MacBook Pro :: Screen Went Black And Also Not Showing Up In Target Mode
Sep 9, 2014
My screen went black after sleep and now I can't do anything anymore. I restarted a few times, tried to start from backup (USB) and also to mount in target mode via another computer, but nothing is working. I first thought the graphics card had gone, but that doesn't seem to be the case now as it's not showing via firewire. The computer is on as I can hear the drive spinning. it woul
Nothing particular happened beforehand. It worked fine, although a bit sluggish earlier. I do maintenance quite regularly and it has been fine, except that the battery needs replacing.
1st time posting to this forum. My iBook G4's (1.2 Ghz) screen flashes grey/white for a brief second upon startup and then remains black. No ghosting at all... simply black screen though computer is running fine. Later, I decided to connect it to my desktop Mac and restart it in Target mode, and was surprised to see the standard blue screen with moving Firewire logo screensaver on my iBook's screen - no different than anytime before when I've booted in Target Mode.
I ran Diskwarrior on my iBook's HD from my Mac desktop and all was clean so not a HD problem. Btw, I used SuperDuper to copy my iBook's HD to Disk Image for backup.
With some semi-calculated guessing on my part, I had come to the conclusion - prior to seeing the Target Mode screensaver on my laptop's screen - that the LCD screen had gone bad. As a result of what may have been flawed reasoning on my part, I purchased a used replacement screen off eBay from a reputable seller. I will be getting that replacement screen in a few days (including working inverter board).
My question here is can the LCD screen actually be bad and need replacing IF the Target Mode screensaver works beautifully on it? And the follow-up question is if it's not a bad LCD screen, what might the more likely problem be? It doesn't seem like it would be a backlight problem because moving yellow/orange Firewire logo of the screensaver looks fine.
A couple of things probably worth noting here:
Earlier before first experiencing my black screen issue, the power cord was accidentally jerked by a passing foot when laptop was on floor. It was enough of a jerking motion to move the laptop's position on the carpet but I didn't think it was that bad at the time... now wondering if something may have been pulled loose inside.
As those familiar with the iBook will know, the power connector light is orange when computer is turned off and it's also orange when laptop is in Target Mode (with the screen seeming to work correctly). However, when not in Target Mode and turned on with screen black, the power connector light is green as it normally would be. Is it possible the screen is powered via Firewire port when in Target Mode and therefore bypassing some screen power situation via the power connector? Obviously the power connector must be working if i'm able to power up the iBook without the battery installed.
Now for the other bit of info which seems important to me and I'm embarrassed to even admit to here.. Just prior to experiencing my black screen problem, i was plugging my power connector into an electrical outlet near where I was going to use my iBook... In the past, I have always done that PRIOR to plugging the power cord into my iBook. Regrettably, that time I already had the power connector plugged into my iBook. While attempting to plug the connector into the electrical outlet, the prongs did not easily slide into the outlet and I heard some popping sounds which didn't seem too bad at the time. But it was immediately after that when my iBook's screen failed to start up.
Thanking anyone in advance who may be able to offer up some expertise regarding my situation. Also I should say that I am running OS 10.5.8 on my iBook. I realize the easiest thing for me to do to get this matter resolved would be to simply take the unit into a local service center for repair... but the value of the iBook at this point wouldn't be worth spending a large sum of money for repairs I likely can do on my on. Over the years, I've learned how to follow direction pretty well when it comes to replacing defective items inside my desktop computers, so I'm not terrified of doing same with my iBook.
I recently had to replace my old mackbook with a mackbook pro. I need to recover some data from the old macbook but target mode isn't working. It keeps freezing at the apple start up (grey) screen.
I have a MacBook Pro (13'', Early 2011) & iMac (21.5", Mid 2011) using a Thunderbolt Cable to Target Display. Everything was working find and I could Command F2 to Target Display as expected.However, about a week about this stopped working. Now when I try to Target Display the iMac goes to a Black screen (like it's switching to Target Display) and the MacBook Pro does nothing. The iMac will be at the Black screen until I Command F2 again (or disconnect the Thunderbolt Cable), then the iMac goes back to the normal display. I have tried another Thunderbolt cable with no luck. I have perform all software updates on both machines (now both running 10.7.3) and fixed Disk Permissions. I have also found that restarting my MacBook Pro allows this to function as excepected (Command F2, Blue Flashing Screen, Target Display on the iMac). However, this is not an ideal situation since having to restart my computer is time consuming.
