Skip to main content

The April 2014 update of Apple's 13" MacBook Air features refreshed dual-core i5 and i7 processors, plus slightly increased battery performance.

313 Questions View all

How can I power on when the keyboard has been disconnected internally?

Excuse the long, rambling story but I’m not savvy with this kind of stuff so I want to try and explain it the best I can.

The other night some water was spilled on my keyboard, rendering the it useless even though the track pad/screen/everything else was working fine. I wasn’t able to log into my computer without having a working keyboard so I went to the Apple store to see if they could help me. The tech helping me wasn’t able to log in using an external USB keyboard, so he took my computer, removed the back, disabled my keyboard internally, and then put the computer in some disc recoverey mode to see if he’d be able to recover my files using another computer in store. (After the keyboard was internally disabled, the external USB keyboard worked.) Right before he was about to try and and recover my files in the recovery mode , he randomly thought to have me log into Google Drive to see if the files I needed where there and they were.

He said that now that the USB keyboard was working, he could leave the internal keyboard disabled and that I would be able to use the computer with a USB keyboard, which i was fine with. He told me that I’d have to let the computer battery drain to get out of the Disc recoverey mode (since I no longer have a working power button) and then to plug my computer into a power source and it would come back on.

I did let the battery drain and the computer came back on and was functioning just fine with the external USB keyboard. I worked for a couple minutes before closing the laptop to go run errands and now I’m not sure how to get the computer back on without a power button? The laptop is now fully charged but I can’t run the battery down without turning it on?

Answer this question I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Score 0
Add a comment

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

@kgoodrich

with the battery disconnected, all core i5/i7 MacBooks will boot when the charger is plugged in. If your computer is a MacBook Air 13" Early 2014 then you can shorten out the power-pads as shown on the image. All you need is just a brief connection between the pads.

Block Image

Was this answer helpful?

Score 3

1 Comment:

@oldturkey03 I just tried that on my MBA I salvaged from a friend. That really does work, another trick for my bag of tricks! Thanks!

by

Add a comment

Try out this guide and see if it works for you. On Step 3, this is the battery connector you want to disconnect because that guide was for an earlier MacBook Air.

Block Image

If not, maybe @mayer knows a better way to do this.

How to Turn on a MacBook Air With a Broken Power Switch

Was this answer helpful?

Score 1
Add a comment

Add your answer

Kelly will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 0

Past 7 Days: 1

Past 30 Days: 3

All Time: 130