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rMBP 13" dead out of the blue

N

nmaxcom

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 28, 2014
83
9
Hi,

I was just watching locally a movie with VLC with about 4% of battery left. I closed the lid to go get the charger (usual behaviour is just to stay there, no shutdown etc) but i didn't do it rightaway.

So when I got back to it, i opened it but the screen was black and the machine was non responsive. I thoght it just ran out of battery. I plugged it in and nothing. Waited a few minutes of charging (orange led) and tried waking up / boot up. Nothing.

Then I googled the problem and I tried all these tricks of resetting the SMC, PRAM, NVRAM etc. None of it worked (with now an already fully charged computer). My rMBP 13" doesn't have an unpluggable battery so I had nothing else to try. In the end I found a way to remove the screws on the back and disconnect the battery for a few minutes, plugged it back in... and nothing!

I didn't update the system or anything like that so I don't know what's going on. Any ideas?
 
Last edited:
Seems like it's a problem with the logic board. Happened to me a few months back. Had to take it to the Apple Store to get it fixed.
 
There's really nothing that can be done, if its dead and non-responsive. Its probably the logic board as mentioned, you're only choice is to take it to apple.
 
Damn... I really didn't want to go there.

Why did it happen and what are they going to do to fix it?
 
nmaxcom said:
Damn... I really didn't want to go there.

Why did it happen and what are they going to do to fix it?
Click to expand...
You can try to bypass the SMC and boot it. My MacBook Pro is dead with an empty battery. Google for the howto, it´s easy to do ( the bypass ).
 
Here's an idea, but it's a far shot and only applies if you had it plugged into an external monitor.

I have no clue as to why this happened to me, but it sounds like what happened to you. Anyway, I had my macbook pro plugged into the TV for a movie, but unplugged it while the lid was still shut. It was flat out dead and nothing I tried could boot it, or wake it. Out of desperation, I plugged it into the TV and it worked. This time, I made sure to unplug it while it was charged and open.

Like I said, long shot. But if you had an xtrnl, plug it back in and try that.
 
My 2012 non retina 13" MBP did this. I closed the lid for about two minutes. I opened it again and the laptop was dead. Power button wouldn't work. I held the power button down for about a minute and it finally turned on.
 
Okay, I've tried the 10s unplugged still holding plug it + 10s... Also tried connecting it to my HDMI monitor; holding the power button for more than a minute... Nothing.

I don't understand, how can an expensive thing like this just DIE like this without prior warning signs? Or even a logical reason?
 
There's always a lemon in a manufacturing process so you're just unfortunate to get a lemon
 
Reporting:

So today, I was getting the laptop ready to get it to the store... Like a dog going to the slaughter I tried to push the power button again and guess f* what? BOUMB, it starts up.

...

So... I don't know what, how, why. For now it seems to work. But who knows, maybe it explodes on the plane next week or something.
 
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nmaxcom said:
Okay, I've tried the 10s unplugged still holding plug it + 10s... Also tried connecting it to my HDMI monitor; holding the power button for more than a minute... Nothing.

I don't understand, how can an expensive thing like this just DIE like this without prior warning signs? Or even a logical reason?
Click to expand...

Price has nothing to do with it, all electronics can die, at any time, for any number of reasons....
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
Price has nothing to do with it, all electronics can die, at any time, for any number of reasons....
Click to expand...

Yeah, nothing is perfect all the time, but price does play a role here. In Apple products? Of course price isn't as big player as it should because the apple brand fee is a heavy one. But I sure hope you don't believe there's just one universal price for a transistor or a microcontroller; and that they all are as good as the next one... Not to mention assembling, quality control...
 
Update!

Just happened again the same thing... I was cleaning some files, rMBP was about 10% charge so I put the lid down and went on working on my desktop. An hour later I'm going to get the laptop and... dead. Again.

I'm trying my roommate's charger (orange led) to discard a problem in mine, but... still doesn't power up. Doesn't do ANYTHING.

What the hell ?
 
nmaxcom said:
I don't understand, how can an expensive thing like this just DIE like this without prior warning signs? Or even a logical reason?
Click to expand...
The price of something has absolutely zero bearing on reliability.

A Ferrari is bloody expensive, and their engines usually don't last more than 5000 miles before needing an overhaul. Your typical econobox can go 200k miles before needing such extensive engine work with minor maintenance. Lamborghinis (such as the Diablo) before they were bought out by Volkswagen were almost holding together with duct tape, with windows falling inside doors, lights falling off, etc. MSRP on a diablo: roughly 270k USD. You just can't equate price with quality/reliability.

With that said, I suggest you make use of your warranty if you still have one.
 
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snaky69 said:
The price of something has absolutely zero bearing on reliability.

A Ferrari is bloody expensive, and their engines usually don't last more than 5000 miles before needing an overhaul. Your typical econobox can go 200k miles before needing such extensive engine work with minor maintenance. Lamborghinis (such as the Diablo) before they were bought out by Volkswagen were almost holding together with duct tape, with windows falling inside doors, lights falling off, etc. MSRP on a diablo: roughly 270k USD. You just can't equate price with quality/reliability.

With that said, I suggest you make use of your warranty if you still have one.
Click to expand...

You are a little bit exaggerating about the Italians' supercars....
 
snaky69 said:
The price of something has absolutely zero bearing on reliability.

A Ferrari is bloody expensive, and their engines usually don't last more than 5000 miles before needing an overhaul. Your typical econobox can go 200k miles before needing such extensive engine work with minor maintenance. Lamborghinis (such as the Diablo) before they were bought out by Volkswagen were almost holding together with duct tape, with windows falling inside doors, lights falling off, etc. MSRP on a diablo: roughly 270k USD. You just can't equate price with quality/reliability.

With that said, I suggest you make use of your warranty if you still have one.
Click to expand...

People redline the bleep out of them on track while performing high G cornering, expecting that it'll hold out for thousands of miles at that state. Do the same abuse to the reguar econobox and you'll see the reliability is the same
 
cbautis2 said:
People redline the bleep out of them on track while performing high G cornering, expecting that it'll hold out for thousands of miles at that state. Do the same abuse to the reguar econobox and you'll see the reliability is the same
Click to expand...
A lot of owners never take theirs to a track and barely ever get on the throttle. I've seen souped econoboxes gutted and track prepped last years before any major repairs.

My point still stands.
 
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I say take it in and have it checked out, even if it turns on again. My screen flickered off a few times and the only way for me to fix it was to open and shut the lid. That happened sporadically every few months, and I wasn't thinking anything of it. Until one day, for some reason, my laptop just did not turn on anymore without any warning as to why. For me, turned out that the logic board became faulty. It might not be for you, but there is definitely something that is going wrong in your computer and the best way to figure out why is to have Apple check it out. Sure, it sucks to have an expensive object become faulty, but like someone said in an above post, cost does not mean that it's going to be a perfect machine. It's technology, it's bound to break down sooner or later. I wish you the best of luck on your computer, I know how much it sucks to have spent a lot of money on a computer for it to give up on you, but alas, it can be fixed.
 
Hold the power button for like 15 seconds. Unplug and replug in the power adapter and close and open the lid a couple times. I have done this to many peoples' 13 inch with success. It appears as though once the battery gets below 40%, the laptop won't power on. Apple store said, motherboard, ssd and then said bug. lol... so idk what it is.
 
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