Macbook Pro 17 backlight failure

Having spent several months banging on about about how great Macs are to a friend of mine she went out and bought herself a 17" Macbook Pro. Three months down the line and the keyboard and screen illumination have stopped working. When she boots up you can just see (with the aid of a flashlight) the desktop and everything functioning normally - it's just as if someone's turned the lights off and you're having to work in the dark. Other people seem to have experienced this when upgrading to Leopard, but my friend is still running Tiger. Needless to say, having convinced her to try Apple I feel responsible and want to help sort out the problem. Is this a hardware issue, or could software be to blame. I've already tried resetting the PRAM and switching off Sleep, but with no success. Does anyone have any ideas, please?

It's not impossible that a pmu reset (remove ac and battery, press power button for 7 seconds) could fix it, but it sounds like a hardware failure. If you're near an Apple Store I'd take it in. as it's only a few weeks old they might even swap it out.
Best of luck.

Similar Messages

  • Macbook Pro AHT Failure (graphics chip)

    Im a bit confused. I ran the Apple hardware test on my 15" macbook pro (10 months old) before taking it if for repair as the superdrive was failing (not from over use). I was surprised to see that it had failed with 4VDC/1/40000003: VideoController as the error.
    I told the genius guy about the error and they said they would look at that as well. I received a phone call to say that the drive was fixed but no mention of the hardware failure. After asking about the failure I was told that they ran their more advanced test and it had passed but he couldnt explain why it failed on the test I ran. He then asked if I had experienced any graphics issues. All I could think on was when playing Warcraft the fan fires up and the game would freeze randomly and you cant touch the bottom of the case as it would almost burn you. The guy just said oh sounds its over heating but the chip passed our test and so wouldnt do anything about it.
    Now I dont know it the chip is faulty or not. Under diagnostics the only test that is showing is the one I ran. I have also just run the test and it still says its failed.
    Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
    Type: Display
    Bus: PCIe
    *PCIe Lane Width: x1*
    VRAM (Total): 256 MB
    Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
    Device ID: 0x0407
    Revision ID: 0x00a1
    ROM Revision: 3212
    As you can see the PCIe width is now showing as x1 when it used to be x16. Anyone any ideas - do I go back to apple or just assume all is ok.

    The "PCle Lane Width: x1" rather than "x16" was cited in another thread as a possible early indication of the impending failure of the 8600M GT chip.
    I am puzzled that their test didn't show anything, but I am wondering if they might have run it when your Mac was cold. Sometimes things have to warm up before a problem will show up. I once came to the Apple Store 30 minutes early just so I could let my ibook run the 20 minutes it had to before its freezing problem would manifest itself. Maybe you need to play Warcraft for a while and get your Mac nice and hot and let them run their test then.
    Did you show them the PCLe Lane Width? I don't see how they could say the chip was OK with this obvious anomaly.
    Just to talk to someone else, you might try calling Apple on the phone with your persistent error code and the PCLe Lane Width anomaly. I have heard that you can get a pretty quick turnaround when you send it off, and people seem to be generally happier with the quality of the work that is done.
    Good luck!

  • MacBook Pro Drive Failure to Read DVD's

    So I have a 17' MacBook Pro from 2008, and up until couple of months ago its super drive has been reading/running both DVD's and CD's.
    Now it will not read or register DVD's, spitting them back out, but remains running fine with CD's.
    Is that a software issue? or Can these drives have "partial" failures reading one media type ok, failing on others?

    After 5 years, you might have to clean the lense on the drive.  CDs are more tolerant of dust than DVDs.

  • MacBook Pro boot failure after firmware update

    Hello,
    I've had my MacBook Pro with a solid state harddrive about a month.  Tonight I did an update (including a firmware update) and it has failed to boot.  The fans run at full speed, but nothing boots.  The screen remains blank.  What can I do?

    iTunes sound works - but no internet sound!!

  • 2011 Macbook Pro Usb failure

    My brand new (week old) MBP has trouble recognizing my external hard drive and/or usb jump drives. The external drive (which is powered by an adapter) is recognized after wiggling the connection in a specific way, but no such luck with one of my usb jump drives.
    I can eventually get some of the drives to show up in Finder, but it's very inconsistent. Is there anything that I can do myself at home short of booking time at the Genius Bar?
    I've read the posts regarding this issue that has been common over the past couple years, but this is a BRAND NEW Macbook Pro.
    Thanks,
    Jay

    You probably need to go ahead and book a visit at the genius bar and find out what is wrong with your port. It sounds like the port may have a loose connection, and if so, that is a hardware problem that needs to be addressed. It is of course covered by your warranty.

