MacBook won’t turn on or won’t charge

What the fault looks like

• Completely dead. No sound, no light, as if the charger weren’t plugged in at all. On MagSafe models even the light on the connector stays off.
• Charges, but won’t start. The MagSafe light is on, but pressing the power button does nothing.
• Running, but the screen is black. You hear the fan or the startup sound, but there’s no picture. Most often it’s the display or its cable, sometimes the logic board.
• A question mark, a crossed-out circle or a restart loop. Power is fine, but the system can’t boot. The problem is usually the drive or macOS, less often the logic board.
• Turns on, then shuts straight off. Usually a worn-out battery, sometimes a short circuit.
• Works, but won’t charge. The fault is in the charger, the port, the battery or the charging circuit on the logic board.

If the trackpad looks raised or is hard to click, the battery has probably swollen. Don’t charge a MacBook in that state; get in touch with us instead.

What you can safely try yourself

• A different charger, cable and wall socket, and on USB-C models a different port too. A phone charger is too weak for this test.
• Leave it on the charger for half an hour, unless liquid was involved or the battery is swollen. A completely flat battery can take a while to come back.
• Hold the power button for about ten seconds, let go, then press it normally.
• An SMC reset only makes sense on Intel models, and it’s done differently on those with the T2 chip. Apple Silicon Macs don’t have one; on those it’s enough to shut the Mac down and turn it back on with the charger connected.
• An external monitor or TV, over HDMI or an adapter. If you get a picture there, the fault is in the display or its cable.

None of this erases your data. There are more checks in our guide what to do when your MacBook won’t turn on. If none of it helps, don’t keep switching it on and off. After a spill, don’t charge it at all, and read what to do after a liquid spill.

What we do during diagnostics

We measure first instead of guessing. On USB-C models we put a meter between the charger and the Mac and watch whether the voltage climbs from the initial 5 V to the charging voltage, and how much current the Mac draws. If it stays at 5 V, the Mac and the charger haven’t “agreed” on charging. If it pulls a high current straight away but still won’t turn on, that is most often a short circuit.

If the fault is on the logic board, we open the case, measure the power rails and look for a short or traces of liquid. We replace the component that failed, not the whole board (more on the logic board repair page). Before opening it, we tell you what that involves.

T2 and Apple Silicon. Models with the T2 chip (Intel MacBook Air and Pro, 2018–2020) and Apple Silicon models sometimes won’t start because of corrupted firmware, for example after an interrupted update. In that case we connect the Mac by cable to a second Mac and, in DFU mode, run a revive through Apple Configurator: the firmware is rewritten and, as a rule, your data isn’t touched. A restore erases the whole drive, and we never do one without your explicit approval.

The board, your data and whether it’s worth it

People ask us about their data more often than about the laptop itself. On older Intel models the SSD is often a separate module, so the data can be recovered even when the board is dead. On T2 and Apple Silicon models the SSD is soldered to the board and encrypted, and the key is held by a chip on the same board. There, in practice, the only way to the data is through a working board, so we first try to bring it back to life, at least long enough to copy the data off (more on the data recovery page). If a repair doesn’t make sense, we’ll tell you so plainly.

How long it takes and the warranty

When the fault is in the battery or another part we have in stock, it’s usually done the same or the next day. Logic board repairs take longer, and rarer parts have to be ordered in, so we give you the timeframe after the inspection. The warranty on the work and the fitted part is written on your service sheet, and you can track the repair status online.

Independent service

We are not an authorised Apple service and do not present ourselves as Apple. We use “Apple”, “Mac” and “MacBook” only to describe the devices we repair. We fit quality parts that match your model. For other faults, see our general MacBook service page.