Fixing the Blank Screen on my Macbook Pro – Deleting the sleepimage
In the midst of a super-busy week I experiencing a heart-sinking feeling: I opened the lid to my macbook pro and all I got was a blank screen. Earlier in the day I had closed my computer to take it with me to meeting. Every other time it simply went to sleep and then “woke up” when I opened the lid. If I had left it unplugged for a while it would take a bit to start up, but this time I got nothing. I tried charging it, but then when I tried starting it, I would get the start up sound, but then just a black screen staring at me. It would accept some start up commands (like zapping the PRAM), but beyond that it was dead. I thought it might just be the screen went out, but it was obvious no other functions worked (i.e. volume, keyboard brightness, etc.).
Blank Screen on a MacBook Pro (obviously not mine).
After trying everything I could think of, I finally found a message board that suggested it could be a corrupted sleep image. After deleting the corrupted file, I was able to get things running. It was such a frustrating and nerve-wracking experience, I figure I could go through the steps I took and hopefully save someone else some grief if encounter a similar problem. Here is what I did to fix my problem.
- Start your macbook (pro) in target disk mode
- Connect your computer another mac via firewire.
- Start up the working mac and then press the power button on the mac that is not working
- While it is starting, hold down the “T” key.
- Your mac should show up as an external hard drive in the finder of the other mac
- Delete the Sleep Image
- Open Finder in the working computer
- Press CMD+Shift+G
- Enter “/volumes/Your Computer/private/var/vm/” where “Your Computer” equals the name of the broken mac as seen in Finder.
- Delete the “Sleepimage” file
- I also deleted the “swapfile0″ file which was there, but I am not sure if this is necessary.
- Empty the Trash
- Delete the Extension files
- Navigate to the /System/Library folder on the broken mac
- Delete the “Extensions.mkext” file
- I also deleted the “Extensions.kextcache” file which was there, but I am not sure if this is necessary.
- Empty the Trash
- Eject the broken mac just like you do a regular external hard drive.
- Press the power button on your mac if it is still running and remove the firewire cable.
If everything goes like it should, your macbook (pro) should work like normal. I immediately backed up all my important files and disabled sleep mode via the preferences pane.
Note: The first time I tried this I followed the directions found here, but it did not work. I tried it again and deleted the additional files noted above and emptied the trash can and everything worked that time around. HT to ariejan.net for getting me in the right direction.
UPDATE: For me, this problem escalated from a one time thing, to a frequent occurrence, until finally I could not shut the computer off without getting the blank screen. I took it to the IT Department at the University where I work. They ended up sending it off to Apple who replaced the Nvidia graphics card. Even though my MBP was out of warranty they replaced everything free of charge because this is a known issue for them.
Hello
I have similar problem with macbook white. I tried a lots of tips how to fix the stucked macbook with black screen of death, but didnt work. Then i found this page. I don’t understand, how can i
start target disk mode on stucked macbook, when i see only black screen after turn on. In this cause is not possible to turn on the target disk mode, or is it?
(better describe the problem – after i turn on macbook, i see white light diode, but screen is black forever. target mode is possible to turn on in advanced step with white screen…??).
If you have some idea, thanks a lot.
Have a nice day, sincerely Mik
@Mik
What you are describing is exactly what I had happen. My MBP would sound like it was booting up. I would hear the start up sound and get the light on, but even though it sounded like things were starting up, it would never go through with it (at first I thought I had a problem with the screen). I knew this was not the case because commands like PRAM reset (Command+Option+P+R) would work. However after booting commands would not work (for instance, the volume keys wouldn’t make their sounds).
So even though it was not booting, it was accepting start up commands. Upon start up, I just held down the “T” key while the computer was hooked up via firewire. The screen remained blank, but the disc registered on my other mac.
I hope that helps.
Hello,
found your page here. I have (almost) the same problem with the same MBP. But mine isn’t doing anything. Not even accepting start up commands. And it won’t target-mode as well.
Any suggestions? I am totally out of ideas.
Would be great. Thank you.
I don’t know what to tell you. If it is a problem with the video card (as mine was) you might be able to get it fixed for free… at least I was able to. I finally had to give in and take it to Apple. Sounds like you might need to do the same.
Computer is going AI on me. The guide worked the first time I tried it, but now my mbp has started making new sleepimage files for itself on startup. Any ideas?
i almost have the same problem, but my macbook pro starts up and makes the noise that it normally makes but it then stayes white, by this i mean the screen just stays white and flickers what should i do?
i hope it work same problem if it does thank you now i can do my graphic art work and go back to work again
I had the black screen of death last week, and after nothing was found to be wrong with it by a mac engineer. The screen came back to life as soon as he started it, still he tested the graphics and found no problem there either. Yesterday the problem reoccured, and having just tried what you have written above, everything is fine, for now anyway. I’ll go turn off sleep mode I think. Thanks for the help.
Matt
Thank you thank you THANK YOU for posting this advice. My 17″ MBP had this exact same problem today and your steps fixed it. Just a note: I guess on 10.6 Snow Leopard the Extensions.mkext file is located in System>Library>Cache now. I had to do some searching for it but it’s still there.