Black Screen On Macbook Pro This Is How To Fix It
A step-by-step guide to fixing a black screen on MacBook Pro or your external monitor.
Black screen on MacBook Pro? It’s the situation that you hope will never happen, and when it does, it often seems to be at the worst possible time. We rate Apple’s MacBooks among the best laptops for creatives, and we’ve found them to be very reliable on the whole. But as with any laptop or desktop computer, sometimes things can go wrong.
A lack of any sign of activity on your MacBook Pro screen is perhaps one of the most worrying issues you can face when booting up your device. You’re likely to immediately start to worry about how much it will cost to fix, but let’s not panic yet. Take a deep breath, and try the tips below before you fork out for a repair or take a trip to your nearest Apple Authorised Service Provider or store.
We won’t deny that a MacBook Pro black screen can sometimes be bad news, but often it’s not actually such a big deal and can be fixed quite easily. Many of our writers and creative contributors use MacBooks day in, day out, so it’s a problem we’ve come across a few times. Below, we’ll suggest the series of steps that we usually try if we’re faced with a black screen on MacBook Pro.
Solution #1: Boot Into Safe Mode
Sometimes the black screen on Mac is as a result of corrupt information on the startup disk. A simple solution for this is to force your Mac to run diagnostics on the disk by booting it in safe mode.
To start-up in safe mode:
The boot is likely to take longer than normal because its running diagnostics during the boot sequence. Let it finish the safe-mod boot to completion.
After it finishes starting up, restart again to leave the safe mode and start normally to see if the Mac black screen problem has been fixed.
Apple Stores And Asps
We suggest you make an appointment with the Genius Bar or ASP to get a free diagnosis and quote, whether you intend to use their service or not. These are the services you can get from them depending on whether or not your Mac is under warranty:
If your Mac is under warranty, you dont have to worry about anything except your data. They will replace the faulty component for free. Apple will NOT take responsibility for your data or provide data transfer/recovery service. Therefore make sure the service will not affect your data. If the service could cause data loss and you havent backed up your data on iCloud, you may need to back up the data to an external hard drive or use a professional data recovery service.
If your Mac wont turn on due to a liquid spill, and the built-in Liquid Contact Indicators colour has changed from white to red, as shown in the photo below, you void the standard warranty. All MacBook models have liquid indicators near the entrances where liquid can get in quickly. The liquid damage indicators are usually under the keyboard, trackpad, and the edges of the logic board.
In recent MacBooks, the colour of liquid indicators is black. The colour becomes white once the LCI contacts the liquid.
If you purchased AppleCare+, which covers water damage, Apple would charge a $429 excess fee to repair your Mac.
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Reinstall Macos In Recovery Mode
If you’ve gotten this far, then it’s likely that your problem is not hardware-related, nor is it a simple software fix. The best solution now is to restore a Time Machine backup or reinstall macOS entirely.
You can do this through Recovery. Get started by pressing the power button and holding down the Command and R keys.
If you’ve got a recent Time Machine backup, you can restore that to see if it solves your problem. If not, choose Reinstall macOS from the menu.
When you choose to reinstall macOS, you’re given the option to format your disk as part of the process. Don’t select this if you simply want to repair your installationthere’s no problem with reinstalling macOS on top of itself.
Follow the onscreen guide to complete the installation. You’ll need to be connected to the internet, as the tool will download the operating system from scratch. If you can’t get to this, you might need to boot your Mac from a USB drive.
Check Your Power Source
Your first step is to check your power cable. Most Macbooks have an indicator light to show when the cable is correctly connected. Is your laptop plugged in correctly, and have you given it a moment to begin charging? If so, and the power button still doesnt respond, it could be a power cable issue.
Try a different outlet in your home. If the Mac is still unresponsive, swap out the cable to check for a damaged charger. Check your charger for any signs that the cable is frayed or damaged, or if there is any debris lodged in the connector.
If your battery is completely dead, it may need a few minutes before its ready to restart, so give it some time and then try to power on.
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Fix : Check The Mac Display
If the Macbook pro cannot boot up, it will be turned on, yet the startup will not be completed. A few images showing up on the start up screen that could be:
- Prohibitory image
- System Lock PIN Code
From question marks to prohibitory images, images like these imply that you need to determine a few issues before you can complete a Mac startup.
