It's less than 2 years old, and it has been used very, very lightly. It's an Apple Refurb 15" that I got in December 2018. It has never been bumped or dropped.

The issue is that for a few days now, it has had trouble powering on. Last night and just now I got it to power on after doing an SMC reset. But I had to do that twice this morning. Once it's on, it runs normally, as far as I can tell. Any thoughts on what the problem might be?

---

My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2020 10:07AM by ka jowct.

What's the battery-status? Any message under the battery menu or anything weird stand out in the "Power" section of the System Information app?

---

This is what's in the system report. I have Power Nap off now. I also turned off a couple of the other sleep options after the first failure to power on.


Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: D868356N04ZFWLKF7
Manufacturer: SMP
Device Name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0
PCB Lot Code: 0
Firmware Version: 702
Hardware Revision: 1
Cell Revision: 3241
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 8848
Fully Charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8968
Health Information:
Cycle Count: 4
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -2
Voltage (mV): 12899

System Power Settings:

AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 30
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 30
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake on LAN: Yes
AutoPowerOff Delay: 28800
AutoPowerOff Enabled: 1
Current Power Source: Yes
DarkWakeBackgroundTasks: 0
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
GPUSwitch: 2
Hibernate Mode: 3
PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep: 0
Standby Delay: 10800
Standby Enabled: 1
TCPKeepAlivePref: 1
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 1
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 2
Wake on AC Change: No
Wake on Clamshell Open: Yes
AutoPowerOff Delay: 28800
AutoPowerOff Enabled: 1
DarkWakeBackgroundTasks: 0
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
GPUSwitch: 2
Hibernate Mode: 3
Reduce Brightness: No
Standby Delay: 10800
Standby Enabled: 1
TCPKeepAlivePref: 1

Hardware Configuration:

UPS Installed: No

AC Charger Information:

Connected: Yes
ID: 0x0aa1
Wattage (W): 85
Family: 0x0085
Serial Number: 0x01035189
Charging: No

---

My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2020 10:47AM by ka jowct.

Is the trouble that it just won't start when you push the power button?

Is the startup disk selected?

Startup disk is selected. It just won't respond to the power button. Which seems like a hardware thing that should not be happening.

---

My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2020 12:13PM by ka jowct.

Any accessories attached to it: external drive, external keyboard, dongle, monitor, or other?

Ethernet adapter, but the result is the same, with or without it. Just now it would not wake from sleep. I had turned off "Prevent computer from sleeping" to see what would happen. A bunch of trackpad clicks resulted in the screen getting slightly lighter for a moment; eventually the Apple logo appeared, as if at startup, but no progress bar appeared. Had to do a hard restart, but it did come back on via the power button this time. None of this behavior happened before this week.

---

My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2020 12:42PM by ka jowct.

Hmmm. There's lots of voodoo we could throw at it, but nothing stands out.

If it's a critical machine, I'd take it in.

Four cycles!!

That's VERY light use in two years!!

...Yeah. Something's weird.

Try running the built-in Apple Hardware Test: Hold down "D" on the keyboard at boot-time.

---

Very good idea.

Quote
Sarcany
Four cycles!!

That's VERY light use in two years!!

...Yeah. Something's weird.

Try running the built-in Apple Hardware Test: Hold down "D" on the keyboard at boot-time.

Thanks, everyone. Will try the hardware test before taking it anywhere.

---

My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals

Quote
Sarcany
Four cycles!!

That's VERY light use in two years!!

...Yeah. Something's weird.

Try running the built-in Apple Hardware Test: Hold down "D" on the keyboard at boot-time.

Yeah, sounds like a replacement battery. I bought a cheap replacement battery for an old MacBook off eBay, and the capacity is pretty good, but the MacBook doesn’t wake up right now, even after SMA and PRAM resets.

Doesn’t bother me too much, since I’m only holding on to this MacBook becuz it’s not worth much and I have a specific use where it doesn’t need battery...but I think some aftermarket batteries may do this kind of thing...

It's the battery that was in there when I bought it. According to Apple, as I discovered yesterday, this refurbished model was part of the group that got recalled due to battery issues and has been serviced as part of the recall. So in theory, they put in a good battery before they sold it as a refurb. This battery is not one that I want to try to replace myself.

---

My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals