Ashadur

Q: 27' iMac (2011) Screen turns off

This has been going on for me for the past few months on and off, it just randomly switches the screen off but everything else works perfectly, for example if im watching a video on hulu i can still hear the sound, if im doing work on word the documents are still there, iv finally gotten video footage of it.

 

Screen turning off:

http://youtu.be/l6DfD7o_fXs

 

Screenshot of my settings

http://i.imgur.com/pPvUH.jpg

 

To turn it back on i press "ctrl + shift + eject" and then move the mouse.

 

Any help will do, i have contacted Apple support on the phone they did say bring it in, just need to make an appointment. If anyone else has this problem and knows a better solution than having to keep pressing buttons to turn the screen back on please share.

 

Thank you in advance

- Ashadur

iPhone 4S, iOS 5

Posted on Jun 27, 2012 3:39 PM

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Q: 27' iMac (2011) Screen turns off

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  • by Jah_Daffodil,

    Jah_Daffodil Jah_Daffodil May 12, 2014 1:43 AM in response to mrbofus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 12, 2014 1:43 AM in response to mrbofus

    Hello,

     

    Minor update on my side : the blackscreen happens repeatedly in a few seconds il the brigthness is set very low, but somewhat rarely when it is set at maximum. I just can't figure out the link between brigthness and logic board issues.

     

    Daffodil

  • by andyfromst. louis,

    andyfromst. louis andyfromst. louis May 14, 2014 9:11 AM in response to Jah_Daffodil
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 14, 2014 9:11 AM in response to Jah_Daffodil

    The issue is somehow connected to an auto brightness adjustment. Try turning it off. 

  • by SteveMcQueen1971,

    SteveMcQueen1971 SteveMcQueen1971 May 14, 2014 9:33 AM in response to andyfromst. louis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 14, 2014 9:33 AM in response to andyfromst. louis

    How do you turn it off?

    I can adjust the brightness but I didn't see where/how to set "auto brightness adjustement" in the System Preferences.

    As I read it a while ago on this thread, one way to workaround this issue for some of us is to set the brightness to full max.

    This is maybe what you mean.

    Since I've forced the brightness to full max, I didn't get the issue anymore without having replaced/upgraded anything nor having brought the iMac to Apple. (27' iMac mid-2010 - OS X V10.9.2)

    I couldn't be bothered trying anything else as I don't want to get stuck with no screen display anymore.

    I've lived with my iMac/"Sun lamp" ever since hoping for the best. (^^,)

     

    Hope this help...

  • by andyfromst. louis,

    andyfromst. louis andyfromst. louis May 14, 2014 1:23 PM in response to SteveMcQueen1971
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 14, 2014 1:23 PM in response to SteveMcQueen1971

    Go to System Preferences - Displays - Automatically adjust brightness (checkbox) . I have been reading this forum for a wile and i think that its not a software problem. The problem occures when there is a brightness change - i have a windiws 8.1 on a bootcamp - same story. And i also think that its not a hardware fault in major, it might be a some sort of low level programing error in NVRAM.

  • by Jah_Daffodil,

    Jah_Daffodil Jah_Daffodil May 15, 2014 3:20 AM in response to andyfromst. louis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 15, 2014 3:20 AM in response to andyfromst. louis

    Hello ! I already unchecked the brightness adjustment under windows 8.1, but the random screen shutdowns still happen (more rarely when at maximum brightness). For an unknown reason, the issue only appeared when I upgraded to Mavericks (I never had any problem with Lion or windows 8.1 before upgrading, but downgrading was useless) -> does the Maverick upgrade change anything to nvram programming that could not be undone by downgrading ?

     

    Thx

  • by MarkusWinter,

    MarkusWinter MarkusWinter Jun 11, 2014 11:48 AM in response to Ashadur
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 11, 2014 11:48 AM in response to Ashadur

    Interesting. The screen on my 2009 27in iMac used to go black every few seconds. I have a "display sleep" hotspot in the lower right corner. So if it happens I go into the corner and back out again, wiggle the mouse, and the screen is back on.

     

    Now what wasn't the interesting part.

     

    Despite the hot corner it could go black every few seconds.However if after it comes back I set it to full brightness for a few seconds, then turn it back down, then it does not go black every few seconds. I can actually use the iMac for a few hours before it happens again. Hope that remains so.

  • by OperaTenor,

    OperaTenor OperaTenor Jul 11, 2014 3:54 PM in response to Ashadur
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 11, 2014 3:54 PM in response to Ashadur

    I guess I'm the most recent guest at this party!

     

    I bought a refurb 27" iMac (originally made in 2011) a year ago last January, and it has just begun blinking off in the past couple of weeks. I had been hard-rebooting it to get the display back. What I've noticed with mine is that the display dims for a period of time before it goes out. I'm updated to 10.9.6, and I have the auto brightness feature disabled.

     

    After reading this depressing thread, it does seem to me like this is a big enough problem Apple should be taking care of it. It could be they don;t know what to do yet.

  • by OperaTenor,

    OperaTenor OperaTenor Jul 13, 2014 8:58 AM in response to OperaTenor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 13, 2014 8:58 AM in response to OperaTenor

    I have found the Shift-Control-Eject restores the screen the quickest.

     

    I find that odd, given that that's supposed to be the keyboard shortcut for putting the display to sleep.

     

    I think this is an O/S issue, because if it was an overheating issue, the display should shut down again after restoration, and it doesn't.

  • by andrewfromcomber,

    andrewfromcomber andrewfromcomber Jul 24, 2014 3:23 AM in response to OperaTenor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 24, 2014 3:23 AM in response to OperaTenor

    Just had this happen to me this morning. So far no luck getting the display running again.

