ibebecca

Q: My Mac starts up but the screen stays black

MY Mac was asleep. I moved the mouse to wake it up and heard the normal sounds but the screen stays black.

iMac, iOS 6.1.5

Posted on Oct 25, 2015 8:30 PM

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Q: My Mac starts up but the screen stays black

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  • by mario49,

    mario49 mario49 Oct 27, 2015 7:33 AM in response to ibebecca
    Community Specialists
    Oct 27, 2015 7:33 AM in response to ibebecca

    Hello ibebecca,

     

    After reviewing your post, It sounds like the screen on the iMac is black. I would recommend you read this article, it may be able to help troubleshoot the issue. 

     

    Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays - Apple Support

     

    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. 
    Have a nice day.

  • by zenboyz,Helpful

    zenboyz zenboyz Oct 27, 2015 2:59 PM in response to ibebecca
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 27, 2015 2:59 PM in response to ibebecca

    Hey ibebecca,

     

    I had this issue with my late 2009 27" iMac running Tiger. I don't know if this happened to you once or if it's been happening but here's my experience with what is known as the "black screen of death". If you search the forums there's a extensive threads on this sad phenomenon.

     

    Re: Lion randomly crashes - black screen

     

    Black screen of death crash.

     

    People have tried all sorts of fixes and I tried most of them to no avail. Sometimes I'd be able to use my iMac for a few hours and then the darkness descended, or sometimes it went black right after a cold start. I could get the screen to come up by hitting shift-control-eject and wiggling the mouse. Sometimes I'd get some usage time or sometimes it would go black immediately. I don't know if you've been able to access your desktop but if you can and have another monitor, hook it up and change your display preferences to "mirror"--they tell you how to do that in mario49's link. If you get your normal desktop on the external monitor, the issue may be your display. My screen finally went black and never came back so I didn't get to try an external monitor. I took my computer to the Genius Bar. Their analysis was that either the backlight board or the entire display would need to be replaced. The backlight distributes power to the display. The backlight estimate I got was $78 for the part, $39 labor. The display is $510 plus $39 labor. The display is basically the guts of the whole bloody monitor. If it wasn't either of those parts then they said it would likely be a bad logic board, and I think they're about $500-$550. They tried the backlight and when that didn't work, they replaced the display, so I got to pay the big bucks and my problem was simply a dying display. But I'm out of the dark and I hope you will be too, and for less money.