Tag: macbook

Early 2015 13″ MacBook Pro Retina Won’t Power On

It worked fine prior to vacation, never used it while away, schlepped it in computer bag, only removed from bag at airport security on the way there, and again on the way back.

I know the bag didn’t get too hot because my candy bars didn’t melt :-).
Plugged it back in on its stand the next day and nothing happened when I pressed the power button.

What, I’ve done so far:

  • Opened the back, unplugged battery, can boot with battery disconnected while plugged into power, but runs slow due to no battery.
    Thought maybe battery went bad even though it only had 3xx cycles, so bought iFixit kit and replaced the battery.

  • Still would not power up. Displayed the battery as made in 1979 at that time.

  • Watched Louis Rossmann video and cleaned out JTAG connector, booted normally, ONCE, after that, with full speed and good readings on CoconutBattery, (battery made in March 2020, 1 cycle).

The motherboard is not dirty at all, it lives on my desk on a stand, except when on vacation, but thought I saw small bits of solder between legs on JTAG under microscope, used tweezers to clean. Would like to remove the connector, but don’t really have the equipment to do so, it is way smaller than the boards I used to rework for Seagate back in the early 90s.

Issues before and after battery replacement have been somewhat intermittent in terms of power connector LED and CoconutBattery readings.
I have removed and reseated the part the MagSafe connector, connects to (power module?). It’s not dirty.

I would hate to replace the logic board, but sending it for repair would be a similar cost to replacing it.

What can I do to fix this problem?

Why is my external HDD failing to mount on my MacBook?

All of my MacBook Pro 13″ 2017 backups are kept on my Toshiba External HDD. I decided to update my MacBook to macOS Big Sur developer beta (because I am a dev) and test it out. I backed my MacBook up onto my external hard drive before installing macOS 11 Big Sur beta, expecting to be able to use it just in case I need to go back to macOS Catalina.

After I installed the beta:

Just about a half a week ago, after using the drive completely fine in macOS Big Sur, I plugged in my external hard drive and found that it did not appear on my desktop or in Finder. I opened Disk Utility to find that the disk was displayed as not mounted. I tried to click Mount, which was not greyed out, and I received an error that the disk could not be mounted:

Could not mount “TOSHIBA EXT”. (com.apple.DiskManagement.disenter error 0.)

I automatically assumed that this was just a bug in the new beta update and I reported it to Apple. However, I soon came to find out it was also happening on another MacBook Air that has macOS Catalina 10.14.2 installed. So it was obviously not the beta, it was the disk.

Why exactly did this happen on a disk that was working perfectly fine the day before? Was the disk affected by something in the macOS Big Sur beta or is it a completely unrelated issue? I was searching for solutions for this issue and found that it was somewhat common, and that people recommend using DiskWarrior to repair the disk, however, I cannot justify spending $100 to repair a disk when I might as well just buy a newer and faster SSD. Are there any other cheaper and even free solutions to this?

And in terms of data, I do not have data on the disk that is vital except for my MacBook Pro backups, which I was hoping to have on hand if something went wrong. If I bought a new drive, could I back up that from macOS Big Sur, erase Big Sur and install Catalina with the data from Big Sur?

network – Ethernet adapters conversion from MacBook Air (Mid 2012, 13″) to MacBook Pro (Late 2019, 16″)

So I’ve just bought the latest MacBook Pro (late 2019, 16″) and bumped into the common issue of not finding 1 piece of Ethernet adapter. I want to use only Apple made adapters, so I’m left with the option of buying Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Ethernet adapter AND the Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter and daisy chain them.
So, since I’ve been using MacBook Air (mid 2012, 13″), I already own an Ethernet to Thunderbolt adapter (Apple made).
The only thing that I’m still not certain about is – does the adapter I already have use Thunderbolt 1 or Thunderbolt 2?
According to Apple’s spec, MacBook Air (mid 2012, 13″) has Thunderbolt 1, but I have a feeling it’s actually Thunderbolt 2, because when I look at system’s preference, I see that the thunderbolt connection throughput is 10GB/s * 2 (written exactly like that – * 2!) So.. 10*2 is 20, and 20GB/s is equivalent to Thunderbolt 2, right?
I also tried to read the specs of the Ethernet to TB adapter I have, but it doesn’t mention which TB it is!

Bottom line: can I simply purchase the TB2 to TB3 adapter and chain it to the current Ethernet to TBx (x=1/2, I don’t know!) I already have?
Thanks!

macOS Catalina: Install Slows and Errors on MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012)

For around 6 months I had intermittent issues with my MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012) where it was randomly ending up on the folder with a question mark icon, or the no-entry icon.

It used a 250GB Samsung 840 SSD – which I had installed in 2014 – and I figured it must have finally been at its end-of-life.

