black/gray screen macbook pro

when I start my macbook pro it looks and sounds like a normal start up. white screen, normal tone. after the initial startup procedure, my screen goes to a very dark gray. here are the particulars:

1. I can see the cursor and it moves around on command
2. when i use the screen dimmer to change the darkness, it goes to black when I dim the screen and it brightens to a dark gray when i go the other way.
3. when I push the caps lock, the green light come on.
4. when I push any other key or the space bar it makes the normal sound as if i have run out of space while typing.

Macbook pro
Model A1278
purchased in 2010 (sometime in the summer).

Let's try starting up in Safe Boot Mode to see if the same thing happens:

Reboot your MacBook Pro while holding down the Shift key as soon as you hear the startup sound. Hold it until the Apple appears with the spinning circle. Safe mode boot removes all third party drivers and startup apps. It also mutes the sound and runs a verify on your hard drive. Let us know the result and we can go from there.

Reboot complete. Same results;
white screen with apple logo.
progress bar finished in about 2 minutes
spinning circle lasted about 3 minutes
screen blacked out in about 4 minutes

and I really appreciate your help

To clarify what's going on. Does your computer ever actually get to the desktop...so that you can do things?

- Nick

dipperharry said:

Reboot complete. Same results;
white screen with apple logo.
progress bar finished in about 2 minutes
spinning circle lasted about 3 minutes
screen blacked out in about 4 minutes

and I really appreciate your help

Click to expand...

OK, we're assuming here that the desktop never appears before the screen blacks out. What version of OS X are you currently running on the machine? We need to check the hard drive to see if that's the culprit. If you're running Snow Leopard or earlier, you can use your install DVD to boot the machine. If you're running Lion or later, you can try getting into the recovery partition to check out the hard drive.

Let us know.

it does not go to the desk top
I installed maverick a few months ago

Let's try this:

Reboot the machine while holding down your Command and R keys at the same time. That should get you into the Recovery partition. Once in Recovery, select Utilities, and then Disk Utility. Run a Verify and if necessary, repair the hard drive. Let us know how that goes.

(If you can't get into the Recovery partition that may mean the hard drive is dead.)

did as you said, had to repair one issue found (can't remember what it was). but I did it again and everything is normal. screen is still blacked out.

OK, the hard drive is good so that's not the problem. The screen blacking out could be hardware related such as a bad or loose internal video connection. It may even be backlight related. The backlight on your machine is driven and lighted by LEDs. Unless you think that you can take the machine apart yourself to trouble shoot it, it might be best at this point to take it to the genius bar at your local Apple store and have them diagnose it. There is no charge for the diagnosis provided you take it to a genuine Apple store.

You didn't give us any history about your machine. No spillages or drops?

thanks for the info. I'm fairly new to apple products and was not tracking about the apple store. I will do that tomorrow, providing they are open on memorial day. No spillage and it has never been dropped. However, I think my wife's dog got on the table and I believe that it trampled across my key board. anyway, thanks for all your help. At least you gave my some Mac knowledge to help me out in the future. I did take notes for reference. Once again. thank you.