SEE PAGE 22 SEE PAGE 22 & 26SEE PAGE 29SEE PAGE 26 SEE PAGE 23GETTING STARTED
When your Mac won’t even power up
WHERE IS THE POWER
BUTTON, ANYWAY?WHY WON’T THE POWER
BUTTON RESPOND?DOES THE MAC HAVE
POWER COMING IN?IS THE BATTERY
THE PROBLEM?IS IT JUST THE
DISPLAY THAT’S
NOT WORKING?THE MAC STARTED UP
— WHY IS THE SCREEN
STAYING GREY?NOTHING APPEARS
EXCEPT WEIRD TEXT
— WHAT’S HAPPENED?WHY DOES THE
SCREEN APPEAR
GARBLED?18 MAR 2020 maclife.com
A common reason for
not being able to power
up your Mac is that it’s
already powered up but
failing to wake from sleep.
It’s similar to when macOS
hangs while you’re working,
usually because an app or
Finder has crashed — it’s just
less obvious because you
can’t see what’s happening.
All you need to do is hold
down the power button until
the power cuts out, which
may be felt as a faint clunk.
Wait a few seconds, then
press it and let go to start
back up.So pressing a key, the mouse
or trackpad button doesn’t
wake up your Mac, and
pressing the power button
doesn’t bring the screen to
life. Do you hear a chime or
whir, or see any lights, or a
faint glow on the screen? If
not, that could mean that
there’s no power. If it’s a
MacBook, make sure it’s
plugged in; try a different
charging cable, and if
possible another charger.
For a wall–powered Mac,
try a different cable. You
should check the wall power
socket too.Yes: as MacBooks get older,
the batteries hold less
charge and eventually start
to fail, with various symptoms
— see page 29. Specific
problems with the 15–inch
MacBook Pro (Retina, mid–
2015) and 13–inch MacBook
Pro (non–Touch Bar, from
October 2016) may require
urgent repair, which Apple
will do for free: see bit.ly/
apple-exchrepprog. Address
battery issues promptly, as
lithium–ion cells are prone
to catching fire if faulty.A desktop Mac will have
a physical power button,
usually on the back, marked
with the “standby” symbol,
a circle broken by a line.
MacBooks have a button
at the top right of the
keyboard; this includes
Touch ID models, but to start
from cold you’ll need to hold
the button down, not just
touch it.What if the Mac shows signs
of life but the screen stays
dark? If it’s a separate
monitor, unplug, reconnect
and swap its cables. Check
built–in menu options, such
as input selection. If you
haven’t used it before,
look online for info on
compatibility; even if the
manufacturer recommends
it, others might have
discussed problems on
forums. If it’s a MacBook
screen and your model has
no known display issues,
reset the SMC (see page 22).This can happen with a 15–
inch MacBook Pro made
between 2011 and 2013 due
to GPU failure resulting in
a “stripey” screen. Apple no
longer offers free repairs for
these units, and working
around the issue is tricky (see
bit.ly/mlmbp2011gpu). For
other models, go to “More
startup snags” on page 26.This can happen when macOS
detects problems and tries
to clean things up, so be
patient and it may eventually
start normally. If not, try
starting up in safe mode. No?
Reset the SMC (see page 22).
Still no? One possible cause
is a faulty memory module,
so if you’ve added any to
your Mac, turn it off, remove
the extra modules and try
again. If it works, try again
with the RAM, but you may
need to replace it. For other
“More startup snags”, turn
to page 26.A grey screen overlaid with
blocks of scary–looking text
means your Mac has
suffered a kernel panic. It
may be fine after you turn
it off and on again. If not,
restart in safe mode (page
23) and update macOS. If it
won’t start at all, unplug all
peripherals and try again,
then add back one at a time.Image rights from: Apple.
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