iMac 27" Screen goes black repeatedly, but then settles for a while?

Hi Ron; I had this problem consistently about 6 months ago. I lowered the brightness and it appeared to resolve. I had tried to reset PRAM, and all the other suggested fixes, but they did not work. However, after reading some recent posts, I decided to give it another chance at a higher brightness level which is better for my eyes. After I raised the brightness level (using settings) it immediately started blacking out as in the past. I followed your post, to turn energy saver to NEVER and move to 100% brightness in one sweep. Yesterday, things seemed to be OK. This morning, when I lowered the brightness to 80% it almost immediately starting blacking out again. I restarted the computer, and lowered brightness to about 50% and will see how that works out today. What other information do you need/want? This problem is really frustrating. Thanks

Margie

Hi Marjorie,

Thank you ... that "history" pretty-well answers what I was wondering about.

I am guessing that if the 50% that you lowered it to (just today) works OK for you (and continues to function) you could just leave it at that and cross your fingers. Or, you could do the fast-rush to 100% (as before) and (if it holds) just continue to leave it there ... and not bother with my last little step of later throttling-it-back to 80%. There was really no real need for me to do that, other than lowering my carbon footprint. The 100% level is just fine with my 66-year-old eyes, and the heat pouring out of the vents at the top of the screen makes my little office a bit cozier. (I'm on a remote ranch on the eastern slope of the Rockies in Alberta.)

I'd appreciate it if you'd (please) continue to keep us posted ... for better or for worse.

Thanks.

I tried posting this in the iTunes Support forum, but was not allowed for some reason. Perhaps a mod or another member could help me.:)

Several months ago I subscribed to Apple Music, but after four months (three free and one paid) I decided to unsubscribe ... because I am not into streaming.

For the previous year both my iPad iTunes and my big iMac iTunes had worked together flawlessly ... I guess via the cloud ... things seemed to take care of themselves. If I bought something from iTunes via my iMac, it later appeared on my iPad ... added to the library that 5000 songs that I'd already accumulated via CD's and earlier purchases. If I made a playlist on my iMac, it later appeared on my iPad.

And now there's suddenly no iTunes app on my iPad! Nada. Zip.

When I tap on the Music button, all there is now is a fresh new dead page ... mostly black ... with <apple symbol> Music in the middle and at the top a blended photo of a dark-haired young woman in a black leather jacket who is wearing blue headphones. And the page is totally dead. no links! What gives?

Am I expected to pay $10 month forever just to access my own music on my iPad? That seems so wrong.

Problem solved!

I fired-up my iMac and went to iTunes and (I think) clicked on My Account. After entering my name and password I explored around a bit and noticed a symbol at the top (among many others) that looked like my iPad. And so I clicked it and looked around a bit. all about my iPad. It mentioned that the iPad's iTunes could (among other things) be RESTORED by connecting it to the iMac with a suitable USB cable. I looked in my usual snarl of cables and was despondent when I could not find anything like that.

And then I realized that they were talking about the iPad's power/recharging cable ... the one with the removable little white brick on the end that's plugged into the wall beside the bread-maker in the kitchen. I got it ... turned off the iPad ... connected to the Big Brother iMac ... turned on the iPad ... entered my 4-digit code as requested ... and in a few minutes the iPad's missing iTunes was fully restored. Yay!

My screen was behaving itself, but it's just started happening again. There was a major OS update a couple of days ago. I can't help wondering if there's a connection.

But then Creative Cloud updated Photoshop and Illustrator, and there have been a number of other app updates. There are always things going on that could trigger a problem ...who can possibly be expected to figure it out? There are so many people affected it would be nice if Apple came up with an explanation and fix. Pretty please, Apple?

Sue 😉

Hi Sue,

Bummer ... sorry to hear that.

An obvious question ... have you tried going through "my" routine again?

