macbook pro turns on but screen stays black — my solution

The Apple Macbook Pro would turn on, but the screen would not.  The screen would stay black.  I could tell the computer was on because when I hit the “caps lock” key, the green light on the key would turn on and off.

I fixed this the following way (this is basically resetting the Power Management Unit — PMU):

I disconnected the computer from the power cord, and from all other cables.

I held down the power button for several seconds to turn off the computer.

I let it sit 5 minutes.

I restarted the laptop while holding down the Shift key.  This restarted the computer in Safe Mode, with the screen visible again.

After I logged in (in Safe Mode) to make sure everything was ok, I simply restarted the computer the normal way, and the screen behaved normally again.

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If that doesn’t work for you, you could try these steps, documented at apple.com:

Holding down Command, Option, P, and R to reset your PRAM and NVRAM

Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU)

470 Comments

  5. Hello! I had the same problem for the last week and when holding Shift started not working, I did the following and now my mac is up and alive again.
    1) Just wait for the boot to finish normally.
    2) Sure, your screen is black but if you look closely you can see your desktop and if that’s not enough for you to follow the remaining steps, just dim your screen fully, of course it already is dim but just press F1 all the way and then just press F2 one time. You’ll see you’ll get short beams of your desktop clearly. This technique will come in handy when trying to find where the mouse is.
    3) Ok. Go to Finder, press command+shift+g. Type /private/var/vm and press enter, you’ll see the file sleepfile (or sleepimage). Delete it. And then go to /system/library, delete extensions.mkext. Delete the files in the Trash.
    4) Open Terminal. Type “sudo pmset hibernatemode 0” This prevents the sleepimage file to recreate itself every startup.
    5) Shut down. Open 🙂

    That worked for me. I Hope it works for you too.

  7. I’m in the middle of trying out your solution. My question is, at what point is it ok to plug everything back into the computer (assuming that the screen goes unblack ….)? This has never happened to me before. Could it be because I’m in the middle of changing to a new sort of system, with a new monitor, a mac mini and a G-RAID disk, about which I know nothing. I’m not a geek, in case you’re wondering (I bet you could tell ….).

    • I’m not too much of a geek, either. So here’s my best guess: I would guess (total guess) that it is safe to plug everything back in after your system has gotten all its software updates done, and you have been able to turn it off and on twice without a problem.

      -Colin

  8. The screen is still black although the little white light on the front edge is lit. I guess I’ll go to apple.com and try your next suggestion. Thanks for helping.

  10. The original posts solutions didn’t work for me, but a comment by Christopher explained a way to be able to see the screen go get in and cancel sleep mode through the terminal. This worked for me, and as scary as terminal can be for some, it was actually really easy. If the safe mode boot doesn’t work I really suggest trying what Christopher said.

  11. Thanks for this solution, I could not get anything out of my mac for ages completely black screen and so went on another pc to get help, I then followed Colin’s step [thank goodness for Colin!] for me, When it was in safe mode it was reallllly slow and I was worried it might not open up normally afterwards. It was slower than normal opening up for the first time but now it seems fine and I am so relieved as would have had to pay to get it sorted. Thanks Colin

  15. Dear RuddWire,
    Thank you for your outstanding, simple & highly effective advice. I have a 5 year old MacBookPro-no problems ’til I purchased a new battery. Then….boom black screen. I google something that led me to you. Quel Miracle!! Fixed, free, & I can finish my weekend work. If you take PayPal donations, need decorating help or a pile of excellent tried & try novels, let me know where I can ship and I’ll be on it ASAP. I’m not sure what you do (Columbia u?–any chance you’ve run across Peter Belheumer?) you’ve mananaged to restored faith in simple instructions, no jargon (well P R threw me til I understood it was exactly that no acronym. eBay needs someone like you. New site design is f****d. Good Man Rudd Wire, keep coming to the rescue by donning your superman suit in the extinct phone booths and 1000s of people will bless you as their heads hit the pillow each eve. Bravo and best wishes in whatever you choose to do in the near future. Elizabeth

  17. Thanks very much for the advice mate, just got my screen back on there now. I couldn’t figure out what to do! You’re an absolute gentleman!

  18. My macbook pro doesnot starting when i logged in.When i press the power button,my computer does not starting,i hear voice that it is started ,but the screen is still black.What should i do?

  21. My 15″ MB Pro turns on with no start up sound. I can hear the computer turn on, but screen remains to be black. I tried the command,option, p,r but nothing. I think I need a technician to check this out. It’s obviously not normal.

  23. A expensive and good machine that blocks, a so simple button that do the work.
    Thank you very much! I have the newest macBook Pro Mountain Lion (with no ssd-drive).

  25. I’m in exam time right now and I’ve been FREAKING OUT the past 12 hours cause I thought that I just lost everything for school and for work! Thanks so much!

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