⟐ Commented March 27, 2024 at 0:24 MST

1. Reset the SMC
2. Reset the NVRAM
3. Open the bottom of the MBP
   - clean the dust
   - check the batteries (look fine)
   - disconnect the battery
   - press and hold the power button for 10sec
   - connect the charger and press the power button

Unfortunately no luck. There wasn't a single movement of the fans, noice from the speakers or light from screen :-(

From what I understand there should be a faulty Logic Board.
The machine is out of warranty (that's why I did step #3 of the investigation).

1.5years ago I spilled a bit of water on the MBP. Turned it off immediately and wasn't using it for 3 days. On day 4 it was working except the screen, however it wasn't an issue for me as I'm using external screen. For my biggest surprise the screen turned on 2 days later.
Since then I never had any issues with the machine.

After opening it I noticed a tiny erosion (marked on the image) which I cleaned with alcohol

Ordered an USB C Power Meter Tester to check the power.

Wanted to ask for some advice what I should look for as a possible reason for this faulty machine?

I'm pretty handy guy and finished an electronics schools (15 years ago and haven't practices much since then as I focused on Software) so more than happy to dig and try to fix it myself (happy owner of the ifixit pro tech toolkit).

⟐ Commented October 12, 2023 at 22:02 MST

⟐ Commented February 02, 2025 at 21:56 MST

These Macbooks are now around 4-5 years so it's not a bad idea to replace the thermal paste.

They're not obsolute so there will still be users who can benefit from a guide.

Update:

So I was able to open the MacBook and disassemble the motherboard with the video.

Since I'm comfortable around electronics (this isn't my first time opening up a MacBook, laptop, or even a smartphone), I did choose to replace the thermal paste on the cpu and gpu.

And honestly, after four years of service... Kind of disappointed about the original paste. Dan said that paste will last longer now due to improvements, but the original paste was crumbly as hell. Furthermore I noticed small blank spots on the cpu and it's heatsink, so not very good spread. The gpu did have a good spread. They definitely were generous with the paste on the gpu, because its surroundings were covered with paste too.

Cleaning wasn't difficult, as I said the paste was in a very crumbly state.

After cleaning I gave the copper plates of the heatsink and the cpu and gpu some time to evaporate the alcohol.

I used Noctua NT-H2 and used the "X" to spread the paste on both cpu and gpu.

The only annoying experience was to place back the motherboard in the case. I needed multiple attempts because there was always some small connector/ribbon cable underneath the motherboard. Ugh! After playing like an octopus for a while, I was able to place the motherboard back and with all connectors/ribbon cables out on top of it.

It's do-able but only for people who have a steady hand and... most of all... lots and lots of patience. Take your time. Take some breaks if you get tired or frustrated because the moment that you attempt to work a bit faster or anything like that... something will go wrong. I 100% guarantee that.

I made only one mistake. The connector cable from the left fan is incredibely fragile due to its L-shape (that's what I think). In trying to get the L-shape cable from underneath the board to the top on the board, I got a small tear in the ribbon cable. This fan no longer works. We learn from our mistakes. Should've taped the connector on top of the fan, I wouldn't had an issue to "fish" for the cable since it can't get trapped underneath the board that way. Already ordered a replacement fan.

The temperatures are amazing though. In idle I went from 60-63° to 46-51°. The one remaining fan is also a lot quieter. I'm not going to claim this huge difference to the new paste though. There was so much built up dust in the MacBook... I was genuinely surprised that the MacBook didn't have much higher temps in idle. Both fans were completly covered up in thick dust, and the outlets on both fans same thing. How it managed to get some kind of airflow through those thick dust is a mystery to me.

Anyway, I am very happy with the result. Yes, I did damage one fan connector, but one can only learn with making mishaps.

