2017 MacBook Pro 15-inch Touchbar won't power on after random glitch

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30 points

2017 MacBook Pro 15-inch Touchbar won't power on after random glitch

My 2017 mac book pro 15 inch touchbar was randomly glitching when suddenly it logged out. then it shut off and will not turn on again. the battery was charging at 90 precent when it happened. i tried multiple different cables and outlets and ports on the machine, nothing. i opened it up and disconnected the battery then tried powering it up with just wall power, nothing, not even a fan twitch. zero signs of life whatsoever. there was quite alot of cat hair and dust inside.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: How do I fix force closures of built-in iPhone apps due to full memory?

Posted on Mar 17, 2026 4:25 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 17, 2026 12:40 PM in response to Duder967

It sounds like it is dead.

Did you disconnect both the Battery flex cable as well as the T5 BMU screw beneath the flex cable? Both need to be done to completely disconnect the Battery.

FYI, this laptop should power on with the battery disconnected....it may not actually get far booting though since performance will be terrible, but this is irrelevant for your current issue. Also, the fans on these USB-C Macs don't spin up at power on like the older laptops. You may be able to tell by the amount of heat on the heatsink whether the laptop has powered on or not since there are no other methods to tell unless the Caps Lock LED lights up when pressed.

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Answer 2

Duder967 Author

Level 1

30 points

Mar 17, 2026 1:10 PM in response to HWTech

i pulled out the motherboard and gave it a good blow off to get all the cat hair and dust off and now it powers on but it doesn't see the battery which is fuly charged and properly connected and 3 of the four usb c ports won’t work either. is it possible that static electricity from cat hair shorted something out? or is it just power rail failure.

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Answer 3

Mar 22, 2026 11:11 AM in response to Duder967

Duder967 wrote:

i pulled out the motherboard and gave it a good blow off to get all the cat hair and dust off and now it powers on but it doesn't see the battery which is fuly charged and properly connected and 3 of the four usb c ports won’t work either. is it possible that static electricity from cat hair shorted something out? or is it just power rail failure.

It is just a hardware failure. If one of the USB-C ports fails/damaged, then it can prevent all of the other ports from powering on the laptop due to how the ports are tied together on the MLB. There is no way to know what happened unless corrosion is found on a component of the contacts of the USB-C ports, or a forensic analysis of the MLB is performed.

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