MacBook Pro Display going black

uvox

The display on my MBP suddenly goes black - it doesn't look like it's dead. Rest of the hardware runs in the background. Any clues as to why this is happening?

Only way I can get the display back is to restart the machine.

Is there some screen sleep option kicking in? Or is the display knackered? Any way to reactive the display without restarting?

3 years old. New battery with only 150 cycles on it.

Sad Professor

There's another poster with a similar problem on the Mac forum.

Have you installed any RAM?

Try running a hardware test - insert the install disc and hold d on startup.

uvox

Nope. All RAM been there since 2007. Been taking firmware updates, I suspect something there, but not sure. Will check it out...

TouchingVirus

Are your peripherals working too? Plug in a USB mouse or hard drive and see if they stop working when the display blacks out. It does sound to me like it's putting the display to sleep randomly. I had this on a new unibody Macbook very recently and got it fixed under warranty. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Sad Professor

It sounds more like a crash to me. Any time this has happened to me, bad or loose RAM was the culprit. But it could be the graphics card or logic board as well.

Connavar

When it goes black look at the screen closely. If the image is still there(very hard to see) its probably the backlight on the screen thats gone.
This happened to a laptop of mine recently

uvox

Thanks for all replies girls.

Peripherals OK. Will have to check the screen closely when it happens again. I don't think it's the backlight, but can't be sure until it repros.

The only major changes made to the system recently were for iPhone OS updates and firmware.

Of course the extended warranty ran out on....12-JUL-2010 (Monday). Dontcha love it?

I might take it down to CompB in Grafton Street - I saw they had an 'expert bar' sign up today.

Sad Professor

If it's coming back after a restart, then it's probably not the backlight.

Did a hardware test show up anything?

You can run Rember to test the RAM.
http://www.kelleycomputing.net/rember/

You can also check the system log in Console. Check around the time the crash happened. You should be able to see when you restarted it, so check what the log reported right before that.

Since Applecare only just ran out, get on to Apple ASAP and log the problem. Say it started before the 12th. Also, is that the actual date you bought the machine 3 years ago? Sometimes Apple's date isn't accurate. Check your receipt.

Connavar

Sad Professor wrote: »

If it's coming back after a restart, then it's probably not the backlight.

When the back light on my laptop went it would come back on after a restart, last around 10 minutes and then go again so it is still possible.
(Also happened like this to a number of others in my work office)

uvox

thanks. don't see anything in the .log pertaining to the display itself. running the memcheck.

to do h/w check i insert disk 1 of install disc set and press D, right?

uvox

Mem tests passed. Good tip on that Kelley utility btw.