WMcD Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Yeah, I agree with most of the advice above. The issue is that even though the system on the disk got messed up, the data is still on the drive. It is not too difficult to take out the drive and use an outboard cable system. Microcenter is my favorite source for such hardware. Connect the old drive to your other computer to look at the content of the messed up drive. Very likely it is there. WMcD 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 1 hour ago, mungkiman said: Have you tried starting it in Safe mode? no ... I don't know how ... I'm really not computer smart. I did read that if I have my iPad and laptop signed onto the same apple account, I can use the iPad as a second screen; however the catch is that on the laptop I have to click on Airplay and select iPad and I don't think the screen will black out by that point. I'll give it try ... now where is my iPad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungkiman Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 4. Boot into Safe Mode Sometimes a black display is the result of corrupt information on the startup disk. You can force your Mac to run diagnostics on the disk by booting into safe mode. To start up in safe mode, power up or restart your Mac and hold the Shift key until the Apple logo appears on the screen. At that point, let go of the Shift key and let the system start up. It will take longer than normal because it’s running diagnostics during the boot sequence. After it finishes starting up, restart again to leave safe mode and start normally to see if the black display problem is fixed. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 18 minutes ago, mungkiman said: 4. Boot into Safe Mode Sometimes a black display is the result of corrupt information on the startup disk. You can force your Mac to run diagnostics on the disk by booting into safe mode. To start up in safe mode, power up or restart your Mac and hold the Shift key until the Apple logo appears on the screen. At that point, let go of the Shift key and let the system start up. It will take longer than normal because it’s running diagnostics during the boot sequence. After it finishes starting up, restart again to leave safe mode and start normally to see if the black display problem is fixed. Thank you my friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungkiman Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 12 minutes ago, BigStewMan said: Thank you my friend. Any luck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 20 minutes ago, mungkiman said: Any luck? haven't tried yet. Been a rough day and I'll tackle that later. From reading what you posted above, it sounds as if the system may also fix problems identified during the diagnostics? That would be sweet if I'm that lucky. I'll let you know how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Geez, I thought that Macs didn't need safe mode because it never breaks. JJK 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grasshopper Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Stupid me... my nephew works for Apple. This is the stuff he deals with. PM sent 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 I used a portable and bootable MacOS drive to connect to all of our iMacs. I could read and copy info from the original drive, wipe and re-image them in about 10 minutes. That would be with all the original software installs, like Adobe CS and more. it sure beat installing all the apps one at a time on the art lab computes. We used Carbon Copy Cloner... it's only $40. Some things Apple has done are great. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilbert Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 Thanks for the reminder..... backing up my files now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 1 hour ago, grasshopper said: Stupid me... my nephew works for Apple. This is the stuff he deals with. PM sent good man - 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 3 hours ago, JJkizak said: Geez, I thought that Macs didn't need safe mode because it never breaks. JJK I can break anything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 4 hours ago, BigStewMan said: I can break anything. Well my uncle had an old Mac he was using for 100 or so years and he kept complaining to me that when he viewed color pictures they were all funny looking. No matter what he did he could not get it to work properly. They did work OK in black & white. So I looked at his machine and the color pictures were really icky-poo-poo. Then I looked at his specifications and the video card was a "4 color video card" so the color pictures looked a bit ridiculous. I said t's time for a new machine Mr. Uncle. JJK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigStewMan Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 19 minutes ago, JJkizak said: Well my uncle had an old Mac he was using for 100 or so years and he kept complaining to me that when he viewed color pictures they were all funny looking. No matter what he did he could not get it to work properly. They did work OK in black & white. So I looked at his machine and the color pictures were really icky-poo-poo. Then I looked at his specifications and the video card was a "4 color video card" so the color pictures looked a bit ridiculous. I said t's time for a new machine Mr. Uncle. JJK this damaged laptop did serve me well for over eight years. I don't know if this is the case for ALL laptops, but the Macs really get hot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moray james Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 5 hours ago, BigStewMan said: this damaged laptop did serve me well for over eight years. I don't know if this is the case for ALL laptops, but the Macs really get hot. this is creepin up on "joke thread territory" 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 18, 2020 Moderators Share Posted July 18, 2020 7 hours ago, BigStewMan said: this damaged laptop did serve me well for over eight years. That's pretty old in computer life. I was going to say use this next time but you could still lose it..... I hope you get back your notes and are able to save them. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 18 hours ago, JJkizak said: Geez, I thought that Macs didn't need safe mode because it never breaks. JJK Hah! My 10-month-old MacBook Pro fried its motherboard in early 2019, and since it was a brand-new 2015 model (bought in 2018), Apple had no more of the necessary boards. I have to applaud their decision, which was to replace that laptop with a brand new 2018-2019 model, whose retail price was about $1000 CAD higher, at no cost to me. The keyboard’s not as good, but the handy touchbar at the top of it nearly makes up for it, plus I was able to find a dock that slides into the two left USB-C ports and gives me two USB 2.0 ports, two USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and an SD card reader (regular and Micro sizes). I’m pleased. Also, the extended warranty now seems like a good idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 3 hours ago, Islander said: Hah! My 10-month-old MacBook Pro fried its motherboard in early 2019, and since it was a brand-new 2015 model (bought in 2018), Apple had no more of the necessary boards. I have to applaud their decision, which was to replace that laptop with a brand new 2018-2019 model, whose retail price was about $1000 CAD higher, at no cost to me. The keyboard’s not as good, but the handy touchbar at the top of it nearly makes up for it, plus I was able to find a dock that slides into the two left USB-C ports and gives me two USB 2.0 ports, two USB-C ports, an HDMI port, and an SD card reader (regular and Micro sizes). I’m pleased. Also, the extended warranty now seems like a good idea. I'm always concerned that those extended warranties are a gravy train for them and not me. JJK 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OO1 Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 22 hours ago, BigStewMan said: this damaged laptop did serve me well for over eight years. I don't know if this is the case for ALL laptops, but the Macs really get hot. buy an Acer next time , they run very , very cool and they dont self destruct from the heat , they are not as expensive as a Mac - and you might say , I like a Mac better , well , it's all the same in the end - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 1 hour ago, RandyH 000 said: buy an Acer next time , they run very , very cool and they dont self destruct from the heat , they are not as expensive as a Mac - and you might say , I like a Mac better , well , it's all the same in the end - Maybe... I've seen all brands overheat. I just had a lady I work with drop off three older laptops. All of them old enough that the batteries are shot. They are all big... at least 15 inch displays. She used them at home... didn't move them around much. Two of them ha e i7-quad core CPUs with at least 8 gig of ram, 1600x900 displays, hdmi output. They work fine, and I can replace the batteries. Not sure if I'll put linux on them or reinstall with Windows. The tird is a core 2 duo with the corner of the case broken off. At the least, I'm wiping the drives for her. She doesn't want them back. One will be great for road trips when we stay in a hotel. I wouldn't want to lug one around all day... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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