When I go to sign on to my MacBook Pro, the user name/pass box will often disapear. Can I adjust this?

Just for the sake of clarification-is this after you’ve logged off? Or after a shut down? After logoff and sleep? I wonder if it’s consistently happening under one or more of those conditions?

Also the black screen-is that the whole screen or just the portion of the login window where the password field is? Just trying to visualize this.

There are three things I can think of off the top of my head that are worth checking into:
1. Installing the latest EFI firmware update for your MBP-info about firmware updating can be found here ;
2. Resetting PRAM on your MBP-link here; and
3. Resetting SMC-Instructions for SMC reset can be found here

here is also a basic warning about resetting SMC from another forum; just be careful to follow the instructions exactly as they list them on the Apple support website.

Thanks for the quick response sndfreQ.

Here’s further clarification:
When I’m done using my mac, I just shut the cover which puts it to sleep. When I come back, I just open it up and typically enter my password and I’m in. I don’t specifically put the machine in sleep mode or shut it down.

The black screen is a full black screen. I get the sense that the machine is booting up as it should, but the OS thinks the cover is still closed. If that makes any sense. Often times when the screen does turn black, the pointer is thinking and hangs.

Sometimes this will happen before I even get a chance to enter in my password. Other times it will happen after i put the password in and hit enter.

Thanks for the 3 tips. I’ll certainly be looking into them further.

@alabare-after your reply I realized-this does happen on my MBP too-maybe it’s an OS issue-I do have to admit 10.5.1 is a tad unstable compared to 10.4.11 (the last version I used prior to upgrading to Leopard).

I’d say if it is happening very frequently then try the aforementioned remedies, but if it persists try taking it in for a service check-up to rule out potential hardware malfunctions e.g. graphics card or motherboard, power supply, etc. Good news is that warranty and AppleCare should cover repairs on your MBP; if it’s approaching the 1-year mark and you don’t have AppleCare you should look into it.

There are a few things to try to fix it:

Disable safe sleep (See this article for instructions,

Take it to a Genius Bar and let them reset the Sleep Image which has likely been corrupted.

Of course, there are a thousand different reasons for sleep to not work, so check out this thread for more goodies.

@gatekeeper: wow thanks for the info! It seems that more than a few are having this same plm…I also have had the problem of the MBP not going to sleep and the fan blazing/roasting the laptop in my bag… really troublesome considering; I especially appreciated the second link you provided-that forum and thread had a lot of useful info and perspectives from both tiger and leopard users.

Have you disabled safe sleep on your MBP?

Thanks for the great information guys. You both have been extremely helpful. Pretty much went through all of the contained suggestions and so far, so good. Things certainly seem snappier. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one with this problem. Again, many thanks.

Yup. Mainly because it annoyed me to have to sit there and wait 30 seconds for the hard drives to spin down before throwing it in my bag. Now it’s fairly instantaneous (or at least on par with my old iBook G3)