What to Do When Your Mac Won’t Start Up

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One of the most infuriating problems with an otherwise suave Macbook is when it just won’t start.

It becomes all the more annoying when no matter what you do, the Mac fails to respond.

Let me tell you here that the Mac OS is not immune to software problems. What more, there can be hardware problems associated with it not lighting up too. So, before you abandon all hopes of your precious Mac reviving from hibernation, it is time to ponder on what actually could have gone wrong.

In fact, there can be a number of problems with the Mac that I bet you wouldn’t have thought of in your frenzy to get it up and running. Here, we would discuss about a few such simple possibilities that are easy to overlook and could be the reason behind your Mac not responding, and consequently, reach a solution. But you can also go for PC repair Portsmouth to get it done.

Let’s find out.

  1. Is Your Mac Plugged in?

You might be wondering, “Now that is just something silly”. But wait. If you actually think about it, that is a serious problem. It could be a possibility that you have not plugged your Mac in and have been hitting the power button in vain.

If that is the case, then you are in luck, because power problems are easy to handle.

Other than that, your battery could have flat-lined too. In that case, you connecting your Mac to a charger would not yield immediate results. You might have to wait it out a bit to watch it spring back to life.

  1. Have You Been Fiddling with Your Mac?

It is possible that you might have misplaced something in the hardware while installing a RAM. Or, the hard drive swapping could have somehow gone wrong too. Anything can happen. And that’s normal.

What you need to do now is to make the things right. You might have to make sure that the replaced and swapped components of your Mac are in the right places and are secured properly.

If your Mac still fails to boot, disconnect all peripherals, wait for some time and start afresh.

  1. Run a Power Cycle

A power cycle is basically a simple way to fool your frozen Mac into believing that there has been a power cut and it needs to restart. The steps involved are easy.

Here’s what you need to do.

  • If you are using a Mac without a removable battery, then the power cycle for your Mac is the simplest. All you need to do is, press down the power button of your Mac and hold down the fort for 10 seconds. This will trick your Mac into believing that a power cut is underway. Consequently, it will be forced to restart.
  • If it is a Mac with a removable battery that is suffering from hibernation, then you would need to shut the Mac down, unplug it and remove the battery. Insert it after 10 seconds and restart.
  • A Mac desktop would require you to unplug the power cable, wait for 10 seconds and then insert it back on.

 

  1. Run Disk Utility in Recovery Mode

With your Mac failing to boot even after performing all the above steps, you would need to rule out possibilities of any issue plaguing the hard drive. Running disk utility in recovery is one of the ways of locating such a problem. Here’s what you would need to do.

  • Hold down the Mac’s power button for a forced shut down.
  • Now hold down the ‘Command’ and ‘R’ buttons till a screen headlined ‘OS X Utilities’ pops up. Click on ‘Disk Utility’, click on your drive’s name and then hit ‘Verify Disk’.
  • Now wait and watch the magic happen.
  1. Try the Safe Boot

Safe boot can take up some time depending on the condition of the Mac, since it restricts the functions that the Mac works on while starting up. Shut down your Mac and power it up while holding down the ‘Shift’ key.

If you would like to stay updated about what actually is happening during the safe boot, you can hold down the ‘Command’ and ‘V’ keys while powering up your Mac. This would generate messages about what is actually happening with your Mac during the Safe boot.

If all else fails, you can try resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac as a last resort.

If there is still no response from your Mac, then it is time to move on. Reinstalling the OS X remains the only alternative.

Satyajit Seal
Satyajit Seal has over 6 years of experience as a freelance content writer. He is a web enthusiast who loves to explore various niches in his content, which he composes for different blogs. In his writeups, he touches upon different topics, such as health, entertainment, lifestyle, fashion, and so on. He tries to include something unique in each content, which the readers find interesting. He is a lover of modern arts, painting and wildlife by nature.