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

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Level 1

10 points

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

Hi all, 1st time poster, not had a problem with my Mac I couldnt solve until now....

I've updated to 10.6.3 using software updater. Since then when I resume from hibernate the LCD backlight of my MacBook does not turn back on. There is a very faint image on the screen, so I know its just the backlight. The F1 & F2 keys won't control the backlight in this state, I also noticed that when this happens F5 & F6 won't adjust the keyboard backlight either.

Things I've tried:
commented out my .sleep & .wakeup scripts
reset pram
Onyx
checked colour profiles
deleted com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

the problem persists. If it occurs again I'm going to try the 10.6.3 combo update. Has anyone else come across this?

13" Alu Macbook (Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 1, 2010 3:24 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 28, 2010 5:46 PM in response to star-affinity

Hi

Having just upgraded to 10.6.5 my MacPro stopped responding appropriately to case closing and yesterday wouldn't wake up at all- spent an hour on phone to support - even with full reset it went straight back into sleep mode!! finally went back to install DVD and after this ran it refused to actually install th (old) OS, but did cure the problem....but I have now had a hiccough when it suddenly went into Sleep while I was typing!! Tried to install SMC 1.5- but refused (currently has SMC 1.426 installed (and reset many times!!)

Any relations to this thread..and or pointers to a common problem..and possible solutions??
Cheers,
BFM

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Answer 2

Feb 7, 2011 12:05 AM in response to Feltcher

I am still getting the same problem on 10.6.5. I did a re-install and I still get the same problem 😟 .It does seem to happen less frequently then before the re-install but the problem still exists. Has anyone got this problem on 10.6.6?

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Answer 3

Feb 22, 2011 9:49 AM in response to flemingt

I have a 10.6.6 OS X and when my macbook pro goes to sleep for a while then I open it to wake it up. It wakes up with no backlight.

Is there any solution to this?

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Answer 4

Mar 14, 2011 2:50 PM in response to Macorland0

So a re-install of the OS didn't help for you?
I guess it's some kind of hardware problem then.

Anyway, the workaround that works well for me (or my girlfriend) is to put the machine to sleep again and then wake it again. That always seems to kick on the backlight.

To put the computer to sleep again without closing the ”lid” you can either:

1. Press the power button (don't hold it down) which will give you the ”Are you sure you want to shut down your computer now” dialog. It's probably difficult to see it since the backlight is off, but you can press the S key to choose the ”Sleep” option.

2. The quick ”go to sleep” keyboard command is: ⌘alt/option⏏

After the computer is asleep, just press any key to wake it, hopefully with the backlight on.

Not the most convenient way, but of course much better than having to do a restart.

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Answer 5

flixer

Level 1

0 points

Mar 26, 2011 11:05 AM in response to flemingt

i cant believe apple has updated snow leopard 4 times and i still have this issue

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Answer 6

Apr 7, 2011 5:21 PM in response to flixer

I have a Macbook 13.3 and it's about 2 or 3 years old with OS X 10.6.6

Just yesterday I noticed that it wouldn't come out of sleep mode. I plugged it in and forced a powerdown. It would reboot but no backlight. If I closed the lid and open it again the backlight would stay on for a second or two then go off. I have an external lcd screen which works fine except I can't seem to switch to use it as the main display. I've tried clearing the pmu CMD-OPT PR etc and it fixed it once. Now I can't get the backlight on at all (except for a split second). After reading all the messages here I seem to have the same problem but not sure as the backlight doesn't come on at all even on bootup.

I managed to get the main display on my external lcd by closing the lid while it boots up.

It's a couple of years old but I don't care to spend any more money on it so I hope it's a software issue.

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Answer 7

May 6, 2011 8:07 AM in response to flemingt

Solution that worked on my girlfriends MacBook:

1. Delete com.apple.PowerManagement.plist from this location:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

2. Shut down the computer and do an SMC reset: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

Since doing this problem seems to be gone.

Maybe it was enough to do only step one and restart, but I guess an SMC reset doesn't hurt.

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Answer 8

Feltcher

Level 1

4 points

Aug 6, 2011 1:57 AM in response to flemingt

I had this issue on my white macbook. I upgraded to 10.7 Lion and this issue seems to be gone now.

I am also using hibernation (mode 25) instead of standby.

Hibernate mode 25 saves the contents of RAM to disk and then shuts off the power completely. No power is consumed in sleep mode and so it makes MacBook batteries last longer and is more environmentally friendly for desktop Macs because no power is consumed. It takes longer to put to sleep and longer to wake up because RAM has to be saved to disk and read back, but you may consider it a small price to pay for the benefits. Run Terminal in the Utilities folder and enter:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25

Mode 25 was suggested here:

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man1/pmset.1.html

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Answer 9

Jan 11, 2012 6:27 PM in response to flemingt

I keep getting this problem on 10.6.anything. I reinstalled and started from 10.6.4 and did the combo update to 10.6.8 and I still get this problem. Did anyone ever find out why this is happening even on a new 10.6 install with all the latest updates? Upgrading to 10.7 is not an option. And it is not a hardware problem because I keep installing on a different unibody 13" white macbook every time.

In regards to Feltcher, I use 'sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1' which does exactly the same as 25 without aggressively re-arranging the memory before it goes into hibernate mode. Hibernate 1 mode, Applications dont freeze as much when it wakes from sleep so it seems to be more stable for me, than 25.

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Answer 10

Mar 2, 2012 10:37 AM in response to Macorland0

The first post on the fourth page of this thread did the trick for me:

Open Terminal.app (found in Applications/Utilities), and type:

sudo pmset -a lidwake 0

then hit <return>.

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