10.6.3 13" MacBook LCD backlight off after resume form sleep.

Hi JimHKuo

I have had exactly the same problem, 10.6.2 seams the only stable build of snow leopard for me too, upgrading my macbook to either 10.6.3 or 10.6.4 leaves my macbook crashing on sleep and wake. Very irritating. Just thought I'd let you know and if I hear of a solution to stop these issues I'll post back here. Likewise if you hear of a solution let me know.

I can join the chorus on this problem: no backlight after display sleep on an old white MacBook, starting in my case after installing 10.6.4.

The problem is an interesting test of the human psychological tendency to assume cause/effect relationships. Each of the following has "worked" once or twice, in the sense that the backlight has turned on after trying them:
-restart pressing "c"
-restart pressing command-option-p-r
-set a corner to sleep the display, and use it to put the display to sleep/reawaken it a few times
-lower the brightness to zero, and then raise the brightness--possibly pressing BOTH the down and up keys at the same time (haven't read about this one anywhere else)

But none of these work consistently, so I'm assuming that they're just by chance. Hope someone will post a solution here or in the related thread (2396840)!

Sure, I would be glad to.

I have a Macbook and MacBook Pro. I hibernate both systems. The Macbook backlight fails after hibernate about 60% of the time it has 10.6.4. It started failing after the upgrade to 10.6.3 The Macbook Pro has 10.6.3. It fails about 5% of the time or less. I've complained to Apple three times and have yet to get any kind of response. I hate Microsoft, but I usually get an acknowledgement from them when I had a problem. You would think I problem that is this repeatable would at least be acknowledged!
Windows 7 here I come....maybe.

Hi,

It seems to me that the issue occurs more often with 10.6.4. But i have also found a better way than sleep and wake up again to have the backlight coming back when it occurs: when the backlight goes off, i just plug the VGA adapter and it immediatly comes back! No need to have a VGA display connected, just the adapter. It doesn't work with DVI adapter (may be with a display connected but i've not tested and it is a lot less practical).
Not a solution, but quite a usefull workaround i believe.
I hope that Apple will quickly give us a real answer and solution!

Problem solved for me since the 10.6.4 update (combo).

Message was edited by: Fabiofab

I have the same problem on 10.6.4 with the backlight on a unibody macbook.

All I can say is that the longer the macbook is in sleep mode, the greater the chance of the backlight going off once the wakeup progress bar is finished.
Seems to be a greater chance is the macbook has been in sleep mode for an hour or more then if it was sleeping for a few minutes.

Annoying, the backlight is on until the wakeup progress bar is done and then it turns off and stays off. Changing the brightness does nothing.

The only reasonable solution is to quickly close the lid and open it again and then it is alright.

It would be nice if there was a fix for this instead of these workaround solutions.

I forgot to add that the macbook is running in
hibernatemode = 1
which effectively disables sleep mode and makes it hibernate all the time. This was done to save battery charge, as the laptop is not plugged in that often.

Issue ongoing... waiting for Update 10.6.5 ...

Issue ongoing... waiting for Update 10.6.5 ...

10.6.5 is out - Let's hear it, folks. Did it help you with the issue ?

My girlfriend has a MacBook (2.2 GHz) and it was updated to 10.6.5.
The issue still seems to be there as it happened two days ago. 😟

If you have a flash light you can light up the screen using that and go to System Preferences > Displays and change the resolution to something else (then back again) which (if I remember correctly) triggers the backlight to come on. It was some time ago I tried this, but I think it helped. At least a restart isn't required.

Edit for my post above:

OK, I was wrong. It doesn't help to change the resolution. I guess the only way is to restart? At least one can do it in a ”soft” way using a flashlight.