No display at all after 10.5.7 update install

I've my laptop back from the Technical Service, they decided to changed my logic board, according to them that was what it was broken... anyway, now Its working perfectly.

But I don't get it, an update can kill my faulty hardware (8600M GT)?

My pleasure Jack, anything to help out. Thanking you also for all your help.
Hope they sort you out and you get your mac back pronto!

Gilbert

Same here. My MBP took the update fine. Rebooted, went about business as usual then put it to sleep for the night. Go to wake it up the next morning and nothing. Wouldn't reboot, pushed power button hard drive spun up and sleep indicator came on but no boot chime. Inserted disk held down C and nothing. Hooked to another mac rebooted holding T and no target mode either. Took to the mac reseller and $440 later a new mother board. They say it had nothing to do with the update or the nVidia 8600 GT chip so I had to pay. Strange coincidence. I'll be keeping an eye on this issue.

I finally couldn't take it anymore and took my MBP to the Apple Store today. The Genius attached an external hard drive via usb on both sides of the usb ports (I have the 15" SR 2.2) and it ran some graphics tests. The result was that the graphics card failed the test, the blank screen also happened when he tried to run the test. It's going to take 7 - 10 days before I get it back. Have your MBP tested at your nearest APple Store if you can, it'll save you a lot of headache.

mokeiko

hi

I got the same problem which started yesterday after i opened the lid. I upgraded using the delta. As listed above, nothing seems to be working.

As far as I understand, there is no cure for this problem on software side (considering all the downgradings and back-up reinstalls). Please correct me if there is any.

I will bring my laptop to tech service but before I have to get some stuff from my harddrive. My problem is that in the target disc mode, i can't reach my home directory, it's just not there. Filevault was not on either. Anyone can direct me to a relevant solution?

Also, I'm surprised how some people managed to use the screensharing without seeing anything on their host machines. As far as I know, you need to setup the finder or ichat to do that. Is there another way to do this? This would definetely save a lot of things for me.

Emrahk,

+I will bring my laptop to tech service but before I have to get some stuff from my harddrive. My problem is that in the target disc mode, i can't reach my home directory, it's just not there. Filevault was not on either. Anyone can direct me to a relevant solution?+

I don't know what happened but try this first. I am able to temporarily get the screen working by setting up you problem MBP in TDM. Use your other mac to open the MBP and browse, close all windows and drag the TDM MBP to the trash. Press the power button on the MBP to shut it down, disconnect the Firewire cable. Press the MBP power button and hopefully it will boot up with sreen working. I do this every time my MBP screen went black on me.

+Also, I'm surprised how some people managed to use the screensharing without seeing anything on their host machines. As far as I know, you need to setup the finder or ichat to do that. Is there another way to do this? This would definetely save a lot of things for me.+

Screen sharing would have to be turned "on" on the MBP first before the screen went black, I never heard of the iChat solution.

mokeiko

Greetings from the outbacks of Vietnam.

To turn on screen sharing somewhat remotely go to the following MacOSX hint:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080318190503111

I agree it is easiest to have Screen Sharing enabled all the time in case of this sort of problem, But if you are a bit familiar with Terminal and ssh it is not too tricky. This is basically what that site states and it may help a few people:
---START---
10.5: Start screen sharing remotely in Terminal
Tue, Mar 25 2008 at 7:30AM PDT • Submitted by alblue Network
Assume you want to do some work on a remote Mac via 10.5's Screen Sharing, but you forgot to enable Screen Sharing before you left the remote Mac. You're now a good distance away, and apparently stuck. Fortunately, because the screen sharing system uses launchd to monitor its state, enabling and disabling is as simple as adding a file in the remote Mac's /Library/Preferences folder. (Note that you'll need to be able to login to the remote Mac via ssh to run these commands on that Mac.)

