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MacBookPro does not power up on AC power or battery.

I've noticed a number of "My Macbook Pro won't turn on" posts here, but my symptoms seem to be different (read: worse) than the other posts that I've read, such as this MacBook Pro no startup sound, and not able to start.

Here's what's going on:

I have an A1226 15" MacBook Pro (mid 2007) with serial number: W872218YX92. I can't get it to turn on; whether it's plugged into the AC adapter or on a battery, I get no visible or audible response from the machine when I push the power button--none of the lights turn on, none of the fans spin, etc.

I've read about the nVIDIA 8600GT issue, but I don't get any response from the machine at all, so I'm not sure if that's what the problem is. The other thing I've read could be at fault is the 'Left I/O' board', but this thing won't turn on when using AC or a battery. One thing I haven't tried yet is to open it up and check the top cover power switch; is the power switch something that frequently breaks?

Lastly, when the MagSafe adapter is plugged into the machine, the LED on it always glows green--whether or not the battery is plugged in. When the battery is plugged in, the 'charging' LEDs on it do not light up or blink and thus the battery does not charge.

MacBook Pro 15" (Model A1226) Left I/O Board Image

Product

MacBook Pro 15" (Model A1226) Left I/O Board

$99.99

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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YOU GUYS ROCK

In less than an hour I went from dead to everything running great.

THANK YOU ALL

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It's NOT the logic board. You'll find it's the small power board that has the USB, and magsafe connector. You can pick them up for $12 on ebay. I had 2 that went and both work fine now.

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@LOL - There are a few different causes. be careful here as your answer is just one possibility, without doing the diagnostic process it still could be something else.

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Hey Dan, Obviously. My point is that the power board is worth swapping first as it's way way cheaper than the logic board.

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Do you have a link so I can locate the small power board as I can't seem to find it online.

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Make sure you have the right power supply. The MacBook Pro uses 85W power adapters. The MacBook and MacBook Air use 60W power adapters. I had a 60W adapter. That's why my MacBook Pro didn't start.

You can find the wattage listed on the power adapter. If the wattage marking has worn off, you can figure it out by multiplying the voltage by the amperage, like this:

V = 16.5V

A = 3.65

16.5 x 3.65 = 60.225W

So, it was a 60W adapter I was using, which was the wrong type of adapter.

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All of the Apple chargers are marked with their wattage, look on the plug side side panel. Granted, it's hard to read as it's a very light grey print on the white case, but it's there.

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WOW. Thank you so much Victor!!! :-)

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Thank you for such excellent advice!! My 13" MacBook Pro (with CD Drive) would not power on. I discovered that my adapter was the 60W. Purchased the 85W and it powered on immediately! I am a thankful and happy camper!!

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Such excellent advice!! My 13" MacBook Pro (with CD Drive) would not power on. I discovered that my adapter was the 60W. Purchased the 85W and it powered on immediately! I am a thankful and happy camper!!

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My 2008 MacBook Pro stopped turning on I can't get it to turn on with the method you mentioned removing the batter and doing the 10second hold trick I just realized all this time I've been using a 60 w charger I think it's supposed to be 85 so could this be why it still stopped turning on even without the batte? It used to work with this charger and now won't any suggestions should I buy a new 85 watt or try something else first

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Hi!

I'm having the exact same problem after reflowing my logic board.

But I found a way to always make it boot.

- Unplug the battery.

- Unplug the magsafe power cable.

- Hold down the powerbutton for about 10 sec and continue to do that.

- While still holding the powerbutton down, insert the magsafe power cable and hold it for another 10 sec.

- Release the powerbutton after those 10 sec and make a "normal" press as if you would normally

turn on your computer.

If that doesn't work then try to remove one RAM memory and switch places and do the method that I told you.

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Woohoo! It worked,finally! I knew about the ten second thing after you take the battery out, but I never tried it the way VictorClausson described (thanks man!). I was pulling my hair out because I knew there was no reason for my mbp not to boot up just because I didn't have the battery in. Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed because I'm hoping those 'nice' folks at the Apple store will replace my swollen battery for free. It looks like a 50-50 chance, based on my research.

