9 Ways Fix Mac Black Screen of Death After Update/Login/Startup

Mac Black screen of death is a situation encountered when the screen of Mac won’t display and remains unresponsive even after login or startup of the system. At times, the screen may also appear blue or gray. This condition can be caused by a number of reasons.

Part 1. Some Reasons for a Mac Black Screen of Death

• Failure in hardware related to the computer screen.
• Insufficient power from the laptop battery.
• Incompatibility with the newly installed software.
• Incompatibility of Mac OS after an update.
• Bugs coming from some start-up apps.
• Issues in the startup disk.

Due to the different nature of the reasons for the issue, Mac's black screen of death can be fixed in many different ways. Some of these ways may include the following;

Part 2. How to Fix Mac Black Screen

1. Check your Mac

Sometimes, the Mac black screen of death can result from simple issues on your MacBook. In such a situation, check if your Mac is well charged. Also, ensure that the charger cable is in good condition and finally check on your battery health in order to check if a new one is needed because insufficient power from the battery can be a cause of the black screen so a quick check-up is necessary.

2. Try a Force restart or a force boot

At times, a simple reboot of the system can be enough to solve the Mac black screen, “no apple logo error” because a reboot refreshes the CPU. This is a suitable method when the power supply is not a problem. To perform a force boot, just hold on the Power button until the Mac is turned off, and then hold on the Power button again to turn it on. Also, you can perform a force restart by pressing the Control-Command key and then press the Power key. This may be the simple fix in some cases of the Mac black screen of death issue, especially after a system software update.

3. Reset System Management Controller

Whenever you deal with Mac OS X black screen on startup, after login, or after an update, resetting System Management Controller can do the trick. The Mac’s System Management Controller is concerned with a lot of things that are related to power, fans, battery, and others and a reset of the System Management Controller will reset many different power settings.

In order to reset the System Management Controller,

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Connect your Mac to a power source through the Magsafe power adapter.
3. Press the left side shift-Control-Option-Power keys all at once for some seconds.
4. Release all the keys at the same time and turn on your Mac to see if Mac black screen "no apple logo" error is fixed.

NB: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter can temporarily turn off after resetting the System Management Controller.

4. Wake Mac from sleep mode

In a case where your Mac is in sleep mode, you will see the cursor. Your Mac can get stuck on the login screen and eventually falls into sleep mode. In order to wake your Mac from this mode, try typing a letter on your Mac’s keyboard and hit the Enter key. Since Mac is in sleep mode, Mac will recognize the entry of wrong information and notify you about it. As a result, Mac black screen of death issue will be solved.

5. Try resolving Software incompatibility

In a case where Mac OS X black screen occurs after a system update or even just a software update, the black screen of death can be caused as a result of software incompatibility. There are three methods of fixing this issue:

1. Try to Reset Mac NVRAM settings

NVRAM is concerned with things like screen resolution, time zone information, as well as the hard drive from which the system will boot. Hence, resetting NVRAM might help in a case where the black screen of death results from a boot failure.

2. Booting Mac in Safe Mode

Safe mode ensures that your Mac boots safely as a result of the fact that it prevents some login items from loading automatically. If this works for you, then it will be wise to uninstall the software that was recently installed.

3. Booting Mac into macOS recovery mode

This method is suitable for boot failures including Mac black screen won’t turn on error. To boot your Mac into macOS Recovery mode, press on Command – Shift – Option - R keys. This helps to repair the hard drive in Disk Utility and reinstall macOS so as to avoid any boot failure.

6. Check your Mac’s Hardware connections

Did your Mac recently fall to the ground or against any other hard surface? Did you open your Mac to perform any hardware updates? Did you just open it recently to perform a fix or was it at a specialist for any hardware repairs? Sometimes, the hardware that is not connected properly may result in Mac OS X black screen after the update or other hardware modifications. So visiting a technician to check on your Mac’s hardware and its connections may fix the issue.

7. Using Disk Utility to Fix Mac Black Screen

When the startup disk has a problem, it can lead to Mac black screen of death. This can be repaired using disk utility. This should be done through macOS Recovery.

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Press the Power key as you press and hold the Command and R keys simultaneously.
3. As soon as the Apple logo appears, you can release the keys.
4. In case you have a password set, you will have to type it.
5. The macOS utility interface will come up. Click on Disk Utility then click on Continue to open Disk Utility.
6. Select the Startup disk then click First Aid.
7. On the pop-up interface, Click Run. This will start the Check and the repairing process as well.
8. Click Done to close the small interface as soon as the process is done.

8. Try Reinstalling macOS

If every method above failed, then a better step is to reinstall macOS. This will enable solve the problem if it results from system bugs. Do not be afraid of losing data when trying to reinstall Mac OS as you can reinstall it without having to format your Mac. However, it is always advised to backup first before reinstalling Mac OS.

9. Restore an earlier version of your Mac using the Time Machine Backup

The time machine is a feature that can be used to create backups of your files including your macOS on your Mac. However, this method only works if you have used this feature to create a backup of your Mac. This method is a good one for Mac book black screen no apple logo error when it occurs after a macOS update. To restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup;

1. Connect your Mac and your backup drive together.
2. Access macOS Utilities interface.
3. Choose Restore from Time Machine Backup and click Continue.
4. Choose the backup disk then click continue.
5. Select the backup file (the version of your macOS) you want to restore then click Continue.
6. Choose the destination disk you want to restore the backup to and Click Restore.
7. Restart your Mac once everything is complete.

After following through all these methods, you will definitely be able to fix Max black screen of death as this guide covers the solutions to the different reasons why this issue may occur. If you lost any data on Mac while fixing Mac black screen of death, try the iBeesoft tool to recover deleted files on Mac.