Q: MacBook Pro Blank Screen (Built - in & External) - continued

Im very confused about this black screen problem, I reinstalled the S.O. with Leopard DVD and the problem disappears, or at least doesn't manifest as much on leopard, i done more that 30 shutdowns and reboots and always booted ok, install Snow Leopard from the upgrade DVD and the problem is back on, now i'm not sure again if it is some kind of problem with snow, or is just my MacBook 3.1 that has the problem... I had the logic Board changed about 9 months in warranty and now this... I think is very bad if I have to change it again, cause if I have to buy 1 logic board every year I may just buy another MacBook :S

@Magnat: For some people the problem hasn't been clear cut. In my case my screen simply failed and that was it. But if you read back through this thread you will see that others have had situations such as yours where the screen falters and recovers over a period of time. If it is the NVIDIA problem, there is only one way to be sure and that is to take it into an Apple service centre and have them take a look at it.

Here's something I haven't seen mentioned--and if it has, my apologies: I work for a school, and in the process of imaging a lab full of 13" MBPs, I noticed that some of them were starting up OK but the screen would go black after a few seconds. What I realized was that +this was happening to the MBPs that I had stacked on top of another closed/off MBP.+ As soon as I lifted the MBP in question about a foot or so off the MBP it was on top of, the video returned. Another tech was with me and it was the damnedest thing we'd ever seen. +Then it occurred to me that it was the magnetic latch from the laptop below that was most likely triggering the screen to darken.+

I don't know how many of you this with apply to, but I thought I'd share.

As promised, I'll now update the experience I had with this issue.

I was able to get the MBP to work sporadically, usually by booting up to the black screen, then doing a hard power down, then restarting. (I didn't like doing it that way, but it did seem to work most times.)

The next day, I scheduled a phone appointment with Apple Support. (The MBP was still under Apple Care, although that shouldn't have mattered.) Support called me at precisely the arranged time. I pulled off the road, went through a quick startup-to-black-screen hoop, then made arrangements for shipping the unit back to Apple. The closest Apple store is a 5-hour round trip from my house.

A shipping box from Apple arrived via FedEx the next day. That afternoon the unit went out. The day that Apple received the unit, they had it fixed, as well as replacing a faulty optical drive Shipped out the next day, received it that day after that. All told, I was down about 6 days, over a weekend.

I wish the problem hadn't happened, but since it did, and since Apple tackled the issue right away, I have nothing but good to say about the experience. I'm now up and running, and haven't encountered the issue since. (But I am keeping my fingers crossed.)

Rob

I bought my Macbook Pro July 2008. October 13th 2009 my computer's logic board died and would not turn on. Took it to the Apple Store and they returned it to me 2 days later with a new logic board. It seemed to had work just fine until I got home and try to boot into windows. The back-light would not come on. At the time I had not notice that the light was not coming on I had just thought that the partition was messed up. I repartitioned my hard drive and tried to reinstall but nothing happened when I booted off of the install disk. That was when I noticed that the back light was out. You could see the bottom of the screen if you shined a flash light on it. I took it back to the Apple store because this was not a problem I could not fixed. I figured there was something wrong with the new Logic Board. They refuse to fix it because I can boot into Mac OS X. I am quite livid about all of this. Not only do I play my games in windows (I pre-ordered left4dead 2 and it came out 2 days after the problem manifested) but I use the Windows problem at work. I am a Scientific Instrument Crafter at MCV and I fix machinery and computers they are hooked up to. We have a wide variety of computers running OS 9 OS X and windows. I now have to carry around three computers because I can't use windows on my Macbook Pro and to make things worse the Windows Specialist from whom I have to borrow a laptop from makes fun of me and my use of Apple products. I have been using Apple computers for 20 years but after the way I've been treated by the Apple Store I am thinking of switching to Sager for laptops.


Edit: I forgot to mention since the repair it can no longer play 1080p video smoothly, it will suffer from a kernel panic about 3 times a week, Time Machine Back Ups take hours, and sometimes the display won't wake up after it sleeps.

Message was edited by: thelordkanchi

Message was edited by: thelordkanchi

Another tale of MBP woe Does this sound like the Nvidea problem?