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Mr. @Victor Clausson's answer worked & iam able to start Macbook Pro with 60 w adapter.

Thanks a lot.

Krishna

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WOOW...I had the same problem that I couldn't turn on my mac at all. I tried what Victor Clausson said and now it is working..Thanks a lot Victor!

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Hello All,

I just wanted to follow up with everyone and post the solution that worked for me. I just noticed @Victor Clausson's answer today, even though it was posted a few months ago, but what he's describing was exactly the issue I was running into. I was using a 60W MacSafe adaptor from my 2011 13" Macbook Pro to try to power the machine in question on. Since the battery was completely dead, 60W was not enough to start the machine up. Once I used an 85W MacSafe adaptor, the machine powered up fine.

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Thank you Victor. Got my Macbook Pro powered again when I thought I had killed it. Your tip to disconnect battery, hold down power button, reconnect power cord etc. worked. Thank you so much.

-Peter

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reset the SMC works but you need to follow this and to do all the steps in the way i describe (for macbook pro with removable battery):

1 - Remove the battery with magsafe connected

2 - Remove Magsafe

3 - Hold start button for at least 5 seconds

4 - plugged Magsafe connector

5 - plugged the battery

The light change green to red. Wait 10 minutes and the computer start !

See ya

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My Magsafe connector light stayed green. It never turned red.

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my macpro 15'' won't start!! It has no removable battery and am lost!! It is the 2914 version-please help!!

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Henri, if you don't know how to remove a battery, go see a local tech business.

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This is just one of MANY SMC reset procedures that I've found and tried, BUT does NOT produce the desired result! i.e. Magsafe light changing from green to amber. Mine just stays amber.

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The very first thing I would do is to reseat the Uppercase cable to the logic board as your machine does not seem to be getting a start signal. Check your battery for swelling. Do your restarts without the battery in. MacBook Pro 15" Core 2 Duo Models A1226 and A1260 Upper Case Cable Replacement

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Thanks for the fast response. I took the top case off and tested the power switch by closing the contacts under the switch and also closed the ones at the end of the cable, but still no response from the machine. I even tried unplugging the monitor, DVD, and HD cables, but that didn't change anything.

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Remove the battery and AC adapter. Press the power button for 10 seconds. Attach the magSafe and try to start (no battery).

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Sorry for the delay is responding. I tried doing what you said, but it still doesn't respond. There's something seriously wrong with this system.

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With the battery dead and getting nothing when trying to power on, I would replace the magsafe board first.

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Remove completely the top case (unplug it) and try to boot the machine directly from the logic board. Search for the power icon (same as the one on your power button) on the logic board, near the icon there should be two small solder pads. Just briefly bridge the two pads with a small jeweler flat screwdriver (ac adapter must be connected). If the machine power on then your top case power button could be faulty, if not then the DC in board (or the logic board) could be the problem.

Here's a pict from a macbook logic board. Search for the same power icon on yours or PWR letters.

Block Image

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even with the 85 watt power supply, I could not start up... On my own I figured out the same process as @victorclaussen. Unplug from power supply. Push down on power button. reconnect power supply. Machine works.

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Yes, SMC reset can resolve power problems like this.

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Did you find a solution? I have the same problems as above. The SMC reset does not solve my issue. Everytime I do the SMC reset, the computer's Power on button is non functional. Only wayI can get to the OS is the trick Victor Said. Once Im in, the backlight on the keyboard, the power charger, and battery indicator show NO LED's. The fans are blowing out tremendously. There is No battery in the icons at the top of the screen either. My battery was severely wearing down and would only last 15 minutes off the charger max before this happened. I plugged a 60 watt charger into my macbook pro and thats when the problems started. Although, I have plugged my macbook pro into 60w chargers often but when the battery was in better condition. I took the computer to Apple store and they say it is "vintage" and they cant fix it for the flat rate. They diagnosed it but all it says is the computer is not reading the fans, the sensors, or the battery.

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by the way, this forum has been the most helpful already. Thank you.

