Macbook pro display randomly turns off?

Question

Level 1

9 points

Macbook pro display randomly turns off?

My 15in Macbook Pro '13 (obtained new late '14 on B&H, started using it early '15) has a display that randomly turns off (dim backlight is still on - I can see the slight difference when I actually power the laptop off), in addition to the programs (audio abruptly stops, etc.). The computer is still "on" (humming, backlight on) and it'll overheat after a bit; I must hold power to reboot. Potential issues resolutions? 😟

Other things -

it happens in bursts, i.e. happens once, and if I do the rebooting thing and continue with using it, most likely it'll happen again within 10 minutes or so, and if I keep doing it, at some point it'll turn off almost immediately after I log in (but never before! ?? idk...)
Seems like CPU-consuming tasks cause it to happen more frequently - however, I've never had it happen once during a vidchat on Skype or Hangouts, so I don't know?? iTunes makes it more likely to happen though
Seems to happen more often on lower battery/not charging, but has recently been happening at times at 100%/plugged in.
It's probably hardware - I updated from 10.9 (issue started then, like 2 months ago) to 10.11 and issue continued to occur.
I suspected battery, so I went to Apple Store and initial diagnostics found nothing on any front 😟
It's been getting worse and worse - happens more frequently and (as mentioned) at higher battery %s. By now I can nearly guarantee an ooccurrence once every 3-4 hours or so of use.
No, turning it off and on again doesn't help.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks :c

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Jan 11, 2016 12:43 PM

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Answer 1

dominic23

Level 10

83,916 points

Jan 11, 2016 1:49 PM in response to haiaiai

Reset PRAM. http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18761

Reset SMC. Choose the method for “On Mac notebooks with non-removable battery”.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

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Answer 2

haiaiai Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 12, 2016 8:10 PM in response to dominic23

Neither of those helped, unfortunately 😟

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Answer 3

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Jan 12, 2016 10:08 PM in response to haiaiai

Could you run an Etrecheck for us. https://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck Then post it. You could have some run away apps or not enough memory. Checking the activity monitor in the utilities folder might shed some light on this also.

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Answer 4

haiaiai Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 12, 2016 11:19 PM in response to my ginger

EtreCheck version: 2.7 (230)

Report generated 2016-01-13 02:15:13

Download EtreCheck from http://etrecheck.com

Runtime 1:38

Performance: Excellent

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Scan for adware] links for help removing adware.

Check Apple signatures: Enabled

Ignore known Apple failures: Disabled

Problem: Other problem

Description:

screen turning off for no reason

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,2

1 2 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4-core

8 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 421 - SN = D864136Y2TEF9CPA1

Video Information: ⓘ

Intel Iris Pro

Color LCD 3360 x 2100

System Software: ⓘ

OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 (15C50) - Time since boot: less than an hour

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE SSD SM0256F disk0 : (251 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 249.77 GB (85.47 GB free)

Core Storage: disk0s2 250.14 GB Online

USB Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Configuration files: ⓘ

/etc/hosts - Count: 1

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Anywhere

Adware: ⓘ

Adware infection possible. [Scan for adware]

Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/Applications/Parallels Desktop.app

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.hypervisor (10.2.2 29105 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.netbridge (10.2.2 29105 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.usbconnect (10.2.2 29105 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.vnic (10.2.2 29105 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (4.3.26) [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (4.3.26) [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (4.3.26) [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (4.3.26) [Support]

/System/Library/Extensions

[loaded] com.intel.kext.intelhaxm (1.1.1 - SDK 10.9) [Support]

Startup Items: ⓘ

MySQLCOM: Path: /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM

Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.apple.MRTa.plist - Invalid signature!

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.apple.FileSyncAgent.sshd.plist - No signature!

[loaded] com.apple.MRTd.plist - Invalid signature!

[loaded] com.apple.airplaydiagnostics.server.mac.plist - /AppleInternal/Applications/AirPlayDiagnostics.app/Contents/Resources/AirPlayDi agnosticsServer: Executable not found!

[loaded] com.apple.configureLocalKDC.plist - No signature!

[loaded] com.apple.efax.plist - No signature!

[loaded] com.apple.emlog.plist - No signature!

[loaded] com.apple.gkreport.plist - No signature!

[loaded] com.apple.locate.plist - No signature!

[failed] com.apple.logd.plist [Details]

[loaded] com.intel.haxm.plist [Support]

[loaded] org.apache.httpd.plist - No signature!

[loaded] org.cups.cupsd.plist - Invalid signature!

[loaded] org.net-snmp.snmpd.plist - No signature!

[running] org.ntp.ntpd.plist - No signature!

[loaded] org.postfix.newaliases.plist - No signature!

[loaded] ssh.plist - No signature!

Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Support]

[running] com.pharos.notify.plist [Support]

[running] com.pharos.popup.plist [Support]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist [Support]

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Support]

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.startup.plist [Support]

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Support]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist [Support]

User Login Items: ⓘ

Flux Application (/Applications/Flux.app)

iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Android File Transfer Agent Application (~/Library/Application Support/Google/Android File Transfer/Android File Transfer Agent.app)

Other Apps: ⓘ

[running] com.etresoft.EtreCheck.210592

[running] com.google.Chrome.58592

[running] com.google.android.mtpagent.92832

[running] org.herf.Flux.57312

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 20.0.0.267 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.13 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.13 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

Flash Player: Version: 20.0.0.267 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

Default Browser: Version: 601 - SDK 10.11

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.3.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

MeetingJoinPlugin: Version: Unknown - SDK 10.6 [Support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 8 Update 66 build 17 Check version

Safari Extensions: ⓘ

Adblock Plus

Open in Internet Explorer

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Flash Player [Support]

Java [Support]

MySQL [Support]

TeXDistPrefPane [Support]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

47% photolibraryd

22% Google Chrome Helper(15)

8% com.apple.photomoments

7% launchd

5% Google Chrome

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

3.00 GB Google Chrome Helper(14)

658 MB kernel_task

279 MB Google Chrome

156 MB mdworker(10)

115 MB ocspd

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

1.80 GB Free RAM

6.19 GB Used RAM (1.49 GB Cached)

0 B Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

Jan 13, 2016, 02:12:47 AM Self test - passed

Reply

Answer 5

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Jan 13, 2016 4:31 AM in response to haiaiai

Check to see if your MBP has had kernel panics. If so, use these instructions to log and post the latest one:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201753

Ciao.

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Answer 6

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Jan 13, 2016 10:42 AM in response to haiaiai

Open ICloud preferences and uncheck the box marked photos and see if any difference.

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Answer 7

haiaiai Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 13, 2016 10:35 PM in response to my ginger

Doesn't help 😟 I've literally never used iCloud in my life q.q

There are kernel panics over the last month, last one was "ScreenSaverEngine_2016-01-12-004210_<my name>-MacBook-Pro.wakeups_resource.diag" - I feel these are when my computer crashes while in the middle of a screensaver but idk..

how do I go about posting the contents of a kernel panic? the link doesn't really help 😟

Something else - confirmed will not happen when I'm in the middle of some kind of media, i.e. youtube video or skype or hangouts. but I need to actively be in the tab, playing the thing for crashing not to happen. Once I switch to another tab, or pause whatever I'm playing, crashing will likely happen within a couple minutes. weird 😮

edit: seems like the issue doesn't occur anymore on safe mode! although I'm not 100% about this, I just have it on safe mode right now and nothing's happened for 20 minutes now after a quick series of crashes.

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Answer 8

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Jan 14, 2016 9:02 AM in response to haiaiai

To post a panic report you would use Command C to copy and CommandV to paste. I have a little link as to google chrome helper which is using cpu and memory per the Etrecheck. http://www.wired.com/2014/10/google-chrome-helper/ I was trying to find why your photo library is using 47% of cpu. Do you have desktop and screen saver set to change pictures. It will draw some of them from the photo library. You could even have a corrupt picture in there.

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Answer 9

haiaiai Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 14, 2016 11:50 PM in response to my ginger

It was only that one time that the photo library used 47% of cpu - all subsequent etrecheck runs don't have any photo library cpu usage. I think it was just a random spike? Neither desktop nor screensaver change pictures.

I think I'm going to try to stop using Chrome and see what happens - still, I feel like crashes have happened even while Chrome wasn't open. I'll probably revert to safari or firefox... I might edit this post later if that actually makes a significant difference.

I'm not gonna post the panic report bc sublime tells me it's 1k lines long...which is pretty long.

As of yesterday, confirmed that being in safe mode prevents crashes from happening, as is the media thing I described above. But I also would prefer not to have safe mode on 24/7 lol.

thanks for all the help so far! 🙂

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Answer 10

haiaiai Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 15, 2016 12:56 AM in response to haiaiai

update: don't think it's chrome - I rebooted and only used firefox, and it just crashed. :c

should I post the panic report? if it might help, I'd do it...

i'm also wondering if doing a complete system reset might help. Since upgrading from mavericks to el capitan preserves all programs, files, etc., I'm thinking of doing a factory reset and then reinstalling the relevant programs/putting back relevant files? would you think that's a fair course of action (i.e. I would probably only do this as a last resort)?

One question - if I do factory reset it, and it still happens, would that (mostly likely) confirm it as a hardware issue?

Thanks!

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Answer 11

Apr 18, 2016 9:01 PM in response to haiaiai

I have this same problem, my mac pro (10.10.5) keeps shutting the screen off randomly. It restarts itself only to do it again. It started doing this ever since I updated to 10.10.5 a couple of days ago.

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Answer 12

demisx

Level 1

14 points

Aug 30, 2016 8:23 PM in response to trackforlife7

I have the same issue with Macbook Pro mid-2014 driving 2 external Mac monitors. All three screens turn on and off intermittently. Often, one of the screens does not come back on.

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