My MBP started refusing to boot up: no chimes and a black screen (& no external monitor), just the little light on the front. Ocassionally it would boot and of course it did so when I went to the Genius Bar. The fella was about to diagnose a battery problem, when it finally obliged by not booting.

He then said it could be faulty RAM (2 x 2GB Crucial) but if it wasn't that, it'll be a faulty logic board. I've just checked with some spare RAM with the same result.

I was told a new logic board would cost £600 and also warned that a further visit to the G Bar would incur a £68 charge!

Am I right in thinking the Nvidea card is built in to the logic board? And that this is the probably the cause? I can ill afford £600 (dishwasher, car, iron all playing up as well).

It's a late 2007 model which I bought second-hand 18 months ago.

Dr Madvibe --

If the machine is still available in its current "nonfunctional" state, check this:

In addition to the front light, does the Caps Lock key light up when you press it? If you hit the Volume up key (F5), do you hear any sound? Are any of the keys on the keyboard lit?

In my experience, the NVIDIA problem affected only the display; all aforementioned keys lit up, and it's a good way to test whether it's the NVIDIA problem, or something else.

So, let's say your keys are lighting up... you could likely assume it's NVIDIA. If that's the case, the Apple should cover the repair as mentioned elsewhere in this thread. If not, then you likely have a bigger problem.

I would recommend hooking up with Apple Support, perhaps with the call-back option. They served me well.

Oh ^%^$ !

No caps lock light, no lit keyboard and no volume sounds. Looks like an expensive month

Thank you for your advice rhanson739

Dr M

Unfortunately I believe I am joining this club. My MBP is about 2 years old. Just replaced the battery as it died (expanding). I am not looking forward to this video/logic board issue as my MBP is rather important, especially right now.

Any suggestions as I have my appointment with a Mac Genius tonight @ 6pm ET?

Thanks.

Message was edited by: kcherasaro

the same here,

just purchased a new battery, about a week later started the blank screen. it happened before but it was so spaced in time i didn´t pay attention. now the macbook pro is more than 2 years old and as far as i heard apple doesn´t repair the nvidia issue if it´s older than 2 years.

i´m going to pay attention to the caps lock key next time (the blank screen only appears sometimes and i usually get rid of it hard resetting TWO times, weird isn´t it?), seems a good advice.

As Apple's knowledge base article states, they will fix NVIDIA issues up to 3 years after the purchase date:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

Thank you for that link. I will be printing a copy of that to bring with me when I go to the Apple store for my appointment. A quick question for you though based on your machine config. How is the 6GB or ram working. I did some research and it looks like I may be able to upgrade my MBP to 6GB as well.

Thanks again,
Ken

My advice is that you should keep the original memory in the MBP when you take it to the Apple store.

I have upgraded to 6GB OWC memory and I'm loving it, especially since I do a lot of Photoshop work. However, when I shipped my MBP back for the NVIDIA repair, it magically seemed to have the original 2MB in it. Funny, that.

When you're at the store, if your MBP fits the profile for the NVIDIA issue (lights on, but nobody's home), don't let them tell you it's something else, which is a problem I've seen somewhere on this thread.

Message was edited by: rhanson739

I've been running with 6GB of RAM for just over a year now. No problems to speak of and it really makes a big difference, especially when running VMware Fusion.

When my MacBook Pro was sent out for the NVIDIA repair, I left the 6GB of RAM in it and did not have any issues with that from Apple.

Here's the blog post I wrote about it in October 2008: http://www.logicalvue.com/blog/2008/10/upgrading-a-macbook-pro-to-6gb-ram/

i´m glad to hear that they will repair it no matter how old the computer is.

anyway i had this issue again and the keyboard doesn´t respond, no caps lock light and no sound when pressing volume keys. when i plug an external monitor doesn´t work neither. does that mean i had another logic motherboard problem instead the nvidia issue?

hey wait a sec, my dvd drive it´s been giving me several problems and i had opened it few times to clean the lens. it happens that every time it freezes there is a sound like the dvd trying to load a disc. maybe this is the key! i´m going to check this asap. thank´s for the info
rhanson739.

Message was edited by: ichocobo