1 day After Sonoma Upgrade - Black Screen, No caps lock light, but touch pad haptics were active

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1 day After Sonoma Upgrade - Black Screen, No caps lock light, but touch pad haptics were active

Posting this for future reference (and I have some questions)...I found my 2020 MacBook Air unresponsive after sleeping for the night. I was using an external monitor thru an adapter and also charging my iPhone through it. Power was supposed to be connected to the other MacBook USB C port (but turns out it wasn't). The previous night I had set the lock screen, turned the monitor off, closed the MacBook and turned in for the night. In the morning - black screen, no response to any key, no caps-lock light. However touch pad haptics were working.

Reconnecting power did nothing. No "battery charging" sound for example. Network showed the MacBook absent, no appearance in Find My - I tried "play a sound" no response. SMC reset did not work. Press and holding the power button did nothing. Conditions necessary for an NVRAM reset were never present.

I decided to let the battery fully discharge. I had to wait to visit the Apple Store anyway. It took 2.5 days but the touch pad finally stopped reacting, I then closed the screen and connected power. About 5 minutes later my MacBook sounded the "locate my Mac" sound. I opened the MacBook and there was the Sonoma desktop, everything back to normal.

So...

Anyone else run into this or similar? If there is a fuller understanding of this situation, I would love to hear it.
Is it possible it was the third party adapter (U-Green - USB-C to HDMI, USB-B, VGA). I have had another third party adapter stop working after an iOS update on my phone. I"m reluctant to reconnect my monitor for fear this will happen again.
I thought maybe the battery had gone into a full discharge state. However the Mac should run without a battery or a fully discharged one, provided AC power is connected.

Posted on Oct 1, 2023 9:58 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 28, 2024 2:23 PM in response to Home_Mechanic

MBPro 14" M1, Sonoma clean install then upgrade to 14.2.1. 

After weeks of normal use it started with the "Sonoma black screen" randomly. 
This started after a one night sleep: the next day it started to throw a black screen after some use. 
The device continues operational, just black screen:

The user interface is not responding, the only way to reset is to force shutdown and restart.

Since then, it continues to throw blank screen randomly.

The cause is not screen saver activation or battery drain. The black screen occurs both with the battery or charger. This seems like a mac OS bug.

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Answer 2

Nov 7, 2023 11:03 AM in response to Home_Mechanic

FYI - It happened again...after long sleep, blackscreen/no caps light/touch pad active. Waited for the touch pad haptics to stop working and reconnected power. Restarted without issue. Laptop was down for 2.5 days.

Apple Support/Community: Is there a best way to deal with this? I think opening the case and disconnecting the battery, I can get back to work immediately. If there risk in doing so? I'm a competent technician. The computer is long out of warranty. I can't afford to wait when this happens again.

Also will Sonoma 14.1 address this?

I'm also wondering if it has something to do with Battery Settings.

The only items I had enabled:

Low power mode: Only on Battery
Prevent automatic sleeping on power when the display is off

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1 day After Sonoma Upgrade - Black Screen, No caps lock light, but touch pad haptics were active

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