I’ve replaced it with a 1TB Crucial MX500 SSD; the swap went smoothly and as expected.

Now, I’m having problems installing macOS Catalina at all.

After installing the new drive I did the following steps:

  1. Downloaded the latest macOS Catalina from the App Store on my iMac
  2. Created a new Catalina Install drive using Terminal createinstallmedia
  3. Booted from the USB on the MacBook Pro
  4. Formatted the drive to APFS in DiskUtility
  5. Used the macOS install button, accepting terms etc..

The installer gets to around 50% normally (in around 5 minutes), but then it slows down dramatically, with the estimated time floating around 5-7 minutes constantly. The loading bar continues to move incredibly slowly (using the ol’ cursor on the boundary of the loaded section to track progress).

This goes on for well over an hour, and at around 70% it fails with the error:

An error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again.

I’ve taken the following troubleshooting steps so far:

  1. Reset SMC
  2. Reset NVRAM, PRAM
  3. Recreated the install USB pendrive
  4. Re-recreated the install usb on another USB pendrive
  5. Used different USB ports
  6. Online-recovery (defaults to Mountain Lion, which got all the way through the progress bar then loads to a folder with a question mark at mid-install auto-reboot)
  7. Cloning the old Samsung SSD to the new Crucial SSD in DiskUtility
  8. Numerous power-cycles, and letting the machine sit for a bit etc.
  9. Run health-checks on the old and new SSDs, both return no issues

The machine had otherwise been running great. Fast as always with no known issues with RAM, or battery life, etc.. I can’t think of what else to try at this point.

The machine’s also in near-new condition, it’s been very well looked after. All the ports etc are clean and in good working order, as are the charge cables.

There are no Apple stores or authorised repair centres where I live (boat/flight required for the closest, which isn’t an option due to Covid lockdown).

Any ideas on what to try next would be greatly appreciated, I’d very much like to see this MacBook working again.

Many Thanks

Craig

install fail point
point where install slows drastically

battery – MacBook Pro randomly discharges from 100% to ~90% when plugged

My 15 inch 2018 Mac Book Pro with Mojave 10.14 randomly starts draining battery when plugged in. When I try to move the cable, change the power cable to a different USB slot nothing helps. The battery indicator is in charging state, but when pressed, it says “Not charging”. After some time, when it gets to 88-92% it suddenly starts charging again.
I noticed that this happens independently of loads. Once or twice a day. This can happen when 2 IDE, browsers windows, media player are running simultaneously, and when it is in idle state showing only desktop. I’m using native 85Watt charging block and cable.

boot – Booting Ubuntu 18.04 64Bit on Macbook 2,1 – wont load but 32bit has

I have a 2006 Macbook 2,1 Intel Duel core 2 Ghz processors T7200

Everything I have read suggests I should be able to run Ubuntu 18.04 64Bit, but it wont boot from DVD. I get a black screen where it ask to select 1 or 2, but i can’t select anything and have t force shutdown. .

I have been able to boot Ubuntu 18.04 32 Bit.

Is it something to do with BIOS and EFI types?

This is my first time booting anything and first time using Ubuntu also.

battery – 2011 Macbook Pro 15″ keeps eating batteries

I have an ancient 2011 MBP that keeps destroying batteries. I had the logic board replaced in 2016 for the integrated graphics recall, FWIW. I just replaced the current batt with one from OWC (NewerTech brand), and bought a new 85w Apple mag-safe charger at the same time.

This same scenario has happened 4 times now. The charge in the battery gets low, and the Macbook won’t power on anymore. I plug it in, and the magsafe charger light stays green. After starting the machine, it says “Battery not charging” in the status bar.

No amount of SMC resets, pulling / disconnecting the battery, or PRAM resets solve the problem. I’ve only ever been able to fix this by replacing the battery with a new one. Anyone else having this problem?

macbook pro – How to disable the “Your trackpad is wirelessly connected to this Mac” notification?

So I have a 2019 Macbook Pro connected to a Caldigit TS3 Plus dock. Connected to that I have a Magic Trackpad 2 via USB cable (to charge it). It is a Bluetooth device. Every time I connected my MBP to this docking station I get this stupid notification:

Your trackpad is wirelessly connected to this Mac

And I can’t for the life of me figure out how to disable this. There’s no Bluetooth setting for the device. Clicking on “Settings” takes you to the Bluetooth System Preferences. There’s nothing I can see under Notifications Systems Preferences that pertains to this.

Now I should also mention that I connect TWO different MBPs to this same docking station and it seems like only when I change laptops does this come up but I’m not 100% sure about that (as in, I’m not 100% certain it doesn’t show up when I power the same laptop on or wake it up).

I’m actually shocked that a Google search for “Your trackpad is wirelessly connected to this Mac” (including quotes) has exactly 0 matches.