This problem is intermittent and unpredictable. I had a spill onto the keyboard and the machine had to go back to Apple for a full rebuild. That was about six weeks ago. The problem has been since this rebuild. I am trying to sort this out on my own, rather than have to deal with the Genius bar again and potentially be left without my machine again. I feel like I'm going to have to take it back, but that whole process is painful for me...
Symptoms:
I will be working - or not - and the screen will just go dark. The keyboard stays lit. Sometimes it just happens after it has been closed, but it most often happens when I'm working. It seems to happen only when I'm running off of battery, but it has happened once or twice while running on the AC adapter.
The screen is not off - I can tell because when I do force-power down, I can see it go black.
Shutdown and restart usually fixes it.
I've tried other things when the screen is sleeping - different keyboard combinations to force sleep, etc., and nothing brings it back except a force shut-down and restart. I'm running the latest version of El Capitan.
Things I've tried that haven't worked.
1. NVRAM reset
2. SMC reset (I thought this worked for awhile, but the problem came back)
3. Created new user
4. Created bootcamp partition, installed Windows 10. This seemed to work for awhile, but I had a few random shutdowns/restarts that I could not explain. Though the screen never went off.
5. Full wipe and reinstall of OS 10.11. Running vanilla install with no apps except Chrome - happened again.
6. Set the screen to never sleep. I haven't had it happen since I did this last night, but when I woke up this morning, the computer had restarted, whatever that means. So, I'm not hopeful that this is the solution.
7. Ran a magnet around the trackpad to try and re-create the problem - no luck.
Things I haven't tried:
Running off of a Linux USB
Other?
If this is hardware, I obviously need to bring it back to Apple and have it fixed, as painful as it sounds. But if there is a chance I can fix this through some combination of software or hardware reset.
Other thoughts?
Symptoms:
I will be working - or not - and the screen will just go dark. The keyboard stays lit. Sometimes it just happens after it has been closed, but it most often happens when I'm working. It seems to happen only when I'm running off of battery, but it has happened once or twice while running on the AC adapter.
The screen is not off - I can tell because when I do force-power down, I can see it go black.
Shutdown and restart usually fixes it.
I've tried other things when the screen is sleeping - different keyboard combinations to force sleep, etc., and nothing brings it back except a force shut-down and restart. I'm running the latest version of El Capitan.
Things I've tried that haven't worked.
1. NVRAM reset
2. SMC reset (I thought this worked for awhile, but the problem came back)
3. Created new user
4. Created bootcamp partition, installed Windows 10. This seemed to work for awhile, but I had a few random shutdowns/restarts that I could not explain. Though the screen never went off.
5. Full wipe and reinstall of OS 10.11. Running vanilla install with no apps except Chrome - happened again.
6. Set the screen to never sleep. I haven't had it happen since I did this last night, but when I woke up this morning, the computer had restarted, whatever that means. So, I'm not hopeful that this is the solution.
7. Ran a magnet around the trackpad to try and re-create the problem - no luck.
Things I haven't tried:
Running off of a Linux USB
Other?
If this is hardware, I obviously need to bring it back to Apple and have it fixed, as painful as it sounds. But if there is a chance I can fix this through some combination of software or hardware reset.
Other thoughts?