2014 MacBook Pro with retina won’t turn on

[Countrysad]

Hi guys,

I have a 2014 MacBook Pro with retina that seems to be having some serious issues.
Everything started a few days ago. At the end of the day I have closed my laptop before going to bed. The next morning when I opened it, it was shut down. It seemed strange, because it still had plenty of battery left when I closed it. The computer turned on normally with 59% left. During the day the situation repeated itself, however, this time the computer wouldn’t turn itself back on for around an hour or so. When it finally booted, everything was normal. The situation repeated itself again last night, but my laptop wouldn’t come back on. The latest development is that after 24hr period the computer came on by itself doing the “star wars screen” (see the video). I turned it off and it won’t start again now. I have performed all of the steps available at the Apple support website etc. Battery seems to be charging, the trackpad clicks.

Any ideas?

 

[kohlson]

Look at the various options for resetting PRAM and SMC, and do those. Push and hold the power key for 10 seconds.

You could do an Apple hardware test, but I found that pretty useless.

I had a similar situation about a year ago on my late 2013 15-MBP. Overnight shutdowns that increased over time. Ultimately it stopped booting. I took it into Apple, where they replaced nearly everything (top case, logic board, SSD). IIRC, it was $600. Not too happy about that, but it's worked great ever since.

 

[Countrysad]

Thanks for the reply. That’s exactly what I am afraid of, that something inside have died and it’s not gonna be a cheap fix. If it’s more that 500$ I will probably consider getting a new computer, but c’mon, the one I have now is only 4 years old. I’m gonna try and open it up first and do some cleaning inside, but if it’s a component failure than obviously that’s not gonna help. Ehhhhh.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Sorry to have to agree, likely hardware logic board or maybe just GPU. Outside chance of a repair, is you have a board level repair shop in your area. Might be worth a bit of money to get it diagnosed before pitching it.

There are shops qualified to diagnose and repair quite a few things, and usually for half (or less) that what Apple charges to replace parts.

An LA area shop example.

 

[Countrysad]

Thanx for the reply!
Ok, so a little update. I am writing this post from my MacBook Pro. Here's what I think happened.
The whole time I was having problems I was away from home living in a hotel. I took my old charger with me, it was a little frayed here and there but seemed to be working. It worked in the hotel for the first couple of days too, and the whole time my MacBook Pro was acting weird the magsafe light seemed to operate normally (it would change colors etc.).
After coming back home today, I've plugged my wife's brand new charger into my laptop, and lo behold,it started working right away and it showed that the battery was completely depleted. It still doesn't really explain that super crazy "Star Wars screen", but I guess the computer thought it was being charged when it fact it really wasn't? It just came back ok, so hopefully it will stay that way...
Thanks for the ideas and help guys!!

 

[hobowankenobi]

Good deal. That's interesting, and a welcome outcome.

Closest I have seen to that before was a failing battery in MBP that would cause random shutdowns, even when plugged in. Knew the battery was bad, but expected the machine to run OK while plugged in. Nope! Replaced battery, shut downs went away.

 

[Countrysad]

I actually think that's what might be wrong! Problem definitely seems to be power related. Mac turned itself off again this afternoon, but this time the power button reset have worked like a charm. Out of curiosity I have ran the apple diagnostics tool, and it reported that I'm using a 45W instead of a 60W (my wife has a MacBook Air). I wonder if I have fried the battery and that's what is really happening.

 

[hobowankenobi]

Might be worth pulling the battery. Can't speak for all models, but older pre-retina machines always ran fine with no battery installed....as long as you had the correct power supply.