⟐ Commented February 14, 2026 at 4:21 MST

To make it clear i’ll make a description of the issue:

• Click sounds exactly like a metallic spring under tension, only clicks once and sometimes twice.
• Occurs around 30 / 50 degrees angle, always around those two angles.
• Only occurs when CLOSING the lid and when doing it “gently”.
• Sometimes the lid is completely silent when closing and sometimes it clicks every time.
• The clicking has in the last 2 days disappeared on the left side and now only occurs on the right side.
• Display hinge feels 100% smooth and is not loose, feels similar to my 2015 15” in terms of how firm the hinge is.
• The display lid aligns perfectly with the rest of the laptop, does not move or shift when clicking so I could physically feel the click.
• Seems to occur more frequent when the laptop is in colder room temperatures or have been closed during the night.

My guess is that that the spring for the display hinge gets stuck or something around 30*/50* angle which results in a click when it moves, can it be due to insufficient lubrication of the hinge?

Is this a common issue with the 16” since I tested it on two display models in a store and they both made a similar noise.

Is there anyway of fixing it myself? I got AppleCare so if its annoying enough ill bring it in.

⟐ Commented February 02, 2023 at 16:51 MST

my Macbook Pro (16", 2019) was repaired about a 7 months ago - I had the entire bottom replaced. Recently, my laptop has started shutting down when under strain (like playing a video game) - but today it shut down when using google maps. I checked the CPU die temperature and I saw it was 100C from simply starting up and opening chrome. If I leave it on idle for about 20 mins, it gets down to about 55-65C but never lower.

I have just restarted PRAM and the fans aren't blocked. Is there anything I can do to fix this from software? I really don't want to have to bring it in again.

Hey, thanks for the replies, here is the diagnostics when I am idling and literally just have background apps running. For context, I had chrome, terminal, mail, whatsapp and spotify running in the background:

And here it is when I opened photoshop to try and save this image to send to you guys:

It's now back down to ~70C after about 5-10 mins but when I check the die temperature it is consistently 70C even when I'm doing the most mundane tasks like simply opening Chrome. I know Chrome is notorious for using processing power, but this is a (relatively) new computer, especially considering the CPU etc has been replaced when I brought it in for repair last time. Here is the command line die temperature - 90C is when I opened photoshop:

Is this normal? This computer (2019 16") has always seemed to have issues cooling down for me, but 90C when doing simply tasks seems excessive? Then when I try to do something more complicated (like play a game) - its either throttled to be unplayable, or not throttled and my computer shuts down from the heat.

⟐ Answered June 01, 2023 at 3:16 MST

I bought the Macbook Pro June 2020.

Why would a new Macbook Pro not start?

Apple help can't figure it out either.

Can someone help me figure this out!

⟐ Commented August 18, 2024 at 18:44 MST

⟐ Answer edited September 17, 2022 at 10:10 MST

⟐ Answered April 20, 2026 at 4:48 MST

I've torn the lid angle sensor while trying to clean the inside of my computer. I've attempted to work around this by putting the computer to sleep before closing the lid however the screen turns back on as soon as it is closed. Also strange that the screen will stay on indefinitely until the battery is dead, even though i've changed my power savings settings are to turn the display off after one minute of inactivity. Its odd because if the sensor is broken and the computer thinks that it's still open, it should turn off after inactivity. The only solution i've found is to shut the computer off before closing it which is not ideal. Finally, i've found replacement cables online however i've been reading that this will need to be calibrated by a professional? Can anyone confirm if this is true?

Thank You

Thank you all for the wealth of information. Just to provide an update to you all, i made sure to purchase a used angle sensor that was taken from a working computer and replaced it on my own. So far everything works as it should!

⟐ Answered April 22, 2026 at 19:22 MST

Anyway, I assembled everything according to the guide and everything works well, the battery is also great. However, I have just noticed, that even though the power button works, the touch id does not:

Whenever I log into the account after starting the mac, I enter the password, and after some time whenever it goes to sleep I cannot open it with touch id. Additionally, touch ID stopped working with saved passwords in Safari.

