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

I think the reason why Apple was a success in the '90 (well my own opinion) is thru the word of mouth. I am a Computer Graphic Artist since the 90, and I would like to say that I have promoted Mac product to the extent that I call if a tool from the gods. It was so solid, the design, the system, was so perfect. It all started with the OS7 then OS9. Woww those where the days that we can really rely on a Mac. It doest hang, no virus, security is good, the speed was awesome. hayyyyy yeahhh those are days.

Anyway I do have a busted MacbookPro 2.4 17 inch with the dreaded NVIDIA card and now I dont understand why Apple wont repair my Mac. They keep saying its the Logic board. Hey Im a Computer Graphic Artist and I'm no expert at this electronics but with my experience with the Mac or even the PC, isnt it that this thing wont even startup if the Logic board (motherboard) is busted.

Yeahhhh Word of mouth...nothing but the truth thou...always the truth..

To ThienK:

Did you get your MBP from the repair?

I have exactly the same problems with my MBP (bought April 2008):
black screen, no start-up sound, keyboard doesn´t react, harddisk spins, bright light when lid is closed, dim light when opened, there is power supply and battery can charge.

It happened to my MBP yesterday, after I put it to sleep. It never woke up... Before that I used to have lots of kernel panics, the system crashed finally last summer. But the issue with kernel panics went away after I installed Leopard. However, I started to have problems with a picture every now and then when opening a new Safari window (the picture would freeze and get all messed up - many pixels of different colors).

As I live in Denmark too, I wanted to know how did it go for you with the repair possibility?
Probably will take mine to the service tomorrow...

So fortunately or unfortunately I have experienced this very unnerving and highly confusing "Black Screen of Death" issue...

Happy to know I'm not alone here but at the same time quite shocked to learn this is such a rampant issue affecting so many....

My story goes like this :

I bought this MBP at the end of April from a friend of a friend, so obviously it was used...

I was fully informed about the non-working internal screen but opted to purchase it anyway....the price was too good to refuse!

So I carried it home and hooked it up to my external screen and all was well, one day my internal screen miraculously turned on (SO HAPPPY!!) and stayed on for about a month!

After a system update, I shut it down and went to bed. Next day I woke up, no screen activity, internal or external.

So after my google hunt I found this forum http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1727530&start=105&tstart=0

The day after it happened I took it to school and did the whole "Target Disk Mode" (See link for details - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661)

Followed by a very helpful post :

1) connect the nonworking computer to another mac with a firewire cable
2) turn the nonworking computer and hold down T - will let you access it as if it is an external hard drive
3) access the /private/var/vm/ directory on the nonworking computer from the working computer. This is invisble so you will have to press cmdshiftg in the finder and go to /volumes/YOURHARDDISKNAME/private/var/vm to get there or use an application that lets you view invisble folders like PathFinder.
4) delete the sleepimage file
5) delete the /system/library/extensions.mkext file
6) eject the drive (drag to the trash)
7) press the power button to turn off the non working computer
8) turn the nonworking computer back on normally(cross your fingers) then if it works,
9) open up the the terminal.app in /applications/utilities
10) type sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
11) make sure there is no sleepimage file again

And I also followed this - more detailed -
http://ariejan.net/2009/04/05/macbook-pro-black-screen-of-death-or-is-it-just-fa king/

However I was only able to get to step 4. When I attempted to locate the 'extentions.mkext' file I was unable to find such an existing file...but my MBP worked just fine anyway....I shut her down and restarted her without any problems so I thought ok, she's good to go...shut her down, not sleep mode.

I get home from school and try to power her up again....same issue....everything running but she's in a coma....black screen.

I reset my PRAM, take out the battery, do a safe boot (hold down shift while starting up) and do the entire Target Disk Mode thing again, and the 'sleepimage' file appears again....I don't get it...baffled... tried resetting the display (hold down 'R' while powering up) but still nothing.

So I'm not sure what the culprit is here, but I'll be carrying it to a friend who owns an Apple Dealership to get his opinion.

He is fully aware of : http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377 and told me that it's indeed factual.

