Laptop screen is black, external monitor works

I had a similar issue, black display macbook pro. Worked when connected to external monitor. Did all the resets like P+R power on to reset displays did not work. Finally disconnected video cable and put it back in and it worked. Thank You for this tip!

Yes,

First disconnect the power from your macbook

Then power off your MacBook

Open up the back of macbook

Disconnect the battery power connection to the logic board. You do not have to remove the battery just disconnect the power connector to the logic board.

Then disconnect the video power cable to the logic board and then reattach the cable.

If it was just a bad connection this should solve your problem.

Is the Apple logo light up on your MacBook?

Does the external display work?

External monitor works (thank goodness or I'd be SOL).

I found a YouTube video that suggested rubbing the black cover at the hinge of the MacBook. This didn't work for me.

I didn't try the flashlight, but I found another forum on OSmacdaily, that was helpful without removing the back cover. The first option worked for me.

1.

1. Shut down the Mac and connect it to your MagSafe adapter and a wall outlet as usual
2. Hold down the Shift+Control+Option+Power button at the same time for a few seconds
3. Release all keys at the same time, then boot the Mac as usual
4. ---------or

2.

1. Press the Power / OFF button once – this will bring up the dialog box which you can’t see
2. Press the “S” button – this is the shortcut to sleep the Mac
3. Hold down the Power button until a hard shut down is forced
4. Wait about 15 seconds, then hit the Power button again to turn it back on
5. ------------or
6. Reboot the Mac and as soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the Command+Option+P+R keys together
7. When you hear the boot sound again, the PRAM has been reset so let the Mac boot again as usual
8. ----------or

When the Mac boots into the black screen, enter the password you’d use to login to the Mac as usual

Hit the Return key

Including in the event they are helpful to others.

My husband complains about the cost of MacBook, but if this were to happen to his PC, it would take hours to correct. Mine took me about three minutes. :)

Thank you for responding!!

Correction is Osxdaily where I found this. Good old Google.

"So I opened up the back of my MBP and disconnected the power cable from the MBP systemboard to the Display.

I then reattached the cable and closed up the MBP and powered it back on."

opening up the back.. to what the following picture shows?

disconnected the power cable from the MBP - does this mean the power charging cable? Or the cable the arrow points to in the photo? I am assuming you have to remove the charging cable too... but I just want to make sure. I don't have extra couple hundred dollars for apple diagnosis. so I would like to try your method first. 🙂

Yeah I did the same thing on a friend's 13" MacBook Pro, the screen was black on startup with apple logo on back glowing. I opened it up and unplugged that little screen plug, and plugged it back and voila! All systems GO. Thanks for that tip!

Hey rlfisher218,

Thanks for the question, and amazing troubleshooting so far. You have almost exhausted all steps that I would recommend, but there are a few more you can try:

Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1573

If your issue persists after attempting all troubleshooting steps in the article, see the last section for information on contacting Apple for diagnosis.

Thanks,

Matt M.

I had a similar problem. One day my screen just did not work and was what looked to be non-functional. ( OFF ).

The external display worked however via display port adapter.

So this lead me to believe the MBP display was bad.

So I opened up the back of my MBP and disconnected the power cable from the MBP systemboard to the Display.

I then reattached the cable and closed up the MBP and powered it back on.

Whala !....The MBP display was working again. So it turned out the power cable from the Systemboard to the Display was not making a good connection. Simply disconnecting and reconnecting the cable fixed the problem.

I have a MBP mid-2012 13-inch.

It looks that your backlight system is gone....

Tha machnine needs to be serviced, in my opinion.

If it is just the lamp, perhaps it will not cost a fortune...

Hi rlfisher,

Did you ever find a resolution to your problem? This just happened to me and I am looking for a solution since my laptop "symptoms" match yours almost exactly. One thing to add, my keboard lights will work at times but sometimes they won't. Strange.

Anyway, let me know. Thanks!

I have the same problem, if someone could advise on this one it would be great.

My backlight and second screen are working (I'm not getting video on primary display)

already tried solutions mentioned above with no luck.

My issue is every time I connect the mag-lock power to my mac-book Pro when it is running Boot-camp with Windows 10, The screen will go blank.

If i disconect and run of battry it will work fine, but once i reconeccet the power, it will go blank again..

Please help

This was helpful, but before I opened up the back, I just pressed on the area on the back where the video cable is and I heared a click... and it worked after that! I had just gotten home from traveling and think all of the jostling must have disconnected the video cable. Thanks for the tip!