How to salvage a former work laptop for personal use

[BearuBearu]

Hi,
I was using a Macbook Pro 2018 provided by my company till earlier this year. I had to quit the job while working from home in March 2020 but due to lockdowns (I'm not located in USA, but the company I used work for is in USA), the company did not send any instructions on how to send the laptop back. A couple of weeks later, I also got an email that they will not be collecting the laptop back as mailing used things into the office is a health hazard. i.e I can do whatever the heck I want with it. I thought it's a good idea to erase everything and use it for personal use.

Now the issue with the laptop is
1. It is not turning on (even on full charge etc). i.e on pressing the power button, nothing turns on.
2. I don't know the admin password.

My company has locked I the laptop I think. I've emailed my company about the issue but they have washed their hands off that it is not their responsibility on how to make the laptop usable.

I am looking for ways to salvage the MBP and make it usable (with the factory reset).

If I can't do it, I might just have to trash the laptop I guess. It feels ridiculous to trash a 1000$ Macbook pro.

Any suggestions?

PS: My location is not USA and the nearest Apple store for me is at least 1000 miles. So visiting the apple store is not possible.

 

[Roy Hobbs]

If it doesn't turn on there isn't much you can do with it

 

[Puonti]

Remember to recycle the laptop properly - it doesn't belong in a landfill.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I'm not sure when "It doesn't turn on" became the undeniable symptom that a MacBook Pro isn't salvageable!

 

[ocnitsa]

What does "it doesn't turn on mean"? Does it literally mean when you press the power button you can't hear anything if you put your ear up against it?

I would try multiple things. Holding the power button long, to ensure it's powered off, then tapping it once to see if it comes on. Doing this with the power connected and not connected. Going through the keypresses for resetting PRAM and SMC, even if it doesn't seem like it's turning on. Trying a different outlet. Trying a different power adapter. That's just off the top of my head. Of course I would Google: Mac won't turn on. And see what other people are doing.

 

[BearuBearu]

@ocnitsa
I've tried multiple tings . . differnt key combos (Shift + Cmd + Alt + Pwr, and some others), different outlet, different power adapter etc. not even a beep.But I haven't done an exhaustive search though. . I am not an experienced mac user tbh but will try to read up and try different things.

Since there was no physical damage whatsoever(it's been sitting in my shelf since few months), one thing I am not sure is if it is possible to remotely configure such that the mac won't turn on (i.e disable keyboard etc) via JAMF (or any tool similar to this) and if there are ways to get around it if it is disabled.

 

[Moakesy]

I once rescued a dead laptop by connecting it via FireWire to another machine. The 2nd machine was prime, with the drive of the dead machine being a slave device.

I used some additional software to do this, but I’m sorry....I can’t recall what it was called. Maybe someone on here may know it? It cost me about $50, which is cheap if it gets that machine back to life and working.

I think I did get some lights lit up on the ‘dead’ machine though.

Not sure I’m being much help here tbh.....I’ve tried to find the software on google, there are lots available but none that are called anything I recognise.

 

[Fishrrman]

You can't do anything with it if you can't turn it on.
If it won't turn on, you have 3 choices that I see:
1. Send it to a repair place and let them have a look at it,
or
2. Sell it for parts
or
3. Put it into the closet and forget about it.

 

[ocnitsa]

@ocnitsa
I've tried multiple tings . . differnt key combos (Shift + Cmd + Alt + Pwr, and some others), different outlet, different power adapter etc. not even a beep.But I haven't done an exhaustive search though. . I am not an experienced mac user tbh but will try to read up and try different things.

Since there was no physical damage whatsoever(it's been sitting in my shelf since few months), one thing I am not sure is if it is possible to remotely configure such that the mac won't turn on (i.e disable keyboard etc) via JAMF (or any tool similar to this) and if there are ways to get around it if it is disabled.

This seems really strange. I've never had a Mac that's only a couple of years old stop working like that. How about holding down the alt/option key after hitting the power button...The other thing you might try is hooking it up to an external monitor and then doing all the other stuff you've already done.