I'm traveling at the moment with my MBP 17". Arrived at my friends place who has a base iMac 21.5". Since I prefer to use the slightly larger screen to work off (even though my 17 MBP has more pixel density). So startup the iMac via TDM on my 17 MBP and to my surprise it works! - as my MBP only has leopard 10.5.8. I would have thought these iMacs would not run unless you have SL 10.6 loaded. It worked the 1st time, but crashed (grey vertical shade of death) twice after. On the 4th time it worked again. So that was weird (the inconsistency). Maybe 10.5.8 is NOT meant to be compatible with the new iMac's?
So I have a DYNEX 21 inch HD TV conected up to my MBP via the VGA connection route. My problem is that when I want a program (or more specifically in this case a game) to go into fullscreen mode it automatically goes to my primary monitor and turns the other screen black. I know I can switch the primary monitor from my actual laptop screen to the TV however I just want the game to be full screen on the TV while still having access to my dock and everything on my laptop.
When my MacBook Pro 13" i5 goes into screen saver mode, which is black, it won't return to normal mode. Tried all keys, trac pad, closing the lip and re-opening it, and it won't respond. The only thing that works is holding down power button for hard shutdown, then restarting it. It has happened 8 times in the last 2 weeks.
when my macbook pro go to sleep mode and after i try to started it - I got black screen and have a loading cursor mode, If I close my macbook and after 3 minutes open - all working fine!
Info: MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
Today, my mac freaked out on me twice. I was watching something via Quicktime and all of the sudden the screen went black and green and started going crazy like it was twitching or something. And I got this loud noise coming out of my speakers. My MacBook is about 3-4 years old.
When I open MacBook Pro (in sleep mode) I see rainbow on black screen. I have to keep the power button. I have this problem only when I open (after closing) my MBP. It started after an upgrade HHD to SSD (OCZ Agility 4). SMC reset did not help. I have MBP 13 late 2011 i5 2,4. Mac OS X 10.7.4.
My MacBook is making the startup sound but goes straight to a black/dark grey screen. In other words you can see the screen switching on but it's blank. It's in charge mode, has no other external peripherals attached and it's updated to most recent OSX Yosemite.
I only purchased it in May of this year (refurbished). I have tried booting in to safe mode but again the screen remains the same.
I have a 15" mbp with 10.6 Intel core duo, 4gb ram with a boot camp and ubuntu partition through parallels. The other day I was installing xcode from apple's website, which failed 3 times after downloading saying the package couldn't be expanded. I left my computer for a while and came back where i then had to log in again. it rejected my password numerous time (i'm positive it was correct). when i restarted my computer i got a kernal panic screen when the apple logo came up. it told me to restart the computer which i did. didn't work. i restarted with the osx cd to use the disk utility. when it checked the drive it found a bunch of errors, which i then tried to correct. it went for a couple minutes then told me they couldn't be fixed and i should try to back up my data and reinstall osx. i don't know how to back up my hard drive when i can't log into my account. i've tried to boot in target disk mode and copy some files that way, but the only disk the other computer sees is my windows partition- no mac partition.
i've also tried these, none of these have worked: restarting in safe mode resetting the ram and pram booting with different sticks of ram all result in a kernal panic.
my windows partition still works fine though (as much as i hate to say it) the only things I really care about on my computer are my files from school and my itunes library. is there any way i can get these files off my computer?
Is it possible to boot a macbook pro retina using an external usb3 hdd (=hdd of my previous macbook pro), and boot via target disk mode, so I can carbon copy everything to the flash memory of the new macbook ?
In principle it sounds simple, but does anyone know if it can really happen? Can it boot from usb3 in the first place? (it's faster than usb2 and fw800 so I don't see why Apple wouldn't support it).
It's important to find out before I go ahead and buy the new laptop.
