Screen goes black on late2009 imac

Hello, My Imac EMC 2374 Late 2009 27 inch Imac Screen went black and I need help diagnosing it.
Information:
I have restarted numerous times (Including disconnecting the power cord and Pram starting).
I get a chime at start up. The White screen and Apple logo appear and the line that shows it's loading starts to fill. Then the logo and the line disappear with the screen remaining white for about 10 seconds. Then everything goes black.
I connected an external monitor. This time the screen remained on until my desk top with icons finally appeared on the imac (the external monitor, an HDMI TV, did light up blue (the color of my actual desk top) but the icons didn't appear on that screen) Then everything went black.
When I tried that again I couldn't get the Imac to start at all and only 1 led remained on.
I waited about 10 minutes to retry and this time it restarted with the desktop with icons appearing. Again after 10 seconds it went black.
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

try running the Apple Hardware Test from disc two of your original gray install discs Using Apple Hardware Test - Apple Support

Similar Messages

IMac screen goes black after 1+ hours of use and we can't get out of this.

I have a mid-2007 iMac. When anyone is on the computer for approximately 1-1.5 hours, the screen goes black and we cannot get out of this. There are no time restrictions or power-saver settings on. Can anyone help me with this issue?

You cannot do anything with the iPad until you do as instructed by the iPad and connect to iTunes on a computer.
You probably need to restore the iPad and the only way to do that is via iTunes on a computer.
Take it to an Apple Store and ask for help at a Genius bar or take it to a friend's house that is running iTunes on their computer and try to restore it.
You will lose all of your data and settings now because you never backed the iPad up in the past.

Imac 27" Intel Core 7 CPU. Screen goes black and will not respond except with a push of power button. Second monitor connected via displayport continues to display fine. Apply Store did full hardware scan and all is fine. Did clean wipe from Mavrick back

Imac 27" Intel Core7 CPU 16 Gig RAM. Screen goes black and will not respond except with a push of power button. Second monitor connected via displayport continues to display fine. Apply Store did full hardware diagnostic and all is fine. Did clean wipe from Mavrick back to Mountain Lion but problem remains. Apple Store can do no more.

I did some more digging, it appears to be a backlight problem only. I can see the screen very dimly if I use a bright flashlight in a very dark room. It also seems to run ok if the brightness is turned down a LOT.
So I'm thinking this is a LED driver board issue or the display itself. I'll open it up and check the connection between the two and see if I can get any more clues. At least I can use it somewhat now by dimming the display significantly...

My brand new iMac screen goes black intermittently...

Hi - I bought my 27" iMac about 3 months ago and pretty much since I got it occassionaly the screen goes black. I'll be working away and all of a sudden it goes black. After a few seconds it comes back on, but this can't be good? I asked my local computer guy and he said it was a known issue due to safari and not to use safari. That seemed to fix it but A) I like Safari and B) it's started happening now even when I'm not in Safari. Any ideas?
iMac 3.4GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB ram, Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB, OS X 10.8.2

I asked my local computer guy and he said it was a known issue due to safari and not to use safari.
That's ridiculous. Take it in for warranty service.

HT3964 my iMac won't boot up. I hear the chime and the Apple symbol appears but there is no whirling indicator that appears and after a while the computer screen goes black and the whole cycle starts again. There have been occasions when it has actually s

my iMac won't boot up. I hear the chime and the Apple symbol appears but there is no whirling indicator that appears and after a while the computer screen goes black and the whole cycle starts again. There have been occasions when it has actually started and I have the dashboard appear but then the screen freezes

Since you have Lion v10.7.4 installed, use Lion Recovery to repair the startup disk if necessary, or reinstall the Mac OS X.

Have a 3 yr old iMac the screen goes black when using it it will come back on when you move the mouse thanks for your help Dave

Have a 3 yr old iMac the screen goes black when using it it will come back on when you move the mouse thanks for your help Dave

It's possible you've got a 'hot corner' set up. If you have and move the mouse to a certain corner of the screen it'll do as you describe. Have a look in System Preferences>Mission Control, bottom left of the window click on the 'Hot Corners' button and see if there is anything in there.

I had a problem with imac screen going black. apple store diagnosed prob with video card which they replaced. Brought it home, turned it on (have done this 4 times) it starts up, wheel turns, there is a long bar at bottom which fills up, then it turns off

I had a problem with imac screen going black. apple store diagnosed prob with video card which they replaced. Brought it home, turned it on (have done this 4 times) it starts up, wheel turns, there is a long bar at bottom which fills up, then it turns off

Apple guarantees their work, take it back.

TS3533 if my imac is left unused for a few mins the screen goes black and is unresponsive

if my imac is left unused for a few mins, the screen goes black and is unresponsive

In addition check your Energy Saver Preferences and make sure that your Display Sleep and Computer Sleep timers are properly set to get the expected results.
For example: I want my Display to sleep after 5 min and my Computer to Never Sleep so that I can choose when to sleep it from the Apple dropdown menu.

MacBook 13.3" (A1181), 2.16 GHz, screen goes black once OS is loaded.

I have a MacBook 13 (model A1181, 2.16 GHz) that I bought from a friend. Everything starts up fine, I get the chime, etc., until it loads the OS. I have a brand new Apple hard drive; brand new Mac OS X Leopard disk; and have tried everything I can think of. I have tried shining a light to see if the screen is just dim--no dice. I have tried completely wiping the drive clean on my iMac and then reinstalling. It gets all the way through the install, then the screen goes black when I'm trying to set my information up. The screen stays up if it's installing the OS, and also if I have the hard drive disconnected on the logic board. As soon as I load the OS, it goes black. The rest of the machine is still running. I have a spare logic board, so I put that in and I get the same problem. What am I missing? Any help would be appreciated. It may be useful to know that I am a computer repair technician (I do component repairs at a motherboard/logic board level). However, I believe all the hardware to be working. I think it may be a firmware issue, but I can't get it to keep a screen long enough to do any software updates. Anyone have any suggestions?

