To reset the SMC, Apple has detailed out how you can do that here at this link. The instructions varies depending on your Mac type and model. I was also advised to reset the Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM) as well.

After describing the issue to them, almost immediately, they said that this is likely to be an issue with the System Management Controller (SMC) which manages the power flows on your Mac and I should reset it. Which as suggested by the article, I contacted Apple Support and live chatted with them on this.Īpparently, this issue isn’t unknown by the support folks. This simply points to an issue with the power supply to the SSD. And in my case, when I then plugged in the power, I was able to boot up my MacBook. That’s not my case as my MacBook was not starting up at all, likely because it can’t find the SSD drive. And as I suspected, it means your Mac can’t find its system software. The page then suggests that if it only flashes for a few seconds, and then boot up, that means that the Mac is still able to find the system disk but it was perhaps no longer the startup disk. When I tried googling for this, I stumbled upon Apple’s support page on exactly this: If a flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac. Then when I try to start it up again, I get the flashing folder icon. When that happens, my MacBook would freeze and I had to then hold on to the power button to force shutdown the MacBook. It seems that the SSD would suddenly power off when I left my MacBook idle for a while, likely due to the energy saving settings. Initially, I thought that my MacBook might somehow have gotten damaged when the they replaced the display.

I had this problem right after I got back my MacBook from Apple’s service center for a replacement of a defective display. If you’re reading this post, I’m assuming that you too have the same flashing folder with a question mark appearing on your Mac. If a flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac? Read on…

Macbook blinking question mark