I have a 2010 mac book i'm trying to zero out. But it will not boot to target mode connected t my mac book pro via fire wire 800 ( im using a thunder bolt>firewire 800 adapter)
My MacBook Pro won't turn on. When I turn it on, I can hear the motor whirring, but the screen stays black. I've tried leaving it off for an extended period, I've tried unplugging the charger, leaving it to charge for 24+ hours, taking the battery out, checked that the screen brightness wasn't accidentally turned down, everything!! It started about 2 weeks ago, since then it's turned on a couple of times, but when I stop using it and it goes into sleep mode, or I turn it off, it won't come back on again. Not sure what's wrong with it, but there's some urgent files I need on that computer! I also have an iMac, which I was hoping to transfer the files to, so I can send the laptop to be looked at. So, I have 2 questions...
1. What is most likely wrong with the laptop, and is it something I can fix so it will turn on again? 2. Is there a way to transfer the files from the laptop to an external HDD or my iMac even though the laptop has a black screen.
I just installed SwitchRsX which is an app which allows you to create a custom resolution for your display (so instead of 1680x1050, you could do 1680x960).
As a last resort, if you can't even start SwitchResX itself, you'll have to delete the monitor profile that was modified when you created a new custom resolution. This file is located in /System/Library/Displays/Overrides/ and is the last modified file, that you can find if you sort by date. You should remove this file, if you can access the file system, either by 1) accessing the file system from an other Mac on the network, from ssh or by mounting a shared folders. 2) OR starting up in single user mode (or safe mode) 3) OR at last resort: reinstalling the OS above the existing install, which will keep your existing profiles, but remove the system modified files.
I need to get an iBook G3's system profile (CPU speed, memory, drive config., etc.), but have no video (black screen). Hard drive is ok. Can this be done in Target Disk Mode somehow? I have NO external monitor.
I have an original MacBook1,1 running Snow Leopard 10.6.8. It will not start up, I have tried everything on this Apple web page , Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup, besides an erase and reinstall and I don't know what to do. It won't read the Snow Leopard update disk (My other two Macs do). When I restart In Verbose Mode, it always stops right after 'Airport: RSN handshake complete on en1'. When i started my other Mac in Verbose Mode, after 'Airport: RSN handshake complete on en1', it went straight to the login window. I called Apple support and they said that I need to perform an erase and reinstall but first I need to get an install disk for Mac OS X Tiger 10.4. and get some things off using Target Disk Mode. I do not have a FireWire cable and do not want to have to go and buy one. I have an Ethernet cable and a male - male USB cord. The two other Macs that I have are an iMac7,1 running Snow Leopard 10.6.8, and a MacBook6,1 running Mavericks 10.9.4.
I'm migrating from a MacBook Air (mid 2013) to a new MacBook Pro and both have Thunderbolt. Do I put the MacBook Air in Target Disk Mode? I did at first but the device did not show up in Migration Assistant on the MacBook Pro.
I just switched from Oultook 2011 to Lion Mail. I have 2 different accounts, Office 365/Exchange 2010 and iCloud. I noticed that when I reply to any message while is full screen mode, the reply icon is not showing up. The reply icon is the curved arrow pointing left for replies.
when working on my new Imac sometimes the machine put itself in sleep mode! The screen turns black and I have to enter my password. Sometimes it happens 2 times in 1 minute; other times once in 1 hour.
Last week I put an extra hard drive into a powermac G4 - i didnt know if the hardrive was working or not, and I was asked to put both Harddrives in the one machine to find out if it was working. I did this and nothing happened. I changed the jumpers and still nothing happened.
the existing hardrive was being read but not the new one that I had put in, so I went to start up disk and changed the disk that I was starting up from to the other hardrive. It wouldnt boot, i took the hardrive out and tried to put the computer back to its original state and nothing happened. just a blank screen. I have tried pressing OPT and the hardrive appears but after this screen nothing happens. if I were to use the install disc, would this wipe the hard-drive at all?
this isnt fully a mac problem but my windows 7 laptop cant see my g5 in target disk mode any ideas how to make it work? i have macdrive installed so even the hfs hd should show up