Another friend suggested that it could be the inverter board gone bad ?

Is there a step I missed ? Any suggestions guys ?

I think the logicboard is fine....I think people jump to that conclusion because it's the easiest to get to but certainly NOT the most cost effective solution...

I will keep you updated...

So, I received a phone call this morning and good news is I can collect my MBP tomorrow afternoon from the store/tech support as they fixed the issue.
Even though I didn't have cover for my machine and long out of warranty, the part they replaced was "still covered" which I thought was odd.
Anyway, they said its back up and working.
Will find out tomorrow and give exact details of the problem that was, but thankful I didn’t have to pay anything more.

End of my story:

After a long search in the Internet for solutions, I managed to start-up my MBP:

Put MBP on a stable flat surface, with a full charged battery, no electricity connected. Pressed the power button, and left it working until the battery depleted. Let it to cool off. After it is cold, pressed power button for 10 seconds and then connected electricity and started it up. And it worked!
I managed to get all my info out, but as soon as I tried to restart it, laptop died on me again. Same black screen, no response from keyboard.

Brought it to the service. Got the message from them after 3 days that it is fixed and ready to pick up. They repaired it under the extended guarantee (graphic card failure, replacement of the logic board). Really happy with the service!

MacBook Pro up and working at top speed.
They replaced the logic board free of charge and I'm grateful.

Updated snow leopard to 10.6.4 and seems ok too.

So after reading this entire discussion I too have had the "black screen of death". I called apple, tried a few things nothing worked he sent me to a store. Got to the store and they couldn't get it to work. To my dismay as I see now this is a big problem because he only had one in the Simi Valley store and all the stores in the LA and surrounding areas had no video card either. So he is expecting the part in on Monday (its Saturday now) and should get it back to me by Tuesday or Wednesday. My question is for the people who got theirs fixed, how has it worked since? Did you lose any data after it was fixed?
Thanks

After a blank screen on a booting (at least dinging) machine, I had the logic board quickly replaced at no charge (for an out of warranty mid 2007 MBPro 17 2.4) with "rev 2" which should be immune to the 8600 defect. Let's hope it really lasts...

I have a quick question. I had the same issue. Screen of death etc... etc... I am seeing people say that their logic board was replaced or it was an issue with the video/graphics card. My computer is currently having its logic board replaced. Does that include a replacement of the Nvidia card or is that something that needs to be done separately?

The graphic card is soldered on the logic board.

Needless to say, my cross is back again, my oct/08 macbook pro is back again with the F*ing black screen, less than 2 months after the 4th logic board replacement, on to the 5th now! Lets see if I get to the 10th this year!!! Very dissapointed abouyt the way apple is dealing with this... Ya, 1 year more of warranty, but my macbook pro is spending more time at repairs then it spends with me... 5 logic boards in less than 2 years, amazing...

I am starting to think they are reusing the old logic boards on my macbook, there is no explanation, this is a real joke...

Apple extends your warranty 1 year for the logic board replacement? I was not able to go to an Apple store, and had to get my replacement at an authorized dealer, as I am in India. Will apple still grant this warranty extension?

Not only extended to me but to everyone with this problem, you can see it here http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377, I don't have a apple store nearby too, i took it to an authorized dealership too, it was covered by warranty anyways, but i just don't understand why this is happening to me, for what I have read most people change once the logic board and it lasts for at least a year, my macbook its been almost more time in repairs than with me, the last time took one month for them to return it, and its the same crap as usual, someday ill just throw it out the windows, cause this is just too much to bear... 5 times with this problem in a 1.7 year macbook its a complete joke.

I am having the exact same problem. The worst part of it is that I bought mine refurbished in 2007. It is as if apple sold faulty products with the 90 day thinking that most wouldn't have this problem, and when they did, well, too late for you!

I've spent well over 15,000 on apple products in the last 5 years, this MacBook pro was the worst ever. Lost ALOT of work and time..

NEVER buy refurbished, it is where apple dumps faulty products hoping that most live just past the 90 days. And apple care? Why not just make functional laptops that live for longer than three years cost $300 more?