|
Replies
:
10
-
Pages
:
1
-
Last Post
:
Sep 23, 2009 11:23 AM
by: Erik Singer
|
|
|
Posts:
19
Registered:
Sep 10, 2003
|
|
|
|
Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 9, 2009 1:47 PM
|
|
|
My Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard awoke to a black screen this morning and there doesn't seem to be much I can do to find a permanent solution. It's been running SL for over a week and had previously only had the notorious "blue screen" issue previously.
For some reason the only thing that consistently helps is to connect it via Firewire to my old PowerBook G4. I discovered this accidentally when putting the MBP into Target mode to try to troubleshoot. Has anybody heard of anything like this? It seems rather bizarre to me.
Here’s the whole history, if you're interested. I've included everything in case some of you pros recognize something familiar. There are a lot of potential red herrings in here, so please bear with me, but I wanted to be thorough:
(Red Herring 1)
Last night and once before - earlier in the week and with SL installed - I got the “blue screen” where the screen just goes blue in the middle of everything and all the applications quit. After 30 seconds or so the desktop returns and all seems back to normal. From reading these boards, this may be a conflict with something in MS Office or a bug relating to Rosetta or something as yet undetermined. The most recent time, it did happen with Excel 2004 running (can't remember what was going on the first time), so it may be the same issue that is present in other threads. This may have nothing to do with the more pressing current issue, but thought I would include everything that may be relevant.
This morning I attempted to wake it from sleep just like always and all I got was a black screen. I could hear it running, but couldn't get any response onscreen.
I disconnected the external monitor, the external hard drive, and all peripherals (printer, keyboard, mouse, etc.).
I attempted to restart with the Snow Leopard systems disk, with DiskWarrior 4.2, and also in Safe Mode (holding down the shift key). None of these did anything. Still the black screen, though I could hear the whirring and clicking of the drive operating.
Following instructions found in these discussions, I reset the SMC.
(Red Herring 2)
On some - but not most - of the restarts I was getting one long beep, which some people say means that the RAM is not recognized. I have two separate 2GB RAM chips. They are 3rd party chips and they have worked fine for the 1.75 years that I have had them. I have now taken them out and re-seated them, but they seemed well-set before and still seem well-positioned. The MBP has been sitting stationary on my desk for a week - and working fine - so I don’t think that they had become dislodged. (As you'll read later, they don't seem to be the issue - still not sure about the beeps.)
I connected the MBP in Target mode to my old PowerBook G4 and ran Disk Utility 11.1 and everything checked out fine. I disconnected from Target mode and restarted and it booted up normally except that it did a quick “stutter tone” of two quick beeps – or, more accurately, one short beep that changed tone quickly. (This was different from the one, longer steady beep that it had done a couple of times - but not every time - previously.)
I checked via System Profiler and both RAM chips are recognized. I used Disk Utility on the MBP to confirm that all was OK and it verified that all appeared fine.
I thought that I was in the clear, so I put the MBP to sleep and attached the video cable for the external monitor and when I tried to wake it, the computer went back to the black screen and being unresponsive again. (Red Herring 3)
I unplugged the monitor and again, I put it in Target disk mode, ran Disk Utility, and got an all clear. I restarted it again and it seemed fine. I tried just a simple test to put it to sleep – no peripherals added back – and it wouldn’t wake up on its own.
I then shut it down to try Target mode again and noticed that with the Firewire cable attached to the PB, it booted up fine without even going into Target mode. In fact, it could now run the peripherals – external monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
Then I put it to sleep to see if it could wake up on its own with the peripherals and the Firewire cable attached and it went back to black screen.
Put it into Target mode again, didn't bother with Disk Utility, turned the MBP off, restarted, and reset the PRAM. Again, it was able to work, but apparently resetting the PRAM didn't change anything because it reverted to the black screen and unresponsiveness when put back to sleep. Used the Firewire cable trick to resuscitate it again.
Then I put the MBP to sleep with the Firewire cable attached, but NOT attached to the other computer. It was able to wake from sleep once, but not a second time. I have finally attached it to the other PB via the Firewire cable and am leaving it that way and not messing with it anymore. At least, I can get some functionality out of it now, but I have no idea what is going on. Completely bizarre behavior.
On the plus side, I haven’t heard any beeps on startup for the past 8-10 successful restarts (since the short two-tone one above). I suppose that's a somewhat positive sign.
So what am I supposed to do? I can’t seem to put it to sleep or restart it on its own without it going to black screen. I’m working in Mexico and can't get to an Apple Store anytime within the next month. This machine is crucial to my work and I am hamstrung without it. Why in the world would connecting to another computer via a Firewire cable make all the difference? Or is this yet another Red Herring? Any ideas out there?
If you can be so kind as to make suggestions in language a 6th grader can understand, I would appreciate it. I'm not enough of a Mac adept to follow the shorthand and lingo without it being pretty explicit.
Many thanks in advance.
MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
Posts:
6
From:
Zürich
Registered:
Sep 11, 2009
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 11, 2009 8:01 AM
in response to: Erik Singer
|
|
|
Even though it's always bad when a computer breaks down, I can't help but feel relieved once I find someone with the same problems as I have, especially when they they feel to helpless.
My laptop (Macbook Pro) has always been impeccable in terms of hardware behavior, and I've got nothing but troubles once I installed Snow Leopard.
