2012 Macbook Pro black screen, safe mode or recovery mode doesn't work

Sometimes it can be a little tricky powering on the laptop with the battery disconnected. Sometimes it requires holding the power button an extra second or pressing it several times.

The fact that your Mac gets the startup chime means the laptop was powering on so you "no display" issue is most likely the Display itself or a GPU issue as @leroydouglas mentioned.

You can attempt to test this by connecting an external display and USB keyboard and mouse. Perform an SMC Reset using the built-in keyboard to make sure the laptop is powered off. Then power on the laptop and close the Display quickly when you hear the startup chime. See if you get any video on the external display. I suggest pressing & holding the Option key immediately after hearing the startup chime so that the Apple boot picker menu appears as it eliminates any booting issues with the internal drive that may confuse things. If you don't get anything on the external display it most likely means you have a GPU issue (try this a couple times since it can sometimes be difficult forcing video to the external display. If you see the Apple boot picker menu on the external display, then your built-in Display is most likely bad (unless this is an intermittent issue).

There is no sense getting another SSD until you restore video to the display as that is a very basic feature that does not need an SSD.

Do you get a startup chime especially when attempting to perform a PRAM Reset? If not, then you may have a major issue.

Remove both memory modules and try powering on the laptop. Do you hear the three beeps? If not, then most likely your Logic Board has failed. Try powering on the laptop with the battery disconnected since a bad battery can prevent a Mac from powering on.

GWAC wrote:

2012 MBP A1286 with i7 2.7ghz, 500gb SSD, 16gb RAM.

Full sequence of troubles:

While editing in Adobe Premiere, the MBP suddenly shut down. It would reboot but then crash and shut down while in Premiere Pro.

I was able to eventually boot and log into my test account and disk utility said no problem with the SSD but it soon shut down. I was able to log into safe mode but it shut down. Same with recovery mode.

Now I can't boot into safe mode, recovery mode or from a usb drive (cloned system or usb installer).

All I get is the start up chime and a black screen with keyboard lit. I

Any ideas? I don't have a genius bar nearby.

2012 has known issues with the the Discreet graphics card.

If this is your issue you can try and force the use of the Integrated graphics only—

see options—

gSwitch (macOS 10.12 or newer)

https://codyschrank.github.io/gSwitch

gfxCardStatus https://gfx.io

https://github.com/steveschow/gfxCardStatus/releases

http://dosdude1.com/gpudisable/

reference discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250228290?answerId=250429718022#250429718022

Considering your were using a high-load app, that could have been a safety shutdown to avoid heat damage to the components. However, if that happens before damage is done, it should start again once things cool.

Can you get it to run Apple Hardware Test with a command-r boot? That will show issues with cooling fans and temperature sensors. This assumes you cloned, not copied, the original hard drive to the SSD. to maintain the important recovery partition. You may be able to run AHT from the internet if the computer will make a valid connection.

Given the age, I would consider removing the back cover and looking for a build-up of lint. The place most likely to have it is the little heat sink served by the single fan. When I did the SSD upgrade on my I had a dust eviction party at the same time and found that heat sink looked like this:

Ignore the yellow arrows and look rather at the wad of lint hanging off the heat sink's cooling fins.

When you remove the fan for inspection, do not disconnect its power cable from the logic board. It is very easy to damge the LB connector, ruining the LB. Simply remove the screw and set the fan to the side still wired.

Of course on that model, we ALWAYS disconnect the battery before doing any service "under the hood,"

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