A customer brought us this old MacBook Pro computer the other day. The 15 inch MacBook Pro wouldn’t respond at all when she pressed the power button. The screen was completely black and the laptop didn’t produce the familiar start up chime. She was afraid that all of her work and family photos stored on the machine were gone forever.
When a computer won’t turn on at all, there are a few things that can be wrong. There could be a problem with the power supply inside the machine, or even a bad power cord. If the computer won’t turn on except when plugged in, it could be a problem with the battery. We’ve even seen a failed keyboard prevent the MacBook from powering on, since the power button is part of the keyboard assembly. The worst case scenario is a problem with the logic board.
In this case the Mac was unable to draw power because the logic board had failed. Unfortunately, this is the most expensive part in the computer, and due to this computer being an older model, was not worth the cost to repair.
There is a silver lining to this diagnosis–the failed logic board didn’t affect the hard drive at all! So even though the computer is useless, those irreplaceable photos and documents were safe. We were able to remove the hard drive and transfer all the data to a new computer for the customer.
If you need a free diagnosis on your computer, feel free to drop by anytime! There is no appointment necessary and we will have the diagnosis completed within 24 hours of drop-off.