Chosen Solution

I was using this MacBook Pro. I bought it over a year ago (so no warranty anymore) at an Apple store here in South America. (EMC 2554, late 2012)

I turned it off, everything seemed normal, but the next morning it wouldn’t turn on again. It won’t even start up: absolutely no sound, as if it was completely dead. I checked the battery indicator and it was completely charged. I opened it up and disconnected the battery, plugged in the MagSafe charger, and there was still no response. I plugged the battery back in and no response. Plugged in the charger and connected the battery and no response. I took out the hard drive and all my info was there; it would mount on a different MacBook Pro with no problem, and luckily I got all my files backed up. So I know the hard drive is not the problem. The fan won’t even move when trying to turn it on. I tried taking out the RAM, one by one, no RAM at all, switching them from slot to slot: no response. Tried out all of the key combinations on the keyboard as well… still nothing. I don’t know what else to try. I read somewhere that the on/off button is connected to the ribbon cable from the keyboard. I checked, and it is plugged in correctly to the logic board. I’m afraid my logic board is dead, but after only a little more than a year???? Any guesses? Thanks for your help.

There are 12 versions of this model - yours is a 2012? Newer models will not boot if there is no battery present, and that battery must have about a 15% charge. Try a different battery before you blow up your board fooling with it. Start with the easy, basic stuff; work toward the harder, more expensive solutions. If this answer is acceptable please remember to return and mark it.

No joke I banged on all for corners. It worked. Knock on it like you’d knock on a door. Not too hard but not too light.

The misinformation here is mind numbing. a) It is the opposite - newer models will turn on with no battery, and when you plug them in they will turn on by themselves. Only certain older models required the battery to be charged to turn on. b) No you do not BANG it to make it turn on, this is BS. c) Measure PP5V_S5 and PP5V_S3 voltage rails.

I had same exact problem. Banged its corners against a table, and it fired right up. I bet it’s connector corrosion.

Well, I know it is bizarre but my relatively new (late 2015) MacBook pro failed on me twice during last month. In both cases, I became desperate enough to A) buy a set of screwdrivers to open it up B) send it to an authorised apple centre But I did not perform above actions, instead, done the following that worked for me on both occasions. As said I had no option to try on and ALL other solutions didn’t help me at all including resetting SMC. So what I did was, I put my hand on the keyboard with a gentle pressure and moved it from right to left, in a way that it pressed a number of keyboard’s keys at the same time. AND IT worked !!! Whether there is a lose connection underneath OR the move triggered a specific combination of keys that has not been published, I do not know. But I do know it worked for me twice. So give it a try, it might help you too !

The newer machines do not come with a system installation DVD. Your machine shipped with 10.7.3 installed. To reinstall the system or run Disk Utilities, start up holding down the Command and R keys. Here’s how to do it: http://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/

Ok. So bizarre. I just did the bang corners (didn’t work) then the keyboard-rub thing and I’ll be dammed – freaking thing booted. Amazing!

I had a similar issue with a MacBook Pro 13 A1278. Would not power on. Pressing Shift, Control, Option and power button did nothing. Disconnecting the battery and then connecting the power lead would instantly turn the laptop on without pressing the power button. I could then re-connect the battery and disconnect the power lead and it would contine to work. But if I shutdown the macbook it would not restart without disconnecting the battery and repeating the same process. I eventually tracked it down to a faulty keyboard. It’s worth noting that the power button is part of the keyboard! After replacing the keyboard which required dissmantling the macbook (not as bad as it sounds if your handy with a screwdriver) and then removing a further 51 screws required just to replace the keyboard. There a plenty of good quality videos on YouTube showing how to. Now everything is working perfectly :)

Today is May 12th 2018, banging on it with my hands worked..2012 mid. Retina. .lmao I still don’t believe it

Today is June 20. 2018, I came to this website to look for the answer… I didn’t believe it would work but I lightly tapped each of the 4 corners of my laptop on a table that had a mousepad on top (2012 MacBook Pro).. lo and behold it finally turned back on!!! I was just about ready to take it to an Apple Repair Shop… Yay, not necessary… A couple of times the laptop went dead again and I did the same procedure and it worked both times. .. Who knew!! Lol Grateful for this help!! It saved me a lot of money, I hate bringing it in for repairs!

