fiona.mac

Q: iMac 27" Black Screen?

For 6 long and painful weeks, my 27" iMac (10.7.5) has intermittently turned itself to sleep mode (black screen). It's driving me up the wall and sent my productivity through the floor. You'll be in the middle of something and whammo, black screen. I have to push the power button to get the screen to work again. It doesn't respond to keyboard or mouse.

 

The screen turns black when you're on the Internet, playing quicktime files, using Microsoft office, so it happens across different applications... it happens on my account, my daughter's account, the guest account. It is indiscriminate, it just does it whenever it feels like it, but not all the time. If it shuts down video, the audio still plays, there is just a black screen with no picture to watch.

 

The computer is 8 months old and I have Apple Protection as well, so that's not the problem, but I see other people have experienced a similar issue and I'm up for suggestions as to what you think might be causing the problem.

 

So far, these are the fixes that have been done and NOT fixed the problem:

 

  • OSX has been reinstalled twice
  • The logic Board has been replaced
  • RAM has been replaced
  • The graphics card has been replaced

 

The tech is coming back out Monday to replace the power supply and the screen. If this doesn't work I'm told I'll be reissued with a new machine.

 

So any other suggestions out there? Is it possessed by a ghost? Cursed? Just should be declared a lemon?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5), Bought July 2012, Built mid 2011

Posted on May 2, 2013 9:56 PM

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Q: iMac 27" Black Screen?

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  • by Rixxi,

    Rixxi Rixxi Feb 11, 2014 2:51 PM in response to girlsonboard
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    Feb 11, 2014 2:51 PM in response to girlsonboard

    Been using my iPad, a friend just dropped an old USB one off... Still going good ... I say don't use the faulty key until Apple does something, took batteries out of mine too, feel like taking a hammer to it for all the time I've waisted, apple store is an hour away from me, took computer in twice . I have the one with graphic card recall, but was told it was fine and that I had corrupted software... Erased drive for nothing... Hope Apple is reading our posts. Last week my screen went white and didn't reboot until I brought it to apple... Don't know how they got it going again... Probably got lucky

  • by Rixxi,

    Rixxi Rixxi Feb 11, 2014 7:24 PM in response to Rixxi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 11, 2014 7:24 PM in response to Rixxi

    Computer just went to sleep... Almost had a heart attack...

    Still going...

  • by girlsonboard,

    girlsonboard girlsonboard Feb 11, 2014 7:37 PM in response to Rixxi
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    Feb 11, 2014 7:37 PM in response to Rixxi

    That's funny. Once mine took more than a couple taps to wake up and I got nervous. But it's still not repeating the problem. I found one other thread that mentioned the keyboard but the discussion wasn't complete enough.

     

    I'm still debating if I want to take the problem keyboard into the Apple store. It's past the warranty. But it would be nice if they confirmed it was the problem.

  • by Rixxi,

    Rixxi Rixxi Feb 11, 2014 8:31 PM in response to girlsonboard
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    Feb 11, 2014 8:31 PM in response to girlsonboard

    Do it, might speed things up... If apple store isint to far from you

  • by girlsonboard,

    girlsonboard girlsonboard Feb 11, 2014 9:12 PM in response to Rixxi
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    Feb 11, 2014 9:12 PM in response to Rixxi

    The store's close, but there's still the time issue. Why don't you do it? I came up with the possible answer.

     

    Kidding of course, I wanted to tell other people what I found. I too went through a very frustrating process with the Apple store. A 27 inch IMac is not easy to take in and taking it in twice was not pleasant, especially when the problem recurred the third time. I had to get my son to help me. And I didn't have the extra time it took but there's little choice. I need my computer. I'm writing a book, and I use it in my business.

     

    If you go three days without a recurrence and I'm at six days by then I'm going to say the evidence is overwhelming. I can wait.

