2017 MacBook - intermittant black screen

[wayne_rowley]

Hi there,

My daughter has a 2017 MacBook (birthday present last summer). A couple of months ago she was using it and the screen suddenly went black. The laptop was still on (keyboard lit, making noses when hitting enter key etc.) but no display.

I called Apple Support. They suggested resetting NVRAM and SMC which I did. The display did not come back immediately, but after leaving the laptop with the lid closed for 30 minutes it came back, and has been working as expected since then.

Until this morning, when it has done it again!

I did the resets again, and the screen came on after the SMC reset/reboot, but went off again as soon as I hit the Mac OS log in screen. I called Apple again, and we were about to arrange for it to be collected for repair, when it sprang into life (again, after the lid being closed for about 20 minutes) and is working.

Running Mojave 10.14.6. Will upgrading to Catalina help do you think, or is this likely hardware?

I suspect a loose connection somewhere, but I know if I send it for repair and all is working they will do nothing!

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Wayne

 

[Mike Boreham]

As you say, sounds very much like hardware. If your report empahasizes intermittency and refers to the calls to Applecare they wont just send it back NFF. I have had similar less clear cut cases where they fixed it.

You could try running Apple Diagnostics on it but because of intermittency nothing may be found.

 

[mbdownunder]

I agree that it sounds like a hardware issue. Still, I would update it to Catalina just in case it actually is a software issue.

 

[wayne_rowley]

Thanks. It’s on Catalina now, and it hasn’t displayed the problem, but it’s far to early to tell.

If it does it again though, it’s going to Apple.

wayne

 

[wayne_rowley]

For information, it was indeed a hardware issue. Apple have now replaced the screen assembly and all is good.


Wayne