MacBook Black Screen? How to Fix It

1 Check the Charger & Battery

• Plug in your charger — the MacBook may have a completely dead battery
• Wait 5 minutes, then press the power button
• Check the MagSafe LED or look for the charging indicator in the menu bar after a moment
• Try a different charger if available

2 Force Restart

Works for black screen after sleep or a frozen state:

1. Hold the power button for 10 seconds until the Mac shuts off
2. Wait 10 seconds
3. Press the power button once to restart

3 Wake the Display

The Mac may be on but the display stuck in sleep:

• Press any key on the keyboard
• Move the trackpad or connected mouse
• Press Power button once (brief tap, not hold)
• Try closing the lid and reopening it
• Connect to an external monitor — if that works, it's a display issue

4 Adjust Display Brightness

Brightness may have been set to zero:

• Press the brightness up key (F2 or the brightness key in the Touch Bar row)
• Or hold the power button until you see Shut Down options, which confirms the screen is working

5 Reset SMC (Intel Macs Only)

The System Management Controller handles display sleep and wake:

MacBook with non-removable battery (2017+):

1. Shut down the Mac
2. Hold Shift + Control + Option + Power for 10 seconds
3. Release all keys simultaneously
4. Press Power to start normally

MacBook with T2 chip (2018–2020 Intel):

1. Shut down
2. Hold Control + Option + Shift for 7 seconds
3. Then also hold the Power button for another 7 seconds
4. Release all, wait 5 seconds, then power on

6 Reset NVRAM / PRAM (Intel Macs)

NVRAM stores display settings and can cause black screen issues when corrupted:

1. Shut down the Mac completely
2. Power on and immediately hold Option + Command + P + R
3. Keep holding for about 20 seconds (or until you hear the startup chime twice)
4. Release and allow normal boot

7 Boot into Safe Mode

Safe Mode disables third-party kernel extensions and GPU acceleration — often resolves display driver crashes:

Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4):

1. Shut down, then hold the power button until startup options appear
2. Hold Shift and click Continue in Safe Mode

Intel Mac:

1. Restart and immediately hold Shift
2. Release when the login screen appears

If the Mac boots fine in Safe Mode, the issue is a third-party app or GPU driver. Remove recently installed software.

8 Boot into Recovery Mode

If the Mac won't boot at all, try Recovery Mode:

• Apple Silicon: Hold power button → click Options → Continue
• Intel: Hold Cmd + R on startup

From Recovery, run Disk Utility → First Aid to check for disk errors that may be preventing boot.

9 Check for macOS Update Issues

If the black screen appeared after an update:

1. Boot into Recovery Mode
2. Select Reinstall macOS — this repairs system files without deleting data
3. The macOS installer will handle the rest

10 Test with an External Display

• Connect a monitor via Thunderbolt/HDMI/USB-C
• If the external display works, the internal display or its cable has failed
• If the external display is also black, the issue is GPU or logic board