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Aqua's avatar

Troubleshooting: MacBook Pro Screen went black after system update. What can I do?

Asked by Aqua (2551points) June 13th, 2013

I have a 2010 13” MacBook Pro running OS X 10.8. I was just doing standard system software update. It shut all the programs and went to the usual updating screen. The update finished and it restarted, but the screen went black and it never came back on. After about 10 minutes I forced shutdown by holding the power key and tried turning it back on. I’ve done this a few times, and I’ve tried holding the option key or command + R to run diagnostics but I can’t get the screen to turn on again.

I have searched around on Google, but aside from taking it in to the Apple Store I haven’t found anything helpful. Can anyone help? I’m at work in a foreign country and need to use my computer asap. Thanks!

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4 Answers

rexacoracofalipitorius's avatar

First, can you plug in an external monitor? If you can then you can see if the computer is still running and doing things. If you can’t then maybe you can log in via ssh? If you don’t know what ssh is then it’s probably not available, so don’t worry about it.
If you plug in an external monitor and you can see the computer running and doing things, then the problem is likely the lamp in your screen has burned out. I don’t know how to replace one of these on a Mac, but it should be google-able. Hopefully you can find a replacement lamp wherever you are. If the external monitor stays black then at least your video hardware is toast, and possibly the whole computer.

rexacoracofalipitorius (2990points)“Great Answer” (4points) Flag as…
Aqua's avatar

@rexacoracofalipitorius I forgot to mention that. None of the monitors here at work are PC compatible and I don’t have an adapter. I don’t know what ssh is either, so no luck there.

Worse comes to worse, I’ll be able to go to an Apple store in about 8 or 9 hours. Let’s hope the whole computer’s not toast.

Aqua (2551points)“Great Answer” (1points) Flag as…
Aqua's avatar

Ok, after more googling, I reset the SMC and restarted it seems to be working just fine now.

Aqua (2551points)“Great Answer” (4points) Flag as…
rexacoracofalipitorius's avatar

Awesome. Glad it’s working again!

rexacoracofalipitorius (2990points)“Great Answer” (2points) Flag as…

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