One of the most important problems that we can find when we stand in front of the Mac is that it does not turn on. For this reason, today we will see some options that we have available and what we can do in case this happens to us. Normally these situations on Macs occur less and less frequently, but we can run into this problem from time to time so it is not a bad idea to know what we can do.
Today we will see how we can solve this problem on our Mac, many times it is simple things, although it is true that sometimes it could be a major hardware problem and in that case we do have a somewhat bigger problem. Today we will see some of these cases and how we can solve them.
My Mac won't turn on, what to do?
First of all, and although it may seem complicated to carry out, is to relax, nerves and haste are not good advisers in this case, so we are going to breathe and see the possible solutions. It is NOT something that happens to everyone, but it seems that this is a more recurring problem than many believe. That is why today we are going to see some of the reasons why this can happen and above all How can we solve this problem that is not to the liking of anybody.
If we have any MacBook model, we have to follow a few simple steps before starting to touch anything and it is that on numerous occasions the user had not previously charged the equipment and it is without battery so the first step in these cases is to connect the equipment to the charger, later we will continue.
In desktop Macs such as iMac or Mac Pro it is similar to what happens with laptops, what we have to do is check the connection cables of the equipment and change the plug in case there is a problem with the plug. Once these first checks have been carried out, if the equipment still does not respond, we can move on to the rest of the steps.
There is startup sound but nothing on the screen
Some users may find themselves in the situation that we describe in this headline and that is that the startup "Chan" is heard on the Mac but the screen goes completely black, that it does not react. In these cases we can try a restart of the equipment to see if we solve the problem, in case this does not work we can respect the RAM, for this we have to press cmd + Alt + P + R just at boot time.
With this, what we do is solve a possible problem or failure in the RAM memory and our Mac should restart without major problems. In the event that our equipment still does not activate the screen, what we can do is connect an external monitor to the equipment and test to see if it works. In case it can be seen on the monitor, the problem would be with the screen and it will be necessary to call Apple's SAC to solve the problem for us.
Disconnect peripherals and control brightness
It is possible that your Mac has connected some external disk, base, UPS, USB hubs, mobile devices or any other peripheral. In this case when the equipment does not start we have to look for the root problem and that is why we have to leave the equipment free of all connection. Once we have carried out this step, we can retest the startup by pressing the start button.
On the other hand, the brightness of the screen can play a trick on us at times and that is why we have to be attentive to this point and click on the brightness button to check that this is not the problem. It would not be the first time this has happened, although it is really not the usual thing. Anyway, check it out.
Reset to power controller
Another problem that can make our Mac not start is the computer's own battery or the power controller. In this case we have to follow a few steps to see if a reset solves the boot problem, let's go with the steps:
- On iMac and Mac mini: We turn off the equipment and disconnect the power cable for at least 15 seconds, then plug the cable back in and wait 5 more seconds to turn the equipment back on
- For MacBooks without removable battery: With the MagSafe cable connected and the equipment turned off, we hold down the Shift + Ctrl + Alt + Power Button keys, at the moment we will release all of them and press the start button again
- On MacBooks with a removable battery: We turn off the equipment and unplug the MagSafe charger to remove the battery by pressing and holding the Power button for at least 5 seconds and then replacing the battery
Reset the SMC on a Mac with the T2 chip
Apple's new Macs have a security chip called T2, this performs security tasks on the equipment itself and support for the main processor, which allows us to carry out other tests before launching to reset the SMC.
We have to turn off the equipment completely, then hold down the power button for approximately 10 seconds and release it. Then we have to wait a bit and then press the button again to boot the Mac. If this does not work we move on to the next step.
For those who do not know what this is about the SMC is the system management controller SMC means «System Management Controller»So in this case we are resetting the management controller to see if the Mac starts up. If the previous steps did not help you to solve the boot problem, now we can do the following on our MacBook:
- Turn off the Mac
- Hold down Control> Option> Shift. The Mac may turn on.
- Hold down the three keys for 7 seconds, and then also press and hold the power button. If your Mac is on, it will turn off when you press the keys.
- Hold down the four keys for 7 more seconds, then release.
- Wait a few seconds, then press the power button to start the Mac.
It is possible that this will solve the problem but if it does not, we can start to think that the equipment has a serious problem and you should consider taking it to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Repair Store so that they can make a diagnosis of the problem with your Mac. In many cases this type of problem can be solved in a simple way but it is evident that everything will depend on the problem that our Mac has.
Boot into Safe Mode
One of the options that we have available on Mac is also to boot in safe mode. This option loads on our Mac the essentials for starting the computer and the operating system itself. We can try to boot in safe mode in a simple way.
This option may not work on unresponsive computers but we have to try. Once we press the start button we have to hold down the Shift key just below «Chaos Lock» and if we see that the equipment reacts we can try to press Shift> cmd> V to see where our team crashed.
The downside of this safe mode boot is that If the Mac does not make any gesture to start we will not be able to execute this safe mode.
The question mark in the folder keeps popping up and won't boot
This is a extra tip that can also happen to Mac users and that it has nothing to do with the computer not starting. In this case, what we can do is try to help our machine to find the operating system and boot, for this we can follow these steps:
- We press and hold the power button for a few seconds to turn off the computer completely
- We start the Mac again and hold down the Option (alt) key until the Boot Manager is shown
- We select the boot disk from the list "Macintosh HD" and we hope that it will boot
If it starts, we carry out a verification / repair of the disk from the disk utility and make a backup copy, preferably in Time Machine or an external disk in case the disk fails again. What we have here is a problem with the computer disk.
Macs are generally computers that fail little, which does not mean in any case that they never fail. In this case, the failure to start the Mac may be a somewhat more recurring problem since the equipment is protected against possible major failures and that is why the first thing it manages is the startup.
In the event that our Mac is under warranty I personally would not even try to perform any of the steps shown in this article and I would launch myself directly to an Apple store or call technical support to have the fault fixed. In the event that our team does not have a guarantee, it will be necessary to try to start with the steps seen here.