Dark display

keb0786 · 09-03-2008, 04:30 PM

Hi, I had a quick question--I got my Macbook about four or five months ago when my old Dell Inspiron's backlight died, and the computer had crashed so many times that it was just cheaper to get a new one than get that one fixed. I LOVE my Mac; I haven't had a single problem with it, until today.

I left to run an errand, did not put it to sleep, but assumed that the screensaver would come on, and didn't see anything wrong with letting it sit for fifteen minutes. When I came back, though, the backlight was not on, and I had to restart it to be able to do anything. Since I've restarted it's been fine, but I'm wondering if this is a bad sign--should I take it in to my school's tech support to get it looked at, or is it likely just something odd that happened, a one-time occurance?

sinclair_tm · 09-03-2008, 06:24 PM

Open the System Preferences and goto the Energy Saver pref pane. In there you can set the time it takes for the display to goto sleep, and the computer it self too. Make sure that it didn't just goto sleep on you in the time frame. If it does it again, and it isn't due to sleeping, then yes, take it in. But I have a feeling that it just went to sleep on you.

keb0786 · 09-04-2008, 11:25 PM

Thanks, I appreciate it! It was weird, though. It hasn't repeated the same thing (yet, knock on wood), but I know it wasn't asleep. You could still actually see the screen, see the web page I had been on, very, very faintly through the darkness, and I managed to save the document I'd been working on before I restarted. It was really strange. But hopefully it was just a glitch. It's been fine going to sleep and waking up again since that occurred.

sinclair_tm · 09-05-2008, 10:30 AM

If that was the case, then the backlight didn't come on. Did you try turning it up with the F-keys. Being it was software controlled, maybe it just forgot to send the signal to turn it back on, and using the brightness F-keys would help it remember. In the future, if you can still see things like that, try the F-keys. But if that doesn't work, then yes, the backlighting system on the LCD is bad, and will need to be replaced.

keb0786 · 09-05-2008, 11:14 PM

It actually just did it again a moment ago, and I saw your last post after it happened, haha, but I will definitely try what you suggested. Thanks for your help, again.

09-03-2008, 04:30 PM	#1 (permalink)
keb0786 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Moc OS X	Dark display Hi, I had a quick question--I got my Macbook about four or five months ago when my old Dell Inspiron's backlight died, and the computer had crashed so many times that it was just cheaper to get a new one than get that one fixed. I LOVE my Mac; I haven't had a single problem with it, until today. I left to run an errand, did not put it to sleep, but assumed that the screensaver would come on, and didn't see anything wrong with letting it sit for fifteen minutes. When I came back, though, the backlight was not on, and I had to restart it to be able to do anything. Since I've restarted it's been fine, but I'm wondering if this is a bad sign--should I take it in to my school's tech support to get it looked at, or is it likely just something odd that happened, a one-time occurance?

09-04-2008, 11:25 PM	#3 (permalink)
keb0786 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Moc OS X	Re: Dark display Thanks, I appreciate it! It was weird, though. It hasn't repeated the same thing (yet, knock on wood), but I know it wasn't asleep. You could still actually see the screen, see the web page I had been on, very, very faintly through the darkness, and I managed to save the document I'd been working on before I restarted. It was really strange. But hopefully it was just a glitch. It's been fine going to sleep and waking up again since that occurred.

09-05-2008, 11:14 PM	#5 (permalink)
keb0786 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 3 OS: Moc OS X	Re: Dark display It actually just did it again a moment ago, and I saw your last post after it happened, haha, but I will definitely try what you suggested. Thanks for your help, again.