MacBook Is Dead? Here’s How to Fix

Introduction

Finding your MacBook dead is a terrible feeling. If your MacBook fails to turn on, and you are worried about what you can do to fix it, then keep your mind at ease. This article will help you resolve the problem. It’s a complete guide to fix the Mac not turning on the issue, and it can work for MacBook Pro, Mac mini, MacBook Air, and iMac.

Let’s get started. But before going towards the solution, first, find out the reason behind the MacBook dead issue.



If your Mac won’t turn on, it could be due to more than one reason. For example, it could be due to a damaged power adapter, faulty charging cable, hardware or software problem with the device. Sometimes, the issue is not obvious at first, so you have to run through multiple steps to isolate the actual reason. Let’s look at what these problems can be and what you can do to resolve them at your end.

Check if your MacBook turns on

First of all, figure out if your Mac won’t turn on or it won’t startup. This might seem the same thing, but there is a difference. If you don’t hear a startup sound, any spinning drive, or fan noise, do not see any visuals, images, or videos after pressing the power button or touch ID button on your Mac, then do the followings:

  • Check the power connection
  • Try another adapter or power cable.
  • Charge battery for a while and check battery health
  • Disconnect all accessories.

Perform a power cycle

There are three major stages a Mac has: Off, Sleep, and On. If you perform a power cycle, it means you force it to return to Off state.

  • For the MacBook, hold down the power button for 10 seconds and force it to shut down.
  • Unplug the power cable for the Mac desktop and wait for 10 seconds before plugging it back and trying to restart.
  • For the M1 Mac, press the power button and hold it for 10 seconds. Unplug the cable for 10 seconds and replug it. Then restart it as usual.

Check your display

Rather than the Mac itself, you can have an issue with the display. Listen to your Mac to check if it is making any chime during the boot-up. It’s possible that your Mac turns on but does not start because it can not access the display. In this scenario, you are most likely to have trouble with the display device. Check the power supply and confirm that all wires are securely connected. Remove all display extenders and try to use a different display or an adapter. 

Reset the PRAM/NVRAM

One of the reliable solutions to fix a dead MacBook is to reset the PRAM/NVRAM. 

For Intel-based Mac

  • Reboot the Mac, press and hold the Option (Alt) + Command + R + P keys together for twenty seconds. 
  • Release keys until your Mac starts booting up. Your device’s screen will go all black and then come to grey again. You will hear the start-up chime.
  • Go to the system preferences and reconfigure the desired settings. 

For M1-based Mac

Apple has launched its first M1 chip Mac in November 2020. It’s not possible to reset the NVRAM without Apple’s new system. For resetting the NVRAM,

  • Start your MacBook in macOS recovery mode.
  • From the Tools menu, start Terminal.
  • Enter command NVRAM -c and then press Return

Reset SMC (non-M1 Mac)

  • Shut down the system and plug in the AC adapter to ensure it has sufficient power.
  • Press and hold the Shift + Command + Option (Alt) + Power button for ten seconds.
  • Release all keys together and start your system by pressing the power button.

Run Disk Utility in Recovery mode

  • Boot your Mac into the macOS Recovery mode.
  • Select the Disk Utility from the utility menu.
  • Select the Macintosh HD volume
  • Click on First Aid and then Run to repair this disk.

Recover data and reinstall macOS

It’s possible that all mentioned methods don’t work for you, in that case, reinstall the macOS might be the last solution you can try out. However, the reinstallation feature will delete all data first. Therefore, you should recover data from dead MacBook before trying to reinstall macOS. Here we recommend iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac thanks to a wide range of features it offers. Once the data is settled down, you can proceed the following procedures.

Recover data and reinstall macOS

  • Power up the Mac and hold Command + R keys to get into recovery mode.
  • Select Reinstall macOS from utilities.
  • Follow the instructions to reinstall macOS in recovery mode.

Final words

If your Mac won’t start up after trying all these solutions, then it might be a severe hardware issue that makes your Mac unbootable. In this scenario, it’s better to choose Apple repair services or consult a third party to repair it.