12" Retina MacBook will not turn on

[Four by Six]

Mine has done the same thing... My only suggestion is to plug it into power and open and close the lid a bunch of times and long press the power button a bunch of times. This usually works for me. The only other thing I have tried is to twist the chassis back and forth a little bit. Wish I knew a real fix.

 

[FrankMac12]

Do you know why my new battery is not charging and how to fix it?
I have installed a new battery, then first connected with a 5 watt iPhone charger. Subsequently, charged it with my MacBook charger to 100%. The charger was working normally. For calibration I drained the battery by normal usage until the Mac fell asleep. Five hours later I connected the charger, nothing happens. When I push the power button, the low battery symbol is shown with the symbol I should charge.

My second new battery is having exact the same problem. After battery drainage, when the 5 watt iPhone charger is connected, the battery led on the motherboard is on. As soon as I remove the 5 watt iPhone charger, the led turns off. When I connect my regular MacBook charger, the led does not turn on.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

I suspect the SSD is dead. Wait a couple of days and then try booting into Recovery mode, Option + Command + R. Or try Target Disk mode from another Mac to recover your files. I was able to do that.

I recently encountered the same issue with my wife‘s 12” 2016 MB. She simply opened the lid and logged in as usually and 2 seconds late the MB when dead. Target Disk mode can see the drive but cannot not be formatted. Apple Genius said the SSD is dead. Repair cost is $500. The saddest part is Apple replaced the display, bottom case with battery and new keyboard only 3 months ago so aside form the logic board, the rest of the MB is brand new.

I am able to booth from ext thumb drive and use the machine but it is slow AF due to the speed of the thumb drive. Now I’m on the fence with buying a used logic board or sell it as parts on eBay.

 

[Martin#2021]

My macbook 2015 12inch stopped working I used it for a while and then the next day it stopped working it shows a light in the mother indicating theres power but it doesnt boot can you help me.

 

[Mike Boreham]

My macbook 2015 12inch stopped working I used it for a while and then the next day it stopped working it shows a light in the mother indicating theres power but it doesnt boot can you help me.

Sounds like it is booted to a black screen......so you should be able to power it OFF by holding power button down for 10 seconds.

BTW I don't ever remember seeing a light on my 12" MBP ...have you got the bottom plate off?

When you manage to turn it off (no light) and if it won't then boot I would suggest the usual things:
Boot from Recovery, First Aid, reinstall etc
Safe boot
Reset SMC (see my post #12 above)
Connect external monitor
Boot from external drive.

Of course it may be a hardware failure and none of these will work (except possibly external monitor and drive).

 

[eswagsh]

Hi, My 12 inch 2015 Macbook A1534 resurrected after 3 years.

In 2019, I took it to Apple Store and they said Logic board replacement is needed due to water damage. Since it was too expensive, I didn' go for it.

Yesterday I just plugged it in and It was working all of a sudden. It could not detect internal trackpad and keyboard so asked for external. I plugged in my iMac keyboard using USB-C cable and I could login to my account. It even restored all the apps and Safari pages I was working on probably.

I update icloud password and started Mac OS update from MAC OS Mojave10.14.6 to Mac OS Catalina as prompted.
However it restarted during an update and then crashed again.

I'm thinking it might be due to NVRAM reset. Is there anyway to do it other than Option+Cmd+P+R?
Since then I have tried countless times to do SMC reset, NVRAM reset and all startup things with various permutation and combinations.

Battery is charging normally. I can charge my iphone 2 times atleast. trackpad is working normally.
Not sure what is wrong.

Maybe need to wait another 3 years

 

[StoneJack]

Hi, My 12 inch 2015 Macbook A1534 resurrected after 3 years.

In 2019, I took it to Apple Store and they said Logic board replacement is needed due to water damage. Since it was too expensive, I didn' go for it.

Yesterday I just plugged it in and It was working all of a sudden. It could not detect internal trackpad and keyboard so asked for external. I plugged in my iMac keyboard using USB-C cable and I could login to my account. It even restored all the apps and Safari pages I was working on probably.

I update icloud password and started Mac OS update from MAC OS Mojave10.14.6 to Mac OS Catalina as prompted.
However it restarted during an update and then crashed again.

I'm thinking it might be due to NVRAM reset. Is there anyway to do it other than Option+Cmd+P+R?
Since then I have tried countless times to do SMC reset, NVRAM reset and all startup things with various permutation and combinations.

Battery is charging normally. I can charge my iphone 2 times atleast. trackpad is working normally.
Not sure what is wrong.

Maybe need to wait another 3 years

maybe NOW you can take it to AppleStore

 

[happyslayer]

I’ve had this same issue about three times over the years on my 12” 2015 512GB SSD, 1.3Ghz Macbook. The screen will just go black right in the middle of working, it will shut off and then it won’t power on, usually at the worst possible time but not necessarily when it’s under load. I’ve noticed a pattern that leads to this, however. And a solution that has worked all three times when resetting the SMC and PRAM alone didn’t make any difference.

First, I notice usually a few days before the crash when I go to plug in the USB-C charge cable I will see a static spark between the end of the ground shield on the plug and the MacBook itself right as I go to plug it in. I noticed this a few days before the crash two out of three times it’s happened, so I think it has something to do with the SMC getting scrambled. All I can gather is since the power adapter itself is not grounded, maybe a static charge is being stored in the cable somehow and searching for ground on the laptop, causing a stir in the NVRAM and SMC parameters when it gets connected.

Resetting the SMC with a long 20-30 second hold of CMD + Shift + Option + Power will result in a chime from the speaker that the power is plugged in, but the screen will not light up and no battery indicator will show. Unplugging and replugging the power does the same, but the power button won’t do anything, caps-lock light won’t turn on and no touchpad haptics. If I continue SMC resets, sometimes following the chime the screen will glow a bit then dim, pressing power will make the Apple logo and a load bar show for a few seconds and then it will shut down automatically. That’s as far as it will go until I do the “fix”.

To resolve this issue I use a USB-A (rectangle end) to USB-C cable, plug the USB-A end into a grounded USB port (in this case my iMac) and then the USB-C end into the Macbook. Wait a few seconds for the ground to do its magic and then press the power button. It boots every time. Since I’ve seen this a few times I’ve gone the gamut trying other ways to get the machine to boot but this ends up being the only way to get back in.

I hope this helps someone.

You rock! I’ve been fighting an old 12” MacBook for one of my customers that was behaving the same. I got a USB-A to USB-C cable and plugged into my grounded Windows Desktop PC’s USB-A port and it worked! I’ve got it booted and charging again now. The battery was completely dead. Your trick worked. I’ll add this to my own bag of tech tricks. Again, thanks for this! I’d have never thought to try that.