Today I learned that there’s a nifty little utility called Maintenance 3.8 out on Apple’s site. You can find it by going to Apple / Mac OS X Software…, and when the web page pops up, type Maintenance in the search box.
It’s an automator script to repair permissions, verify preferences, updating prebindings, do cleanup, update databased, rebuild indexes, empty Trash, and so forth. My guess is it’s much like Onyx.
Deciding to give it a try, I downloaded it, opened the .DMG file, and double clicked the automator icon, selecting Restart when done. And while I got a very little in the confirmation department that things were working, I saw a lot of CPU activity running utilities I was familiar with.
So, with the laptop plugged in, I left to to chug away. I heard the restart sound several minutes later. And, I ignored it.
Later, I picked up my laptop and went to login.
Nothing.
The “breathing LED” on the front was off, and nothing was responding keyboard or mouse wise. The screen was black.
So, I decided to check the battery. Full power.
But then I noticed something. At the steep angle, in the near pitch black of my LCD screen, I saw the login window. What was happening: the backlight wasn’t coming on. Fiddling with the brightness control didn’t help either.
Sure enough, I could make out the cursor once I located where it was.
I tried opening and closing the lid. Nope. Backlight still off.
So, I restarted (as I mentioned, it was operational, I could barely make out the GUI).
The machine sprang to life, showed me the blue background, and right before it went to the login screen, the backlight cut out again, leaving me in pitch black.
Titling the screen back again (with the keyboard sticking up in the air and the screen flat on the table), again I could make out the login box and mouse. I did a restart again.
This time I held down Command-V as it booted. And I watched as it came up, lots of normal diagnostic messages, and then the blue background, and right as the login screen appeared, back to pitch black.
Annoying. But now I’m wondering if all the times I’ve ever woken my laptop after a case where the lid didn’t quite clasp perfectly, was this what was happening — could the machine be up, but the backlight off?
So, one last time, I restarted. Only I held down Command-Option-P-R (four fingers) to reset the power management settings. Several chimes later, I let go, and the machine booted perfectly, and the login box appeared, backlight and all.
I’m hoping that my experience may lead to an additional piece of the puzzle about the Mac waking up funny. I would have never have noticed anything on the screen if I looked at it dead on, as I always do.
It’s fairly well known that if you close the Mac’s lid, but down engage it fully, the lid will pop back up, but not after putting the machine to sleep. At that point, it becomes a little dance with the lid, trying to get the lid back down, so that the machine can see it re-open, and that usually wakes it. But sometimes the screen is still dark, and you have to play with the power button (and if frustrated, hold it down to restart).
Sometimes this same problem manifests when you wake the machine, enter your password, and suddenly everything goes dark. You wiggle the cursor and hit the keys and nothing happens. Caps Lock toggles, but it feels like it’s gone back to sleep.
Well no more. From now on, I’m going to tilt my screen back and see if I’m operational. That way I won’t lose data from an unnecessary restart.
The dark screen used to happen to me periodically on my PowerBook if I unplugged or plugged in the power adapter while it was sleeping.
Had a similar problem. Sometimes the screen would be black and at times if I moved the screen back and forth it would clear up. When I did get the screen I could perceive a slight flicker. I took it to the genius bar and it was diagnosed as a bad screen infuser. MacBook still under warranty… Fixed! Yeah! Happy!
Thank you.
I came back to my Mac Book Pro in the morning to a black screen.
Re started, had the blue screen but it quickly went black (about 10 seconds) Shut the computer down with the power button and restarted holding the Command-Option-P-R until I heard the chime and released.
The Computer started but told me the disk was not readable (no disk was installed) I told the computer to eject the imaginary disk and everything was fine again
It is with great relief that I found this tip when I googled. I bought my wife a used Macbook Pro about a month ago for our anniversary. She was thrilled. She continued to be thrilled, extolling the virtues of the beautiful machine.
She was not so thrilled today when she went to a client’s place for a meeting and this ‘dark screen’ thing happened. Fortunately she had already shown the work to the client. When she came home and told me what happened, I was really concerned that I had bought her a lemon. Anyway, your tip worked and all is well in the household again. Thanks so much.
You made my day yesterday. I thought my MacBook Pro screen died on me after three years of faithful service. Then, I came across your tip.
I restarted while I was holding the Command-Option-P-R and let it chime 4-5 times and released the the keys: Bang! The Mac started as it should and my worst nightmare was over.
Thanks a million.
Thank you for this post! My screen went black a couple weeks ago – I figured it was a hardware problem and would probably cost me an arm and a leg. Before I brought my Macbook into the Mac store I figured I would check online real quick, and I found this post. Cmd-Option-P-R worked like a charm. Thank you!
Thank you for the great info. .Much appreciated. My husband’s laptop went black and I thought, uh oh how much is this gonna cost to fix. I decided to google the problem for any possible tips and found this blog. So happy I looked before taking it in to the MAC store. Worked perfectly. I was not aware of the Command-Option-P-R key combination, but know now that it works great!
Thanks again!
Hey, the same solution worked for my MacBook! I had tried restarting and making sure my battery was actually charged, but no luck. I managed to (just barely) read your post here on my very dark screen, and fortunately the Cmd-Option-P-R restart worked great! And now I don’t have to wait 3 days before I can get an Apple store appointment. Thanks!
It worked for me too. My MBP would not wake up from a sleep mode. I tried all kinds of advices that I read in the forums. I tried Cmd-Option-P-R a few times, but only waited for 2 chimes and nothing happened. Now I waited for 5 chimes and the screen started blinking grey, after that the computer started up like usual. Thanks.
Screen would not function after sleep
MacBook Pro Mod. A1229 running Sys 10.7.2 & Mac Software
Screen would not ‘light’ after a sleep period (about an hour).
Neither touching the SPACE BAR nor pressing the mouse button had an effect on the screen. However, pressing keys indicated a computer response.
Manual SHUT DOWN by holding power key for 10+ seconds.
Restart was somewhat normal but Apple Logo and ‘activity’ wheel appeared slightly larger than normal and not the same brightness contrast. After initial period the screen went ‘blank’ but there seemed to be some computer function – response to certain keystrokes. Subsequent retries produced the same result.
Based on Apple Support & Mac Support groups:
1. SMC reset
2. PRAM reset
3. Boot Safe Mode
No change.
Restarted holding Command/S to get UNIX start. The screen did function properly (my knowledge of UNIX is limited – I did NOT attempt a fix from this prompt).
Restarted from the ORIGINAL DVD that came with the machine and the START UP was NORMAL and the SCREEN was NORMAL. This DVD was an install DVD so I used QUIT from the menu bar and the system was still functioning correctly.
Subsequent tests of the SLEEP/WAKE cycles produced normal results with no screen problems.
There are still no problems after two subsequent use periods with normal shut downs and normal start ups.
The problem is with the lid magnets…….
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=450475&page=2
see reply 47