My Mac won’t start

Is it asleep?

Your Mac may have crashed while it was sleeping. Hold the power button until it shuts down with a faint clunk. After a few seconds, power it on again.

Check power

When you press the power button, is there a start-up chime, whirring, lights, a faint glow on the screen? If not, is the power cable securely connected? Is the mains socket switched on? Swap sockets. If you have another compatible power cable, try it. If not, swap the fuse in the plug.

No display

If the Mac shows life but the screen stays dark, is it a separate monitor? Check its power and data cables. Check its menu options, including input selection. If you haven’t used it before, use Google to check compatibility with your Mac. If it’s a built-in screen, and not a known issue (see below), reset the SMC (see page 24).

I can’t log in

If your Mac won’t accept your usual name and password when you try to log back in (or automatically log in at startup), try to log in as a different user, if you have more than one account set up. Then go to System Preferences’ Users & Groups pane and check on the problematic account. If you can’t get into any account or have forgotten your admin account’s password, there are ways to reset any user account’s password: see bit.ly/mfrstpw for instructions.