Ashadur

Q: 27' iMac (2011) Screen turns off

This has been going on for me for the past few months on and off, it just randomly switches the screen off but everything else works perfectly, for example if im watching a video on hulu i can still hear the sound, if im doing work on word the documents are still there, iv finally gotten video footage of it.

 

Screen turning off:

http://youtu.be/l6DfD7o_fXs

 

Screenshot of my settings

http://i.imgur.com/pPvUH.jpg

 

To turn it back on i press "ctrl + shift + eject" and then move the mouse.

 

Any help will do, i have contacted Apple support on the phone they did say bring it in, just need to make an appointment. If anyone else has this problem and knows a better solution than having to keep pressing buttons to turn the screen back on please share.

 

Thank you in advance

- Ashadur

iPhone 4S, iOS 5

Posted on Jun 27, 2012 3:39 PM

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Q: 27' iMac (2011) Screen turns off

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  • by MarkusWinter,

    MarkusWinter MarkusWinter Oct 5, 2015 12:07 AM in response to LexXxus69
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 5, 2015 12:07 AM in response to LexXxus69

    HA! Well, I'm OVER 50, "Son", so a big LOL ;-)

     

    Critical thinking starts with oneself. If you can't take constructive criticism and are not willing to question your own beliefs, assumptions and convictions then you are no critical thinker. Simple as that.

     

    Btw I'm a Scientist, working in Cancer Research, so I'm well aware of the issues involved in critical thinking. I'm also a programmer (self-taught), have assembled and repaired over 700 computers, and am quite proficient in disassembling my iMac and my MacBook Pro. Your "simple maths" simply doesn't add up, and you can't shoehorn a plethora of possible causes into one solution. There's no magic pill in Cancer Research, and there is no simple solution to the different causes for the screen blacking out on some iMacs. it might be a corruption in the SMC for some, but certainly not for others.

     

    The top model of the 2011 27in iMac sold for $1999. Your model sold for $1699, plus whatever your memory upgrade was. A long way from $5000. Don't exaggerate, stick to facts.

     

    if the issue happened since 2011 as you claimed, well within the warranty period, then why did you not take the iMac back?

     

    And people come here for help and advice, not to read rants.

     

    Personal attacks don't impress anyone, they just reduce one's credibility.

  • by johnny10k,

    johnny10k johnny10k Oct 22, 2015 1:29 PM in response to MarkusWinter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2015 1:29 PM in response to MarkusWinter

    This issue started with me a few weeks ago and I have been slowly trying the various suggestions with no luck.

     

    I have a mid 2007 iMac 24" that is doing the exact same issue.  I have owned this iMac since buying new in Feb 2008 and it has been a workhorse.  I have upgraded RAM and switched to SSD.  It is currently running El Capitan and acts as my media server running Plex with an attached Drobo.

     

    iMac ran great for several weeks after upgrading to El Capitan then I noticed that it wouldn't wake up.  Did a hard restart, it ran great, and then black screen after about 20 minutes.  I tried using screen sharing so I could troubleshoot from my laptop.  Screen sharing works fine when the iMac's screen is working, but screen sharing stops working when the iMac goes dark.

     

    Plex continues to run flawlessly while iMac is dark.

     

    Has anyone tried hooking an external display to the iMac while it is black?  I'm curious if I could hook this up to my TV. 

     

    Going to try adjusting fan speed next.  If that fails, I may try a fresh install.

  • by MarkusWinter,

    MarkusWinter MarkusWinter Oct 22, 2015 2:03 PM in response to johnny10k
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 22, 2015 2:03 PM in response to johnny10k

    It's the other way round. YOU need to try an external monitor. If there is a picture on the external then you can exclude the graphics card as a culprit, but if there is no picture then the graphics card is probably toadt.

     

    my iMac works fine with an external monitor, but in my case it is the backlight which is flaky.

     

    Nobody else can make that determination for you.

  • by Flitter2009,

    Flitter2009 Flitter2009 Oct 22, 2015 3:07 PM in response to MarkusWinter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2015 3:07 PM in response to MarkusWinter

    +1 on this (or similar issue). I've even tried installing el capitan from scratch and the screen goes blank or dark or white and I get freezes.

     

    I'm trying to see if running long term (days) on safe mode will stop the problem from occurring. Has anyone on this thread tried long term safe mode for this?

  • by johnny10k,

    johnny10k johnny10k Oct 22, 2015 4:35 PM in response to MarkusWinter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2015 4:35 PM in response to MarkusWinter

    Actually, it's not.  The whole point of these forums is to collaborate and find solutions.  I'm not going to buy an hdmi adapter without knowing whether anyone has had success.  Does someone else's success guarantee it will work for me?  No, but it is a good sign.

  • by MarkusWinter,

    MarkusWinter MarkusWinter Oct 23, 2015 12:59 AM in response to johnny10k
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 12:59 AM in response to johnny10k

    So somebody (like me) can use an external monitor. What does that tell YOU? Right, absolutely nothing. Because you don't know if he has the same underlying problem or not. So you are back to square one.

     

    You want a degree of handholding and dertainty that simply doesn't exist.