I also had Snow Leopard running for some days, and ocasionally upon rebooting the system the screen would go totally black, while the rest appeared to work correctly. Also, during the installation of the new OS, the screen went black suddenly (I noticed throughout the forums that that was a common problem during the SL instalation). Eventually it just didn't show anything on the screen during boot and thus I couldn't even use it.
After reading your post, I went to a hardware store and got myself a Firewire cable; and it worked, kind of... not the first nor the second time, but at the third time the computer booted! I'm now going to format it and restore it back into Leopard and I'll be back with more details on how that went.
Thank you so much; and most definitely, Snow Leopard wasn't ready to get out now.
Macbook Pro
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
Posts:
6
From:
Zürich
Registered:
Sep 11, 2009
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 11, 2009 8:59 AM
in response to: joaomoreno
|
|
|
So, I formatted the whole disk, reseted the PRAM as well as the SMU.
And the laptop is still in the same situation.
Now Apple, what should I do? Obviously this is not my fault and something in Snow Leopard caused this problem.
Macbook Pro
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
Posts:
19
Registered:
Sep 10, 2003
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 11, 2009 3:19 PM
in response to: joaomoreno
|
|
|
Uh, joao, this my be a little too simplistic to believe, but give this a try:
Just got off the phone with Apple Care. The first time, the guy thought it was an issue with the graphics card and that I would have to take it in to an Apple Store. Being in Mexico for the next several weeks, that would have been a drag. Luckily, we got disconnected.
So I called back and got another guy. He told me to reset the SMC. OK, I said, but I've already done that.
However, he gave me different directions than those listed by Apple. He told me simply to unplug my MacBook Pro, remove the battery, wait 15 seconds, then reinsert the battery and power back on.
This was instead of "On the built-in keyboard, press (left) Shift-Control-Option along with the power button once" that is listed here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411
Maybe they do the same thing, but the first one seems to have worked for me, at least for the moment.
Now it could have been something else along the way - all the restarts, running Disk Utility, repairing permissions, updating software, stopping start-up items, upgrading to 10.6.1, etc. - may have contributed to assist. But the simple fact is that this last item seems to have returned some reliability to the situation.
I'm only a half-hour in, but have restarted twice and woken from sleep a half dozen times to test and all seems to be functioning well. Hope it holds and hope this helps.
Please report back with your experience. I'll update if it reverts to black screen again.
Good luck!
MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
Posts:
6
From:
Zürich
Registered:
Sep 11, 2009
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 11, 2009 4:51 PM
in response to: Erik Singer
|
|
|
Hi Erik,
It looks like it worked... for the first time. Once I shut it down it went right back to where it was. Not even removing the battery for more than 1 minute, or so.
Thanks though; I'll also keep you posted.
PS: well, now I really can't boot it anymore. Not removing the battery nor after Target Disk Mode.
PS2: and now it booted for no apparent reason. Maybe just to tease me, since I just pressed the button in a "well... why not..." kind of though.
Message was edited by: joaomoreno
Macbook Pro
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
Posts:
6
From:
Zürich
Registered:
Sep 11, 2009
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 11, 2009 7:06 PM
in response to: joaomoreno
|
|
|
Argh I give up.
The reason why it boots up 1 time out of 50 is completely random and frustrating.
My intuition tells me this is some kind of low-level software / firmware issue.
Macbook Pro
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
Posts:
19
Registered:
Sep 10, 2003
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 12, 2009 7:57 AM
in response to: joaomoreno
|
|
|
Yeah, mine went black again overnight when I left it in Sleep mode. It had been waking and restarting fine yesterday. I'm at a loss as to what is causing it.
Guess I'll just try to muddle through with a combo of resetting the SMC - tried the (left) Shift-Control-Option along with the power button this time - and maybe the Firewire cable again and hope it limps along until I can get it into an Apple Store next month.
If I ever get a fix, I'll post it here.
MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
Posts:
6
From:
Zürich
Registered:
Sep 11, 2009
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 12, 2009 8:13 AM
in response to: Erik Singer
|
|
|
Thanks, I will do the same. I will be able to take it to an Apple Store on Tuesday, I'll post the results.
Macbook Pro
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
Posts:
19
Registered:
Sep 10, 2003
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 22, 2009 4:12 PM
in response to: joaomoreno
|
|
|
Hi Joao,
Did you have any luck with the Apple Store? Did they have a solution?
Many thanks,
Erik
MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz
Mac OS X (10.6.1)
|
|
Posts:
6
From:
Zürich
Registered:
Sep 11, 2009
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 23, 2009 11:16 AM
in response to: Erik Singer
|
|
|
Hi Erik,
I just came from the Apple Store here in Zurich. I had to leave the laptop there for a fix: it seems to be some defect in the Nvidia board that came with the laptop and is common in some computers of our model. Snow Leopard was just a coincidence.
It's really bad that they didn't make the recall for the defected laptops, since they knew about the problem all along.
Good luck with yours.
Macbook Pro
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
Posts:
19
Registered:
Sep 10, 2003
|
|
|
|
Re: Black Screen & Sleep/Restart Issue with Snow Leopard
Posted:
Sep 23, 2009 11:23 AM
in response to: joaomoreno
|
|
|
Many thanks.
I'll take mine in next time I'm back in a country with an Apple Store.
I appreciate the help.
Glad you're all fixed!
MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz
Mac OS X (10.6)
|
|
|