What To Do If Your Macbook Wont Turn On
The first thing you should do is identify the problem that causes your MacBook to not turn on by analysing its symptoms. Also, it would be great if you knew the causes of the problem. If you spilled water on your MacBook, you already know the cause of the failure then you should try to identify the problems it has caused and its magnitude.
Broadly speaking, your computer could behave in 3 different ways:
In the first case, unless you are a hardware expert, there are some things you could try. Check for power issues, make sure the battery is charged, try to turn it on with and without the charger , disconnect all peripherals and press and hold the power button or perform an electrical discharge. To perform an electrical discharge you must disconnect all peripherals and also the power supply of your Apple computer, then press and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Let the computer rest for 5 minutes and then try again to see if the Mac turns on. Otherwise your computer may have a battery failure or a motherboard failure. The best you can do is ask us for a complete diagnosis.
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Fix : Check For Signs Of Power
Assuming the Mac is turned on yet the issue is with a startup, think about checking the force:
- Press the Power button on your Mac and tune in to the fan, startup, hard disk running, and so on
- Look for the Caps Lock key, keyboard, or rest pointer light which implies that the Mac is turning on.
- There could also be a situation where Macbook pro won’t turn on but is charging.
Why Did My Mac Suddenly Go Black
There are a number of reasons why your Mac might suddenly go black. It could be that the system has simply crashed, the display has gone bad, or theres a problem with the power adapter.
If your Mac has crashed, youll see a kernel panic message when it boots up. To fix this, youll need to restart your computer and hold down the Command and R keys until the system starts up again.
If the display is bad, you might see a black screen, a white screen, or a screen with a lot of static on it. If this is the case, youll need to take your Mac to a technician to have it fixed.
If theres a problem with the power adapter, your Mac might not turn on at all, or it might turn on but then immediately turn off. If this is the case, youll need to replace the power adapter.
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How To Fix The Imac Black Screen On Startup
Even though the iMac is packed with the latest processors, faster memory, Retina display, and phenomenal graphics, it also can’t avoid the black screen issue still.
The fixes below are also suitable for Mac mini black screen problem.
At this time, you can first:
- Check if your iMac lacks power and then try to restart it.
- Check the display’s brightness.
If you still see a black screen during restarting your computer, try the following fixes.
Solution : Perform A Power Cycle:
When iMac is not starting up, it is better that you perform a power cycle. For the people who don’t know what a power cycle is, it is a technical way of resetting the device. So, when someone states to power cycle a device, you have to turn it off and then turn it back on. There is not even a single complication in this solution and it is very effective.
- Press the power button and hold it for at least 10 seconds. Again press the button and wait. If nothing happens, then you will have to unplug the accessories attached to your device including USB hubs, mobile phones, printer, drive, etc.
- If nothing appears on the screen, verify that you haven’t dimmed the brightness to the minimum level. Turn up the brightness of the screen from the built-in keyboard.
- Try removing the battery from laptop devices and then connecting it again.
Now, try to restart the system. The power button is equivalent to a reset. And it usually works to fix common issues with all kinds of devices.
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Still Not Working Book A Repair
If none of the steps above worked and your MacBook still turns off when its unplugged, it is probably a hardware problem preventing the battery from charging. Back in the day, we could replace the battery on our own to check if it worked.
However, MacBooks no longer have removable batteries. The only remaining thing to do is contact Apple and book a repair. Alternatively, take it to your local Apple Authorized Service Center or a Genius Bar.
If your MacBook turns off when it is unplugged from the power source, there are several possible causes. That could be an issue with the battery itself, hardware or software problems related to power management, or something else. Follow the steps above to identify the problem and take the appropriate action to fix it.
Operating System Recovery And Reinstall
Disk Utility may not fix your issue, in which case you will have to reinstall your operating system. Use the Reinstall OS X option to get an automatic download of the latest operating system files and attempt a reinstall of your software.
Before you reinstall your software, you may want to attempt to copy the contents of your hard drive to another Mac to prevent you from losing your files. To do this, connect both MacBooks together with a Thunderbolt cable When booting your problem machine, hold down T until it boots in Target Disk Mode.
