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MacBook Pro black screen, no chime, no start up.

I was on my MacBook Pro and all of a sudden the screen went black, I shut it off by holding on the power button, but when I tried turning it back on, the screen remained black. There was no chime as it usually does when you start up your mbp. As I was searching about this problem, I concluded that the logic board may need need to be replaced. If that is the case how much will I pay to get it fixed and also will I lose all my files? I have many projects and school work saved on this laptop but never had a chance to back up any files. I have a 15", 500g, 2.2 ghz . Again, will I lose any of my files and how much does a logicboard repair cost. Thank you very much.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Oct 20, 2013 11:08 AM

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Posted on Jan 31, 2017 9:30 AM

Just to add my two cents worth, I have a 2011 MBP that has had a host of GPU/video issues. When my screen suddenly went black this morning and would not start, per the OP, I thought it was the same issue. But then, when I was having video issues, I could hear the startup chime, so something here was different.


After trying the SMC reset, and PRAM reset, to no avail, I came across something about batteries. My laptop battery has been sucking for months, barely holding 45m of charge, so I was definitely due for a replacement. So on a whim, I removed my battery and tried starting up, and was amazed to find it worked. Apparently, a chronically bad battery will eventually prevent the MBP from starting up.


New battery is on order!

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Question marked as Best reply

Jan 31, 2017 9:30 AM in response to Anjrue27

Just to add my two cents worth, I have a 2011 MBP that has had a host of GPU/video issues. When my screen suddenly went black this morning and would not start, per the OP, I thought it was the same issue. But then, when I was having video issues, I could hear the startup chime, so something here was different.


After trying the SMC reset, and PRAM reset, to no avail, I came across something about batteries. My laptop battery has been sucking for months, barely holding 45m of charge, so I was definitely due for a replacement. So on a whim, I removed my battery and tried starting up, and was amazed to find it worked. Apparently, a chronically bad battery will eventually prevent the MBP from starting up.


New battery is on order!

Mar 17, 2017 5:50 PM in response to Anjrue27

I had this same problem with my a1286 2011 i7. I tried everything and when I noticed that the eject button was not working and I could not reset my VRAM I then realized that my keyboard was the problem. I disconnected the ribbon from the mother board and made contact between the two pins to turn the MacBook on and it booted right up. afterwards I plugged in a bluetooth keyboard to check and I was able to type. I then took a shot and plugged the onboard keyboard back on and it worked like new. weird issue but it seemed that the keyboard was stuck in sleep mode and not letting the MacBook boot up.


******disconnected keyboard from motherboard and forced to turn on by making contact on two pins***********

Sep 2, 2017 10:28 PM in response to blaxican53

blaxican53's method was the only one that worked for me. Here is exactly what happened in my case for an early 2008 MBP


- Put in a 2nd power board and battery, still no boot.

- After the battery drained down and MBP shutoff, I removed the battery and plugged in power adapter

- Pressed the power switch and I get 3 beeps which indicate bad memory. Took out a stick and move the other stick to a different slot and booted the machine all the way up. Powered down the mac and insert both sticks of memory and it powers all the way up.


This MBP originally died during sleep. Owner also noted inability to bootup previously also. Got 2 different batteries and will be trying various combos to see if I can isolate the failure part.

Oct 20, 2013 11:26 AM in response to Anjrue27

What year is the machine,(if it is a mid 2010 there is a known issue with the LB, you may ask if yours will fall into this program) if in fact the logic board is dead and your drive is OK, your files are stored on the HD. Having a back up is always must regardless, and having a redundant back is also a good idea.


You can try a couple of things..Reset SMC


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964


Reset pram/NVRAM


Power on holding the following keys:

OPTION COMMAND P R

Hold till you hear the start chime 2 times and release


If it does start do a back up if possible,

If you are not under warranty/ AppleCare, you should ask abut Apples flat rate repair $310.00 I think but that is close, they fix what ever they find wrong as long it is not accidental/liquid damage. The normal logic board price is about $437.00 plus labor,


Good luck

Oct 20, 2013 12:33 PM in response to Anjrue27

That's kind of hard to say, this resets a number of things iincluding start up disk preferences among other things, somehow this file may have become corrupted, and the reset fixes it, as a simple explanation. It is difficult to sat what may have caused this, maybe the logic board is completely fine, maybe it is starting to go into failure mode, it may have absolutely nothing to do with the LB, and something else you did freaked one of the other processes in the memory area, screen resolution, etc...


