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How does my MacBook power on?

1. Once you connect MagSafe power adapter to the Mac, the System Management Controller (SMC) will talk to the chip on the MagSafe and the green light turns on.

2. The charging circuit receives power from the Magsafe and starts charging the battery if it is not fully charged and the orange light turns on.

3. Once you press the power button and this action is detected by the SMC, several different power rails will be created.

4. The memory module (RAM) receives power first, followed by the CPU, hard drive, DVD drive, and graphics chip.

5. The SMC will check all the power rails. If everything is fine, the SMC will send a “reset” signal to the CPU.

6. Upon receiving the reset signal, the CPU will read and execute the BIOS/EFI codes, performing a Power-On-Self-Test (POST). The BIOS/EFI is a collection of hardware-specific codes stored in a read-only chip. All Mac computer models have their own unique BIOS/EFI. The macOS talks to BIOS/EFI and BIOS/EFI talks to the specific hardware, so the same version of macOS can be run on different MacBook models (different hardware).

7. The Mac will chime and display the Apple logo. Your Mac will then commence loading the Apple macOS software from the hard disk to the memory.

8. When your Mac finishes loading the macOS, the control will be past to you, the Mac user. Enjoy using your Mac and stay away from the Mac’s arch-enemy: your DRINK

How does my MacBook power on? (For power users)

1. Once you connect MagSafe to the Mac, the System Management Controller (SMC) will read code from the chip on the MagSafe connector to identify the specific charger type it is connected to. The charger outputs a preset voltage (14.5/16.5/18.5/20) with a 1-second delay after the connection is stabilized and charger type identified. The green light then turns on.

2. The charging circuit will receive power from MagSafe. SMC reads the chip on the battery to get the battery status to determine the charging current. If the battery is empty then high current will be applied (fast charging mode). The current will be gradually reduced when the battery is near full. The orange light turns on while the battery is being charged. Once the battery is full charged the green light will turn on again and no more current will be sent to the battery. It is safe to connect MagSafe all the time while you are working on your Mac as it will not overcharge and therefore damage a fully charged battery. In fact, some GPUs will not run at full power until a charger is connected.

3. Once you press the power button and this action is detected by SMC, SMC will pass the message to the Platform Controller Hub (PCH). PCH will switch on power management chips to create several different voltage power rails for different devices. More than 50% of faulty logic boards are related to one or more missing or unstable power rails.

4. The memory module (RAM) will receive the power first followed by the CPU, hard drive, DVD drive, graphics chip, screen, sound card, and a WiFi card.

5. All power rails report to SMC by sending PG (power good) signals. The SMC will shut down all power rails if any of them fails to send a PG signal. A large number of voltage and current sensing circuits in addition to other protective circuits are implemented in the MacBook logic board as safety measures. As a result, a lot more components (IC, transistor, resistor, capacitor, and inductor) are used on the Macbook logic board than other brand names of laptop. If everything is OK, SMC will send a “reset” signal to the CPU.

6. Upon receiving a reset signal, the CPU will load BIOS/EFI codes (Hardware specific codes stored in the ROM chip) to the memory module and execute the Power-On-Self-Test (POST) codes. After POST, all devices including the hard drive, optical drive, USB, sound, WiFi, and GPU will be initialized and ready to go.

7. The Mac will chime and activate the screen back-light. The CPU then executes the BIOS/EFI input/output codes to access bootable devices such as a hard drive and searches for operating system loader. If no hard drive is found or the hard drive does not have a loader, a question mark will be displayed. If a loader is found, the Apple logo will be displayed. The CPU then executes the loader and loads the rest of Apple’s macOS software on your Mac. You will see a loading progress bar while macOS being loaded (older OSX versions show a rotating gear).

8. The loader loads the core macOS first followed by application and hardware drivers. MacBooks with graphics issues usually start going wrong at 2/3rds of the loading progress bar, which corresponds to the moment the graphics driver is being loaded and executed.

9. Upon finishing loading, control is passed to macOS and macOS then passes control to you. Now you can control the machine by keyboard, mouse, and voice commands (on macOS Sierra or newer). You are now free to use your Mac while keeping it away from it’s worst enemy: your DRINK

Read more: How does a MacBook power on? (For computer technicians).

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