You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

macbook pro doesn't turn on with power key

Weird problem, last week my 2019 macbook pro started shutting itself down while in sleep mode, and it is very difficult to turn it back on. It used to turn on from either opening the screen, pressing any key on the keyboard, or pressing the power button. Now none of those methods works, although sometimes after doing one of those actions the fan will come on and start whirring while everything else remains dead. The only way to turn it on now is to hold the shift/option/control/power buttons at the same time for about 30 seconds.


Not sure if related but several months ago the "n" key on my keyboard stopped working properly, now it works maybe 60% of the time when I press it. Probably unrelated since I've read about the keyboard issues with these models.


Anyone have any guidance? I'm worried one of these days I simply won't be able to turn my computer on at all (don't worry I have a backup but I'm not in a country that has a mac store so I can't take it into the shop).

MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 12, 2020 6:43 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 12, 2020 12:22 PM

Try an SMC reset.


Run the Apple Diagnostics.


Is the laptop running on the battery or is it using the charger when the wake from sleep issue occurs?


Try running the laptop in Safe Mode to see if you have the same issues waking the laptop from sleep.


As for the "N" key working intermittently this is a known issue with the butterfly keyboards found on the MBPro laptops from 2016-2019 and there is a free repair program for it:

https://support.apple.com/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-notebooks


FYI, here is a list of the publicly acknowledged free repair programs for various Apple products (some have multiple programs):

https://support.apple.com/exchange_repair


If the laptop is still under warranty, then make sure to take the laptop to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to be examined.

Similar questions

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 12, 2020 12:22 PM in response to lloyd_christmas

Try an SMC reset.


Run the Apple Diagnostics.


Is the laptop running on the battery or is it using the charger when the wake from sleep issue occurs?


Try running the laptop in Safe Mode to see if you have the same issues waking the laptop from sleep.


As for the "N" key working intermittently this is a known issue with the butterfly keyboards found on the MBPro laptops from 2016-2019 and there is a free repair program for it:

https://support.apple.com/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-notebooks


FYI, here is a list of the publicly acknowledged free repair programs for various Apple products (some have multiple programs):

https://support.apple.com/exchange_repair


If the laptop is still under warranty, then make sure to take the laptop to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider to be examined.

Jun 19, 2020 6:28 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks for your reply HWTech, these are all good suggestions but they haven't solved my issue. I ran diagnostics and it said there were no issues, ref code ADP000. Another weird behavior that sometimes happens is that when I shut it down but leave it plugged in, a lot of times when I come back to the computer it is hot, even long after it should have finished charging (as in, I leave it overnight but then in the morning I touch it and it's hot). I can basically only turn it on now by holding the shift/option/control/power keys for 15-30 seconds, and sometimes even that doesn't work until I've tried it repeatedly for 10 or 20 minutes. Like I said before sometimes the fan starts whirring instead of the computer actually turning on. Any more ideas?

Jun 19, 2020 1:43 PM in response to lloyd_christmas

Do you have any issue when you are started up?

For example the Charging and getting hot overnight thing; Does that happen when the MacBook is in Standby mode/or with the lid closed or does that also happen when its shut down.

Do you have any performance issues while activity Monitor shown nothing being hit hard (CPU, RAM, Drive).


If you have a Backup I would try to startup in MacOS recovery (boot while holding cmd+r pressed) and see if you have the same issues there. If yes I would dare to thing it is something hardware related or it is an issue in the Recovery Partition.


But generally, even though Im definitely not sure, this sounds more like a Hardware issue than software.

Have installed something new when the issue began? (Mac Update, App Update, New App)

Did you change anything else that is Software Related? (Deleting Folders or Files, New WiFi, new Driver for printers etc)


If the issue is happening before sign in into a user (startup) it is definitely something not specifically related to a/your user, so maybe an erase and reinstall could solve the problem - since you have Backup id give that a shot.



Sam

Jun 20, 2020 10:04 AM in response to lloyd_christmas

Are you actually powering off the laptop or are you putting the laptop to sleep? This makes a big difference since if the laptop is being put to sleep you could have a software issue which is preventing the laptop from actually sleeping. If this is the case, then run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.


When you power on the laptop after this issue is the battery charge near zero? If so, this can be why it is difficult to power on the laptop because a drained battery can sometimes put the Logic Board into a weird state where it cannot be powered on normally. Try leaving the laptop plugged into the charger instead of leaving the laptop on just the battery to see if it makes a difference.


If this is a 2019 model with the T2 chip, then you may want to run Apple Configurator 2 using another Mac to reset the T2 chip/firmware which can also resolve power issues.


Jun 22, 2020 12:45 PM in response to SamMRus

Once the computer is on it runs basically okay, nothing out of the ordinary anyways. And there is almost no such thing as sleep mode anymore--basically if it's on and I don't use it for a minute it puts itself to sleep like normal, and it'll wake back up just fine within the next 10 minutes or so. But if it's asleep for a long period of time (not sure exactly what the cutoff is, but definitely after a few hours) then it shuts itself down while in sleep mode and getting it to turn back on is the hard part that I described in the original post. I know this too because once it comes back on I get an error message saying it shut down unexpectedly and gives me the option to send the error report (which I do).


I've done a couple updates and installed a couple programs in the last several months but I'm pretty careful about what I download, I suppose that's a possibility but I think a remote one. I tried booting in recovery mode, but the thing is once it turns on there really isn't any issue to test for, so recovery mode worked fine but when you shut it down the issue comes back. I agree that I think it's a hardware issue, I've managed to contact an authorized mac service place (I'm not in the U.S.) so I will probably just take it in. Maybe I'll try recovery with a time machine backup but the malfunctioning keyboard letter "n" is driving me uts as well so might as well just take it in. Thanks for your time and suggestions, I do appreciate your help.

Jun 22, 2020 12:46 PM in response to SamMRus

Once the computer is on it runs basically okay, nothing out of the ordinary anyways. And there is almost no such thing as sleep mode anymore--basically if it's on and I don't use it for a minute it puts itself to sleep like normal, and it'll wake back up just fine within the next 10 minutes or so. But if it's asleep for a long period of time (not sure exactly what the cutoff is, but definitely after a few hours) then it shuts itself down while in sleep mode and getting it to turn back on is the hard part that I described in the original post. I know this too because once it comes back on I get an error message saying it shut down unexpectedly and gives me the option to send the error report (which I do).


I've done a couple updates and installed a couple programs in the last several months but I'm pretty careful about what I download, I suppose that's a possibility but I think a remote one. I tried booting in recovery mode, but the thing is once it turns on there really isn't any issue to test for, so recovery mode worked fine but when you shut it down the issue comes back. I agree that I think it's a hardware issue, I've managed to contact an authorized mac service place (I'm not in the U.S.) so I will probably just take it in. Maybe I'll try recovery with a time machine backup but the malfunctioning keyboard letter "n" is driving me uts as well so might as well just take it in. Thanks for your time and suggestions, I do appreciate your help.

macbook pro doesn't turn on with power key

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.