Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple expert needed for help diagnosing problem with 13" MBP

I

Imola Ghost

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 21, 2009
1,153
12
I'm fairly new to Mac's and have had this 13" MBP since July of 2009. I've noticed that my laptop will display a black screen and will not respond until I hold the power button and then restart it. Last week I sent it to Apple repair which they had it for a week and could not duplicate the problem. So it was sent back to me un-repaired. I honestly feel as though there is something wrong because at first I thought it wasn't waking up from sleep mode. However since getting the laptop back on Friday I have be paying attention to what's going on.

Since I thought it was a sleep issue, I thought if I went into the System Preferences, Energy Saver and from there I changed both the Battery & Power Adapter settings to NEVER, to keep it from going into Sleep Mode. Well after a little while the laptop will go to the black screen like I've been experiencing but why is the screen going black if I don't have it set to ever going to sleep?

I've recorded a video with my iphone of what the laptop looks like and how it won't respond. Can anyone help diagnose this issue as I've already had no luck with the Apple repair center.
 
How often does this happen, what are you doing when this happens anything specific or is it completely random. I would think it is a problem with the 9400M, if it is rare enough you can live with it do that. It should be covered by your warranty but youd have to be able to duplicate the problem.

Try re instal of OS? Are you on 10.6 or 10.5?
 
ARF900 said:
How often does this happen, what are you doing when this happens anything specific or is it completely random. I would think it is a problem with the 9400M, if it is rare enough you can live with it do that. It should be covered by your warranty but youd have to be able to duplicate the problem.

Try re instal of OS? Are you on 10.6 or 10.5?
Click to expand...



It happens randomly. I can leave my laptop on, leave the room for a few minutes and there's the black screen. It seems to happen after it sits and not as I'm working on the computer.

I'm on Snow Leopard 10.6.2

Like I've said, it's random but does happen ofter enough to be a problem that I cannot live with.

I will try reinstalling the OS and see how it goes from there. Do you think I should completely slick the hard drive and manually import my files or do a Time Machine back up? I don't want to import something that is possibly corrupted.
 
Call me old school, but I don't believe that re-installing the OS is the cure all that a lot of the people now-a-days seem to think it is. Reinstalling the OS is a Windows cure all, the Mac OS doesn't have the problems like the Registry, etc. that Windows has and consequently for the Mac a OS reinstall should be used as a last resort.

I think that before you try anything as extreme as the OS reinstall that you might want to try zapping the PRAM. You might want to try the SMC reset that I linked to earlier. IMHO.
 
DewGuy1999 said:
Call me old school, but I don't believe that re-installing the OS is the cure all that a lot of the people now-a-days seem to think it is. Reinstalling the OS is a Windows cure all, the Mac OS doesn't have the problems like the Registry, etc. that Windows has and consequently for the Mac a OS reinstall should be used as a last resort.

I think that before you try anything as extreme as the OS reinstall that you might want to try zapping the PRAM. You might want to try the SMC reset that I linked to earlier. IMHO.
Click to expand...

As Windows matures too, reinstalling is becoming much less of a cure-all as well, sans spyware issues.

I'd take it to an Apple store and show them the video.
 
DewGuy1999 said:
Call me old school, but I don't believe that re-installing the OS is the cure all that a lot of the people now-a-days seem to think it is. Reinstalling the OS is a Windows cure all, the Mac OS doesn't have the problems like the Registry, etc. that Windows has and consequently for the Mac a OS reinstall should be used as a last resort.

I think that before you try anything as extreme as the OS reinstall that you might want to try zapping the PRAM. You might want to try the SMC reset that I linked to earlier. IMHO.
Click to expand...



After I got my laptop back, I almost immediately experienced the black screen. I called Apple support and he walked me thru resetting the PRAM and SMC reset. I told him I would see if that would fix it but it didn't. His recommendation if that didn't fix it to do an Archive & Install. I'm backing up my computer right now and will reinstall later on.

I may not use the Time Machine backup to automatically move my files over. I'm gonna use my computer exactly as it sits once the computer is back up and running and not install anything and see if my laptop experiences the black screen while in that state.
 
Glad to hear that you tried the PRAM and SMC options even if they didn't bring positive results. Another option to try, would be to create a new user and see if it occurs under the new user.
 
I'm beginning to think it has something to do with "just" the video card. Here is why; I started my full Time Machine backup today at about 1pm and as it set there for about 15-20 minutes the screen went black. I would not wake up, so I didn't do anything other than leave it alone for the rest of the day.

Well I just got home at about 730pm, checked the backup hard drive and looked inside the backup folder and apparently Time Machine was all working correctly like the computer was fully functional because there are timely backups every hour up to 723pm.

Now I did just go in and look at my Screen Saver settings and I have it set to NEVER. I thought for a second that it could be causing the black screen. But as I've seen the black screen the actual screen saver has never displayed anything just a black screen.
 
Yes, it is 9400 failure. I am almost certainly sure.

If you have warranty, make sure apple replaces the the logic board. If you are not under warranty, pm me, I might help.


btw i liked your other video with a puppy haha
 
It sounds like the display is going to sleep but the MBP doesn't know it. Was this after you did the reinstall of OS X?
 
hundert said:
Yes, it is 9400 failure. I am almost certainly sure.

If you have warranty, make sure apple replaces the the logic board. If you are not under warranty, pm me, I might help.


btw i liked your other video with a puppy haha
Click to expand...

The laptop is still under warranty. When I took it in they said it sounded like a logic board, which is the motherboard correct? Is it possible to change out just the video card on Apple's?

Yeah that our little puppy, LOL!
 
DewGuy1999 said:
It sounds like the display is going to sleep but the MBP doesn't know it. Was this after you did the reinstall of OS X?
Click to expand...


I have done a reinstall a couple of months ago but not lately. I don't quite remember if it did it before that or not since I just bought it in July 2009.

I created a new user account and let it sit for 30 minutes or so and nothing happened. So I'm zeroing out the hard drive right now and going to do a fresh clean install and see what happens from there. If it does it again then I will take it back to Apple and show them the video.
 
Imola Ghost said:
I have done a reinstall a couple of months ago but not lately. I don't quite remember if it did it before that or not since I just bought it in July 2009.

I created a new user account and let it sit for 30 minutes or so and nothing happened. So I'm zeroing out the hard drive right now and going to do a fresh clean install and see what happens from there. If it does it again then I will take it back to Apple and show them the video.
Click to expand...

If it doesn't do it under a new user, then it's probably a preference or something specific to your current user account. If the new account is trouble free, I believe, that you can move your data to the new account and delete the old one without having to do an erase and install.
 
Imola Ghost said:
The laptop is still under warranty. When I took it in they said it sounded like a logic board, which is the motherboard correct? Is it possible to change out just the video card on Apple's?

Yeah that our little puppy, LOL!
Click to expand...

Logic board is the same as a PC motherboard. I've heard that Apple uses logic board because motherboard is considered sexist. The video is handled by a chip(s) on the logic board and isn't upgradeable or replaceable. If it is the video the entire logic board will have to be replaced.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back