  • by Rixxi,

    Rixxi Rixxi Feb 11, 2014 10:42 PM in response to girlsonboard
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    Feb 11, 2014 10:42 PM in response to girlsonboard

    I can't believe no one has figured this out, so many people seem to be having the same problems... You should get a prize from apple... Lol

    I'm starting to think this is it... Been working my mac to the max... Music production, movies playing, music playing, all apps open at same time, no sign of problem, I really hope it's this simple. Apple should be able to fix this with an update

  • by Rixxi,

    Rixxi Rixxi Feb 12, 2014 11:37 AM in response to Rixxi
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    Feb 12, 2014 11:37 AM in response to Rixxi

    still going strong here

  • by girlsonboard,

    girlsonboard girlsonboard Feb 12, 2014 12:50 PM in response to Rixxi
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    Feb 12, 2014 12:50 PM in response to Rixxi

    Mine too.

  • by Rixxi,

    Rixxi Rixxi Feb 13, 2014 5:39 PM in response to girlsonboard
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    Feb 13, 2014 5:39 PM in response to girlsonboard

    well... still rolling... looking real good

  • by Liiaa ,

    Liiaa Liiaa Feb 13, 2014 6:26 PM in response to girlsonboard
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    Feb 13, 2014 6:26 PM in response to girlsonboard

    my keyboard has brightness control which did NOT work i dont think my keyboard is the problem.  my imac is first gen and the displays been flickering for about a week now and i was watching a video and suddenly went black it still responded to the mouse i could hear the audio but i saw nothing. i cant get a replacement im waaayyy out of the warrenty. i turned it iff and back on then it went back to normal.

  • by Liiaa ,

    Liiaa Liiaa Feb 13, 2014 6:33 PM in response to fiona.mac
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    Feb 13, 2014 6:33 PM in response to fiona.mac

    Guys if you look up occasional unespected black screen while using imac by andy bedford here in the search your ganna find that he was replied saying that its a hardware problem.

  • by girlsonboard,

    girlsonboard girlsonboard Feb 13, 2014 8:13 PM in response to Liiaa
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    Feb 13, 2014 8:13 PM in response to Liiaa

    There's no reason to think everyone's computers are having the same problems. I read a couple people who had a part of the back light replaced with some success.

    But there were also people who had the same part replaced and took their computers in 3 and 4 times only to have the problem recur. I took mine in twice and got home only to have the black screen come back

    I'm on day 5 now, no blackouts. Rixxi's on day 3, I think.

     

    My computer came back on several times before it started not staying on more than a second or two. If your problem comes back and you have an IMac, especially a 27 inch, buy a cheap keyboard (or borrow one) and give it a try. Be sure to remove the batteries from your Mac keyboard to be sure it is not sending signals to the computer. If you have success, come back to the thread and let us know.

     

    By the way, a keyboard is hardware.

  • by girlsonboard,

    girlsonboard girlsonboard Feb 13, 2014 8:33 PM in response to Liiaa
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    Feb 13, 2014 8:33 PM in response to Liiaa

    I saw your post in the thread you are talking about. It's was started 2 years ago. I wish Benford and come back to say what hardware needed replacing. "Hardware" can mean many things. I can relate to the frustration, the Apple geniuses told me the problem was the software because they couldn't find anything else. The reformatted the hard drive but it didn't fix the problem. I'm not the only one Apple told they had a software problem but reformatting didn't fix the problem.

     

    In some of the cases, including mine, Apple could not find the problem hardware. But when I took my computer in, they used their own keyboard. So they never tested my keyboard.

     

    I've now found a third person that had an Apple bluetooth keyboard causing problems. But he had a MacBook and not an IMac. This is what he said:

     

    "My MacBook is a bit older than your iMac and I have had very few problems (battery replacement, hard drive replaced, but that's over 7 years). I use my laptop at a desk 80-90% of the time so I have a Cinema display and keyboard. The one thing I had tons of problems with was the "old" bluetooth keyboard. It is complete crap. So much so that I bought a wired version of the "small" keyboard."


    So, while I wouldn't have thought of the keyboard for this issue, I am not surprised to hear that it may be the culprit.

  • by Rixxi,

    Rixxi Rixxi Feb 14, 2014 3:01 PM in response to girlsonboard
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    Feb 14, 2014 3:01 PM in response to girlsonboard

    getting safe to say we found our solution...

  • by girlsonboard,

    girlsonboard girlsonboard Feb 14, 2014 3:29 PM in response to Rixxi
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    Feb 14, 2014 3:29 PM in response to Rixxi

    I'm still good. If you mark my inirtial post as solving the problem I think more people will see it.

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