Angela I think your problem is not the battery (which you’ve already replaced it with a similar one) but your HDD. If you have practice disassembling the hardware of your HDD and turn on the computer with a USB where there is an Apple OS (on the internet you will find many articles to create one). At this point if the computer is turned on you will understand that the logic board and battery (perhaps very used) are good and you’ll only have to reinstall the OS on a new hard drive! ;-)

all u have to do is disable the battery and battery meter for 10 seconds

I have the same issue and I surrender for almost three months now, and just this morning I open my macbook and look for it’s RAM, I removed it both and clean it using an eraser (the teeth like part) and clean the other parts of my mac, now when I put it back and turn on the macbook it work finally! NOTE: Do not touch the teeth-like part just clean it with eraser. hope this would work with yours! Good Luck!!! :D

I recently replaced the glass and it did not boot up afterwards, no lights, nothing. Noticed the antenna and bluetooth cables exposed, i.e. black cable covering not there, where the cables come out of the display. I don’t know how this happened but a piece of black electrical tape around the silver exposed parts did it for me.

My problem - macbook pro completely dead. Shift/Control/Option keys didn’t work. Mag Connector light not on. I thought the battery was OK because i used the laptop the previous night. Got it all working again by plugging into a different wall socket. Was a combination of flat battery and bad wall socket.

Having exactly the same issue with my MacBook Pro 13" (early 2015) that I bought new in November 2015. Took it to Apple, they say they can’t replicate the problem therefore there is nothing wrong with it (which I’m pretty annoyed about) - I’ve discovered that if it does decide to switch off and become completely unresponsive, all I have to do is to physically turn it upside down, then back the right way up, and hey presto, it starts up every time. …not sure I want to be stuck with a £2k mac that I have to keep fricking turning upside down though!

Well crazy but true. My vintage MacBook Pro died wouldn’t turn on tried everything was stating to mourn its loss. Last resort slam lid shut bang on its back 4 times pretty hard and pressed on button bingo it’s started and working fine. Shocked and speechless an under statement. Thank you so so much, no way could I afford to buy a replacement so have spent 4 days gutted and trying everything……one very happy girl now

I started with a brick. Verified good charging cable and power but getting no sounds or lights or any signs of function. I did the bump all four corners on a solid surface. went around a couple times to be sure I had done something maybe? The keyboard lights were on but no screen. Held the power button to shutdown and pushed again to restart. It powered on as it should! I know crazy repair tecnique, but it works and it is easy to try without overdoing it and damaging anything. This was on a MacBook Pro 17 SSD and 16g ram - with a known weak battery. This one had been sitting without use for about 4 months but was a known great computer at shutdown.

SOLVED! I want to share how I fix it. My MacBook Pro had same problem. Last night I turned off my comp, but next day cannot turn on. I searched internet-nothing work. Sound like on/off button doesn’t do connection to comp. I removed bottom cover (unscrewed first) and located spot under button on/of. There tree connectors together and one little bit on side (they are very small). I disconnected and connected back one by one - that all what I did. And my comp work again. Do not touch by fingers and do not use any metal to those connectors, because can be electric shortage. I used tooth pick to lift connectors and plastic side of small knife to press back those connectors. Do not disconnect all at ones- you can forget where they belong to- do it one by one. Same time you can clean there dust around - just blow air. Before long time ago I did fix another comp for other problem-some connection wires was fallen off right under key board, some was just sit on top of their nest and wasn’t pressed down…….

Hi All I’ve been having trouble with macbook pro 2013, so I swapped the battery and it still refused to power up. I tested the voltage on the battery and charger which were both good. Then today I tried powering up again and with the macbook upside down and the lid open by about 50mm I pushed the power button and it has sprung into life! Intermittently as when I opened it fully it went off again. I’m suspecting a bad connection somewhere, has anyone else had this fault? I will do some in depth searching later on.