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hi, i found an old macbook pro a1226 and have not been able to start it up...i plug the magsafe green light turns on then hit power , No response on the screen, however the fans start up inside making noise as if it is on...I have tried without the battery as well...still no response...Any way to help me out would be greatly appreciated...if this can't be fixed was hoping to remove the intel core 2 duo processor and replace the core duo from my old iMac and upgrade it...Anyone know if this swap can be done?

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I also have a 2007 A1226 and had the same problem. It turned out to be the logic board. I am a certified technician so was able to diagnose it myself. After trying the hard reset (removing battery and unplugging from power, holding the power button down for 30 seconds, replacing battery into its place and plugging it back into power) and getting nowhere, I ordered a used and guaranteed working board from eBay for about $119.00, my Macbook Pro was back up and running with no more issues. I am still using it. In fact, I just upgraded the RAM to 4GB and it doubled the speed. Chances are, your logic board is bad.

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None of this has worked for me. When I try the reset with battery and power out of it and then replug power while button is held in, the fans go wild but nothing else. When I try battery and power out of it, hold power down for 10 seconds, replug Magsafe and battery back in,and try to start it, I hear the optical drive spin once but nothing else. The battery shows fully charged.

I guess my only other option is to disassemble it and see what happened. I think an 85W power supply I had for it that was not from Apple directly, may have done something to it. It seemed awfully warm during the charge process; however, the battery does show charged. That same power supply sparks when I go to connect the Magsafe to the computer. I just hope I didn't fry the board.

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My issue was finally resolved by changing out the system board. I got a nice used one on eBay for about $130.00. Fairly easy to change out, just be sure you get all the little, teeny-weeny sensors hooked back up (use ifixit's guide for this) and all the screws put back in to it.

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The power button turns the computer off, but not back on.

Yosemite OS X 10.10 on mid 2010 MacBook Pro 15"

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

__________________________________________________________________

I have:

  1. replaced/soldered a new keyboard connector on the logic board as it had a missing pin,
  2. replaced the keyboard twice (the second and third keyboards work correctly),
  3. tried jump starting the computer on with the jumpers but this did not work,
  4. performed many PRAM resets,
  5. repaired Disk and Permissions in Disk Utility,
  6. ran Apple Hardware Test in short and extended mode without any issues identified,
  7. attempted to do an SMC reset (although I don't see any sign of rather it happened or not)

__________________________________________________________________

Does anyone know why the power button would turn the computer off, but won't turn the computer on? This is even though removing the mag safe, removing the battery, and then reconnecting the mag safe power supply does turn the computer on automatically. Once on, the computer appears to work absolutely perfect.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Timothy

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I have the same issue

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I have found no solution, yet. My MacBook Pro froze up last week with a black and white checkerboard screen that I'd never seen before. I had to pull and reconnect the battery to turn it back on, after using the power button to turn it off.

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You wouldn't happen to be using a third party battery by any chance? I have the same issues with being unable to start up, but I also have issues sleeping and fully shutting down. Most of my issues started about the same time I started using a third party battery (Anker I believe). I have an early 2008, which will not run without a battery, so I have no way to test my hypothesis that the battery is somehow not charging the PRAM battery properly. I have tried replacing the PRAM battery, and for a very short while it seemed as though the problem was fixed. But it returned after a few restarts. I'm thinking that there was something special about the Apple batteries that properly charged the PRAM battery, and that 3rd party batteries fail in this shortly after purchase. Otherwise, by 3rd party battery seems to function fine. Better actually than the original Apple one.

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As a footnote to the non-OEM battery issue, I work with computers on a daily basis and am finding many of the cheap batteries that you get from eBay just plain don't work right. It doesn't seem to matter what device you try them on. There must be some type of sensor built into the wiring that the BIOS picks up and determines if the computer should go through its normal boot up sequence. I tried a non-OEM battery on a touch screen pad made by HP, and all of a sudden the touch screen wouldn't work. I took the battery out and put the original back in, and it started working again. So I think you may be onto something there. You can still shop for the batteries for less money, but try to get the OEM ones as they are the ones that the machine is designed to use.