  • MacBook Pro Power Failure After USB Connection

    I purchased my MacBook Pro not even a few weeks ago. I've used an external hard disk drive with it fine.
    Today however, I connected my iPad via USB and instantly the power failed, completely cut off!
    Of course I removed the USB connection immediately and attempted to power on the MacBook Pro, but to no avail, I plugged the power cable and the status indicator on the power cable blinks between green and orange in no particular pattern and the battery level indicator on the MacBook Pro does not work (it did previously).
    I realise that there is likely no hope with this situation other than to get a replacement, although my partner also has a MacBook Pro (2011) and this happened to his only yesterday, luckily his powered back on fine and seems to be working. Perhaps this is a software issue?
    Although I'm doubtful, any help would be greatly appreciated!

    I also have a similar problem.  Even with a full battery charge, my 11 month old MBP 15" seems to randomly do an instant and complete power-off. Like your partner,  mine will seem to work fine for a few days then abruptly just fail.  I am still troubleshooting but it seems to happen more frequently when I have something connected to the USB - like my hard drive for backup.  Please share any further info / Resolution.  I am worried I may lose everything before I can get a complete backup.

  • Macbook pro power failure

    Hi.
    Just recently my macbook pro has started shutting itself down once the battery level has reached about 25%. This is really annoying as anything I've been working on is not saved. Anyone got any iceas why this is happening. The laptop is about 16 months old and gone through about 285 charging cycles. Does it need a new battery already?? If so any idea how much they cost?
    Iain

    Iain ~ See this Apple doc. It mentions one of the symptoms: +"Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count of less than 300."+
    Looks like they cost 99 pounds here.
    Until you resolve the problem, this free SlimBatteryMonitor can be configured to display a power warning panel when the battery level reaches a certain percentage. You can also configure its menu bar icon to change to a red colour when your battery's charge drops below a certain percentage.

  • MacBook Pro (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4) Failure To Open

    I cannot turn on My MacBook Pro (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4) When I took it to a technician he said he needs Bios for my MacBook Pro. Where can i get it? Please help

    First suggestion is to never go back to that Technician, he knows nothing about Apple computers.
    Mac computers do not use a BIOS, they use a Firmware, EFI, and there is no way to get into it.
    You can get a Firmware reinstall disc, CD, from Apple for your system but I seriously doubt that is why your system is  not booting.
    From the type of Intel CPU installed in your system it is more then likely a late 2007 or early 2008 model that is more then likely one of these described in this article.
    MacBook Pro: NVidia Failure
    And is DEAD until you change out the Logic board.
    Good Luck.

  • Mid 2010 Macbook Pro diagonal lines on boot screen

    My Macbook Pro has developed this strage issue. The boot screen has distorted diagonal lines all over it, and it will hang on this boot screen.
    Sometimes I can get it to boot by starting in safe mode (it will still give me the distorted diagonal lines) it will then go through it's process and then go to sleep (only if the power cable is not attached). Then I will hold down the power button to turn it off, and then turn it on again, at which point it boots up normally. That said, this doesn't work every time, and is a 30min process with each attempt.
    Has anyone else ever seen this issue before?
    MBP-2010, i5-2.53, Lion

    Unfortunately this is becoming an ongoing known problem:
    http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/05/13/apple-remains-mum-as-complaints-mount- over-2011-macbook-pro-gpu-failures
    If it's a reball problem I might have a solution but I just sent in a MBA with a Southbridge chip problem. The guy's rebelling it so we'll see how that works out.
    Shades of the iBook GPU reball problem!