In this mode, your laptop functions like an external hard drive. You should be able to locate it on the second Mac and copy over your files before reinstalling your OS. If you are unable to transfer your files, be sure to ask a technician to assist you in retrieving the files before they are overwritten by a fresh OS install.
An alternative solution is to use Time Machine. This feature rewinds your system to a backup before potential damage occurred, which should get you up and running again.
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Reset System Management Controller Settings
The Mac’s Systems Management Controller controls things like temperature, keyboard, display and fans. Resetting the SMC is another possible quick fix to resolve a black screen on MacBook Pro. Turn of your MacBook and unplug it for at least 15 seconds before plugging in again. Then, with the power still off, hold down Shift + Option + Control + the power button all together. Release the keys when your MacBook starts booting up.
Solution #: Start Up From Macos Recovery
Try a forced reset. Sometimes a good old-fashioned hard restart is all it takes to fix all kinds of MacBook issues.
On an Apple-chipped MacBook Pro Press and hold the power button for about 10 seconds. You should see the startup options window, which includes a gear icon labelled Options. Select Options and Continue.If the options window doesn’t appeal, release the power button and press and hold it again for another 10 seconds. If you started up from macOS Recovery, you should see a utility window that includes Disk Utility.
On an Intel-chipped MacBook Pro, press and hold the power button for about 10 seconds, then press and release the power button and immediately press and hold Command + R until you see an Apple logo or other image. If you still see a blank screen after about 20 seconds, it’s time to move on. If this does recovers your screen, it’s worth running Disk Utility to check for errors. If Disk Utility finds errors and repair them, restart your MacBook again afterwards.
Here’s a Mac guide to use the disk utility service.
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What Can I Do If None Of These Solutions Work For Me
If youve tried all of our steps and your MacBook Pro still wont turn on, your next step should be to contact Apple for additional support. The Apple Support team is quite helpful and available 24/7.
If youd like to check your warranty coverage, visit this link. You will need your MacBooks serial number to check for its warranty. The serial number is located on the back of the bottom of your machine in small print, so if you cant power your device on, check there first.
Solution #: Disconnect All Peripherals
The only accessories that should be connected to your Mac when you try to solve the black screen on Mac issue should be the charging cable and adapter.
Disconnect all the accessories and devices connected to the Mac. Remove all external devices such as printers, flash drives, phones, and other external drives.
These peripherals may start their own dialogues which could interfere with your Macs display settings.
If this doesnt solve the problem, something else could be the problem.
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Solution : Reset The System Management Controller :
The SMC feature is responsible for various operations on the Intel-based Mac system. So, if Mac won’t restart, maybe one or a few of its low-level functions are faulty. It includes the power button, battery management, thermal management, Sudden Motion Sensor, keyboard backlighting, battery status indicator, ambient light sensing, response to display the lid opening and closing actions, and selecting the external video source for iMac displays.
If any of these functions is not responding to the commands, you should reset the SMC. The method is different for different kinds of Mac systems.
If the Mac battery is non-removable, follow the steps below:
- Choose the shut down option from the Apple menu.
- After Mac shuts down, press the Shift + Control + Option key and then press the Power button at the same time. Hold the keys and power button for 10 seconds.
- Now release all keys and press the power button again to turn your Mac on. The SMC is reset now.
If Mac has removable batteries, the steps will be:
- Shut down Mac and remove the battery.
- Press the power button and hold it for 5 seconds.
- Now reinstall the battery and press the power button once more to turn on Mac.
Fixing A Mac Booting To A Black Screen
The common issue reported on many Apple forums is Macs screen going black on startup. This is typically followed by a recurring Reset Password message. The problem appears to be somehow concerned with the battery power circuit with Mac failing to light up the screen. There is a fairly simple solution to it, though, quite an odd one involving a flashlight or a lamp. The trick works because your login screen is still there, but you cant see it.
Shine the flashlight through the Apple logo on the back of your screen. Bringing this extra light should help you see the login icon, and youll be able to put the cursor in the right spot and log in. The screen should light up normally right after that. A variant of this solution is to shine a flashlight across the screen from left to right . Try this in a dark room for greater effect.
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