Macbook Pro will not start

Bruce Whittington

Well-Known Member
Yesterday my MBP (2016 maybe, running Catalina I think?) was functioning normally, battery charge over 70% I think. Today when I opened the lid nothing happened. Screen is black, no lights in keyboard, no green light on frame. I plugged it in and heard the familiar "bing" that indicates charging, but that is the only sign of life. I tried hard restarting and resetting the SMC without success. Laptop has been plugged in now for an hour or more, still black screen. Seems like I may have accidentally shut something off but I can't think what. I have a second Time Machine backup on an external drive which may be as much as two months old. Any suggestions welcome.

A couple of hours later, I tried opening the lid, and the screen lit very briefly, and I think I saw a rectangular "Mac Utilities" window there, but then it all went black again.

Long story shortened: This is an example of Apple's "Flexgate" problem with a too-short cable. Apple offered free service but I think I may be too late. I'll look into it.
 
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chas_m

Well-Known Member
Definitely take them up on that offer anyway! London Drugs and Simply are both Apple Authorised Service Providers.
 

Bruce Whittington

Well-Known Member
Just to finish this story: I found that I could get the lid of the laptop open if done slowly, but about halfway open the screen still went black. I learned that I was a year late for the Apple free repair offer, and that the repair is about $700, in part apparently because the faulty part is connected to the screen, which is ensconced in the lid--all of which gets replaced. I found a fellow south of Nanaimo (closer for me than Victoria) who could do the repair for $500, or he could give me $200 for the unusable computer. In the end I bought a refurbished MacBook Air. I was able to use the trackpad enough to migrate my files to the new computer, and use Apple's instructions to clean the hard drive for resale, and sold it to the "Mac Buyer". Time to move on . . .
 

DaveWT

Well-Known Member
Glad to hear you came up with a resolution that seems to have got you past this issue. My comment is too late to help you but may help someone else in a similar situation.

I had an iMac whose screen went black except for some vertical bars. Apple had a screen replacement program for that issue, but like you I was a year late to take them up on it. I phoned Apple anyway, explained what had happened, and said I knew I was a year late on their replacement program but since the exact same problem just took longer to develop in my case asked (VERY CALMY AND POLITELY) if there was anything they could do for me. The Apple rep asked if he could put me on hold, came back later and said they would cover it and I got the screen replaced free of charge. So it never hurts to ask, but the key is be calm and be polite.
 

Bruce Whittington

Well-Known Member
That's a good point, and I did try to go that route, explaining (calmly and politely) that the laptop was a second computer, and not used as much, and was it not unfair that some people did not benefit from the offer just because their machines were slower to break due to the known issue, etc. The guy at Mac was sympathetic but could not be swayed, and would not refer me to anyone else. He told me to send it in (at what cost?) and said they might fix it, but if not, a repair would have been more costly than if I took it somewhere local. I considered writing a letter (remember those?) but thought that a year past the deadline was stretching it anyway, so gave it up. I can't even recall if I was ever notified about this issue by Apple (as I am about constant upgrades etc.) This issue was written up quite a bit in some online sites and Apple was pretty sharply criticized for not acknowledging it at first, and accepting responsibility, but they responded in the end to pressure from a petition I think, so may not have been inclined to be more accommodating than absolutely necessary. In any case, in twenty-plus years of using six Macs this is my first failure, so I shouldn't complain.
 

chas_m

Well-Known Member
The internet has a tendency to spot issues quickly, but Apple can’t just launch a repair program in response to some reports from miscellaneous sites. They investigate, narrow down what versions of a given machine are having the issue, talk to the repair facilities, and take time to engineer a fix that is tested and resolves the issue BEFORE they issue a repair program.

This delay between “I have an issue, and I’m not alone” and “Apple will fix it for free” is infuriating if you’re the person having the issue, but … that’s kind of how they have to do it. The alternative is … Samsung. Remember when their batteries started exploding? They quickly responded with replacement batteries, but then some of THOSE started exploding … that’s not the way you do it.
 
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