  • Macbook Pro (March 2010) keyboard backlight failure

    Hi folks,
    A couple of days back my almost mew (March 2010) 13 " Macbook Pro's keyboard backlights stopped working. I had just upgraded to OS X 10.6.4 the night before this happened.
    However, today in the morning they came on for a few minutes, but they flickering like an old tubelight (or like a bulb does when the electric connection is weak). At this moment, they just arent working.
    Could this be a hardware issue? Or maybe due to the OS upgrade? Any other users having a similar problem?
    Thanks.
    Abhi

    I have had exactly the same symptoms described on the same computer -- including the 10.6.4 update. But I have a work around! Just press the V key! light comes back on as long as I hold down the V key. If I mess around with the V key (press it multiple times, the I can coax the keyboard backlight to stay on -- usually for a few minutes, but yesterday it worked all day (even turning the computer on and off several times)
    Pressing other keys does nothing. I have been deleting all but the most useful keyboard shortcuts. I have had keyboard problems on computers before, but none where a one key seems to fix everything.
    I called apple support, and they seem to think it is the light sensor. I don't think so as it dims and brightens the screen correctly. I can also use the dim and brighten function keys to change the keyboard lighting -- just so long as I use my V key trick.
    Weird.

  • Backlight on macbook pro stopped working

    Hi,
    I am new to apple, I purchased a second hand macbook pro 15" recently (1.83Ghz 2GB Ram, 220GB HDD). I'm pretty sure it has the most recent vesion of Leopard (cannot confirm). The only real issue with it was the battery life (about 15mins)
    anyway, I recplaced the battery yesterday... when I tried to turn the machine on the screen lights up "as normal" I get the apple startup chime.... but then the screen just goes dark.. You can kind of see the desktop and windows etc if you tilt the screen toward the light but there is zero backlighting. I tried the F1 & F2 keys, nothing :-/
    I plugged my PC monitor into the DVI port and it works fine. So, I managed (with great difficulty) to get the system prefs open and onto the secondary monitor. When I click "displays" it just hangs with the spinning rainbow cursor and never actually opens the display preferences.
    To make matters worse I thought I'd try starting the computer from the OSX leopard DVD... which worked, but still no backlight whatsoever. So it's in DVD boot mode now... cannot seam to eject the disc either.
    Yes, I tried with the old battery... no love
    I'm happy to take it in to get fixed if I have to... But I'm wondering if anyone knows what is going on with it, or if there is something I've done to it..
    Cheers
    Dan
    Message was edited by: dannymars
    Message was edited by: dannymars

    Welcome to Apple Discussions and the world of Mac. Hopefully subsequent experiences will be better than your initial one.
    It sounds like the second hand MBP has an inverter problem. The inverter is a high voltage circuit that powers the fluorescent lamp that backlights the LCD display. That kind of failure is a hardware failure so a repair will be required.
    Since you have an external monitor, do you also have a USB mouse and keyboard? If you do, you can use the MBP with the lid closed with all those external peripherals attached and it should make controlling the Mac easier without the internal display working. Just attach the external monitor, mouse and keyboard and the MBP's power adapter and hit the start button on the MBP and then immediately close the lid on the MBP. That should cause the internal screen to stay off and only the external screen to be used. Alternately, if the MBP is already running, if you close the lid, it should go to sleep. Then, keep the lid down, and hit the space bar on the external keyboard and that should wake the MBP up with only the external screen active. The power adapter needs to remain attached to the MBP for the above the work. Good luck.

  • Multiple Hard Drive Failures on my Macbook Pro - Entourage reminders?

