If, for whatever reason your MacBook is dead to the world and is doing nothing when you try to power it on. You might think that it’s definitely a hardware issue and is going to cost it to put right, but there’s actually a whole host of reasons why your MacBook is acting this way and that can be solved at home with no specialist knowledge.
Just follow through our guide below to try getting it back to normal yourself. Sorry if some of it seems very obvious, but best to cover all bases!
Solution 1: Is my MacBook charging?
MagSafe chargers: If you have a Mac from 2016 or earlier, you should see an orange light on your MagSafe charger when it’s connected and is charging. If it’s completely charged, or your battery is 100% useless, you’ll see a green light.
USB C chargers: If your Mac charges through USB C, it’s harder to tell if the charger is working. The best way is to leave your MacBook on charge for a few hours and then feel the power block on the charger to make sure it’s getting warm.
Broken charger? With both chargers mentioned above, if you believe they aren’t working, the first thing to do is check for any damage to the outer casing of the leads. If there is, stop using immediately and buy a new charger. Do not risk a fire by trying to fix the lead yourself.
If there is no visible damage to the lead, the next step is to replace the fuse in the plug, if doing this make sure you replace the fuse with the exact same type. If you aren’t sure, it’s best to take the fuse into a hardware store and get advice on which one you need.
Solution 2: Black screen on my MacBook?
If your keyboard backlight comes on when you power up your MacBook but you have a black screen, you definitely have a screen problem. If you don’t have a keyboard backlight, but you do have a Force Touch Trackpad, try feeling for a click on the track pad (you can also hear it)
If you have neither of these on your MacBook, try shining a torch through the Apple logo on the lid of your MacBook. If you can see your screen working this way. The backlight on your screen has failed and will need replacing.
Solution 3: Is there a problem with my MacBook software?
Safe Mode: Starting your Mac in safe mode verifies your start up disk and tries to repair any issues it can find with the system code, prevents apps and processes from starting automatically upon login and deletes system cache files. To boot up in safe mode, power on your Mac whilst holding the shift key. Let go once you’ve reached the log in menu.
If you can successfully boot in safe mode but not normally, you may have incompatible log in items. To find these, click the Apple logo in the top right in safe mode, system preferences < Users & Groups. Select the log in tab at the top of the window and view your log in items. Selecting each of these items and hitting the – button below will stop the item from opening on log in. After this, try booting normally.
Reset the System Management Controller: If safe mode hasn’t worked. The next step is to reset the SMC. This resets some of the functions you can’t get to through preferences, like battery and thermal management. Lighting, sleep and video source settings.
To reset SMC on a MacBook without a removable battery: Plug in the power cable: press the control+shift+option+alt keys on the left and the power button and hold them all down. Release them all, then power your MacBook on as normal.
To reset SMC on a MacBook with a removable battery: Unplug your MacBook and remove the battery. Hold the power button down for 5 seconds. Then insert the battery, plug the power lead back in and then boot as normal.
Recovery Mode: As a last resort, try to boot your MacBook into Recovery Mode, this is done by Powering the Mac on, and upon hearing the Mac start up sound, hold down Command + R until you see the Apple Logo. On the MacOS window select ‘Reinstall MacOS’ to reinstall the software your Mac used to function without losing all your files.
Ask Hero Support for MacBook advice
If none of the above solutions have brought any kind of life back into your MacBook, unfortunately you probably have a hardware issue. Get in touch with us here at Hero Tech Support. We’re Apple repair specialists based in Southampton and can offer you expert advice. Complete our website contact form or call for more information.
