2016 MBP Won't Start - Dark Screen, High Fan

[blewyn]

Hi Folks,

My 2016 MBP (OSX 10.15.7) has stopped booting up. The front light comes on, the screen stays black and the fan gradually revs up high, starting after about 10 seconds. I have tried resetting SMC, PRAM. I have tried it on battery and on mains power. I have opened and closed the lid. I have removed all USB devices etc. Any ideas ?

 

[PBG4 Dude]

What front light do you mean? Is this an 13” or 15” MBP? Also, have you tried booting into your recovery partition (command+option+r on boot)?

 

[Audit13]

Was the MacBook ever exposed to moisture?

 

[real_mon2]

High fan spin means that a sensor is not being read. Often the fault is linked to the trackpad and/or trackpad cable. If you have a multimeter, carefully measure the voltage to ground of the smbus lines (I2C) - this will be the SCL and SDA pins on the trackpad. Meter in dc volts mode. For full details, open a fresh thread on the badcaps website.

 

[okkibs]

Does sound like a hardware issue that will require opening it up. If your Mac does not have the touchbar yet, then that means you can take out the SSD to regain access to the data if you don't have a backup and need to restore the files.

 

[blewyn]

Reply to Audit 13 :

Possibly. I was using it offshore on a barge, and I noticed when I got home that two of the little black rubber feet had come off to reveal just holes underneath. So the innards might well have been exposed to humid air, but it kept working long after I got back, and for many days after I taped up the openings.

 

[blewyn]

Does sound like a hardware issue that will require opening it up. If your Mac does not have the touchbar yet, then that means you can take out the SSD to regain access to the data if you don't have a backup and need to restore the files.

Yes thanks, I removed it already.

 

[blewyn]

High fan spin means that a sensor is not being read. Often the fault is linked to the trackpad and/or trackpad cable. If you have a multimeter, carefully measure the voltage to ground of the smbus lines (I2C) - this will be the SCL and SDA pins on the trackpad. Meter in dc volts mode. For full details, open a fresh thread on the badcaps website.

Aaaaaaand I'll just take it to the shop. Thanks for your help

 

[blewyn]

What front light do you mean? Is this an 13” or 15” MBP? Also, have you tried booting into your recovery partition (command+option+r on boot)?

The little white LED on the front right side. Yes I tried that, no joy. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[okkibs]

Don't take it to an Apple store though - I think you have the 2015 model. They won't service it (it's vintage) or only switch out the entire logic board for 700 bucks. Send it in to rossman repair group.

 

[Audit13]

Reply to Audit 13 :

Possibly. I was using it offshore on a barge, and I noticed when I got home that two of the little black rubber feet had come off to reveal just holes underneath. So the innards might well have been exposed to humid air, but it kept working long after I got back, and for many days after I taped up the openings.

Sometimes, the effects of moisture can take a long to manifest themselves and this may be the case with the MacBook.

I hope you are able to resolve the issue for a reasonable price.

 

[blewyn]

Don't take it to an Apple store though - I think you have the 2015 model. They won't service it (it's vintage) or only switch out the entire logic board for 700 bucks. Send it in to rossman repair group.

Wish I could ! Not in the US

 

[blewyn]

Update : It was the SSD. Swapped it out for new, reinstalled OSX, all good.

Learning : You can't make a bootable Catalina USB installer on a post-Intel machine (my new mac mini). Luckily I managed to boot from my old SSD (on my old MBP) and make one

 

[blewyn]

Update : Problem came back. I had managed to reinstall OSX and Windows with BootCamp but I had not installed the Boot Camp support software in Windows. It worked for a week or so, now back to the previous state (switching on lights up the front LED, brightly for half a second then dimmer. Screen stays black, no "bong", fan ramps up to max after 10 seconds). Could it be a malfunctioning lid sensor ?

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Have you held down the “D” key during start up to run Apple diagnostics?