Mac Won’t Turn On After Installing Monterey

Several users have said that their Mac won’t turn on after installing macOS Monterey. Users have further said that, when they push the power button, nothing happens like no fans are running, no lights are blinking, the screen is black and the Mac seems dead.

It appears that the Monterey update may brick some older Mac models, leaving users with an unresponsive computer. This article explains how you can resolve this problem.

Obviously, this is a serious problem. Please note that several users also experienced a similar issue with Big Sur.

Basic steps

The first step is to follow these tips to try to turn on your Mac.

• On your Mac, press and hold the power button for about 10 seconds and then release the power button. And then press the power button normally to start your Mac.
• Unplug all external devices and peripherals, and then try to turn your Mac on.
• Reset the PRAM or NVRAM and then try again.
• Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) and then try again.
• Use macOS Recovery to turn on your Mac. Press and hold the power button for about 10 seconds until your Mac is turned off. Press the power button and immediately press and hold both Command and R (if it is an Intel Mac) and use these instructions if you have a Mac with Apple silicon. In macOS Recovery, use Disk Utility to repair your startup disk.
• Try to restart your Mac in Safe Mode.

Revive your Mac

If your Mac is still bricked by the Monterey update, you may need to revive or restore your Mac with Apple Configurator. Please note that these steps only apply if you have an unresponsive Intel-based Mac with an Apple T2 Security Chip. More specifically, these models may be affected by this problem:

• iMac (2020)
• Mac Pro (2019)
• Mac mini (2018)
• iMac Pro (2017)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018)
• MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
• MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020)
• MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018)

You will need a second Mac with macOS 10.15.6 or later running. If you do not have this, go to an Apple Store, and they may be able to do this revive process for you. You will need to install Apple Configurator 2 on this second Mac.

Use the steps only after trying the basic steps above.

If you would like to do this, please follow Apple’s documentation. This document explains how you can boot your Mac into DFU Mode using Apple Configurator by connecting two Macs so you can revive or restore the unresponsive Mac. These steps:

Since there are two Macs, we will call the unresponsive one the first Mac and the other one the second Mac.

1. Install the Apple Configurator 2 on the second Mac.
2. Connect the Macs by plugging them together with a USB-C to USB-C charge cable.
3. Launch Apple Configurator 2 on the second Mac.
4. Depending on the Mac model you are trying to revive or restore, restart the first Mac by following a special key sequence. This is explained in the Apple documentation.
5. In Apple Configurator 2, select DFU and go to Actions > Advanced > Revive Device. And follow the onscreen instructions. If this is successful, then you are done. You can now turn on your unresponsive Mac. Disconnect the Macs. If you want, you can reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery.
6. However, if this does not work, you may need to restore by going to DFU > Actions > Restore, then click Restore. And follow the onscreen instructions. After the restore, again open macOS Recovery (by using the Shift-Option-Command-R keys at startup) and reinstall macOS.

See also:

• macOS Monterey Install or Update Problems? How to Fix