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mknell

macrumors member
Nov 14, 2020
39
59
Mine is in exactly the same place. None of the safe mode, recovery mode options work for me. It's been like this for around 12 hours no. Still no luck rebooting, Apple Support have suggested I take it for service... Not happy!
Exactly the same here - mid 2014 13” MBP. Seems completely bricked,
Nothing worked. Cannot even get to recovery mode.
 
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admbarry

macrumors newbie
Jan 3, 2017
8
19
Denmark
During the installation, my MacBook Pro stuck on a blank black screen. I tried to boot from USB, boot recovery, reset NVRAM, SMC with no luck. Seems like the notebook is bricked. When I press the power button, only the screen turns on and the Apple logo on the lid back. no sound, no Apple logo at screen, nothing.

Yeah, this is where I am at too. As I stated on Apple's support forum, I have a 13" Retina MacBook Pro (late 2013, Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz, 16 GB RAM) which doesn't do much at the moment...
 

Saffer17

macrumors newbie
Nov 14, 2020
1
2
South Africa
MBP mid-2014. The screen went black during installation and I’ve tried all the key combinations when rebooting with no joy. You can hear the fan running and the see the Apple logo light up when you power up but the screen stays black and empty.
 
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DanGahan

macrumors newbie
Nov 14, 2020
6
10
Exact same issue with my 13" Retina MBP, boots to a blank screen (LED apple logo lights up). Been onto Apple support who took me through the usual things (all which I'd already tried) try and boot into recovery, SMC reset, PRAM reset, nothing made a difference. Got a genius bar appointment booked for next Saturday to try and resolve.
 

kingdom23

macrumors regular
Oct 31, 2011
136
5
Mine seems to be stuck too.

Had Big Sur RC installed on a separate volume, but now wanted to upgrade the main Catalina partition. Seing the progress bar on the black screen, but it's not moving. I can move my mouse (via BT) and wake up the computer, but it just seems not to progress. Or is it? Should I dare resetting or just wait. It's been 2 hours now.

View attachment 1663515

Edit: Took the chance and rebooted the Mac. Started up in MacOS Big Sur ok, so no problems now.
Exactly the same thing happened to me and I also took a chance and rebooted and everything was fine.
 

henrod

macrumors newbie
Feb 14, 2005
18
20
NY
Anyone else have the MacBook Pro stuck on a black screen. I have tried force restarting and then also holding Option. The only choice on the boot screen is MacOS Installer and it goes back to the black screen.
2F8C4C20-9ABC-4ECB-9C06-836118388E6A.jpeg

I started the installation on my late 2015 iMac, and came home to this. Completely black screen with a cursor. Forced to shut down, rebooted to the same thing. Force another shut down, reset the P ram and build it to the same thing. Going to try recovery mode next, hoping it will work.
 

Natzoo

macrumors 68020
Sep 16, 2014
2,016
646
It's really disappointing how unstable apple updates have been, even minor security updates cause my computer to crash and enter the restore/setup as a new menu. The main reason why I have not done the jump to Catalina or Big Sur, my mac is just plagued with issues.
 

Mammen52

macrumors newbie
Nov 14, 2020
1
0
My MBP Touch Bar (early 2017) has same problem when trying to upgrade from 10.15.7: Stuck for several hours only about 10% progress bar. Tried resetting PRAM, SMC, rebooting several times.
Strangely the Installation log claims that my HD is not APFS formatted. Disc Utility says it is.
My bootable SuperDuper clone made just before the upgrade won't boot as well as a clone used for Aperture (pre-Catalina) can't boot anymore.
Only solution seems to make a clean install....🙄

Edit: Luckily I can boot in recovery mode
 

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mknell

macrumors member
Nov 14, 2020
39
59
That the exactly same with me and the same model
Dear all MBP Pro 13 Inch Mid 2014 & late 2013 folks with a black screen during/ after Big Sur installation,

I did some research here and in the Apple support forum & reddit.

This is what I found sofar:
A lot of MBP Pro 13 Mid 2014 & late 2013 users have the same issue.
I counted at least around 30 (not eliminating all the doubles of users)
1. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/during-install-stuck-on-black-screen.2267620/
2. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252033190
3. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252040614
4. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252033547
5. https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOSBeta/comments/jk72ki/_/gazjay0 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252034110

Symptoms in common:
If you switch the MBP on, apple logo is lit,
No chime, no keyboard lights, no apple logo appears on the screen,
caps lock led doesn’t light up when I press it,
nothing on the screen.
No loud fan activity first gets louder after some minute or so.
NVRAM and SMC resets do not work either.
MBP would only turn on. No chime, no keyboard lights, nothing.
People contacting Apple support were asked to sent the notebooks to repair.

