MacBook, black screen

My macbook screen goes black from time to time and I have to close the lid a few times and then it's ok for a while. The screen is black but I can see the programs behind the „black shadow“ and even click on them and everything works normal. I was told at the mac shop it might be the graphic card or the cable to the screen. The former would be relatively easy and cheap to repair. The latter very expensive.

Does anyone else have this exact same problem and can tell me what the cause is?

Many thanks

KG

Hardware-Übersicht:

Modellname: MacBook
Modell-Identifizierung: MacBook4,1
Prozessortyp: Intel Core 2 Duo
Prozessorgeschwindigkeit: 2,4 GHz
Anzahl der Prozessoren: 1
Gesamtzahl der Kerne: 2
L2-Cache: 3 MB
Speicher: 4 GB
Busgeschwindigkeit: 800 MHz
Boot-ROM-Version: MB41.00C1.B00
SMC-Version (System): 1.31f1
Seriennummer (System):
Hardware-UUID: CFF2D15B-AA25-55BE-A50F-DFC4D17F4B08
Sensor für plötzliche Bewegung:
Status: Aktiviert

Since this is an older MacBook, the culprit is likely a cable that provides power to the backlight. Over time, cables become brittle or the connectors get loose. That's why opening and closing the lid restores the backlight. Go to iFixit: The free repair manual and look up your model MacBook. You should be able to repair it yourself.

Hi chscag,

Many thanks for your help.

Hi,

Many thanks for your help and refering me "to iFixit: The free repair manual". As I said, my laptop screen often goes black when I adjust the screen. This indicates a cable problem as you said. However, recently I thought of adjusting the screen brightness. I don't know why I had never thought of this before but I have never needed to change the brightness!
By pressing the "less bright button" and the "more brightness button" also gets the screen back to normal. It sometimes takes a lot but it works. This, in my mind would indicate a problem in the graphic board, don't you think? I am told that the graphic board is part of the mother board and therefore I would have to change the complete motherboard.

Another thing is that when the screen goes black there is a slightly lighter spot in the middle of the screen where the screen shows though.

I think I may have to buy a new mac but would love to repair this one if it weren't too expensive and complicated.

Yours

KG

If it turns out to be a graphics problem, it would indeed be too expensive to repair. However, your problem sounds more like it's either with the backlight (as we previously discussed) or even one of the video cables.

Have you taken the machine apart yet?

Hi again,

No, I haven't taken my Mac apart yet. For me that's a "major operation". I'm a little worried about breaking something or whatever. I also have no idea about what to look for and can only use the indications I spoke of when using the pc to guess what's wrong. I checked out "Mac. backlight" to see if I can get one online. Here I found more info about changing the screen, power cable and inverter for the backlight.

Backlight problem. Which inverter to buy? - MacBook Core 2 Duo - iFixit

Macbook 13.3" Screen,Inverter,Backlight Repair Part 4 - YouTube

I would now say at a guess that I need a new power cable and a new inverter. This seems quite "fiddly" to me and I'm not sure I can get the parts. Now I have to check out where I can buy the "right pieces" and hope that my guess is right. I live in Germany so getting pieces from the US could be difficult or more expensive than if I lived in the US.


Something I forgot and am adding: from time to time when I am online and change from one tab to the next the internet screen goes what I think you call "pixelly" i.e.squarish pixel boxes. I would attach a screen shot but its gone in a second.

Many thanks

KG

P.S. I am thinking about buying a new mac but I have been looking at all the macbooks and all seem to have serious problems!