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Thanks i found out that i was using a 60w magsafe instead of 85w probably i got my mothers one instead. :( i coul eventough start it doing the pressing start button and plugin the 60w magsafe but the funtionalitty was erroneous, no wify no bluetooth shutted down suddenly fans full spin.. Finally i plugged my 85w magsafe and started normally. The battery is dead so im waiting for the new one. I hope that the logic board didnt suffer too much when i booted it with the 60w magsafe. When i booted it normally with the 85w one i noticed that some projects in ableton live werent going as fluid and it seemed like a loose in processor. It also shuted down as if there were cuts in the energy coming from the magsafe. Some kind of weird thing. I hope that everything stabilizes wth the new bat. Thanks for the info in general!

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Hello, new solution here.

My MacBook Pro early 2008 does not start up, i spent two days trying all methods i found online, was saturday and sunday, finally monday i went to my friends' store, they repair computers and videogame box for bar, they found that the two memory cards (2 gb) does not stay properly in their place, he put a little bit of plastic foam (the one for packaging) on both of them as shown in the picture, than the mac starts up perfectly.

Also you can check if the contact parts are loosing their golden color, if they are nearly silver in color it means they are consumed and wouldn't make good contact.

I hope your computer start :)

PICTURE

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Thank you, I have to try this method later then will post my details

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Hi. I joined iFixit just to be able to do this. My great thanks to Victor Clausson for his help. After many days and hours of grief with my MBP 15 2008, his solution provided results. Before I did his, I tried them all. His 6/13/2011 posting of unplug the battery, unplug the mag..., hold down..., etc. worked. Our MBP 15 2008 is no longer a door stop. Many, many thanks. iGrampa.

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power button won't work, so i disconnected the battery and it powered back on, however when i shut off the macbook, i realized i had to do the same thing again, coz the power button not working, so i had to disconnect the battery and it turned on again, i did this about 3x and now my macbook won't start at all, when connecting the power cord i have an orange color showing and after awhile it eventually turned to green, there is a small strip of lights located on the left side of macbook, when i press the little circled button, it lights up green. can someone tell me if they had the same problem, if so, is it my power cord? do i need to change to 85 w, if so please explain, and if not would you happen to know what the problem is? i never dropped nor slipped a drink on my laptop, it was working fine, then one day, it just doesn't want to respond the way it should...heeelllllpppp???

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I am having a similar problem with my 13” 2009 MacBook (white, unibody, A1342).

Just last week it seemed like the charger top was having problems connecting, got it to work for a few minutes, and then suddenly it stopped working at all; (nothing on screen, no fans, no lights of any color on charger tip of computer).


So far I have tried:

-SMC reset, NVRAM reset

-move MagSafe charger port back out to just-behind case

-disconnect battery and SSD

-confirmed this model is to use 60W charger

-change charger to a newer one, with pins not pushed as far in


So changing the charger PLUS doing the SMC reset specifically as victorclausson suggested gets the computer to boot, so long as the battery is disconnected. During the process of figuring this out, the screen displayed some very strange patterns on boot, the inside side of the MagSafe port area was sparking one time, and every time I get it to start up then the fan runs at a very high speed.


I am able to run Hardware Test, with no errors detected. In Terminial I have run ‘pmset -g batt’ and it tells me the computer is drawing from AC Power, and the Battery is disconnected. If I boot up with the battery disconnected, then plug the battery in, it still gives me the same report. STRANGELY enough, if I then remove the charger while the computer is running, the computer is still able to run for a few minutes.


This computer has an OEM battery that was purchase with the computer in 2009. It has has incredible life and until this week, had more cycles left on it than the battery I bought for my MBP from MacSales two years ago. So if it has failed, it must have done so overnight and quite drastically.

Then again, my wife is not that gentle with her computer and can often be found abusing the cord by letting it bend. And this model is notorious for cracking plastic around the ports, so the charger can physically fit onto the MagSafe port in a few different ways that are not appropriate.


What shall I try next? I can boot up to Internet Recovery now with claussens reset method, but every few minutes or so I have to do the SMC reset.


Is it possible that the charger with poor pin connection would have caused some destruction to the computer innards, namely the MagSafe board, the battery, or the main board?

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