But if you still can’t power on the computer after bypassing the power button, you won’t have spent much time or effort and your list of possibilities will have shrunk by one. The power button ticks both of those boxes for us and ruling it out early could very well get you your diagnosis in a matter of minutes. If there’s a component that fails more frequently than others or if the computer’s layout provides quick, easy access to a component, you should prioritize eliminating those possibilities first. There are probably quite a few ways you could damage this connection if you were creative enough, but we typically find either corrosion from a liquid spill damaged the keyboard connector on the logic board, or the keyboard flex cable was damaged from repeatedly attempting (and failing) to insert the cable.ĭiagnosing hardware issues is a simple process of elimination, and to make the most efficient use of your time, you should first target the possibilities that give you the best bang for your buck. The power button is connected to the logic board via the same 30-pin or 40-pin cable as the rest of the keyboard, and of those pins, only two are necessary for the signal to travel from the power button to the logic board.

There are countless reasons why your MacBook Pro might not turn on, and this procedure only rules out a single, but very common root cause. We’ve talked about this before on the Beetstech Blog. If you’re looking for info on MacBook Air models follow this link. Below I’ll show you how to use the power pads, as well as provide high-res reference photos of the locations of the power pads for each release of the MacBook Pro Unibody laptops. This procedure takes only minutes, in the end, you’ll either have diagnosed the issue in only a few minute’s time or you’ll have quickly ruled out one of the common issues that prevent a MacBook Pro from turning on.Īpple was generous enough to design an integrated method for bypassing the power button on all MacBook logic boards. If your MacBook Pro won’t power on, there’s an easy way to determine if the power button is to blame.

Macbook pro 2008 motherboard