I actually considered that and replaced the inverter, as I couldn't find the cord to external display, but also to no avail. Same thing happened.

Screen goes black constantly, okay with Windows

My mid-2010 21.5" iMac has been having issues for a while now. The screen goes black randomly. This happens anywhere from once a week to once every two seconds for days on end. I've done plenty of research and seen similar problems but no real solutions.
Symptoms:
Screen goes to sleep. Shine a flashlight on it, can still see stuff, so it's just the backlight out.
It'll either happen at startup, before the Apple logo, or after using for a while.
Using a hot corner or keyboard shortcut will temporarily wake it up.
If watching video, sound still plays even though screen is black.
Had it in a 60 degree room with A/C blasting on it, no change.
Tried resetting PRAM, SMU.
Hardware test was fine, but I can't do this when it's not actually working.
External monitor works fine.
Really weird- this does not happen with Windows XP. It runs fine. So maybe a software problem? BUT, the problem occurs when booting from Install DVD. So maybe not a software problem. I was going to wipe and re-install but can't even do that due to it blacking out.
I've had it in and they replaced the LCD, didn't help.
I wish it would just permanently stop working so it'd be easier to figure out, as it is, the intermittent nature is driving me nuts. Can anyone please help?

I meant SMC, not "SMU". Oops.
billkline, thanks for the input, the fact that Windows works has really got me scratching my head. That's when I went to reinstall OS X but couldn't when it blacked out on the Snow Leopard Install DVD. Thoroughly confused now.
Also, starting tonight it now hangs on the gray startup screen for thirty seconds before booting up. This usually is a one or two seconds before getting the Apple logo.

Screen goes black when playing "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08"

No need to mention that I am very happy with my new iMac. It replaces my G4 MDD PowerMac. The iMac is huge, quiet and fast on my graphic design jobs. I even won´t want to miss the glossy screen.
Yesterday I received the brand new "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08". Keen on trying the game I installed and successfully created a player and got first practice shots but as soon as I try to actually start a game scenario, it appears that the scenario just only loads about 90 % and then screen goes black. From there I can only shut down my iMac with the power switch.
Now I found a support note on the EA Games Site. Title: "Why does "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08" lock up with a black screen when playing on an iMac 7.1?" Answer: "This is caused by a driver issue with the video card that will be adressed by next system update by apple later this month."
Question: is this indeed so? Can I expect a system update soon? Anybody there with the same problem?
P.S.: I checked if I could run the game with a new user. Same problem.
Thanks for help.

Thank you for replying. There are more postings in this forum about that issue. I.e. gamers trying to play Unreal Tournament suffer from the same freezing on the new 24" iMac. Have a look as well at the reviews in the US apple store on this game.
Solution is near. Installing 10.5 Leopard should solve the problem. As I do not want to install Leoprad yet, because some of my graphic apps will not run smoothly on leopard I have to wait for the next update for Tiger 10.4.11
Obviously EA Games is to blame and failed to test the game good enough before hand.

Screen goes black on 2nd reboot(installing windows 7)

So I'm trying to install windows 7 via bootcamp on my 21in iMac(Intel Core i3). Everything seems to be going fine on the install, it restarts, then when it goes to restart once more the screen goes black and just stays there indefinitely. I believe this is a common problem for a lot of people but I have not yet found a solution for this problem.

I suspect your iso is not bootable. Did you burn it yourself? Did you burn it at the slowest speed (2x) possible? Search this forum for similar posts and solutions.

My computer will not start up. It powers up I get the gray screen with the apple and get the loading progress bar it loads to 25% and the screen goes black

My computer will not start up. It powers up, I get the gray screen with the apple, then the loading progress bar starts loading to about 25% the the screen goes black. what can I try to get my computer up and running?

Carolyn Samit wrote:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1)
Use Command + R for Lion Recovery
Try restarting, when you hear the startup tone hold down the Option key. Then choose the Recovery Partition.

IMessage in Mavericks - the screen goes black

the screen goes black if I am not using it. Messages works fine, but it's annoying to have to click on the window to get the screen from black to text

Hi,
Use CMD+Shift+ 4 anf the scribe round the window (with some other space around it) and then use the camera icon in a Post to navigate to it (the Screen grab should be on your Desktop) and post a pic here please.
You may want to use Preview or some other app to anonymise any info shown.
I can't say I have heard of this.
10:08 pm Thursday; March 13, 2014
 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

IBook screen goes black after unplugging power cord

I originally posted this topic in the wrong discussion group for iMac G4, the computer is actually an iBook G4.
My wife's iBook bought about 2 years ago shows battery 100 percent charged. But when she unplugs the power cord the screen goes black. Can not be restarted until she plugs in the power cord. It seems like it might be the battery. She got extra batteries when she bought it. Is there a way to tell if it is the battery before having to replace it?

Did you check on the status of your battery using "About this Mac" under the Apple on the menu bar? Click on "More Info..." and select Power under Hardware. It will tell you capacity and cycle count.
You may have a dead battery.
Also check out thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11455411&#11455411

Screen goes black on late2009 imac

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for