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MacBook Pro Screen Goes Black

D

dianal124

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 21, 2011
1
0
Hi. I purchased a macbook pro this past September. I have had no problems with the laptop except for some keys that have popped off.

Recently, however, the screen will randomly turn off, while charged, and active.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on?

Thanks so much,
dianal124
 
Have you fixed the keyboard issue via Apple?

Does the screen turn on after you press a key or move the mouse or touch the trackpad? Have you taken a look at System Preferences > Energy Saver?
 
To me, it sounds as if you were careless and inadvertently popped the keys off. I have never heard of any single one of users on this forum who have had keys pop off by accident. Nor have any one of my friends who have MacBook Pros (about 10). So could you have possibly done anything to cause the screen issue? It hasn't been dropped, has it?
 
I just got a new 17" MBP about 2 weeks ago. I just noticed recently while working on it that my screen will go 100% black as well. What's odd about it though is that it seems to be related to my left hand resting on the case as if I were typing. The screen goes black, I lift my hand up, and the screen comes back.

I don't know if it's heat related by resting my hand there or slight pressure. I don't mash my hand down at all either, it lightly rests on it. I have read about the 2008-2009 class action regarding the NIVIDIA issue but I don't think that applies to this nor think it's a black lit issue.

Have any of you heard of such issues and/or have any solutions or suggestions? Is the graphics chip located to the left of the track pad? I greatly appreciate your guys help! I want to get a better idea of what may be causing the issue before I take it to Apple.
 
Last edited:
Take it in to Apple.
Could be one of several things including a loose connection between the screen and logic board especially if intermitant.
Does it go off if you move the screen back and forth?
 
Fubar1977 said:
Take it in to Apple.
Could be one of several things including a loose connection between the screen and logic board especially if intermitant.
Does it go off if you move the screen back and forth?
Click to expand...

Thank you for getting back to me.

The screen is not affected by moving it open or closed. The only way I've been able to replicate it is by running a graphically intense program (After Effects, playing DVD or Videogame) and placing my hand on the laptop to left of the trackpad.

To the touch, it isn't warm/hot.
 
Last edited:
Same Issue

2 weeks ago, I took my MacBookPro Intel Core i7/2.66 GHz in to the "Genius Bar". Left it with them overnight. According to the "genius" the black screen issue could not be replicated. I received word that the "genius" do not directly troubleshoot the Macs due to overhead. Thus, the Macs are hooked up to some type of system to do various stress tests. The issue will not occur with a stress test done by some computer. An actual person must be there to see it happen. Other than sending the MAC in to some place for a week or so to be dismantled, there is nothing the "Geniuses" can do for me. Needless to say, I am disappointed with the results and still have the same issue of the screen going black. :mad:
 
I am pretty sure it is your Energy Saver Preferences that the screen goes black after 1 minute of inactivity, try just leaving it for 1 minute or 2 minutes and see if it does it. Go to your battery on the top right and click it then click on energy saver preferences on the bottom and put it to what you want.
 
Will try that

swish2351 said:
I am pretty sure it is your Energy Saver Preferences that the screen goes black after 1 minute of inactivity, try just leaving it for 1 minute or 2 minutes and see if it does it. Go to your battery on the top right and click it then click on energy saver preferences on the bottom and put it to what you want.
Click to expand...

Thank you for replying to my post. I made the adjustment and will report back in a few days to indicate if your suggestion works.
 
Not the solution

taichi66 said:
Thank you for replying to my post. I made the adjustment and will report back in a few days to indicate if your suggestion works.
Click to expand...


I did not have to wait days to find out your suggestion did not work. Thanks nevertheless.
 
I as well took my MBP to the Genius bar, however I had a tech do all the same tests as well and could not reproduce the issue. Because it was less then 30 days of purchase, he told me to call Apple care and request a new replacement (He put this recommendation on the report). He said if Apple Care would not do that, the next option would be to bring back and have basically the entire mobo replaced... Yeah Right...