$ cd /Library/Preferences
$ echo -n enabled > com.apple.ScreenSharing.launchd

To disable screen sharing:

$ cd /Library/Preferences
$ rm com.apple.ScreenSharing.launchd

If you have a Finder window open with the remote Mac selected in the Shared section, you'll even note the icon for Screen Sharing coming and going as you do this.
---END---
Jack

PS

A fast hack that might work more easily for you is to drag the relevant file from your working computer to your non-working MBP using target disk mode:

com.apple.ScreenSharing.launchd

Try to put this directly into your main Library/preferences folder. All it is is a file with this name containing the instruction "enabled". An easy way to create that file is to make sure your working computer in fact has the screen sharing enabled and then take a copy out of that computer's library.

After copying over, quit from target disk and reboot your blind MBP. Let it go through the boot and then try to log in via screen sharing.

I am not sure but I think that remote login needs to be *disabled* for this to work (it probably is ... ).

You probably need your passwords to modify the system file in the first place, and certainly to log into screen sharing.

You may surf around some of the sites yourself or start here for more tips.
http://technotes.twosmallcoins.com/?tag=os-x-screen-sharing

Good luck,
J

I just got the macbook pro back from the Apple Store in London. Dropped it off Friday night and it was Ready Monday morning. Awesome service guys!

They knew of the problem and changed the logic board, another person with the same problem was picking up their laptop aswell.

Well, all is good now, updated to 10.5.7 using the combo update and it is working fine so far.

hi mokeiko

I tried to do the TDM method you described but while trying to move the HD to trash, the icon became "eject" and couldn't perform it. I wonder how you did it.

On the other hand, I solved my "invisible home directory" problem by enabling "view all files" setting in the other mac. (not the tdm). You can set it in terminal with the following code:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

and then by relaunching the finder by alt+left clicking on finder icon.

Although this solved my problem, it raised another: there is no file security for any mac (unless encrypted). Anyone who has a mac can see, get, modify your files very easily.

thank you very much jack!

I managed to enable VNC by using the terminal and entering the code in total darkness:)

I connected using another laptop and all is fine. I managed to reach my home folder using the TDM too. I explained in my reply to mokeiko.

thanks everyone. Although nothing is solved, I can reach my files now...

I have an interesting alternative. You might find it useful.

I've got a Tritton See2Extreme usb display adapter which can mirror or expand your desktop. This device is just one example, there are other brands too.

If you can install the mac drive (I didn't know it worked for mac too, I bought this for a friend's pc) using screen sharing (which was mentioned in recent posts), it works perfectly.

As I have a secondary display, I can use this thing in order to complete my urgent works. This way I'll also wait for a solution from apple too. I hope there will be one. I'm afraid of going to tech support in turkey because it's generally very slow.

Whilst the Tritton See2Extreme might prove useful to get urgent work completed, I'm not sure apple will offer up a solution without them looking at it. Having spoken to their tech support team twice each time I was told there was nothing more apple could do until my mac was looked at by an apple engineer.

Speaking of which, my Apple Service Provider has just left a voicemail to say the logic board will be replaced under an extended warranty so there will be no cost on my part. It's hard to make out exactly what's said on the voicemail but I'm relieved to hear they're willing to cover the cost. Cheers Apple!

Message was edited by: CollectedMule

by the way, another issue is that the left part of the mbp is very hot, compared to older times (3 days ago..) . I'm not sure if the graphics card is on that side.

Also, even for small tasks, fans start spinning as if I'm rendering something.

Also, there is a weird "hiss" sound that comes from the magsafe when it's plugged.

I'm not sure if these are common issues.

something weird happened

as I was working on my usb display drive (see2extreme), out of curiosity, I downloaded combo update of 10.5.7 and installed it. Nothing changed after the restart. I left home, came back, woke up my laptop, usb display didn't work and I blindly shut down (power button & enter).

When I turned my laptop on, my own display suddenly came back!!! This happened 15 mins ago. I'm still in shock...

I'll report again if everything works out. Maybe reinstalling 10.5.7 combo is a solution. The display info in the system profiler is correct too.