Also, whenever I try to add a new fingerprint, I get following error, right after I click add fingerprint and enter the password:

Failed

Unable to complete Touch ID enrollment.

So it does not even allow to put a finger on it. Anyone knows how I can solve this issue? Because power button works.

What I did so far:

• Tried to reset NVRAM and SMC
• Tried to add new fingerprint in Safe Mode
• Visually inspected if the ribbon for touch id and power button is damaged (it is not)
• Tried creating a new user and adding a fingerprint
• Tried running Apple Diagnostics (Control+D on startup) - no hardware failures.

Anyone encountered it and knows about any possible solutions I can try?

Finally found some time to disassemble it, I reconnected everything, as you can see in the images (even though low quality but hopefully good enough), the touch ID does not work and touch id enrolment fails :(

⟐ Commented October 01, 2025 at 3:53 MST

⟐ Commented January 06, 2025 at 11:23 MST

Is it a bad idea to try to replace Macbook Pro 2019 keycaps? Can it be done without damaging the switches?

⟐ Answered November 25, 2021 at 22:44 MST

~1year after I purchased my MacBook pro 16’’ 2019 I started to have this issue of flexgate, It does come and go and sometimes disappear after closing and reopening the lid.

I have contacted Apple support and advise that they need to inspect the product before they can confirm if it’s eligible for free repair or not !!

Now if its a well-known manufacturer error (apple acknowledged that with the backlight program) and this time with a newer model that supposed to be fixed already! what should do?

also, they told me that there is some product lines/patch came with this issues!! meaning another acknowledgment that this flexgate issue still threatening all newer models!

note: product purchased in Australia

⟐ Commented May 10, 2021 at 5:02 MST

So I thought I would ask here. Surely if I buy a 16” MacBook Pro I can partition the drive and install Mojave on the system right?. I really don’t want to use a VM which is what the official apple answers crew is telling people to do, I would rather run it natively. There surely has to be a way. I know some say “the graphics won’t be supported” but if we can inject graphics drivers into a hackintosh surely we can figure out a way around installing Mojave on a 16” MacBook

⟐ Commented April 04, 2020 at 8:40 MST

I took it apart, carefully removed the keyboard backlight (there’s a flex cable covering the ESC key area that needs to be disconnected first) and removed all visible screws - 20 or so. The rest of the keyboard is held in place with rivets, just like the 2015’s. I pulled out the old keyboard (using pliers), and then tried removing the left-over rivets. However.. That doesn’t appear to work: removing the rivets does not leave holes where you can then screw new screws in. Instead the rivets simply break off.

Thus I simply put the new keyboard in place, and used a dab of superglue on every rivet. To keep the keyboard pressed down I needed something heavy that wouldn’t cover too much of the keyboard, and settled on AA batteries - see the attached picture. I’ll assemble the Macbook again tomorrow when the glue is fully dry and report the results.

I put it back together today and it works perfectly. So this post is just for anybody on Google who wants to know if it’s doable to replace just the keyboard on the 16” Macbook Pro - yes it is.

⟐ Commented December 29, 2023 at 7:41 MST

Before the fan replacement, battery was in excellent condition and no issue

How should I fix this? Do I need to buy a new connector cable?

⟐ Answer accepted March 27, 2023 at 5:21 MST

I was watching Youtube when this started happening.

It's had some weird graphics issues in the past (horizontal green lines), but this seems different. Is this a GPU issue or a display issue?

⟐ Commented January 11, 2023 at 18:20 MST

Also is it worthwhile to repaste the thermal solution? I have worked with desktop computers before so have the tools but not sure if its needed for mac.

⟐ Commented February 20, 2022 at 1:30 MST

I restarted macOS, installed last updates, went through macOS diagnostic (no issues found afterwards), reset NVRAM, nothing helps.

I don’t think its software issue, since it’s crackling even on startup screen sound. Mac still under warranty, but I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe somebody faces this issue before

⟐ Commented November 10, 2021 at 6:15 MST