Comments on: Mac Book Pro display wake-up issues

By: Jono

Jono — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:06:20 +0000

Sad to say but it could be a hardware issue, put in your boot os disk and hold down “d” you will be able to perform a hardware test (as long as you can see the screen).

It will be probably related to the video card which in the case of the of Mac books is part of the logic board which makes things very expensive.

If your model uses a geforce 8600 get it in to apple fast as it might be eligible for replacement…
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:50:53 +0000

I agree Miguel — I had a tough time reproducing my issues which was really frustrating. I can say that since Apple fixed my MBP — I have not seen the issue again. Best of luck.

By: Miguel

Miguel — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:45:48 +0000

Well…. It all went ‘Black’ for me back in March (Friday the 13th - go figure!). So I hooked up my MBP to my old (faithful) G3 PB FW and began to back up all my work and files… then the power cable came out (on my MBP in FW Command T mode) and so ran out of juice mid copy. So I plugged in the power cord to my MBP and Command T again and then hey presto - Blue Screen with Yellow FireWire symbol bouncing around…

The a couple of weeks later its back to ‘Black’ and I find your site Stevey and do the ext.mkext delete and then reboot and were back in business… of course this has happened a few times… and today I go to boot up and were in the ‘Black - Screen’ mode… so I’m now backing up as i’m in at out local Apple Store to once and for all get this sorted…

Like many posts on here its so annoying!!

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:21:01 +0000

Once again to everyone who’s seen this problem - Call Apple / go to an Apple store. In my case — this was NOT software related/nothing I could have fixed. Apple knew about the problem as soon as they tested my mac and saw the SN/Build date. I fixed mine through the MTL Apple store downtown by making a genius bar appointment. Been perfect ever since.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:18:34 +0000

That’ll probably fix it Ben — they did that to mine (replaced the logic board under warranty — no questions asked) and been fine ever since. Good luck !

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:00:25 +0000

I’ve had the same issue for a few months now. In the past, I’ve tinkered around with my MBP until it came back to life. Today, I called Apple and they were super helpful. After about two minutes on the phone, the tech guy told my it was likely a problem with the NVIDIA card that has a “higher then normal’ failure rate and that I would be eligible for a free replacement. I have an appointment booked at an Apple Store tonight and they will confirm the problem and apparently replace the logic board in about two days.

By: Ham

Ham — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:56:43 +0000

i just had a similar black out issue when waking from sleep with an external monitor connected. i disconnectted the monitor and it was still black

hitting the brightness button a few times did the trick though - perhaps even if i didnt unplug it would have worked - possibly an easy fix for people out there.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:00:20 +0000

I would check with apple - there’s a known RECALL on logic boards due to fault graphics chips. Apple Canada replaced mine for free - no Q’s asked. (yes - my screen was completely black / no power)

By: Paul W

Paul W — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:45:08 +0000

When you say the screen is “black” do you mean it is not even powered up (or at least looks that way)?

I left my laptop over a period of time and now the display will not come up. The release latch button is lit with dull white color. Keyboard lights up in the dark but the display is shot. I can ssh into the laptop….but no clues on what to do to resolve this….suggestions?

By: Faz

Faz — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:45:50 +0000

Magically, the display came on yesterday… And i used the machine with no problems what so ever the whole day!! However, i am back to Square one today!!! This is frustrating!

By: Faz

Faz — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:04:40 +0000

Steve, not an option here. i live in Uganda (kinda the middle of no where) and no apple stores exist here.. The weird thing is that this happened before and a few force restarts sorted it out! What could be going on!

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:03:54 +0000

Faz - sounds like something you’d want to visit an apple store to look at it if possible. If the screen doesn’t come on at all then you really have a problem. :\

By: Faz

Faz — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:12:52 +0000

Hi, My MBP os tptally messed. I cant start it up with external monitor or with the built in display. When set as a fire wire startup disk, it works just fine thru my iMac…

Main problem i face right now; How the hell do i determine the firmware without booting from it? Thru the imac, it gives me the iMac specs.

I have also just tried a system restore with no luck… As a last resort, i could back up my jobs and just erase the whole system, but now i am even worried if that will help

Anyone have a BRIGHT idea!? Please help!!

Faz

By: Rod

Rod — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:19:25 +0000

previous comment should read MBP LCD not MCD… :-) delete this correction or correct the other one….

Rod :-)

By: Rod

Rod — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:17:47 +0000

HI. My MBP with dual monitors has this annoying thing where the MBP MCD turns blue shades and I have to go into sys pref to set it back… this only started when I went back to dual monitors. I hope this is a OS thing and can be fixed. This is my second MBP, my other was in for multiple repairs 4+ and I was given a replacement. I agree with others here.. Apple has to do a better job of quality control right from the get go…. not after many many people have had to go in to Genius bars, repair shops, call centers etc…

Rod :-)

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:52:02 +0000

Not sure Tricia; A lot of people have had success with the newest firmware update. Have you tried logging in under a different/new user account to see if it still happens ?

By: Tricia

Tricia — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:30:03 +0000

I have everything upgraded and it is still happening. it’s now even giving me the black screen when i’m NOT moving from the external to regular mode. it’s doing it randomly, all the time. what gives!

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By: Leland

Leland — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:35:55 +0000

The second fix seemed to work for about a week but now I am back to the same problem. All hope is dashed. There has been a lot of talk about this for a long time so I am wondering why Apple has not really been able to solve the problem….

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:44:12 +0000

the second update works! :)

Thanks!

By: Tom Ashworth

Tom Ashworth — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:46:52 +0000

Hey thanks for the note about the fix from Apple - this problem was doing my head in especially when colleagues gave me the well you should have bought a pc routine, thanks very much.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:56:04 +0000

Great to hear !!

I’ve been reading other spots on the net where people are having tons of luck also. It was a pain but at least it’s resolved.

cheers.

By: Kristan Kenney

Kristan Kenney — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:49:08 +0000

Hey Steve,

I have a MacBook Pro that originally shipped with Boot ROM version “MBP31.0070.B05” and the previous firmware update would not install on this computer, however the latest EFI Firmware Update (1.5.1) does install and from my testing (by interrupting the sleep process several times — half closed lid, unplugged USB devices during sleep mode, etc) it would appear that the update has indeed resolved the issue that we were having with wake-from-sleep.

WOOHOO!

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:32:12 +0000

Updated the post above — let me know if this fixed it for you also.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:51:17 +0000

Great to hear Mik — so far so good for me also.

I”m going to slowly turn back on some of the screen/energy saver options and see what happens.

By: mik

mik — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:14:03 +0000

After installing the latest MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update, the problem seems to have disappeared also on my computer.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:24:13 +0000

Update:

Something in that last try seems to have worked. I have not seen the issue since I did this !

Crossing my fingers !!!

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:57:07 +0000

Thanks Abhi - I subscribed to that thread.

Also tried a shotgun approach today;

* remove screensaver password
* removed screensaver
* deleted /var/vm/sleepimage
* installed latest firmware
* turned off all energysaver options

Maybe this will help; if it does i’ll slowly try and replicate the issue.

If not — i’ll start testing the power cable suggestion.

cheers

By: Abhi

Abhi — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:30:12 +0000

Check out the last email
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1337981&tstart=0
that suggests that don’t shutdown the lid with the power plugged in.
Ill try that, ie, take out the power cable everytime before closing the lid.

Let me know if you guys try it as well.
thanks