My MacBook Pro turns on but then the screen goes black and I only see the cursor of the mouse, help please!

I have the exact problem with my wife's 13" MacBook Pro - OS 10.9.1

Try restarting from a rescue partition (if you have OS10.9) or the system DVD or an external system drive. Back up your data in your user folder (music, files, photos, etc.)

I am hoping that someone says it's OK to reinstall the System OS. Advice would be very helpful... otherwise make an appointment with an Apple Genius or a service center.

Good Luck!

I have the exact same problem. Heading to the Genius Bar on in 4 days

Visited with Apple Genius... all hardware tested OK... the solution - wipe the hard drive and re-install the system software... it works!!

Be sure to back up everything in your user folder (documents, songs, videos, etc.) and 3rd party apps that you can't easily re-install.

Good luck

joeswell,

just to ask you about the following comment:

"Be sure to back up everything in your user folder (documents, songs, videos, etc.) and 3rd party apps that you can't easily re-install."

How do you back up if the screen is black?

My time machine is about a year old. Is there anyway to recover the harddrive before doing what you said to do

If your computer does not have a hardware problem (drive, display, board,etc.), you can start up your computer with an external drive or disk that has a system on it. For older computers the system disk came with insallation disks.

If you are using OS10.9 (Mavericks), when you intsalled OS 10.9 the intsaller creates a "Recovery Drive" on your computer.

In either case, when you start your computer press the option key. You'll get a choice of drives to start up from, choose the external (or disk) or recovery drive.

If your issue is not caused by a hardware issue, your computer will start up and you will be able to access your user folder or any other folder and copy the files to an external drive.

I went to the Apple Store because I wasn't sure if I had a hardware or software issue. Fortunately for me, the computers tested OK and because everything was backed up, the "Genius" wiped the drive and installed a "fresh copy" of OS10.9.

Hint: Installing an OS over the internet at home takes hours. At the Apple Store wth their high speed servers, it took 10 minutes.

Good Luck!

You can back up via the recovery mode (disk or system) and use disk utility to copy your drive... https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1553

So, maybe this is a dumb question... How do you wipe the hard drive and reinstall when the screen is just black with a cursor. I don't have an install disk.

Is there someway to do it that I don't know about?

NEVERMIND!!! I HAVE AN EASY FIX!!!

Its an automatic update glitch.

Start up in safe mode : turn on while holding down shift.

Once the screen turns black with only the cursor:

type the first letter of your username and press enter.

type your password and press enter.

Now wait, it will bring up a screen to finsih installation and your macbook will be back to normal after installation finishes!

WORKS!

This was exactly my problem and your solution worked! So thankful

I'm having the same issue, I did what you said, nothing happened! What now?!

Amazing fix, thank you

Thanks Rnsjbs

AMAZING! Worked for me too. Thanks!!