Needless to say I finally shipped mine out and in about 5 days had my new one. After syncing with Time machine, I reinstalled the programs/applications I knew were affected by the black screen issue and have yet to have it happen.

At this point, best I could say is call Apple Care if your laptop is still under the 1 year. Also try going back to the Apple Store to have it done again and mention to the tech about writing down on the report (which Apple Care checks out) request replacement. Otherwise try reinstalling the programs you are running, attempt to clean your VRAM or replace the mobo.
 
Sent the Mac in for repair

MrGoodKat said:
I as well took my MBP to the Genius bar, however I had a tech do all the same tests as well and could not reproduce the issue. Because it was less then 30 days of purchase, he told me to call Apple care and request a new replacement (He put this recommendation on the report). He said if Apple Care would not do that, the next option would be to bring back and have basically the entire mobo replaced... Yeah Right...

Needless to say I finally shipped mine out and in about 5 days had my new one. After syncing with Time machine, I reinstalled the programs/applications I knew were affected by the black screen issue and have yet to have it happen.

At this point, best I could say is call Apple Care if your laptop is still under the 1 year. Also try going back to the Apple Store to have it done again and mention to the tech about writing down on the report (which Apple Care checks out) request replacement. Otherwise try reinstalling the programs you are running, attempt to clean your VRAM or replace the mobo.
Click to expand...

Hi - Thank you for sharing your experience and advice. I ended up shipping my Mac for repairs. It was about 1-2 day turnaround. Things seem more or less ok.
 
In the time since I received my replacement I've discovered a few other potentials for the black screen. One being "Hot Corners" being activated within certain programs. I believe by default, the lower left corner is set to "Sleep" mode which could cause the screen to go black.

Glad to hear you've gotten it taken care of and no issues so far.
 
MBP goes black

My MBP, summer of '10 release, just started going black out of nowhere. If I close and reopen the lid, the screenlight comes back on for a fraction of a second, then goes black. This happened a few times, then pressing the brightness key brought it back.

Blackout happened again, this time brightness key did nothing. I had to restart my computer. I had Firefox running with 5 tabs open, and Safari running with 2 tabs open. That's it.

Help!
 
goleta said:
My MBP, summer of '10 release, just started going black out of nowhere. If I close and reopen the lid, the screenlight comes back on for a fraction of a second, then goes black. This happened a few times, then pressing the brightness key brought it back.

Blackout happened again, this time brightness key did nothing. I had to restart my computer. I had Firefox running with 5 tabs open, and Safari running with 2 tabs open. That's it.

Help!
Click to expand...

This happens to me all the time too! It's starting to piss me off.
 
I had this happen to me after one week of the refresh last February. I took it into Apple and they diagnosed it with a malfunction in the motherboard. They replaced it free of charge, but it took 5 days before I got it back.

Bring it to the Apple Store and make sure to also have your hard-drive backed up somehow.
 
No black screen issues here..I did have some weird scrambling issues a while back after sleep but those are gone now..

I'm amazed that you popped your keys off though, that's kind of amazing to me. I've never heard of that before, really.
 
Same thing happened to me a few times, so I did a bit of research.

It's a fairly commonly reported issue on the 'net. The most common suggestion appears to be that it's related to when the graphics card switches between the internal GPU and the discrete one. It's apparently a driver issue, and has according to a lot of reports, got worse since the Mountain Lion launch.

It happens to me about once a month so it's tolerable. But it is kinda annoying when it occurs. Usually if I wait a few seconds it comes back.
 
screen goes dark while using the macbook pro

I just noticed that if I keep my macbook pro in a place where it can get too warm(my lap) or on the couch the screen would randomly turn off. When I lifted it off my lap or off the couch, the screen would always come back!

I started to look into the temp my my MBP while it was just sitting there.

This could just me my experience, but it solved my issues for now.
 
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