable battery, you can unplug the charger and remove the battery. After waiting ten seconds, reinstall the battery, connect the charger and try to power on again.

In a Mac without a removable battery, disconnect the charger, and hold down the power button for ten seconds to cycle the power and force a restart.

Check for Display Issues

It is possible that your MacBook is on, but the display is not lighting up correctly. After pressing the power button, check for these telltale signs.

Do you hear the fan or drive running? Any startup chimes, or LED lights turning on such as the keyboard or sleep indicator? Does your Caps Lock light turn on when you press the key?

These symptoms may indicate a display issue. Use F1 and F2 to attempt adjusting the brightness display. If that doesn’t change anything, attempt to type your password and press the Return key, to see if it logs you in and loads the screen properly.

If not, you can backlight your Mac from the rear by using a bright light or flashlight placed over the apple logo. The light will shine through and allow you to see the login page or other information on the screen. Click on the password login window, try logging in, and see if that corrects the error.

System Management Controller Reset

If your display and cord aren’t the problems, you might be able to reset the firmware of your system management controller. This system controls most of the ground-level controls and functions in your MacBook.

With the computer plugged in, hold Shift+Control+Option while you hit the power button. Hold all of the keys for about ten seconds, then release. After this step, press the power button again as you normally would.

If you have a battery that can be removed, remove the battery while the Mac is plugged in. Hold down the power button for 5 seconds, then install your battery and press the power button as normal.

If your system management firmware was the issue, your computer should now boot normally.

Recovery Mode Tools

Should your MacBook power on but not load the operating system, you should be able to run it in recovery mode. You might have a corrupted disk, so you’ll need to try the Disk Utility function.

Press the power key to turn on the Mac, then hold down Command+R during the boot. Try to do this action as soon as you hear the boot-up chime.

Click on Disk Utility from the recovery functions. Select First Aid, and use the program to repair your disk. Your Disk Utility will run a system check of all files. If the disk was corrupted, this should repair the issue and allow you to reboot normally. Just keep in mind that if this is the case, this could be an early sign of a failing drive and you may want to have it looked at by a technician.

Operating System Recovery and Reinstall

Disk Utility may not fix your issue, in which case you will have to reinstall your operating system. Use the “Reinstall OS X” option to get an automatic download of the latest operating system files and attempt a reinstall of your software.

Before you reinstall your software, you may want to attempt to copy the contents of your hard drive to another Mac to prevent you from losing your files. To do this, connect both MacBooks together with a Thunderbolt cable (or Firewire cable, for old Macs.) When booting your problem machine, hold down “T” until it boots in “Target Disk Mode.”

In this mode, your laptop functions like an external hard drive. You should be able to locate it on the second Mac and copy over your files before reinstalling your OS. If you are unable to transfer your files, be sure to ask a technician to assist you in retrieving the files before they are overwritten by a fresh OS install.

An alternative solution is to use “Time Machine.” This feature rewinds your system to a backup before potential damage occurred, which should get you up and running again.

MacBook Won’t Turn On, Still?

Is your MacBook unable to boot to Recovery Mode? Did you replace the cord but your MacBook won’t turn on? If none of these attempts has your Mac properly booting, you likely have a hardware issue.

When under warranty, you can take your Mac to an Apple store or send it into Apple for an attempted repair or replacement.

Should you be out of warranty or far away from a Genius Bar, the experts at Techville can help. Our certified technicians are trained in all manner of MacBook repairs, from hardware, data loss, damage, and more. Contact us today to get started on bringing your MacBook back to life!