    Over the past 2 months I've had three hard drives fail on three different macbook pro computers.
    I've retraced my steps, searched many forums, and spoken with multiple Mac Geniuses but still can't figure out what's happening. The IT guy at work is about to kill me and I really want to figure out what's going wrong so I can fix it (or change my current behaviors).
    Computer #1 - Out of the box, 2-3 weeks old. I took the computer home to do some work over the weekend. I didn't turn the it off before transporting it, but I did wait for it to go to sleep completely (I've since read that it takes a few moments while things in RAM switch over to the Hard Drive to save incase of power failure). I worked on it a bit at home, mostly just internet searches and a few word documents. When I returned to work my computer was running slowly and suddenly all of the programs locked. Since I've had this problem before with my personal computer (a G4 Powerbook), I tried the force quit options to no avail so I just held down the power key to power off. When I rebooted I got the dreaded "no" symbol.
    Computer 2: IT gave me a used macbook pro that they repurposed for me. I made sure to shut down before transporting this computer. A few days later, before I even got to transfer all of my files, the computer started running slowly, programs locked. I eventually got the computer to shut itself down (as IT didn't want me to do a forced reboot) but upon restarting I got an even more dreaded screen, the folder with a question mark in it.
    Computer 3: It was a fairly new computer, though a bit more ram, and probably only a few months old (used by a freelancer). It worked great. I took it home several times, transfered all of my files. Set up everything perfectly. Three weeks in, after working at my desk for about 4 hours, everything began to slow down. I called IT immediately and remotely sent a force shut down message. Nothing happened for about 15 minutes so I left for a meeting. I came back a few hours later and my computer was off. When it restarted, nothing appeared. There wasn't a "no" symbol or folder with a question mark in it, just a blank screen.
    I've read and thought about all of the options.
    - Large Magnet somewhere - It would have affected my personal computer (if at home) or my colleagues (if at work) or everyone else in nyc (while on the subway)
    - Too hot - Possible I suppose, but how does running iTunes, powerpoint, and entourage do this?
    - Downloaded something/Virus - We don't have administrative privileges. I can only update some software and send/receive folders. Plus, can any single file cause this much damage?
    - Moved before asleep - This might have happened on the first computer, but I doubt it could happen to three. I always shut it down now before transporting, and I was sitting at my desk for hours before I had any trouble last time.
    The one common factor that I haven't mentioned.
    We use Entourage as a mail client here.
    Each time the computer froze, the first things to freeze were the Entourage calendar reminders. Entourage seems to run strangely with the airport, but not with our LAN. When my computer froze last time, I had the aiport on but was working off the LAN. Could Entourage cause this much trouble? Has anyone else had trouble with entourage calendar reminders or failing hard drives?
    Oh, and it also always happens on a Monday. I've taken the computers home multiple times though, so I'm not sure if it's something I'm doing during the transport or not, but the computer is always off now when I move it. I also cary my personal computer with me often, same routes and bags, so I'm not sure why it's not affected.
    Thanks

    columbus new boy wrote:
    How crap is that?
    It's not crap at all.
    It's not that simple. For example, I've 3500 songs on my MacBook but don't want them all on my phone, so I have to manually select each song again???
    There has to be a solution.
    Why not simply make a playlist with the songs you want on the iPhone?
    and maintain a current backup of your computer.

  • Mid 2010 MacBook Pro - Logic Board Failure - Advice Needed

    Hello all,
    I could really use some advice.
    I have a MacBook Pro that I bought through the Apple Online Store roughly around September of 2010. A couple of weeks after buying it I had to take it to the Apple Store in London's White City due to a keyboard backlight issue. About a week later I collected the MBP and the following day had to take it back as the technician that worked on it had not tightened the display brackets up leaving it a bit floppy.
    Now I have serious issues with it. Recently the MacBook has been suffering from freezing up, booting issues and the display randomly shutting off (going black, no pixelating or anything) to the point the machine has become unusable. 2 days ago I took the MBP along to an appointment at the Genius Bar at London's Regent Street Apple Store, I also took along a copy of an Apple knowledge base article regarding this very issue. The knowledge base suggests that on any OS below Mountain Lion a software update is required, for ML or Mavericks an appointment with a service agent is required. During the appointment the Mac Genius suggested it may be a software issue, they would wipe the system and re-install Mavericks then test the machine, I told him I had done this a few days earlier but I guess they have to follow process. He then went on to suggest the display may be faulty, I told him I had no reason to suspect that was the case and moved the screen forwards and backwards at varying speeds without a glimmer of a flicker. At this point after reading about this issue on various forums prior to the appointment I felt that the guy was trying to imply anything maybe at fault but deliberately steering clear of suggesting the logic board, this is just my gut feeling however and i'm perfectly capable of being wrong but I do not feel I am! Anyhow I then proceeded to demonstrate the issue whilst the machine was on, warmed up and right in front of him. I gently and slightly lifted the front left corner of the machine a little way off of the counter, just enough to obviously flex the logic board by a minuscule amount and immediately the display went into a frenzy of going off and on.
    So I left the MBP with them for the guys to do their thing. Today I received the following email:
    "We have attempted to repair your machine by erasing all the data off your machine and reinstalling the latest operating system, Mavericks. This has not resolved the issue of the screen going black when in use. The issue has occurred again for a very short and brief few times once the machine had fully turned on and after testing the issue did not appear again.
    I'm sure the issue will more likely occur again, to repair the machine we would need to replace a part known as the main logic board. This repair is very expensive and will come roughly to £418.80."
    £418.80 GBP, that's pretty much 25% of the original purchase price of the machine new, a Premium 'Pro' labelled machine just 3 years old at that. I cannot possibly afford to pay for the repair. I really despair.
    This MBP has done no work hard enough for it to get stressed. It is used for some web surfing, online shopping, email, online flash based games but mostly for my kids homework. It has spent it's entire life on a table in our living room with the exception of it's Genius Bar trips.
    I love Apple products, it's why as a family we own so many off them. Too many to list on a public forum as I don't want would be burglars inviting themselves around sometime. This issue has tainted my perception of both Apple and it's products. Not so much because of the fault, machines become faulty. No because it's a premium machine that cost me £2100 new and is little more than a paperweight at present just 3 years down the line. Some part of me if i'm honest was wishing but more than that expecting a company like Apple to say along the lines of "This has happened, it shouldn't have and will be repaired at no charge". There are many people suffering this kind of problem with this model and the existence of the knowledge base article must mean Apple knows it too. Just 3 years, £300 PCs last longer than that i'm sure. It does seem to be a very short lifespan for such a high end machine.
    My apologies for droning on but I can neither afford the repair or do without the computer, my son is in his final GCSE year at school and my daughter in her pre GCSE year so a computer is critical for school homework research etc. I just do not know how to move forward, I haven't even picked the machine up yet!
    This isn't a stomping Apple, one man crusade. I just need my MacBook fixed.
    If anyone has had this problem and had it satisfactory resolved, knows who to speak to that may help resolve the issue please let me know.
    Any other advice will be more than welcome.

