Macbook Pro 15inch mid 2012 retina on High Sierra reboots to black screen after login

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Level 1

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Macbook Pro 15inch mid 2012 retina on High Sierra reboots to black screen after login

Hi,

Since a couple of days my Macbook pro 15 inch retina from mid 2012 reboots into a black screen (no backlight either) after i try to log in.

When i turn the laptop off and try a hard reset or reboot it makes the startup sound but the screen stays black.

When i turn the laptop off and wait a couple of hours i can se the login screen again but the same problem occurs.

see attached foto (after 85% loader it reboots into black screen)

After multiple tries yesterday I succeeded to log in but when i opened my PHP Storm IDE it rebooted again into a black screen.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Aug 29, 2020 7:06 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Sharhari

Level 5

6,287 points

Aug 29, 2020 7:34 AM in response to bheuvelmans

Please see, If your Mac starts up to a blank screen - Apple Support.

Does the restart happen in guest account?

See if you can boot to safe mode

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Note: Safe mode prevents your Mac from loading certain software as it starts up, including login items, system extensions not required by macOS, and fonts not installed by macOS. It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility. And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed.

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Answer 2

Aug 29, 2020 7:34 AM in response to bheuvelmans

bheuvelmans wrote:

Hi,

Since a couple of days my Macbook pro 15 inch retina from mid 2012 reboots into a black screen (no backlight either) after i try to log in.

When i turn the laptop off and try a hard reset or reboot it makes the startup sound but the screen stays black.

When i turn the laptop off and wait a couple of hours i can se the login screen again but the same problem occurs.

see attached foto (after 85% loader it reboots into black screen)

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/42793d99-4981-4282-a86c-de1afb1babba

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/4468f1bc-ad89-4dd3-8c74-682ae57de586

After multiple tries yesterday I succeeded to log in but when i opened my PHP Storm IDE it rebooted again into a black screen.

See if there is anything here:

If your Mac doesn't start up all the way

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204156

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Answer 3

Sharhari

Level 5

6,287 points

Aug 30, 2020 8:29 AM in response to bheuvelmans

No, I haven't seen but I know safe mode should work in most case to troubleshoot.

Can you check if you can boot to recovery mode?

About macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Use Disk Utility to repair your startup disk and check. If it didn't work you may need to reinstall macOS.

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Answer 4

bheuvelmans Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 30, 2020 7:25 AM in response to Sharhari

Thank you for your reply. I tried to log in as guest. Then the apple logo appears with a progress bar but after a few seconds the machine reboots into black screen.

Yesterday after multiple tries a was able to log in but as soon as applications that automatically open on login started the machine rebooted.. Maybe cpu issue?

Only when the laptop os connected to the charger I get the login screen. If not connected to the power i only get a black screen.

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Answer 5

bheuvelmans Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 30, 2020 8:32 AM in response to Sharhari

Hi Sharhari,

thanks for helping so much. I’m currently logged in after entering the disk password followed by a normal login. I’m backup up my files while i have access.

is there anything i can do to prevent this from happening the next time? Any settings i need to check or reset now i’m logged in?

or is there a way to run diagnostics from here?

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Answer 6

bheuvelmans Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 30, 2020 9:46 AM in response to Sharhari

Unfortunately I get the same error message “Cannot load TestSupport.efi” after i chose the wifi network. So i cant run the diagnostics test.

I have changed the settings for applications that normally open on login to not open on login. So i can login safely and have backuped my files. But as soon as i open a heavy application like PHPStorm the laptop reboots and it gets hot quickly.

anyone recognize these issues?

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Answer 7

bheuvelmans Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 11, 2020 12:20 AM in response to bheuvelmans

For everyones info:

It appeared to be a GPU issue. These macbooks have the Dual GPU setup and it seems that my Discrete GPU fails. Thats the reason when i start up multiple programs or run heavy tasks like Recovery Mode the macbook reboots because it needs the GPU power for this.

There apears to be a fix to force integrated GPU usage and ignore the discrete GPU: fix by https://gfx.io/

Still have the problem of not beeing able to factory reset my macbook though.

Maybe reinstalling macOS on the SSD from a different logicboard could help?

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