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Screen won't turn on after sleep for newest macbook pro (Feb 26 2011)

Hi!

I just bought the 13' Macbook Pro with an 2.7GHz dual-core i7 processor and 500GB of space, the $1500 model. I am having a problem with the screen and I am wondering if I should be worried about it or if anyone else has noticed it. If it continues, I will have to take it into the store and see if I can get it fixed.

My macbooks screen will not turn on after it falls asleep for a long period of time. The first night I had this computer, it was playing music and I turned the screen brightness all the way down/off and then I fell asleep. The energy settings were set so that the computer would fall asleep after 20 minutes. Pathfinder, F.lux and iTunes were the only application running at the time. When I woke up the next morning, the light on the computer's side indicating it was asleep was slowly fading in and out (as expected). I hit some keys on the keyboard and the keyboards backlighting turned on after a few seconds.

But the screen did not turn on. I tried adjusting the screen brightness on the keyboard and nothing happened. After a few minutes, I held down the power button and heard the computer turn off. I turned the computer back on, AND THE SCREEN LOOKED VERY STRANGE. I could see part of iTunes fragmented/segmented into 5 or 6 sections across the screen. There were also strange lines going across the screen. It looked kind of like a leftover image of iTunes that could be solved with a screen refresh. I turned off my computer again and turned it back on about two more times, and then the screen would simple just not turn on.

As I was packing up to go to the Apple Store, I tried one more time to turn my computer on and the screen was working fine. This was yesterday, and for the rest of the day the computer seemed to work fine. However, I don't think I let my computer fall asleep all day yesterday because I was using it so much.

Basically the same thing happened this morning when I woke up, except to a lesser degree. My computers screen was unresponsive after keyboard input, but I was able to get music to play from my speakers. I restarted it and it seems to be working fine. I didn't see the screen do that weird fragmentation thing this time.

I think something about the sleep function is interfering with my computer's screen. Or perhaps Pathfinder or F.lux have something to do with it. F.lux, by the way, is a application that turns the screen a dark yellowish at night to help your eyes. But I have friends that use this application and I myself have used it for a while and we have never had this problem. Then again, none of them have a 13 inch with an i7.

Does anyone know about this problem and have advice that would save me a trip to the Apple store?

thanks!

13' Macbook Pro, 2.7GHz dual-core i7, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Feb 26, 2011 8:39 AM

Reply
70 replies

Mar 23, 2011 7:16 AM in response to dgoreck

Just been on the phone to AppleCare about this for more than 2 hours. Tried all this :

SMC reset
PRAM reset
Repair Disk
Repair Disk Permissions
Re-install Mac OS X (to 10.6.6)
Software Update to to 10.6.7

And it made no difference at all. Next steps are apparently an 'Erase and Install' but as this has happened for me since it arrived (i.e before I put any of my documents on it) I'm not confident it will do anything.

As it's a new machine they advised to take to an Apple store for repair / replacement.

Not much help alas. I now need to weigh up the inconvenience of a trip to the Apple store and replacement etc vs this minor (but annoying) issue.

Mar 24, 2011 5:11 PM in response to jahuda

I was experiencing the same issue as in this thread - manual putting the MBP to sleep would allow it to wake, but if it slept automatically, it would not wake if it had been asleep for a period of time, plus the screen could be "fractured". I read somewhere (either this thread or somewhere else in Apple Discussions) that it could be the video card switching whilst sleeping. I installed gfxCardStatus which allows you to manually switch the video cards. This application also allows you to specify which card to use on Battery or AC power. On AC power, I've set it that there's no card switching and to stay put on the AMD Radeon. Since doing so, I've never had the sleep issue (it's been 4 days so far... I'll report back in a week to confirm that there's been no additional problems).

Mar 25, 2011 12:20 AM in response to jahuda

I just bought my first Mac yesterday, only to find this issue. Screen stays black after 'sleep' mode.
This is exactly the kind of thing i would expect to avoid by buying Mac (i've been a PC user for 10+ years)
The workaround that works for me is closing and opening the lid, but as i'm also planning to use it closed this won't do the trick for that situation.
Is there any clue wether this is a software or hardware related issue? I understand that it has something to do with the GPU switching, but does that mean it happens on all machines?
It seems to be a minor issue, but i think it's not acceptable on a €2400+ machine.
If i cannot find a fix for this within my return period i guess i'll have to return my machine.

Mar 25, 2011 4:24 PM in response to Don Lozz

Hey all,
I have just experienced this on my 17" 2.3GHz i7 that I got new on March 14th 2011 (the newest model). I have since upgraded to the newest software update 10.6.7. Usually I put the computer to sleep manually. I have auto sleep while plugged in set to 3 hrs. When I came back home today it wouldn't turn back on.

I tried holding the power button down, heard some noise, let go, hit it again and still nothing. I then Googled the situation from my 5yr old Dell, and one suggestion was to close the lid and wait. I did just that, opened it back up and had a screen FULL of horizontal white lines. Great news.....

All this while after this morning I noticed what looks like a greasy fingerprint on the inside of my screen. I Google that too and apparently it is also an issue. I called Apple about that situation and was told that it might be some kind of glue, and if it doesn't go away in a couple of days either call back or take it to the nearest Apple store.

Here's a question for all of you who have more experience than I do with Mac's (my first one. Love/loved it so far). I am within the 14 day window should I: request a new one, bring it in to get fixed, keep it and suck it up, etc....?

Thank you in advance for the help.

Mar 25, 2011 5:24 PM in response to Namueab

definitely request a replacement - just for the fingerprint alone - at least Apple can identify whose it is LOL - the sleep glitch seems quite widespread judging by all these posts - mine appears to be some sort of power glitch as I have not had the problem since updating to the latest OS version. Or maybe not, maybe it is sporadic in nature, time will tell. I switch it off overnight now but I will try the manual sleep test overnight and see what happens.

good luck.

Mar 26, 2011 3:02 AM in response to matthewadams

I'm having the same issues when my 2011 15" MacBook Pro wakes up from sleep. It happens when my 27" Cinema Display is plugged in and the computer sleeps with the lid open. When it wakes up only the external screen comes on.

When I disconnect the external monitor I can never get the MacBook Pro screen to come back on even when plugging back in the monitor. Even if I shut it down using the apple menu when it starts back up the keyboard lights up but no screen.

The only way I can get it to recover is by doing a restart from the Apple menu then un plugging the monitor.

I have graphics switching turned off and this started happening after the 10.6.7 update.

Apr 7, 2011 10:59 PM in response to Ricpf

I had the exact same experience - I was playing around with the settings to see if I could get the airport to stay connected with the lid closed and put sleep "NEVER" for ~10 minutes while I tested. I switched it back and all of a sudden I have this issue. Never saw it once in over a month, since that very moment it is a daily occurrence. Totally annoying.

Screen won't turn on after sleep for newest macbook pro (Feb 26 2011)

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