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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

Apr 13, 2011 11:00 PM in response to jahuda

Hi all,

well, I have been to the Genius bar two weeks ago with a completely fresh installation, had done the RAM resets - and hoped it would happen again during the Genius appointment - and it happened while the guy was copying the data of "About this Mac" into the Apple systems. Problem verified 🙂 He thought there could be a f/w update for this, but said it would probably be solved by changing the mainboard. I said I would wait for the next Lion release and check with that before having the MBP repaired.

Well, Lion Preview 2 came out, I installed it - again a black screen. Also had this a few more time with my standard installation during the last weeks - pretty annoying.

So yesterday I went to the Genius bar again and asked them to exchange the mainboard. Now I have to wait for 5 to 7 days.

I will report once I am absolutely sure it solved the problem.

Kic

Apr 15, 2011 7:11 AM in response to kic

I went to the genius bar too - they erroneously told me that the sleepimage file was too large (it was 4GB, same as the amount of RAM I have) and thus falsely concluded that the issue was software corruption and told me to re-install the OS. I figured out they were wrong about the sleepimage before I started, but I went ahead and re-installed the OS (and updated) anyway, and the next morning it again would not wake from sleep and had to be hard booted.

I'm going back to the genius bar today but not optimistically, they were fundamentally wrong about the sleepimage. I did notice in the Diagnostic logs after the hard reset there was an entry that said:

quicklookd INSERT-HANG-DETECTED Tx: ...

but I haven't done much research into that yet. I'll bring it up with the genius bar people.

I really think it is just an OS bug and will likely be fixed with a patch down the line, but I want to make some noise about it - I paid $$$ for this thing, and these are the kind of issues I used to have with crappy Dell Win9x machines back in the day...unacceptable.

Apr 15, 2011 11:59 AM in response to mmammel

I am going to try turning off "safe sleep" mode and see if that does anything. You can do this by running:

$ sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
$ sudo nvram "use-nvramrc?"=false

(source: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070302210328928)

WARNING - right in the manual page of pmset it says:

"We do not recommend modifying hibernation settings. Any changes you make are not supported. If you choose to do so anyway, we recommend using one of these three settings. For your sake and mine, please don't use anything other 0, 3, or 25"

I will post the results of making this change tomorrow - if I don't see the hang in the next 24 hours it will be an improvement.

Apr 17, 2011 1:56 AM in response to jahuda

Have had exactly same problem on MBP13 2011 model, OSX 10.6.7, latest firmware, up to today. Similar console log mentioned by user 'taavo' in first page of this discussion is seen:


----------------------------------------------

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel WaitForStamp: Overflowed waiting for stamp 0x32b5d on Blit ring: called from wait for blt buffer (2D blt)

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel timestamp = 0x32b5c

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel ** Debug info for apparent hang in Blit graphics engine **

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel ring head = 0x000013b0, wrap count = 0x 0

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel ring tail = 0x00001f58 ring control = 0x00003401 enabled, auto report disabled, not waiting, semaphore is waiting, length = 0x004 4KB pages

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel timestamps = 0x32b5c

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel Semaphore register values:

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel VRSYNC: (0x12044) = 0x0

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel BRSYNC: (0x22040) = 0x0

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel RVSYNC: (0x 2040) = 0x0

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel BVSYNC: (0x22044) = 0x0

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel RBSYNC: (0x 2044) = 0x0

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel VBSYNC: (0x12040) = 0x0

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel trying to clear semaphore wait on Blit ring

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel After attempt to clear semaphor wait = 0x00003001 no longer waiting

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel kIPEHR: 0x1800001

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel kINSTDONE: 0xffffffff

3/10/11 7:33:53 AM kernel kINSTDONE_1: 0x3fffffff

--------------------------------------------------


Instead of the stuck out line, I have got "kernel Looks like Main ring is stuck waiting on an event" and some hex values are different. I found someone has seen this too. See https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2769135?threadID=2769135&tstart=0


Wondering if Apple has this issue documented...


Message was edited by: LetGo

Apr 20, 2011 7:35 AM in response to mmammel

Just an update, absolutely no issues since I turned off the safe sleep, I highly recommend this as a solution. Safe sleep is a bit of overkill anyway, it would be useful in a few edge cases, e.g. you are on a plane, your battery is dying and you have a another one: you could put the machine to sleep and swap out the battery and not miss a beat. I will never have a need for this convenience so "un-safe" sleep works fine for me, and I no longer have to reboot all the time.

May 1, 2011 6:19 PM in response to jahuda

I had this similar issue with an older Macbook Pro 17" (A1229, 2007) and I did a PRAM and SMC reset. The PRAM reset didn't fix it but the SMC reset did the trick.


PRAM Reset:

  1. Shut down the Mac
  2. Power on the Mac and before you hear the startup sound, press the Command - Option - P - R keys simultaneously and the Mac will reboot. Once you hear the startup sound a second time, release the keys.


SMC Reset:

  1. Power down the Mac
  2. Remove the power cords and the battery if its a mobile device that supports battery removal.
  3. Hold down the power button for 5 seconds.
  4. Replace the battery and power cord and turn on the Mac.


References:

May 28, 2011 7:00 AM in response to jahuda

I've got the 2011 13" MBP Core i5 and I started experiencing this problem a few days. Did a bit of investogation and realised that it began after I had installed Avatron's Air Display software to extend my MBP's screen display over to my iPad. Uninstalled the software and the problem is now gone. I have also noticed that when I disconnect the MBP from my Henge Dock (connected to a Samsung LDC TV) and open the lid then the screen just stays blue for several minutes before it restores itself to normal. My old 2009 MBP never had this problem so I can only assume it is something to do with the Intel HD Graphics processor.

Jun 3, 2011 11:44 PM in response to mmammel

Thanks mmammel. Turning off "safe sleep", knock on wood, appears to have fixed the dreaded BlankSOD (Blank Screen of Death) on my 13" Macbook Pro that's just six weeks old.


I'm proposing we start calling this problem the Blank Screen of Death or BlankSOD for short, in the hopes that Apple will start taking this seriously. I found threads on this topic dating back to 2006, which is a long time for a problem. The problem seems to stem from a variety of different issues just like the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), so the name seems sort of fitting.


Luckily, BlankSOD is only one of two big issues I've had with our latest Mac (the other being the mouse acceleration issue that I fixed using a third party tool), but hopefully Apple can fix or minimize it in future releases.

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

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