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User profile for user: Greg Araya
Greg Araya Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Macbook Pro 7,1 Boot to Black Screen

My Mid-2010 13" MBP has just started booting to a black screen.


Screen brightness is not turned down. I do not have any external displays plugged in.


From a cold startup, the screen will show the Apple logo, and the progress bar gets about 1/5 complete before the screen goes black.


I've followed all the steps on this page with no result.


Once at the black screen, the only response I can get is to tap the power button, followed by the S key, to restart. I can then hold down the power button to force a hard shutdown.


When I try booting into safe mode, the screen goes black after the progress bar gets 1/5 complete, as above.


I have tried resetting the SMC with the magsafe adapter plugged and unplugged. I have held the left Shift+Control+Option keys and Power Buttons for "a few" as well as 5, 10, 12, and 15 seconds as recommended by various troubleshooting articles. I have also held the key combination down until the light in the magsafe adapter blinks/changes color to indicate the SMC reset. The light never changes.


I can reset the PRAM, and have done so 2, 3, and 4 times in a row, just to be sure. This has no effect.


I can boot into recovery mode and verfify the hard drive with Disk Utilty. It shows no errors.


I did a format/clean install of Yosemite on the MBP about two months ago, and had no issues. This is my wife's MBP, and it's a fairly "vanilla" install, with no unusual system extensions or UI customizations.


I have attempted to VNC/Screen Share from another Mac, but the MBP no longer appears on the network and is unresponsive when selecting it from recent connections in the Screen Sharing app.


Any ideas at this point are greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep 1, 2018 8:45 AM

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User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Posted on Sep 10, 2018 9:52 PM

A Troubleshooting Procedure that may Fix Problems with macOS El Capitan or Later

You should try each, one at a time, then test to see if the problem is fixed before going on to the next.


Be sure to back up your files before proceeding if possible.


  1. Shutdown the computer, wait 30 seconds, restart the computer.
  2. Disconnect all third-party peripherals.
  3. Resetting your Mac’s PRAM and NVRAM
  4. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)
  5. Reset your Startup Disk and Sound preferences.
  6. Start the computer in Safe Mode. Test in safe mode to see if the problem persists, then restart normally. Also, see Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support and Playing Safe- what does Safe mode do?.
  7. Use Apple Hardware Test to see if there is any hardware malfunction. How to invoke and interpret the Apple hardware tests - CNET.
  8. Repair the disk by booting from the Recovery HD. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Utility Menu appears. Choose Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list. Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar. Wait for the Done button to appear. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu. Restart the computer from the Apple Menu.
  9. Repair permissions on the Home folder: Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder.
  10. Create a New User Account Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and enter your Admin password when prompted. On the left under Current User click on the Add [+] button under Login Options. Setup a new Admin user account. Upon completion log out of your current account then log into the new account. If your problems cease, then consider switching to the new account and transferring your files to it - Transferring files from one User Account to another.
  11. Download and install the OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Combo Update or 10.12.6 Combo Update or Download macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Combo Update as needed.
  12. Reinstall OS X by booting from the Recovery HD using the Command and R keys. When the Utility Menu appears select Reinstall OS X then click on the Continue button.
  13. Erase and Install OS X Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo appears. When the Utility Menu appears:
  1. Select Disk Utility from the Utility Menu and click on Continue button.
  2. When Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry) from the Device list.
  3. Click on the Erase icon in Disk Utility's toolbar. A panel will drop down.
  4. Set the Format type to APFS (for SSDs only) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
  5. Click on the Apply button, then wait for the Done button to activate and click on it.
  6. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
  7. Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.

14. If none of the above helps then see How to Downgrade macOS High Sierra and macOS Reversion- How to Downgrade from High Sierra.

15. If you get here without success then make an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar for service. If you need to find an Apple Store - Find a Store - Apple.

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Question marked as Best reply
User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Sep 10, 2018 9:52 PM in response to Greg Araya

A Troubleshooting Procedure that may Fix Problems with macOS El Capitan or Later

You should try each, one at a time, then test to see if the problem is fixed before going on to the next.


Be sure to back up your files before proceeding if possible.


  1. Shutdown the computer, wait 30 seconds, restart the computer.
  2. Disconnect all third-party peripherals.
  3. Resetting your Mac’s PRAM and NVRAM
  4. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)
  5. Reset your Startup Disk and Sound preferences.
  6. Start the computer in Safe Mode. Test in safe mode to see if the problem persists, then restart normally. Also, see Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support and Playing Safe- what does Safe mode do?.
  7. Use Apple Hardware Test to see if there is any hardware malfunction. How to invoke and interpret the Apple hardware tests - CNET.
  8. Repair the disk by booting from the Recovery HD. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Utility Menu appears. Choose Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list. Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar. Wait for the Done button to appear. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu. Restart the computer from the Apple Menu.
  9. Repair permissions on the Home folder: Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder.
  10. Create a New User Account Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and enter your Admin password when prompted. On the left under Current User click on the Add [+] button under Login Options. Setup a new Admin user account. Upon completion log out of your current account then log into the new account. If your problems cease, then consider switching to the new account and transferring your files to it - Transferring files from one User Account to another.
  11. Download and install the OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Combo Update or 10.12.6 Combo Update or Download macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Combo Update as needed.
  12. Reinstall OS X by booting from the Recovery HD using the Command and R keys. When the Utility Menu appears select Reinstall OS X then click on the Continue button.
  13. Erase and Install OS X Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo appears. When the Utility Menu appears:
  1. Select Disk Utility from the Utility Menu and click on Continue button.
  2. When Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry) from the Device list.
  3. Click on the Erase icon in Disk Utility's toolbar. A panel will drop down.
  4. Set the Format type to APFS (for SSDs only) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
  5. Click on the Apply button, then wait for the Done button to activate and click on it.
  6. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
  7. Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.

14. If none of the above helps then see How to Downgrade macOS High Sierra and macOS Reversion- How to Downgrade from High Sierra.

15. If you get here without success then make an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar for service. If you need to find an Apple Store - Find a Store - Apple.

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User profile for user: Greg Araya
Greg Araya Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Sep 10, 2018 3:43 PM in response to Kappy

Hi, thanks for the thorough response. Basically, steps 1 through 6 could not isolate or repair the black screen issue.


What I ended up doing was booting the MBP into target disk mode and then using Carbon Copy Cloner to make a backup of the drive. While backing up files, CCC notified me of several read errors on the MBP HDD. Oddly, Disk Utility did not report any of these errors on verify or repair. At this point, I re-formattted the drive, selecting the security option to write zeros to all sectors. My intention was this would map out the bad sectors and buy me some time to figure out if there were further hardware issues. The formatting froze, so I got a new HDD, did a clean system install to that, recovered the cloned files back onto the fresh system, and installed that drive in the MBP. It booted up and I verified all the user documetns were intact. I then made a fresh Time Machine archive and inherited the prior Backblaze backup state.


So we're all set for now. Thanks again for your attention and assistance.

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Macbook Pro 7,1 Boot to Black Screen

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