My MacBook Pro late 2011 not-turn-on problem SOLVED: ‘‘‘Unibody Battery Indicator Light Board connector was unplugged & re-plugged in immediately. ’’’ My unibody laptop had these symptoms… But none of the solutions below here worked this time:

  • battery would not charge
  • magsafe was not working properly and not charging battery
  • disconnect battery, hold power button for 5 seconds then connect with only magsafe and continue to hold power button for 10 seconds, did not work
  • battery indicator light did not work
  • SMC reset, PRam reset and fn-contro- command-power combo button press would not turn on MacBook Hope this helps someone… Update: the laptop did turn on a few times… But still not charging via the plugged in macSafe charger. Once the battery reached about 30%, it shut off abruptly… Not shut down! Since then, it returned to square one. ..& would not turn on again

I have a black screen, too. I tapped on all four corners of MacBook Pro with it open and it didn’t boot when I pressed power button. Then I closed it and lightly tapped it on my desk on all four corners and it made the boot sound. Still black screen.

My daughter was using a MacBook Pro 13 mid 2012 unibody for college. Recently did a clean install on a 1 TB SSD of High Sierra. Was working fine until she came home for weekend. She says she closed lid with it running when packing. When she got home I was going to a time machine backup and it wouldn’t start. Tried everything you can read in this forum. I left battery disconnected and charger off overnight. Next morning reconnected battery and it started right up. I didn’t log in but shut it down from menu. Immediately tried to turn it on again and nothing! I’m thinking MagSafe board? Only other thing is old charger only worked intermittently so I purchased a new one direct from Apple store. She used the new charger and worked fine. This was only 1 day before she closed lid while running and got the no start. Could the new charger have something to do with it? I’ve changed MagSafe board before so may try that for 10 bills. Any other ideas please tell me. I’m getting peeved with this machine! Thanks

I have a 2012 Macbook Pro (the one with the cdrom). The laptop would not power up at all. After trying everything else listed above (over several days), I opened the laptop. On the inside of the laptop, right under the power button, there are some small Phillips (star) type screws. I tightened all of these screws slightly, since they seemed a little loose. The laptop started when I tried the power button again.

Bad Information on this topic begins with the model description at the top of the page! The 2012 A1278 MacBook Pro doesn’t have DDR5 video RAM since it uses Intel HD4000 graphics that shares system RAM for video. Mine shows 1536MB of video RAM with 8GB of RAM installed.

The first MacBook Pro I bought my son stop working just before the second year. After many visits to the Apple store to have it fixed, I was convinced by the Apple Tech in the Best Buy Store that the MacBook Air “13 “ had better design and less likely to have the same issues. I purchased the new MacBook Air in March of 2018 because my son needed it for his graphics design classes. Just past a year the computer will not turn on despite several efforts with the Apple Online Rep and us following all the suggestions online. In the meantime my 10 year old Sony computer still works and my $250 Lenovo computer still works perfectly after two years. Why are we allowing Apple to sell us these computers that cost over $1100 yet hardly work after a year? Apple now tells me I must pay $500 to fix MacBook Air. This is just bad business!

This thread seems to be filled with unhelpful answers. I’m in exactly same position - Macbook Pro 13 2010 , battery charges well, magsafe turns from green to orange as it charges, but does not turn on. Tried disconnecting battery and connecting magsafe but no luck.

Mac Book Pro 2011 I can not turn off or I will have to remove the back, remove the battery, remove the memory sticks re-insert both battery an memory and then it turns on on its own. So…… I am convinced it is the power switch.

Hi guys , recently I had the same issue. I waked up and unplugged the mac (knowing that it has battery issues it was kinda dumb tho) so I took it to the living room and bam it shutted off (at97%) first time I thought it was normal (cuz it always does this) then 10hours later it won’t just power on. Its been 4days now. I did all the combinaison s buttons but nothing. Only things that turn on are the magsafe and the battery status on the side left. Can someone help me ? Also I can’t unscrew the back of my mac cuz my dad won’t let me do it. Any help is appreciated.

What works for me on a 2015 15” MBP i7 16gb is to use my palm and put moderate pressure on the far left top of the keyboard, it will power on every time I do this, problem is it will randomly switch off anywhere from a few hours or a few days, putting the palm pressure on the spot will always %100 boot it up. Battery health is fine, charging and discharging normally. 👍🏼

It’s possible that the charger is not working. Try charging with someone else’s to find out