Zachary Lunte

A while back I took the 2018 ACMT exam via Pearson Vue using a Tech ID, having first worked through the ATLAS training...

We opened up this machine to inspect the internals and found this strange tube floating freely inside the system. It was...

Machine was unable to power on. I tried an SMC reset, and the charger light changed so I know it went through and that the...

The machine has failed in a way that makes it unusable (shuts off when in use, soon after powering on). I believe the...

When connected to a 12W wall charger the iPad will power on and show the Apple logo for about 5 to 8 seconds and then it...

The main issue here is that sometimes during boot up it fails and shows the prohibitory symbol (circle with slash through...

The machine itself will not power on. I have tried an SMC reset, but it had no effect. I’ve tried multiple chargers in all...

I recently replaced the top case on a MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015). The original top case had sticky keys and I...

I’m assuming the issue is caused by a damaged display and that I would need to replace the display assembly to resolve the...

The machine was not charging - charger LED remains black when connected to the machine (tried multiple known good...

Here are a few articles from Apple which may be helpful: If your Mac doesn’t turn on If your Mac doesn’t start up all the way How to reset the SMC of your Mac If you aren’t able to power on your system using these tips, you may have a faulty battery, charger, or DC-In board. To figure out the cause you’ll need to do some troubleshooting or take it in to a repair shop.

If you don’t want to use your optical drive you can remove it using this guide. If you just want to leave it unplugged I would recommend putting some anti-static tape around the head of the optical drive cable and then using the anti-static tape to tape it down so it doesn’t move around internally.

Regarding the two volumes that show up in Disk Utility, macOS Catalina introduced a new system volume which you can read about here. It sounds like the OS was damaged during the attempted software update. Since First Aid is not able to resolve the issue, I would recommend attempting to reinstall macOS. Here are some instructions to help you reinstall macOS on your computer. If you just need to backup your data you may need to boot into a bootable external drive running a similar version of macOS - from there you might be able to access the data on the internal drive. I hope this helps!

A similar issue was posted Horizontal line on top of the display. My best guess is that the TCON board is damaged, possibly due to overheating as mentioned in the other post. As far as I know this would require replacing the display assembly to resolve since the TCON board is integrated into the display.

As a low budget solution you can get an external case/cover or a sticker to cover it up! Check here for ideas.

Try using an 85W charger instead of a 60W. The 60W charger is not designed for the 15-inch MBP.

I would suspect the display cable has failed. This is a known issue with the 2016-2019 USB-C model laptops commonly referred to as “Flexgate.” Apple has a service program that I would recommend taking advantage of if you can. The service program only officially covers one two 2016 models, but the same design defect is known to be present in the 2017 models. Here is the link to the service program. It may also be worth contacting an Apple Authorized Service Provider and talking to them about the issue.

This is a risky model to upgrade - the 15-inch 2011 MBPs have a known problem where the GPU tends to fail after so many years of use. It’s very possible that after replacing the hard drive and the display the GPU could go out, which would render the computer unusable. That being said, if you want to replace the hard drive I would recommend a Western Digital or Samsung SSD. Replacing the display is typically a bit more expensive and might not be worth the investment on an older model, but you can find options on eBay and other online retailers. You can also work around this by using an external monitor which may be cheaper to acquire. Hope this answer helps!

Problems with the trackpad or cables that route through the trackpad can cause power on issues. If you suspect any of these cables are damaged that could be a good place to start troubleshooting.

My guess is that it will take a while for the guides for this model to be created. Since guides are often user created it can take a while for newer machines. Maybe you can use the motivation to make a guide for the rest of us!