It sounds like a weird issue, but more than one Mac user has encountered MacBook Pro 2019 booting up to a completely black screen once or more. Actually, whether you are using MacBook pro, MacBook Air, iMac, or Mac mini, this is a quite common malfunction.
Let’s take a look at one of the experiences shared on the forum:
Hi! My MacBook Pro currently has a black screen. I can hear the opening tune and the screen is bright but there’s no display. It’s just black. I did every advice on google but they are not working. What do I do? Please help me.
If you are troubled by the same issue, don’t worry, this post will share five viable solutions to troubleshoot MacBook Pro showing a black screen when booting up.
Why is my MacBook Pro booting black screen?
A few different things can cause the MacBook Pro black screen issue, it could be power issues, software or hardware incompatibility, poor contact between hardware and firmware, third-party apps, motherboard failure.
These reasons are not all for MacBook screen changing black. There are other unknown reasons caused by a motherboard failure. But we can solve all of them with the following methods.
Solutions to fix MacBook Pro black screen of death
Solution 1: Check the power
Unlike the situation mentioned on the forum, you may experience MacBook showing a black screen without hearing any startup chime. In this situation, you are suggested to check if your Mac has enough power first. You can plug in the charger and wait for a few minutes, then try rebooting the computer. Make sure the charger cable is not worn out or broken. Luckily, after charging, your Mac will go back to normal.
Solution 2: Disconnect all peripherals
Mac black screen issue may be caused by too many connected peripherals, which may start their own dialogues and interfere your Mac display settings. Therefore, you can disconnect all the accessory and devices connected to your Mac, including printers, external hard drives, phones, etc.
Solution 3: Check the display setting
It’s possible that your Mac shows a black screen just because of the display setting. Sounds hilarious, right? To adjust the brightness, you just need to press F1 and F2 keys and see whether your Mac gives you a different response. However, if it’s the built-in display that is not functioning, you are advised to use an external display via Thunderbolt 3 (USB C) to access your MacBook Pro, and vice versa.
Solution 4: Perform a power cycling
Another situation is that you can hear the spinning sound from your Mac but can’t see anything else on the screen. It means the Mac is well-powered and under this circumstance, here’s what you can do:
If you own a modern MacBook without a removable battery like MacBook Pro 13″ with Touch Bar and MacBook Pro 15″ with Touch Bar, you can long hold the power button to shut it down, wait for 10 seconds around, and then reboot the MacBook. However, if you own a different Mac model, the way you do a power cycling is different.
Solution 5: Fix incompatible software
Mac not booting up can happen often if you have upgraded macOS or other software. After upgrade, some previous software might be incompatible with the Mac and thus result in Mac booting up to a black screen. To solve this problem, you have three options to try:
Option1: Reset the NVRAM/PRAM
NVRAM and PRAM are designed to store certain settings and allow users to access them quickly. For instance, it can store your screen resolution preference, sound volume. But the setting related to Mac showing a black screen is the start-up selection. It’s possible you choose the faulty startup disk and that results in Mac not booting up successfully.
To fix this issue, you should turn off your Mac, then restart it and immediately press and hold Option, Command, P, and R combinations. After that, release the keys in about 20 seconds. When your Mac finishes rebooting, select System Preferences and adjust everything back to the original settings.
Option 2: Restart your Mac into safe mode
When your Mac is under safe mode, it will permit certain software or programs from loading when it boots up, the item when you log in, some systems extensions, and the fonts, just to name a few. Meanwhile, it will check your startup disk. Therefore, booting up your computer into safe mode can verify whether the issue is caused by software.
To do this, you need to first shut down your Mac by force. Then get it restarted and immediately press and hold the Shift key as it turns on. After that, you can let go of the key when you see the login window, then log in to your Mac as usual. If the computer is under safe mode, you can see Safe Boot in the upper-right corner of the window. Meanwhile, if you have no problem booting your computer into safe mode, it’s highly possible that the culprit that stops your Mac from turning on is the software.
Option 3: Restart your Mac into macOS recovery mode
While booting up, it’s loading your startup disk, which is the Macintosh HD. Nevertheless, if the startup disk is corrupted for some unknown reasons, consequently, the Mac can’t be turned on successfully. How to fix a damaged startup disk? Follow these instructions below:
Turn off your Mac and try rebooting it and immediately hold Command + R. You are free to release the keys when the Apple logo, spinning globe, or other startup screen appears.
Then here comes the macOS Utilities and you should choose Disk Utility. Click Continue to go on.
Click View and select Show All Devices. Then you should select the startup disk (it’s usually named Macintosh HD) in the left sidebar. Click First Aid and Run to check and repair errors in your startup disk.
Luckily, the computer will start up as usual once there’s nothing wrong with the disk. However, if the Mac still has issues turning on, then perhaps reinstalling the macOS would be your last opportunity. But everything comes with a price and reinstalling the macOS would possibly result in data loss on your Mac. Hence, you’re highly suggested to have a copy of your files with the MacBook Pro 2019 data recovery software. Or you can repair the disk before reinstallation.
Conclusion
Mac showing a black screen looks devastating indeed. However, this issue is totally fixable. With all the methods mentioned above, we are sure you won’t panic next time you encounter this situation!
Did this article work for you? If so, please share with your friends. Do you have any question or other effective solutions to fix Mac Black screen? Please feel free to leave comment below.
Author details:
Ciki is a data recovery expert @iBoysoft, she likes to share technical tips and solutions with people, especially in macOS and Windows data recovery and disk repair tricks. She has solved many computing and technological problems for readers with ease. Apart from that, Ciki is also a music and literary film lover. She also enjoys sharing different kinds of lifestyles online.
