I have an Early 2015 Macbook Pro retina that was running fine until yesterday. I was watching Netflix on it (running on battery) and it just died without any warning. It has no response at all. When I try the SMC reset, the charging light changes from Orange to Green on releasing the buttons. That is the only response I can coax out of it. It is a lightly used machine with no damage. What could I try before taking it to the Genius Bar?
Macbook Pro Early 2015 13″ Retina suddenly dead, no response
displaymacbook pro
Related Solutions
Before you do anything hastily, try resetting your NVRAM: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
This will clear several hardware-related settings and may resolve your situation.
If not, try creating a bootable installer (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372), boot from it and check if your trackpad works there. If it does, backup and reinstall your OS.
The alternative would be to open up the device and check if the trackpad connection is properly attached. Sometimes (although very rarely) the plug can become loose, likely due to radical temperature changes. You should only attempt this if you're comfortable with electronics repair and following a guide on a site like iFixIt. They also have parts for self-repair.
If the latter doesn't help, sometimes disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it works, as this will clear any battery-buffered settings remaining.
In case all else fails, I suggest purchasing a replacement part through iFixIt and following a guide to exchange the trackpad – if you're at all open to self-repair. Having it exchanged by a shop is always going by to be vastly more expensive. The upside being that they're usually required to provide a certain warranty period for repairs. This is not a complicated repair, so you may want to try it yourself.
Unless you have had the battery replaced in the last few years it’s most likely dead. You can use a couple of different apps(Battery Health, Coconut Battery), or even the built in System Info screen to see the charge cycles and condition of the MacBook's battery.
I helped a friend with almost the same identical problem on a system of the same vintage, and it was the battery that was dead. No matter how many times he reset the SMC, it never helped.
As a side note, Apple recommends that you cycle the battery fully at lest once a month to avoid potential problems that can occur form charging the battery to soon in a battery discharge cycle. So if you are always plugging into power when you have only 30% of your battery drained, you could be shortening the life of the battery.
Best Answer
Do you know if the computer is booting? When you click the home button do you hear the start tone. If you think you had the volume muted, you can do a pram reset which will reset the volume settings, etc..If it boots, to figure out if it’s the physical screen or the system, try plugging the computer in an external monitor or a TV to the HDMI port.