That being said, if you do not have an external back up drive that you keep updated, this should be a wake up call to get and maintain one (or2, I have redundant back up drives, in case I have an issue with one of them ie: it falls off the table and is wrecked...) My data is worth much more to me than the (relatively) cheap cost of drives these days.


I'm glad to have helped, and happy you are up and running again🙂

Nov 5, 2013 1:51 AM in response to sanjampet

You are an amazing person!!! I was just freaking out. Just updated to OS X Mavericks. while updating all the software the computer restarted and made one beep. Never turned back on after that, no chime at all, just a black screen. Option Command P R saved me! The first things I was reading in another forum said there is nothing that can be done and computer is toast. Thank You SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Jun 27, 2014 7:39 PM in response to chewkeyy

I am having the same problem. Mid 2010 13" Macbook Pro, just updated to Mavericks last week. The computer worked as it should before the update. I had no problems downloading the update or installing it but since then my MBP would randomly freeze, something it has never done before. Then yesterday I noticed one of my external Toshiba 1TB HD formatted to exFat wasn't mounting which gave me a panic, after some research I noticed that there were others who had the same or similar problems with their external HD after the Mavericks update. After troubleshooting that problem I discovered that it was not the HD thank god, I reset the PRAM on the MBP and when the computer booted up the HD mounted. That problem aside the computer froze again last night while streaming a movie. Turned the power off and on again and booted up fine, watched the rest of the movie. This morning I wake up to the computer once again frozen on the screensaver. Powered it down and up again, no screen, no chime. Just the spinning noise of either the fan, HD or disc drive. Tried powering down and up again, same thing. (I don't think I need to explain the sinking feeling of having your computer not turn on, especially in the middle of 3 projects you're working on). So now it either turns on (little sliver light on face comes on but is dim) with no screen or chime and spinning noise and just stays like that indefinitely OR it tries to turn on (little light on) no screen, no chime, NO spinning noise and shuts itself down after 5 sec to only come back on to shut off again in 5 sec and this cycle repeats indefinitely or until I hold the power button till it shuts down.

I have researched for hours and it seems this is a reoccuring problem with some MBP users and the Mavericks update. I have read and tried every single troubleshooting tip to try and fix this on my end but none have been successful. Everything seems to point to it being a logic board issue. I have scheduled an appointment at an Apple store tomorrow but I am not thrilled that I have to drive 5 hrs round trip to do so, and I pray if they can fix it it that it won't take multiple days requiring me to drive another 5 hr trip to get it.


Any assistance outside of the default Apple Troubleshooting guide would be greatly appreciated. I have tried all the resets, I have reseated the RAM, cannot start in safe mode, held eject key, held the power button for varying lengths of time all without success.


Another question for the more technically inclined, is it at all in the realm of possibility that the Mavericks update could have fried hardware?

As I said before I had NO problems at all before the update and a slew of them including total failure after and I am not the only one, this seems beyond coincidence.


I will update this post after my visit with the Geniuses but I am very wary as I bought this MPB used from a friend, but I've had it nearly a year with no problems till the Mavericks update. I've read in other discussions on this topic in here that most cases like this they replace the logic board and charge a flat rate around $300 but again I am under no warranty or Applecare on this MBP so who knows? But if indeed it was the Apple update that cause this problem I feel I should not be out of pocket on this. Looking forward to seeing if there are even more people this has happened to and if there is anyone who can shed more light on this problem and its correlation to Mavericks.


P.S. Not happy at all with Apple today, originally tried to post this from my iPhone 5s but when I clicked on reply nothing happend! Had to pull out my old Acer to write this! BOOOOOO.

Jul 19, 2014 5:01 PM in response to SavageTongue

I had the same problem. Took it to the mac genius bar and they said it was a processor and not worth fixing. Seems like if you have a machine that's more than a couple years old, they won't bother with it. Was ready to just sell it for parts then thought I'd try a few things first. Tried all the things I read in the forums- Nothing worked -


So I pulled the battery and plugged it in without a battery installed and everything works again!

Will try a new battery to see if it will work, otherwise will use it without one.

MacBook Pro black screen, no chime, no start up.

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