Macbook Pro Mid 2014 Freezing UNLESS it's connected to an external display

Sounds like a failing Logic Board. I'm currently troubleshooting a 2015 model and one of the symptoms has been the display going dark or the display not waking from sleep until I plug something into a Thunderbolt port. It can be as simple as just a Thunderbolt adapter with no peripheral attached. I am interested in what your visit to Apple will reveal.

Good luck.

JustinBuckley wrote:

I hope the apple store will help me out but this laptop is most likely out of warranty so I can't expect too much.

This laptop is still a supported model, but the repair will not be free.

I saw a video where a guy was using a thunderbolt adapter with nothing connected to get his one working properly, I have never used Thunderbolt so I can't test this, but I could get a dummy HDMI plug for like a fiver on eBay which should trick it into thinking there is a display connected, although I can't imagine that this is a solid long term solution.

As I am typing this, I have it connected to an HDMI switch which is connected to a turned off projector, the laptop still thinks it is outputting to a display, but it is not so I think that idea should work.

Macs are a bit funny about these things. We've done this with some Mac Pros & Minis so they can run headless, but it doesn't always work.

In the absolute worst case, am I just best off trying to sell what parts are good parts are left over? I would imagine the ssd, keyboard and stuff are all worth something since this laptop is in fantastic physical condition!

I would never sell an SSD until it has been securely erased. If the SSD has Filevault enabled, then you just need to perform a quick erase so the Filevault encryption key is destroyed thereby protecting your encrypted data. If Filevault was not used, then enable Filevault now and let it finish encrypting the SSD. Once the Filevault encryption process is completed, then boot into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R and erase the physical drive as GUID partition and APFS (top option). To see the physical drive you may need to click on "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show All Devices" before the physical SSD appears in the left pane of Disk Utility. It should look something like "Apple SSD ......".

You should also perform all these steps prior to giving up your laptop so that all your accounts are separated from the laptop:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065

One problem reported with the MacBook Pro 2014 models more likely the 15-in model, has a problem where is "passes out". The screen goes black, then within about five seconds the Mac powers off, but there is no diagnostic report, and no errors in the log. These Macs will then pass user diagnostics, and Genius bar diagnostics without issues.

A hobbyist/hacker developed, and now is selling for US$10, a software script that claims to solve the problem by giving the Mac CPU a little more to do. [Adding ThunderBolt or external display "additional work" is the same solution.]

But unless you are seeing EXACTLY the 'passes out' problem, that hobbyist Utility I unlikely to be helpful.

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What May be happening to you if you have a Dual Graphics model is that the Discrete graphics processor fails, and MacOS does not notice. The whole system Appears to freeze (but is still running fine), but screen updates are "stuck".

This happened more frequently on 2011 models with dual graphics, and there are some work-arounds if you do not need an external display.

Have you considered running the diagnostic?

I believe it will be sent to you through Internet Recovery when you hold D-for-diagnostic at startup.

This hobbyist hack is being sold as a work-around for the 2014 model ONLY. To the best of my knowledge, it is benign and will not damage your Mac except to make it busier than otherwise. It may be worth trying if and only if you have the screen goes black, then crashes ... problem.

https://realmacmods.com/product/macbook-pro-nocrash-utility/

Buyer beware.

Free tool that apparently fixed mine ... No need to pay $10 ...

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/9pyort/apple_macbook_pro_sudden_crash_fix_for_models/

JustinBuckley wrote:

Honestly, I agree with you, I think this is the safest way to sell off an SSD, however, I never actually kept any valuable user data on this laptop, i only had it for a couple of months, I only really used it for web based tasks anyways. Of course there could be remains of data from the previous owner that may be found in drive recovery software, but honestly, I suppose, since it isn't my data, it isn't really my problem? If doing all that is a fairly quick task then I may as well go a head and do it although I don't think I would be putting a whole lot at risk by just selling it as is.

You would be surprised at what personal information can be left behind on a drive even if you don't think you had anything important.

Honestly, the only reason I would even bother to sell a mere 128gb ssd is because for some reason it seems to hold a lot more value than normal SSD's. With normal sata ones that I have had in PC's I just repurposed them in other systems as they were so cheap brand new I could only assume they were worthless on the used market!

Normally a 128GB SSD wouldn't have much value, but sometimes an original Apple SSD is needed in order to install the system firmware update during a major macOS upgrade.

While the SSD in this laptop can "work" in other 2013-2015 models the Apple Diagnostics may report an issue since there are several variations Apple made with this SSD for later models. I also found out that with one laptop I could not install macOS to the Apple SSD from a different model year (Linux worked just fine on it). This may be due to an issue with the laptop itself, but I didn't have time to investigate the issue further. Just something to keep in mind if a buyer has an issue with it.

I have the same issue on a MacBook PRO Mid-2014 i7, 8GB RAM 15"

Since upgrading to Catalina and especially when running Google Chrome or FireFox the systems goes dark (freezes) and only way out is a power reset (keep the power button down for a few seconds and then push it again to restart)

Tried reformatting, back ti High Sierra (same issue) and back to Catalina.

Tried the various NRAM and SMC reset as well as deleting the Ethernet firewire interface...

What is going on Apple? Really?

Looking at the HDMI adapter option as you described . Amazon sells some dummy HDMI dongles for $8... Where did the legendary Apple company go? Sure feels Steve is not around anymore...

Let me know about your findings after your genius bar visit...

Just remember to take that message literally. It is not the same as "All is well"

Where is the link to this software hack?

Thanks for the follow-up.

Apple is not here on these forums. We are just other regular users such as yourself, but you can provide product feedback here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/