My Macbook Won't Turn On - Here's How TO Fix It

MacBooks, like any other electronic device, can be prone to external and internal problems if not taken care of. Sometimes, your MacBook might not turn on all of a sudden. Your MacBook also might fail to start all the way up and get stuck at the apple logo.

Why Won’t My Macbook Turn on?

If your MacBook is showing these issues even after pressing the power button, it might be due to the following reasons:

The MacBook was connected to the charging port when a short circuit occurred nearby.
The charging cable or port in your MacBook is facing a form of defect. This can come in forms of fried cable, tiny objects blocking the charging port, unresponsive adapters and so forth.
You mistakenly poured liquid on the keyboard or placed it on a wet surface. Usually, water tends to eat away at the metal, silicone and fiberglass components of your MacBook. Your MacBook might function properly for a few before suddenly going out.
You accidentally dropped your MacBook onto a surface or somehow applied unbearable pressure onto it. This directly ends up affecting your MacBook screen or even causing internal damage.
You have mistakenly downloaded malware and viruses in your MacBook that have ultimately infected the system. This directly affects the drives, disk spaces and so on.

Troubleshoot and Fix Macbook Won’t Turn On

Check Any Charging Issues With Your Macbook

Firstly, try charging your MacBook. Plug your MacBook into its power source and wait for a while. Try pressing the Power Button after some hours. You might even leave it in that state for 24 hours for good measure.

Make sure your charging port is not blocked by any tiny external objects. Sometimes small particles end up blocking your charging port and might avoid your MacBook from getting charged. This ultimately results in the MacBook not switching on like normal.

Check the Display Brightness of Your Macbook

Press the brightness up button on your keyboard or Touch Bar to increase the screen brightness. You might have unintentionally set your MacBook’s brightness to the lowest setting.

You can quickly figure out if your MacBook is on by checking the Caps Lock key. If you find that its light is on, your MacBook is up and running. This technique can also be used while checking a dead MacBook. However, if you find that your Macbook screen shows a dim image or no image on the screen, your MacBook has a backlight problem.

You can use an External Display if your MacBook screen is not working. You can use an external display compatible with the OS of your laptop for an extra screen. There are various types of external displays that can be compatible with your MacBook until you repair your MacBook’s original screen.

Reset your MacBook’s SMC

If the above resorts didn’t work on your MacBook, you may try resetting your MacBook’s SMC. You can reset your SMC (System Management Controller) by following these simple steps:

Plug your MacBook with a charging cable.
Make sure that it is properly switched off by pressing down the Power Button or Touch ID for 10 seconds.
Press Shift + Ctrl + Option keys while simultaneously pressing the power button. You need to hold for 10-12 seconds while pressing these keys.
You can press the Power Button/Touch ID button again to see if that solved any issues.

Resetting the SMC fixes certain issues related to battery, power, fan and some other features as well. The next step is to release all pressed keys and press the power button. This will try restarting your MacBook. This helps if your MacBook is facing any issues with power or battery that was averting it from booting up.

Run the Disk Utility in Recovery Mode

You can also find yourself in this situation with your MacBook if it has not been booted up properly. You can try to run the Disk Utility in your MacBook to fix any issues within your disk drive. This ultimately helps your MacBook get that extra booting support.

First determine if your MacBook uses Apple Silicon or Intel Silicon. Then launch your MacBook into Recovery Mode.
- Apple silicon: Press and hold the power button after attempting to turn on your MacBook. Hold until the keys you see the startup options window. Press on the gear icon labelled as Options. Proceed to press on Continue.
- Intel processor: Attempt to turn on your MacBook. Press and hold Command + R until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
You might be asked to select a user. Press on the user and enter the administrator password.
As your MacBook starts in Recovery Mode, you will find an option to access Utilities. Press the Disk Utility.
Press on View > Show All Devices > Disk Utility.
Locate the drive under the title of Macintosh HD and press on it.
Press on the First Aid.
As soon as this is done, Disk Utility will start tracking down the errors with your disk.
Once this process is complete, your Disk Utility will ask for your permission to eliminate unnecessary errors .

In the Recovery Mode, you can also restore your MacBook from a Time Machine backup or install/reinstall macOS. Once you have restored your MacBook from the latest backup, the issue should be behind you.

Reset the PRAM / NVRAM

Resetting the PRAM/NVRAM can prove to be a fruitful attempt to revive your MacBook. Non-volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) and Parameter RAM (PRAM) store data such as screen resolution, startup disk selection, volume settings, and kernel panic information in your MacBook. You can reset your PRAM/NVRAM and fix minor issues that might be preventing your MacBook from starting up.

Press and hold down Command + Option + P + R simultaneously while trying to switch on your MacBook.
Hold down these keys until you see your MacBook restart. You may also try restarting it twice.
Release the keys at the same time.
If there were any issues with the PRAM/ NVRAM, your MacBook will restart normally.

Reinstall the macOS

If all the technical solutions fail, you may try to reinstall macOS. You need to know that following this solution wipes your MacBook clean before you decide on reinstalling macOS. This is because this solution helps put your MacBook back to its original beginning state.

You need to create a backup to avoid losing all of your files and folders. You may choose to rely on previous external backup storage or your iCloud Drive.

Press Command+R(Intel MacBook) or press and hold the power button on an (M1 MacBook) to go into recovery mode.
A macOS Utilities window will appear on screen. If you want to wipe your MacBook’s disk along for a safe measure, press Disk Utility option.
After pressing on Disk Utility, click on Continue.
Navigate towards the Drives present in your MacBook and press the volume you wish to Erase. Press on erase to clean up selected parts of your disk.
Wait until the process is complete.
When the setup wizard starts up, set up your MacBook with your personalized details.

Contact MacBook Repair Centre

If you find your MacBook unresponsive even after trying the solutions mentioned above, the issue might be persistent in the Motherboard itself. Since fixing the motherboard itself is a complicated process, you need to contact a MacBook repair center. Make sure that you visit a verified Apple Store or a trustworthy repair center.

Repairing your MacBook’s motherboard in the Apple Store ensures that Apple’s original products are being used to repair your MacBook. You may also arrange for a repair under warranty in your nearby Apple store locations. You can also try looking out for Apple Authorized Service Providers or nearby third-party computer repair workshops.