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Mid-2013 Macbook Pro Black Screen

I

Itskorbitch!

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 22, 2013
141
0
Chicago
Hi all,

Tried turning on my MacBook this morning and was greeted with a black screen (I can tell its turned on because when you hold the power button down for 10 seconds you can see it turn off into a darker black). It does chime, and the apple does glow. I do not however have a cursor. I was using it last night, and I did turn on automatic updates (which I heard could cause an issue). I am also running the public beta of mavericks. Any idea what to do?

Also. If I don't get it resolved is there anyway I can back it up before going into the genius bar? maybe through my 2007 iMac (intel aluminum), or another method?

Thanks
 
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If you have another thunderbolt enabled mac, you can get a thunderbolt cable and use target disk mode to copy the files onto that mac.
 
Okay cool. Does anyone know what the issue might be? I hope it doesn't have to be sent out. If the geniuses do the backup how does that work? Do they charge for that? Do they see the files?


Also, once I get the FireWire do I use a diffrent method? Can someone link me to a step by step?
 
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Hey guys,

So I tried target disk mode with no luck. I bought a Thunderbolt to firewire adapter, and a 6pin male/9pin bilingual male cable to hook up to my imac. It just didn't seem to work, it doesn't help that I cant see if my macbook is actually in the target mode. I guess I am going to have to go to apple to see if they can get it backed :eek: up...
 
Itskorbitch! said:
Hey guys,

So I tried target disk mode with no luck. I bought a Thunderbolt to firewire adapter, and a 6pin male/9pin bilingual male cable to hook up to my imac. It just didn't seem to work, it doesn't help that I cant see if my macbook is actually in the target mode. I guess I am going to have to go to apple to see if they can get it backed :eek: up...
Click to expand...

Why are you using a 6-pin (400) to 8-pin (800) cable? I would go get a FW 800 cable from Best Buy or somewhere. That could be one cause of the problem, and if it does come up working it will move at twice the speed because FW 400 would be the bottle neck at 400Mbps where as 800 moves at 800Mbps.

Next, are you holding Command+T at boot? Before you even press the button, hold this down and keep holding till the drive shows up on the iMac. Make sure the FW cable and T-Bolt adapter are all connected and ready to go before turning the computer on and entering TDM.

If this does not work, what version of OS X is on the iMac? I ask because unless you reverted it, Yosemite beta automatically makes the hard drive a Logical volume on the Retina MacBook Pros. An older version of OS X might not be able to recognize and use a Logical volume.

Finally, if you can't get TDM working, try these few things on the MacBook Pro:

SMC Reset. Shut down the laptop, plug it in (this is crucial), hold down Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard and power button. Release within 3 seconds and power up the machine to do the next Reset.

PRAM Reset. After completing the SMC reset, power up the machine. Directly after pressing the power button, hold down Command-Option-P-R until the machine chimes a second time.

If this doesn't work, most likely the power inverter for your display has gone out or the logic board is no longer supplying power to the display. Either which way, take it to Apple and have them fix it. I'm guessing the machine is still under warranty since the late 2013s didn't come out till October 2013.
 
iamMacPerson said:
Why are you using a 6-pin (400) to 8-pin (800) cable? I would go get a FW 800 cable from Best Buy or somewhere. That could be one cause of the problem, and if it does come up working it will move at twice the speed because FW 400 would be the bottle neck at 400Mbps where as 800 moves at 800Mbps.

Next, are you holding Command+T at boot? Before you even press the button, hold this down and keep holding till the drive shows up on the iMac. Make sure the FW cable and T-Bolt adapter are all connected and ready to go before turning the computer on and entering TDM.

If this does not work, what version of OS X is on the iMac? I ask because unless you reverted it, Yosemite beta automatically makes the hard drive a Logical volume on the Retina MacBook Pros. An older version of OS X might not be able to recognize and use a Logical volume.

Finally, if you can't get TDM working, try these few things on the MacBook Pro:

SMC Reset. Shut down the laptop, plug it in (this is crucial), hold down Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard and power button. Release within 3 seconds and power up the machine to do the next Reset.

PRAM Reset. After completing the SMC reset, power up the machine. Directly after pressing the power button, hold down Command-Option-P-R until the machine chimes a second time.

If this doesn't work, most likely the power inverter for your display has gone out or the logic board is no longer supplying power to the display. Either which way, take it to Apple and have them fix it. I'm guessing the machine is still under warranty since the late 2013s didn't come out till October 2013.
Click to expand...

The iMac is running 10.9.4 so Yosemite, and the MacBook I downloaded the Mavericks public beta? And I just bought whatever cord I could find TBH. I'm going to try what you suggested, and if it doesnt work I guess the apple store will back itup.
 
Wait! holy crap! i did the SMC/PRAM and its back?! :eek: Do you think it was the auto update that I enabled? because after I logged in there was a loading bar?
 
Itskorbitch! said:
The iMac is running 10.9.4 so Yosemite, and the MacBook I downloaded the Mavericks public beta? And I just bought whatever cord I could find TBH. I'm going to try what you suggested, and if it doesnt work I guess the apple store will back itup.
Click to expand...

10.9.x (10.9, 10.9.1, 10.9.2, etc) are actually and Mavericks. The OS that is in beta is OS X Yosemite version 10.10.

Itskorbitch! said:
Wait! holy crap! i did the SMC/PRAM and its back?! :eek: Do you think it was the auto update that I enabled? because after I logged in there was a loading bar?
Click to expand...

No I don't think that is it. I think what just happened was the SMC (System Management Controller) which controls quite a bit of the system power, which includes the backlight for the LCD panel. I had a feeling that might have been the problem, and I have always been told SMC/PRAM resets don't do anything. :eek:

Glad its working again!
 
Thanks man! So I started it up this morning and noticed it had that loading bar after I put in my password? It also had a slight lag? am I just nervous or what could that be? any tests I can run on it to see if its normal?
 
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