Hi, I'm new here and have a question. My wife was working on her 2017 MacBook pro, and my 2 year old son threw something and hit the screen in the bottom right portion of the screen. The screen instantly went black, with the crack visible, and the screen not working anymore except for a line at the top. When turning it off and turning it back on, I can hear the Apple chime as it starts. I have tried plugging in an external monitor to it, but I can't see the screen to allow it to connect to the external monitor. I tried the TV with the HDMI cable. Nothing. Is there any way to be able to access everything she had on it? We have a lot of family pictures on it that I'm not sure were backed up on the Cloud. I'm not the most computer savvy person, so please forgive me if this has been covered at length. I am really hoping to salvage what's on there. If this is even possible, we will have to buy her a new laptop, but just really want to salvage what's on there. Any suggestions, or are we cooked?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Cracked screen, but is the laptop fried?
- Thread starter Campione22
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If an external monitor doesn't do anything, it is done for.
Last edited:
Seems very unlikely that it’s anything more than screen damage. If the startup chime played, that’s a very good sign. From what you said it just sounds like the screen got trashed but the rest is functional.
If you haven’t, try connecting the display/monitor/TV *before* you start it up. That might make the MacBook default to the external. Worth a shot, anyway.
Connect a keyboard, mouse, and charger along with the screen. Start the machine and close the lid to put the machine in clamshell mode, which will force the output to the external display.
Thanks for all the tips! I'll give that a shot this afternoon and let you all know if that worked.
Once you get up and running, can’t recommend enough picking up a basic hard drive and letting Time Machine backup do its thing. 🙂
FreakinEurekan
macrumors G3
Connect the display, then once it comes up hit Command-Brightness Down (F1? F2? Not at my Mac at the moment) so that the internal display is MIRRORED on the external. By default external is an “extended display” which isn’t all that helpful if the internal is shot 🫠
Fishrrman
macrumors Nehalem
It's 9 years old now, so don't spend any money on it.
Might be time to start looking around for a replacement...
Might be time to start looking around for a replacement...
BeerDrinkerDan
macrumors regular
I have found that if it's the lights for the screen (LED/LCD/whatever) are busted then a strong flashlight from the back lights it up enough to pick the external monitor.
-bdd
-bdd
J@ffa
macrumors 6502a
This is wildly inaccurate advice. If the Mac has run out of juice and has FileVault disk encryption enabled, often it won’t work with an external display until you’ve logged in (which of course is pretty tricky with a broken screen).
Do you have access to another working Mac? If so, does it have USB-C?
I do have access to another working Mac and it does have a USB-C. I can give that a shot later tonight. I have tried everything else. I will see what I can do. Thank you!
J@ffa
macrumors 6502a
If you're able to borrow one temporarily from a friend or etc, if you make sure the damaged screen Mac is turned off (hold the power button down for 5-10 seconds to be sure), then plug a USB-C to USB-C (or USB-C thunderbolt lead, if you have one) from your old Mac to the other one, then hit the power button to turn the old one on, while holding the T key on the old Mac to use Target Disk Mode.
Wait a good amount of time since you can't see what you're doing, but the working Mac should pop up and ask you for the username and login password of that Mac (if it's not got FileVault on it should just pop up). Once you put it in it should mount, then you'll be able to see all the files and back them up.
If you get to that point do drop a reply here and I can guide you through the best steps to fully back everything up to enable a migration to another Mac (or even just to be sure you've got every last file saved off it).