Help! Urgent! Macbook blank screen

[exsanguinate]

Hi

I need help with my girlfriend's black MacBook. She's at a critical stage of a degree, so I need to help her fast.

Problem is:

On startup, the screen does show the normal background, but immediately shuts off.

Upon putting it to sleep, and waking it up. It does appear the laptop is working normally, as I see a desktop for a very brief second or 2.

Why is the screen shutting off, as it appears to work, but only briefly (and repeatedly?)

Help!

Thanks

 

[flopticalcube]

Does the little white sleep light come on after the display goes black? You may want to look at System Prefs->Energy Saver->Display Sleep.

 

[MrCheeto]

Press Control and scroll up to zoom in. Do this to a great degree. Then, go to the top of the screen and go as far to either side as you can. If it's the issue I think it is, the rest will be obvious.

If nothing out of the ordinary happens when doing this... I 'unno.

 

[MrMacintoshBlog]

Do you have an external monitor to test it with?

 

[kbfr08]

This maybe a bad inverter, or simply a loose cable. To fix either of them is a time consuming task.

Getting to the inverter is easier than securing the LVDS cable. You need to pry off the bezel around the LCD, remove the 3 screws on the hinge cover and it's stuck in there. I can't remember if the wires going to the LCD are soldered on, or if they are secured with a connector.

If the screen turns gray after a turning on, then you've got a bad panel. Sometimes it's just a cold solder on the LCD controller stuck to the back of the panel.

 

[vistadude]

I think the brightness is set to the lowest setting by accident. On macs, this turns the display off. Just press the brightness up on the keyboard.

 

[exsanguinate]

I can't test it with an external monitor as I only have a mini display port cable for my Macbook Pro.

Brightness is definitely up.

The light doesn't come on when the display shuts off.

I can't do anything software related because the screen is only on for a very brief second.

Sounds like it might be hardware I think, which is not good, even if is under warranty. Any other ideas?

 

[flopticalcube]

You can reset the PRAM and SMU (see link in my sig) but it looks like Apple needs to look at it.