Kiddo turned laptop screen black

[Jimmy Verner]

My wife, who is out of town, was letting the grandson play with her laptop. She does not know what he did, but the screen turned black. We've tried the hold-down-power-button to reboot, control-command-power, and hold down s. No shutdown. Battery case is sealed. I'm hoping, but do not know, that the black screen will go away upon reboot. Anyone have any ideas? TIA

 

[kohlson]

Could be that the brightness is turned all the way down. F1 is dimmer, F2 is brighter.

If this doesn't work, let us know what year/model.

 

[Jimmy Verner]

Turns out she already tried that, didn't work. 2016 Model A1708. Thank you so much for helping us try to figure this out.

 

[Mike Boreham]

My thoughts:

1. I have never ever come across a situation where press and hold failed to shut down a computer. Did you hold long enough?

2. Maybe the machine is already shut down? Is it ON with a black screen, or OFF?

3. Is the battery flat? Is it plugged in?

4. Try resetting SMC (see screenshot below) this may seem futile starting from where you are, but I once had an apparently dead MBP and Apple said reset the SMC, which I did and to my amazement it booted.

 

[Jimmy Verner]

Thanks! I'll ask her about these and she'll give the SMC reset a try.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

You may indeed need to reset SMC (affects startup and power systems) or NVRAM (includes default video parameters) https://support.apple.com/HT204063

Something to check even before that - does the Caps Lock LED light up when you press it? If not, it's a sure sign the Mac is not powered on. If it does light up, that suggests a video issue with the Mac. Can you detect backlighting if you view the screen in a dark room?

Battery dead? Be sure the charger is plugged into the wall, and that the wall outlet has power. More on troubleshooting the charger end of things here https://support.apple.com/HT204652

 

[kohlson]

We've tried the hold-down-power-button to reboot,

Press and hold for at least 10 seconds.

 

[Mike Boreham]

That was a good tip about pressing the Caps Lock key to see if the machine is actually on or off. It can be difficult to tell sometimes and in this case there seems to be some doubt.

The SMC reset process requires the machine to be shut down before starting.

 

[Jimmy Verner]

Thanks for your note. My wife will be home in a couple of hours, then I can grab her laptop and try these things.

 

[Jimmy Verner]

Thanks for all your help, but the laptop remains the same. We'll take it to the Apple store.

 

[Jimmy Verner]

So the wife took the laptop to the Apple store. Turns out the screen is kaput. Was going to be $750 to fix so she bought a new laptop instead. Apparently, it was simply a coincidence that the laptop broke while the grandson was playing on it. Thanks again for taking the time to try to help us figure this out.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Although I am always suspicious of coincidences, they do sometimes happen !

Glad the mystery solved and wife got a new laptop.