How to Fix a Mac That Will Not Turn On

The power button does nothing: no chime, no light, no fan. A Mac in that state is usually not dead, it is either getting no power or starting up behind a screen that stays dark. The checks below separate those cases before anyone spends money on a repair.

Rule out the charger, cable, and outlet

Try a charger and cable you know work, then a different outlet. On a laptop, look for the charging light on the connector and press a key to see whether the keyboard backlight comes on. Any light, fan, or sound at all means power is reaching the Mac and the fault lies further in.

Force a restart with the power button

Hold the power button down for a full 10 seconds and release it. Wait two seconds, then press it once normally. This clears a machine that is hung rather than off, which looks identical from the outside.

Start an Apple silicon Mac into Recovery

On Apple silicon, meaning M1 and later, hold the power button until Loading startup options appears, then choose Options, Continue. Run Disk Utility, select the internal disk, and click First Aid. If First Aid reports damage it cannot repair, use Reinstall macOS from the same menu, which replaces the system and leaves files in place.

Reset the SMC and NVRAM on an Intel Mac

On an Intel Mac only: for a desktop, unplug the power cord for 15 seconds, plug it back in, wait 5 seconds, then press power. For a laptop, hold Control + Option + Shift + power for 7 seconds, release everything, and press power again. To reset NVRAM, press power and immediately hold Option + Cmd + P + R until a second chime sounds. Apple silicon Macs have neither of these resets, so skip this step on them.

Check whether the screen is the real problem

A spinning fan, a startup chime, or a case that grows warm with a black display points at the display rather than the computer. Plug in an external monitor to confirm. Shining a flashlight at the screen at an angle also helps: a faint image means the backlight failed and the Mac is running fine.

A Mac left unused for weeks. A deeply discharged battery may need 15 minutes on the charger before the machine reacts to anything. Leave it plugged in and come back rather than tapping the power button.

A liquid spill changes the answer. Stop, keep the Mac off and unplugged, and take it in. Powering it on after a spill spreads corrosion across the board and turns a cleanable problem into a replaced logic board.