     

    And you don't need to buy, just borrow from somebody (bring your iMac there to test).

  • by johnny10k,

    johnny10k johnny10k Oct 23, 2015 9:04 AM in response to MarkusWinter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 9:04 AM in response to MarkusWinter

    Whoa...did not expect to get trolled on a support forum.  Easy fella, just looking for ideas to try.  That's the whole point of this thread.

     

    Anyway, back to troubleshooting.

     

    • Latest El Capitan update - didn't help
    • Added a temp monitor app.  Saw I was running at about 135 F when it shut off.  Shut down machine for awhile. Next try it was running at 107 F.  Again, after about 20 minutes the screen went blank. 
    • Tried setting it to sleep after 5 minutes.  iMac had no issues going to sleep and waking.  I left it in sleep mode for an hour and it woke without issue!  But after a period of use it went dark again.
    • I am NOT able to wake it up with Ctrl-Shift-Eject or Cmd-Option-Eject or any combination of those keys regardless of how hard I hit the keyboard.

     

    I want to try a reinstall, but am worried about it going dark mid-install.

     

    I'm going to try recording the time until it goes dark to look for any patterns.  I did not that when I cleared memory, it went less than a minute later.  Coincidence?  I'll play around some more this weekend.

     

    iMac 24" mid2007

  • by MarkusWinter,

    MarkusWinter MarkusWinter Oct 23, 2015 9:44 AM in response to johnny10k
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 9:44 AM in response to johnny10k

    Thanks for calling me a troll.

     

    FIrst off, you didn't ask for ideas, you asked about using an external monitor. That is something only you can test, as I pointed out twice.

     

    If you want to be illogical and turn this into a war of words then you are on your own. No point in wasting time on people who insist on sticking to preconcieved ideas.

     

    Hereby unsubscribed from this thread.

     

    Good luck with your troubleshooting anyway.

  • by johnny10k,

    johnny10k johnny10k Oct 23, 2015 10:15 AM in response to MarkusWinter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2015 10:15 AM in response to MarkusWinter

    Thanks

     

    I found another thread (this issue is far too common) where someone had some success by disabling bluetooth devices.

     

    There are definitely several different problems that manifest into a black screen (logic board, graphics card, led, memory, etc).  Bluetooth seems like a stretch, but I've seen stranger.  I'll post my results back on here.

  • by Flitter2009,

    Flitter2009 Flitter2009 Oct 29, 2015 4:00 AM in response to Flitter2009
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2015 4:00 AM in response to Flitter2009

    HI,

     

    Just a follow up on my issue. I've had the graphics card in the iMac replaced and the issue has gone away. It seems like something in El Capitan triggered an issue in the card. Older OSs were happy to boot and run, but the new one triggered something.

  • by LexXxus69,

    LexXxus69 LexXxus69 Oct 29, 2015 6:06 AM in response to Flitter2009
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2015 6:06 AM in response to Flitter2009

    Again, I see people are not addressing the issue of the MAC running hot. Try to set your brightness down to the lowest setting possible

    as a test run for a day or few. Also run SMCFancontrol software for your iMac and set the fan to MAX.

     

    My Mac has not went blank since the day I ran SMCFanControl and set my brightness down to 1.

     

    Best of luck to ya.

  • by johnny10k,

    johnny10k johnny10k Nov 2, 2015 10:29 AM in response to LexXxus69
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 10:29 AM in response to LexXxus69

    I tried this without any success.  What do you have your fan speeds set at?

     

    I tried letting mine cool (turned off) for several hours.  It was running much cooler when I turned it back on, but it still went dark after 21 minutes.  It had been running 20-30 degrees cooler from the last time I had used it at the time it shutoff.  I don't believe this rules out temp, but I'm not seeing a clear link.

     

    Mine will also go dark when it is already dark.  Meaning, it goes into sleep mode and will not wake up.  Screen brightness definitely has no impact in my case.

  • by U2LN,

    U2LN U2LN Nov 2, 2015 8:12 PM in response to Ashadur
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 8:12 PM in response to Ashadur

    I have confirmed that the LCD panel still works by shining a work light on the screen. Only the backlight turns off.

  • by Xalok,

    Xalok Xalok Dec 7, 2015 6:28 PM in response to johnny10k
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 7, 2015 6:28 PM in response to johnny10k

    johnny10k wrote:

     

    Thanks

     

    I found another thread (this issue is far too common) where someone had some success by disabling bluetooth devices.

     

    There are definitely several different problems that manifest into a black screen (logic board, graphics card, led, memory, etc).  Bluetooth seems like a stretch, but I've seen stranger.  I'll post my results back on here.

    I asume you are following that threads, could you, please link them. I think it can help other users to check quick other related threats.

    Thanks in advance

  • by Xalok,

    Xalok Xalok Dec 7, 2015 6:31 PM in response to Ashadur
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 7, 2015 6:31 PM in response to Ashadur

    I I am too with black screen as well in an imac mid 2011, 27inch. But sometimes problem makes worst cause it becomes to a hard shut off. So, loosing all job done unsaved.

     

    As well I will share everything I discover.

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