Reddit user https://www.reddit.com/user/diegor/
found a solution path that worked for him.
indicating that the I/O board of the MBP is damaged/ not working.
( I do not want to speculated what caused the damage though, as it would be a surprise
that during an OS update approx. 30 users suddenly have a defect I/O board...).

I opened my MBP and unplugged the I/O board from the main LB and the system was able to boot.
NVRAM and SMC resets can be performed while the I/O board has been unplugged.
The MBP works with no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no HDMI, no sd-card reader etc.

diegor did a google search and a found out a video where a guy opened the mac and unplug few connectors.
This is what he found
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBoo...Display+Late+2013+I-O+Board+Replacement/27284
As a quick test and if you feel confident, you can try unplug your cable (just step 18 of the above link) and try to boot again.
diegor in the meanwhile bought a used I/O board from ebay and thermal paste for £15.
With iFixit's guide (https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBoo...Display+Late+2013+I-O+Board+Replacement/27284) and one hour of his time, his mac came back to life and he could install Big sur.

Another reddit user was even successful with just unplugging the i/o, restarting and the big sur install
continued successfully. He turned off the MBP, replugged i/o, restarted and the MBP is working.
--> to me this case could indicate that the Big Sur Installer seems to be damaging the i/o board
during the installation.
So if you are lucky and the installation failed at the right step before damaging the i/o board
the unplug, install, replug might be sufficient.

For me it seems like diegor that my i/o board has been damaged and I will need to replace
the i/o board; so I ordered an i/o board replacement and thermal paste on ebay
and give it a try.
I personally have a 2012 mac mini for the meanwhile and I have ordered an MBP M1 to be arriving early december
anyway. But my late 2014 MBP should find a new user.

P.S. Someone had an engineer looking at the I/O board identifying that sepcifically the HDMI IC has been damaged.
After taking this out the rest of the I/O board seemed to be working for him.

I hope the above summary helps others to find a solution for their case.

Cheers
Markus
 
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seaghost

macrumors newbie
Oct 19, 2020
15
11
I have MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) and I did clean install. No issues except if I reboot machine I can hear chime sound twice in 10 seconds interval.
 

jhowarth

macrumors 65816
Jan 13, 2017
1,122
1,500
I always avoid hitting the power button during installations if possible when faced with a black screen. It is much safer to detach and reattach the power cord to the portable in order to trigger a boot if one isn't already in progress.
 

Don Steele

macrumors newbie
Oct 2, 2020
2
1
I had the problem - on a mid 2014 MacBook Pro - and after a very frustrating day, discovered that my issue is down to using it when connected to my Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display.

Failed downloads at first due to server issues, then a black screen waiting for me in the morning.
I did all the reset, restart, NVRAM, SMC reset, safe mode etc and it wasn't until I restarted without the Display connected that it worked. Thereafter, and nearly an hour with Apple support - who were very good BTW - we nailed it down.

If I boot/Restart with TB Display connected it fails to a black screen. If the display disconnected - it boots as normal and I can then reconnect it once logged in and it works fine, including sleep mode.

Until they sort it out (OS/firmware incompatibility?), I just need to disconnect the display before boot and plug it in afterwards. Mildly inconvenient but easily manageable. Just a shame about my day from hell and fears that I'd bricked it!
 
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tigger147

macrumors newbie
May 27, 2012
9
7
I had the problem - on a mid 2014 MacBook Pro - and after a very frustrating day, discovered that my issue is down to using it when connected to my Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display.

Failed downloads at first due to server issues, then a black screen waiting for me in the morning.
I did all the reset, restart, NVRAM, SMC reset, safe mode etc and it wasn't until I restarted without the Display connected that it worked. Thereafter, and nearly an hour with Apple support - who were very good BTW - we nailed it down.

If I boot/Restart with TB Display connected it fails to a black screen. If the display disconnected - it boots as normal and I can then reconnect it once logged in and it works fine, including sleep mode.

Until they sort it out (OS/firmware incompatibility?), I just need to disconnect the display before boot and plug it in afterwards. Mildly inconvenient but easily manageable. Just a shame about my day from hell and fears that I'd bricked it!
Mines the same with or without connection to external monitor or anything else
 
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freden

macrumors newbie
Sep 9, 2009
1
0
Habe the Same issue. Will try to checkout the IO Board tomorrow when the tools arrive.

Anyone have any ideas how to make Apple responsible? I only want a fix for their faulty update.
 

Yaboze

macrumors 6502a
May 31, 2007
799
280
The Garden State
2015 15” here, no issues. Did the install do a firmware update? I didn’t watch mine run. This is a very scary issue, sounds like it bricked it.
 
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