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2016 MBP Won't Start - Dark Screen, High Fan

B

blewyn

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 3, 2009
50
3
Hi Folks,

My 2016 MBP (OSX 10.15.7) has stopped booting up. The front light comes on, the screen stays black and the fan gradually revs up high, starting after about 10 seconds. I have tried resetting SMC, PRAM. I have tried it on battery and on mains power. I have opened and closed the lid. I have removed all USB devices etc. Any ideas ?
 
What front light do you mean? Is this an 13” or 15” MBP? Also, have you tried booting into your recovery partition (command+option+r on boot)?
 
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High fan spin means that a sensor is not being read. Often the fault is linked to the trackpad and/or trackpad cable. If you have a multimeter, carefully measure the voltage to ground of the smbus lines (I2C) - this will be the SCL and SDA pins on the trackpad. Meter in dc volts mode. For full details, open a fresh thread on the badcaps website.
 
Does sound like a hardware issue that will require opening it up. If your Mac does not have the touchbar yet, then that means you can take out the SSD to regain access to the data if you don't have a backup and need to restore the files.
 
Reply to Audit 13 :

Possibly. I was using it offshore on a barge, and I noticed when I got home that two of the little black rubber feet had come off to reveal just holes underneath. So the innards might well have been exposed to humid air, but it kept working long after I got back, and for many days after I taped up the openings.
 
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okkibs said:
Does sound like a hardware issue that will require opening it up. If your Mac does not have the touchbar yet, then that means you can take out the SSD to regain access to the data if you don't have a backup and need to restore the files.
Click to expand...
Yes thanks, I removed it already.
 
real_mon2 said:
High fan spin means that a sensor is not being read. Often the fault is linked to the trackpad and/or trackpad cable. If you have a multimeter, carefully measure the voltage to ground of the smbus lines (I2C) - this will be the SCL and SDA pins on the trackpad. Meter in dc volts mode. For full details, open a fresh thread on the badcaps website.
Click to expand...
Aaaaaaand I'll just take it to the shop. Thanks for your help :)
 
PBG4 Dude said:
What front light do you mean? Is this an 13” or 15” MBP? Also, have you tried booting into your recovery partition (command+option+r on boot)?
Click to expand...
The little white LED on the front right side. Yes I tried that, no joy. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Don't take it to an Apple store though - I think you have the 2015 model. They won't service it (it's vintage) or only switch out the entire logic board for 700 bucks. Send it in to rossman repair group.
 
blewyn said:
Reply to Audit 13 :

Possibly. I was using it offshore on a barge, and I noticed when I got home that two of the little black rubber feet had come off to reveal just holes underneath. So the innards might well have been exposed to humid air, but it kept working long after I got back, and for many days after I taped up the openings.
Click to expand...
Sometimes, the effects of moisture can take a long to manifest themselves and this may be the case with the MacBook.

I hope you are able to resolve the issue for a reasonable price.
 
Last edited:
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okkibs said:
Don't take it to an Apple store though - I think you have the 2015 model. They won't service it (it's vintage) or only switch out the entire logic board for 700 bucks. Send it in to rossman repair group.
Click to expand...
Wish I could ! Not in the US
 
Update : It was the SSD. Swapped it out for new, reinstalled OSX, all good.

Learning : You can't make a bootable Catalina USB installer on a post-Intel machine (my new mac mini). Luckily I managed to boot from my old SSD (on my old MBP) and make one
 
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Update : Problem came back. I had managed to reinstall OSX and Windows with BootCamp but I had not installed the Boot Camp support software in Windows. It worked for a week or so, now back to the previous state (switching on lights up the front LED, brightly for half a second then dimmer. Screen stays black, no "bong", fan ramps up to max after 10 seconds). Could it be a malfunctioning lid sensor ?
 
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