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The smaller of Apple's MacBook Air laptops featuring dual microphones and 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity.

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MacBook air won't power on

Hi Everyone.

I have a Macbook Air 11" Mid 2013. It is working perfectly except that it won't power on after it was shut down. To power it on, I have to do the following steps:

1) Remove back cover

2) Unplug battery cable

2') Plug battery cable in

3) Plug megasafe in

4) It turns on automatically after about 5-10 seconds. No need to press power button

Note:

- Step 2 is the most important step. Without unplugging battery, it won't power on by any methods including megasafe plugged in.

- Step 2' is not important. It will turn on without Step 2'

- Power button is working when it's ON. When it is completely OFF, it won't power on by pressing power button

- When it's ON, it can be restarted by Press Power Button --> Select Restart; or Select Apple logo --> Select Restart

- When it was shut down, it won't power on except above method.

- I have tried reseting SMC, NVRAM but won't work

- Megasafe LED is on when plugged in

Any comment or suggestion would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

Happy New Year 2017!

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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Hey, I did an SMC reset but did not resolve the issue. Then I just reseat the cable from Trackpad to Motherboard. Then it works perfectly now. Power on using power button as normal. I found that there is a small dirt particle at the cable connector at Trackpad. Blow that particle off then issue resolved. Poor Apple Technicians. The owner told me that Technicians did try out a new battery, new Megasafe board and concluded that motherboard needs to be replaced. The original owner decided to sell it to me quite cheap.

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Sometimes the power button will only work when the MacBook is on or being held down and not pressed, common with minor liquid damage.

Check the trackpad board (where the keyboard plugs in) and especially both sides of the trackpad cable (gold contacts). If this is burnt or liquid damage, this is likely the issue. If this looks fine, but a new keyboard, plug it in and test it.

If the trackpad cable looks fine, trackpad board is fine and a new keyboard does not resolve the issue, will be related to the logic board so this needs to be diagnosed. My money is on the keyboard :)

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5 Comments:

Thanks for your comments. I checked the trackpad board, trackpad cable. They look fine. I am about to order a keyboard to test. I'll let you know when I got it done. Is there any other way to test without new keyboard?

by

With this issue, not really. Keyboards are very cheap (£8-£18 max), but make sure you get one in the same layout as your original.

The keyboards are riveted in (google for videos on this repair), so take it somewhere instead if you do not think you will be able to replace the keyboard, otherwise you are wasting money.

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Hi Reece. I just got a new keyboard.

What I did is (1)disconnect old keyboard cable, (2) connect new keyboard cable. It won't power on in the same way even I was able to test couple keys of new keyboard.

Question: Do I need to remove old keyboard and put new keyboard in exactly the same setup?

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Make sure the keyboard cable is in the same orientation, also try an SMC reset (to make sure the power button is definitely working, the light should change from orange to green, when you have the battery plugged in too). The keyboard does not need to be replaced for the power button to work.

If it is not this, it points to either the trackpad cable or something wrong with the logic board. At this point, I would probably recommend taking it somewhere to diagnose this properly

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That's great. Glad you sorted it :)

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have you tried to reset smc/pram?

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I already tried as mentioned in the post

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