This video will show you the ongoing problem I've had with my MacBook since installing Snow Leopard. You can see all the posts tracking this for the last couple of weeks.
In short, Stephen at the Apple Help and I have been talking back and forth trying to work this out. We reset the SMC and the parameter ram (no, I don't know exactly what that meas either, just that he walked me through doing that), I took it to the local MacHaus for a hardware diagnostic and nothing was wrong there. We reinstalled Snow Leopard. Still got a black screen. I finally noticed the problem only happened when I left the computer or stopped using the keyboard AND the adapter cord was plugged in. When it was only on battery (or when it was at the shop and they used a different power cord) the problem didn't happen. Over the weekend I tested this hypothesis and on battery no problem. The three times I used the cord, it went black when I stopped typing a few minutes. I left Stephen a confirmation message.
So yesterday Stephen called to say he'd gotten my phone message and he was FedExing the new adapter.
This is what I found this morning. We thought he wouldn't be able to ship it out until today since it was 5pm in Dallas when we talked and that it would get here Friday. But I saw it was already on a truck in Anchorage at 8:30 this morning!
Here's the old adapter cord. Can this really be the problem? It only began when I installed Snow Leopard. How do the adapter and the software interact to equal black screen?
And here's the Fed Ex truck pulling up in front of the house. It's 11:30am Anchorage Time. (All this is happening as I'm doing this post.)
And here's the new adapter.It's plugged in. I'll go eat something now and leave it to turn black. Or, hopefully, not. Then I'll finish this post.
20 minutes later: Sorry to report: I still have black screen disease.
Time to switch to a PC!!! lol
ReplyDeleteUm, I'm on a PC (Lenovo T61 wide screen) and it periodically reboots in the middle of my work, so working on a PC isn't the solution to everything.
ReplyDeleteOuch. So much hope. Time to strip Leopard and reinstall an older system. Sorry, but I think it's come down to that...
ReplyDeleteReminds me of my BMW K75. The heat caused a solder to cut the current to the fuel tank. There is a link here, maybe. You may see that the Snow Leopard installation has changed the way the power cord attachment is handled: as well as reporting battery/charger, there is also a halfway message, "connected but not charging". This may answer the question as to why the OS change might affect the hardware; but what and why? . . . I am afraid you know part of the Why.
ReplyDeleteOh, and "Get a PC" love the humour.
You and Steve probably covered this, But did you check the energy saver preferences to see that it is not set to go to sleep in the power mode and not in the battery mode?
ReplyDeleteI am having the same problem with my macpro workstation, the battery has nothing to do with it, its software and apple has to come clean with this
ReplyDeleteAll you microsoft junkies, sorry, I'm still happier on the Mac. This is a minor blip compared to all I've heard about Vista.
ReplyDeleteAnon 12:45 - Well, in my case, it only happens when it's plugged in, NOT when I'm only on battery. So until it gets figured out, my solution is to unplug when I leave the computer and put it to sleep.
Yours may work some other way.
And ultimately it may be the same problem which affects different machines differently.
Thanks for your comments. The more people who report this the sooner it will get fixed. Stephen, my Apple Help guy, said leaving comments at the feedback site was the best way to get their attention. Other than calling the help number. Send me your email and I'll forward it to Stephen who's working on my case. My email is in my profile.
Have you tried a safe boot? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455
ReplyDeleteHave you booted from the Snow Leopard DVD and just let your machine sit to see if it happens?
Do you have an external monitor that you can hook up to see if it effects the second monitor, and if it effects when mirrored?
Machaus: With the Apple Help guy, we reinstalled Leopard with me holding the Apple Key and some other key(s)? and waiting for the chime to bong twice and installed it from the dvd.
ReplyDeleteI had to leave while it was installing that time and when I came back it was installed and the black screen was there (The adapter cord was plugged in.)
I haven't tried an external monitor, that's a good idea.
I have the same problem, my macbook pro is connected to a 23 inch apple display and they both black out!. Very annoying.
ReplyDeleteAnon, October 3. I'm sorry you got this post and not the most recent one where I explain what seems to have solved the problem for me. I've added a link this post to the new post.
ReplyDelete