     

    I have to 27" iMacs (one mid 2011, the other late 2013) connected by a thunderbolt cable so I can use either as a second monitor for the other.

    This morning just after I'd flicked the 2013 model to be the second monitor for the 2011, the 2011 gave a click and the screen wen black. The 2013 was still working as it's second desktop, so I knew it was still running.

     

    The weird thing is that the 2011 will work as a second desktop for the 2013 now, but not as a primary desktop for itself.

     

    Neither the ctrl-shift-eject or the cmd-opt-eject tips have worked for me.

     

    At least the second monitor allows me to continue working.

  • by OperaTenor,

    OperaTenor OperaTenor Jul 26, 2014 11:37 AM in response to Ashadur
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 26, 2014 11:37 AM in response to Ashadur

    An update on my situation:

     

    First, I believe this is a software issue.

     

    I had dimmed my display brightness and got the SMC fan controller software (I still recommend having it). The combination seemed to lessen the frequency of incidence, but did not solve the problem.

     

    One thing I hadn't done in a while is run Time Machine; my computer is away from my external hard drive at the moment, so I have to set it up to run a backup. I think this, plus no having enough RAM were somehow the cause of the problem.

     

    I ran a backup, and my computer guy upgraded me from 4 to 12 GB of RAM. Now, I have the fan controller at the lowest setting, which restores the OS/X defaults, turned my brightness back up, and now it runs flawlessly. I apparently cleaned something out when I did the backup, and with no applications running, my RAM is running ~5.5GB.

     

    So, my conclusion is, if you're not doing backups, start, and, upgrade your RAM.

     

    One thing about the SMC fan controller: It gives you a readout of temperature. My computer guy says, under use of intense graphics applications, temperature can go as high as 190∘F, and running at 150 is normal. Mine never hit 150, even when we ran as many as 12 HD videos simultaneously, along with ripping a DVD, and having 16 windows open between Safari and Chrome. So, this is definitely NOT a temperature issue.

  • by Johnk Metal,

    Johnk Metal Johnk Metal Jul 31, 2014 10:22 AM in response to Ashadur
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 31, 2014 10:22 AM in response to Ashadur

    I´ve came across with the same problem and when I look out for solutions I found out that basically I had Three options

     

    1.- Dim the brightness to the first 2 dots (that is the limit for me, anything above that shuts down again my screen)

    2.- Replace an expensive part of the screen (about $900)

    3.- Try with an external monitor to see if the problem was the screen or something else

     

    What I did was to plug my flat screen to my mac with a Mini Display Port to VGA Adapter

    http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB572Z/B/mini-displayport-to-vga-adapter?fnode =51

    And… Problem Solved! now Im going to buy a Monitor that gonna cost me less than half of the replacement parts, my main monitor will keep siting down if i dim it above the 2 dots but at least I will have the other to work properly

     

    So that´s that, I hope someone finds this helpful

     

    P.S. Sorry if my english it´s not that good

  • by Andy Woollard,

    Andy Woollard Andy Woollard Aug 24, 2014 10:22 AM in response to Mirkin23
    Level 1 (48 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Aug 24, 2014 10:22 AM in response to Mirkin23

    I have had this and tried every possibility including getting apple to replace the graphics card under the rather hidden replacement program on that part. Nothing worked including the graphics card replacement till I finally replaced the backlight board ( part no will be one of these...661-5980, 605-3034, 605-3035, 612-0094).

     

    Only two days so far but it seems fixed at last. It was turning off as fast as you turned it on before.

     

    Backlight board is about £120.

  • by Andy Woollard,

    Andy Woollard Andy Woollard Aug 26, 2014 3:53 PM in response to Ashadur
    Level 1 (48 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Aug 26, 2014 3:53 PM in response to Ashadur

    4 Days now since changing the backlight board and still OK. When it went off before you could still see the image on the dark screen if you got at an angle with light reflecting from a lamp. This showed that the problem was the backlight and not the display or graphics card or software so I am fully convinced about the backlight board being the problem and fixing it bears this out.

  • by garyjmilne,

    garyjmilne garyjmilne Sep 21, 2014 2:54 PM in response to Andy Woollard
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 21, 2014 2:54 PM in response to Andy Woollard

    Hi, I also have a mid 2011 27" iMac that has exhibited these symptoms. 

     

    FRom rom reading the posts on this thread I think there are two distinct problems, firstly where the backlight stops working and the screen images are still visible under a strong light. Secondly, where the screen goes black and may be able to be resumed by using Ctrl Shift Eject sequence.  My experience relates to the latter.

     

    My screen would go black however the computer was still running, using Ctrl Shift Eject would restore the screen initially.  I turned on Hot Corners and used this method however the problem became so severe that neither of these methods would work.  The screen would come on for 2 seconds and then go dark again.

     

    I had read someone else's post that removing their third party memory allowed their system start working normally.  I did not believe it but thought I would give it a try.  I am surprised and happy to report that my iMac is now in its third day without the black screen problem when I was lucky to go for an hour before.

     

    i can't explain it or even come up with a decent theory. I had an additional 8 gb of memory which I removed to produce this result.

  • by Ade-oh,

    Ade-oh Ade-oh Oct 4, 2014 8:34 AM in response to garyjmilne
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2014 8:34 AM in response to garyjmilne

    I've been having this problem for several months now with my 27" mid-2011 iMac.  After much searching around the web I tried adjusting the brightness to maximum, then minimum, then back to where it roughly was every time I switched the computer on, woke it from sleep or noticed any kind of flickering on the display and, fingers crossed, it hasn't happened for over a week now, whereas it had been blacking out every few hours at worst and not coming back on without a hard restart.  The automatic brightness adjustment seems to be working fine too.

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