There are lots of reasons why your MacBook Air might not turn on, and this procedure only rules out a single, but very common root cause. We’ve talked about this topic before on the Beetstech Blog last time covering the MacBook Pro Unibody product line. If you’re looking for power on pad info for the MacBook Pro Unibody models follow this link. Apple was generous enough to design an integrated method for bypassing the power button on all MacBook logic boards. Below I’ll show you how to use the power pads, as well as provide high-res reference photos of the locations of these power pads on each individual release of the MacBook Air.

If your MacBook won’t power on, there’s an easy way to determine if the problem lies with the power button or with another component in the laptop.

Is it the power button? Logic board? Something else? Whatever you call them, there are two bits of metal on your MacBook logic board that can force your laptop to boot up, even if the power button won’t do the trick. They go by “jumper pads”, “short-circuit pads”, “power pads”, and “power-on pads”.

Macbook pro 13 logic board power pads