    Ive repaired 1000s of laptops over the years (translate: diagnose and replace parts).
    Its not that old, Ive owned 100s of laptops (most were free) ....some I still have are nearly 13 years old and still perfect, ....some extremely expensive ones died in under a year.
    other than becoming obsolete at some point, there isnt really any "will spoil on" data like Milk for solid state computer parts, ....alas.
    You can have a $5000 laptop die in 4 months, and a junker one keep kicking after 10 years.... Ive seen that firsthand countless times.
    Common logic dictates that "very expensive = long life" in computers,..... but all the repair people will tell you just the opposite.
    I know you have a gripe, I get that all too well honestly .

  • Mid 2010 MacBook Pro no backlight following keyboard spill.

    I am new here.  Can I get help with a mid 2010 MacBook Pro?  It appears to have a LED backlit screen.  A keyboard spill left me with a display problem.  In bright light at the right angle you can see that the display is still working, but there is zero backlighting available.  I have replaced inverters on other machines in the past with this problem, but they were not LED backlit.  I think this problem is different.  Can someone give me a clue what to do to fix this please?  Thank you!!!

    I wouldn't be concerned with the backlight.
    Spill Cleaning
    Some liquid has just spilled into your Mac. What should you do?
    Do
    Immediately shut down the computer and unplug the power cord.
    Remove the computer's battery (if you can)
    Disconnect any peripherals (printers, iPods, scanners, cameras, etc.)
    Lay the computer upside down on paper towels to get as much liquid as possible to drip out.
    Note what was spilled on your Mac.
    Bring the computer into an Apple store or AASP as soon as possible.
    Don't
    Don't try to turn it back on. Liquids can help electrical current move about the components of your Mac in destructive ways.
    Don't shake the computer (this will only spread the liquid around).
    Don't use a hair dryer on it (even at a low setting a hair dryer will damage sensitive components).

  • MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011 Backlight Keyboard Not Working?! Software Problem...

    So my "MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011" backlight keyboard hasn't been working. I have tried LabTick today, doesn't fix anything. Even in high or low lighting situations (dispite the Adjust keyboard brightness in low light being off) doesn't like to go on. It doesn't give me a circle with a cross like it does with that box checked in day light. It shows on the screen the
    16 dots fully light after hitting F6 fully, just it doesn't light up. I one time had to reset my Mac OS at the Apple Store, it fixed the problem, but when I restored with a time machine backup, it went back to this software problem. How can I fix this?! What is wrong with my OS? Mountain Lion? How can I fix this?!

    If it does not detect the display automatically, try going to system preferences>displays, click detect displays.

Maybe you are looking for