Ron

Hi,

I am having the same problem, my 24" iMac screen goes black but the computer is still running...I had to unplug the iMac and plug in an much older iMac to get online to read the post on Apple to find out what to do...evidently this screen issue has been happening to many others and I haven't read a solid solution. Never experience this kind of issue when I had a G3 and G5...I tried the suggested remedies, push the brightness up 100% and slide the sleep to NEVER and I rezapped the PRAM a few times and still no luck. In fact when I rezapped the PRAM and then I log back in, it goes black even quicker. I have not upgraded to the lastest OS, mine is still OS 10.7 Lion...I hate upgrading. Plus upgrading to the latest OS is not making a difference with this screen problem. If it's not a hard drive issue, what can it be? I find when I power off the iMac and wait a while, an hour, it would run fine for a few minutes and then the blackness comes back. There has to be something wrong with some internal part in the computer itself...? This black screen problem started at the beginning of this week for me, today is Feb. 7, 2016. Any idea what I can do...HELP!!!

Jack

Hi Jack,

Sorry man ... I feel your pain. We pay top-dollar (by about a factor of two) for what is "commonly-believed" to be a state-a-the-art home computer ... and this is what we get?

Apple does not "follow" this Apple.com thread?

Maybe they have a cash-flow problem? (Sales projections are down a bit, and investors are bailing ... a real downer on the company's bottom line.) Rumour has it that shareholders will be hosting bake-sales soon. Yacht slips/moorings on the west coast are being re-negotiated.

All I can say is ... try my work-around once more. Shower first. Try the sweetgrass smudge. If that don't work, move on. Pay somebody to try to save your files onto a PC.

Move on.

Ron Drysdale in Alberta

Hi Ron, thanks for your reply...I doubt if Apple is having any cash flow problems...I will probably contact my Apple repair shop and give them a call tomorrow. I wonder if they've dealt with this before. I really don't want to buy a new computer...If I learn anything I will post it. Thanks again for your reply. JT

Good luck.

This is maddening ... but I suggest that (if you haven't already done so) you maybe wait 12 hours and sit down with a cuppa coffee and read the whole ******* thread.

All that money ... I was joking about the cash-flow issues ... and these folks cannot be bothered to address or respond-to this issue on their own PUBLIC help thread.

Wow.

Ron

Hi Ron,

Just an update on my 24" iMac black-out screen issue I had...it was the video cart after all. There's now a new video card and the black screen problem has been fixed! My 2008 iMac is like a used car...I hope nothing else goes wrong. It cost about $475 for parts and labor (in CT) and it took about a week. Not ready to fork out two grand for a new iMac...yet. Hope this will be helpful for others who are having issues with blacked out screens. Be well.

Jack

Hello friends! 6 months ago I've got the same problem with my iMac 27" late 2009. I've changed the PSU, Inverter board, mouse, keyboard, reseted PRAM, Cleaned inside and all fans, disconnected all cables and connected again, Speed up fans with TG PRO. And nothing, problem continues.

3 days ago I decided to change all the RAMs. BAMMMM!!! PROBLEM RESOLVED!!

I tried in every way to make the problem happen again. I put the display brightness in all levels for hours.

If you have another RAM please try it!!

Running with 2GB for 3 days to test, with no problem!!

Andre Maffessoni

Hello All,

I have been following with interest, especially stepppy's post way back with exactly the same symptoms as my 27 iMac. They say that sometimes it can be the simplest think. After much head scratching and infuriation I delivered it up to my local apple accredited tech shop. They opened it, cleaned it thoroughly to remove all accumulated dust and pronounced that it was overheating due to fan resistance. They did not charge me and said it took only a few minutes. I am delighted to say, it worked. It runs better, no black screen. Other than the embarrassment of feeling a little foolish for overlooking the bleeding obvious, I am very happy for their correct assessment, and integrity not to charge. This may be the first plan of attack. Clean out the dust. Hope this helps someone. TD

6 days running perfectly with my iMac 27" without any black screen. Changing the RAMs resolved my problem and the system now runs cooler!

Just wanted to let everyone know that after over a year of this repeating problem, the past week was especially bad---with the screen going black almost every 5 minutes. Decided to bring my MAC into the Apple store to get it checked out. Good thing I did--the tests they did showed that my hard drive was failing. Apparently there can be many causes of this problem--a bad hard drive only one of them. I'm mad at myself for not bringing it in last August while still under warranty but it wasn't that bad. So, just like a health condition, better to get it checked out sooner v. later. Will cost me about $180 but a small price to pay to have this problem fixed.