Asked at the counter: “My MacBook won’t turn on.

Before anyone opens a MacBook, Apple’s own checklist rules out the cheap causes.

FREE, ONE-MINUTE CHECKS

• Check the power cable is undamaged and plugged securely into the Mac and into a socket you know works (try a lamp in it). If you have another compatible charger or cable, try it; MagSafe and USB-C cables fail quietly.
• Leave it on charge for a while. A MacBook that has sat flat for weeks can take several minutes on the charger before it will respond at all.
• If your Mac has no built-in display (Mac mini, Mac Studio), make sure the monitor is on, plugged in and on the right input; a “dead” Mac is sometimes a sleeping monitor.

FORCE RESTART

• Press and hold the power button for about ten seconds, then let go and press it once normally. On laptops with Touch ID, the Touch ID button is the power button.
• Unplug everything else: hubs, drives, printers, a phone on a cable. Then repeat the power button step. A faulty accessory can stop a Mac starting.
• Apple notes that on older Intel MacBooks resetting the SMC can help; on Apple silicon Macs there is no SMC reset to do.

WHEN IT PROBABLY NEEDS A REPAIR BUSINESS

• Still nothing after a good charger, ten minutes of charging, the ten-second hold and no accessories connected.
• The fan spins or the keyboard lights up but the screen stays black: that points to the display or its cable rather than the board.
• Any liquid spill, even a small one, even weeks ago. Corrosion spreads; the sooner it is cleaned, the more likely the board survives.

Your files are not affected by any of the steps above. If the Mac does need work, ask the business whether they can back up the drive first if that matters to you.

Sources checked: Apple Support (UK): If your Mac doesn’t turn on.