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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

Jun 4, 2011 12:23 PM in response to T. Lamberte

Well, don't thank me too soon...although the frequency has greatly decreased I have see the _SOD (ha) twice since - both times when I left the machine sitting overnight with the lid open (on the power supply). When I went to use it the next day, no screen, although I could here music start playing when I hit the spacebar. I have since just tried to be careful about leaving the lid open, and close it when I'm not using it. The only thing that makes it tough is I like to let it sit and play tunes for hours on end, so it's easy to forget about it. Annoying as ****. I have since switched "Computer sleep" to "Never" when the machine is plugged into the wall and I haven't seen the issue since, but I'm not sure I've left the lid open all night since that change either. Flat out, it's a system flaw, and one that I suspect can be corrected with a software patch. Maybe Lion will get rid of it.

Jun 5, 2011 3:51 PM in response to mmammel

Since removing F.lux I haven't had the problem.


My guess is that a program that accesses the video card is doing something during sleep that locks up the driver.


People have noted that Air Display causes the problem, and I have noticed F.lux causes it. Not to say that it will fix the problem entirely, but while I had F.lux on it occurred nearly everytime.

Aug 18, 2011 7:25 PM in response to jahuda

$4500 (i know ridiculous) brand new solid-state macbook pro has this same issue running on 10.6.8. Mine started out working properly and then one day boom... no wake up. This started happening right after letting the battery totally die one night and I thought it just wouldn't boot. Later in the day no wake from sleep.


So...Someone in this thread ( iinviktus ) mentioned he did PRAM reset and SMC and turned off automatic graphics switching within the energysaver system pref and that worked for them. Well I did just that and it also worked for me, (I did not use Migration Assistant for anything so don't believe that has anything to do) Annoying as can be. Anyway I think I'm gonna upgrade to Lion and see if I don't need to worry about this sort of thing. Good Luck!

Aug 18, 2011 7:25 PM in response to jahuda

$4500 (i know ridiculous) brand new solid-state macbook pro has this same issue running on 10.6.8. Mine started out working properly and then one day boom... no wake up. This started happening right after letting the battery totally die one night and I thought it just wouldn't boot. Later in the day no wake from sleep.


So...Someone in this thread ( iinviktus ) mentioned he did PRAM reset and SMC and turned off automatic graphics switching within the energysaver system pref and that worked for them. Well I did just that and it also worked for me, (I did not use Migration Assistant for anything so don't believe that has anything to do) Annoying as can be. Anyway I think I'm gonna upgrade to Lion and see if I don't need to worry about this sort of thing. Good Luck!

Nov 19, 2011 8:48 AM in response to jahuda

So I finally fixed this issue. It also happened to a new Macbook after we installed from Timemachine so clearly it was some software setting - so what was the magical tool?


AppleJack. Let it run its full deal and everything started working fine. Graphic designer at work told me about it and wow it just helped so much.


Do a google search and download - it will probably solve the problem.

Jan 10, 2012 10:25 PM in response to teekaydub

What seems to have worked for me on my macbook pro running Lion 10.7.2 was this: Shut down the computer. With the power adapter plugged in, hold down these keys together for 4 seconds: Shift, Control, Option, and Power. You will not see anything happen- the screen will still be black. Now power up. Go into System Preferences, Energy Saver, and put the Computer Sleep and Display Sleep settings on 1 min. Wait a minute and let it fall asleep. Try waking it up to see if it is ok now. If it’s all good, set it factory default or whatever you want and hopefully all continues to be well. I have not let mine fall asleep for a good long stretch yet, so I haven't tested this out well, but the times it has fallen asleep so far it has not locked up yet.


Good luck!

Sep 18, 2012 6:56 PM in response to jahuda

This is not over yet! My new Macbook Pro 15" (high res, but not retina), with Mountain Lion, would not wake up this afternoon. Black screen, but with power light on. No peripherals attached, but plugged in. Mail and Chrome were the only things running.

I fiddled with the trackpad, and no response, so I held down the power button to turn it off and then on. Same problem, so I did it again. After the third try, I decided to unplug and head to the Apple Store. When I unplugged it, the screen came alive!

Once it restarted, which was fairly slow, I saw that the applications that were running when it blacked out were open again!

The machine is less than a week old.

Someone told me that Power Nap causes problems like this.

Feb 27, 2014 2:09 AM in response to jahuda

I have had almost everything changed on my 27" imac i7. Logic board, screen. It's been in for repair 3 times justfor this wake from sleep issue.


I am pretty sure it is F.lux. It just doesn't happen when F.lux isn't running. I have tried every compination of programs running when I put it to sleep. Only F.lux causes it.


The f.lux site never mentions it but its got to be this program. It can still wake from sleep sometime but I think sleep goes to deep sleep and then it nver wakes. I still use it but turn it off when I leave the computer and get the **** out before the screen blinds me!

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

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