A1465 Mid 13 - Boots, but screen is black. I Can hear the startup sound.

Hi,

My wife bought this Mac new from the Apple Store in NY. Hasn't been used much, but booted about every three months, to take backup of her iPhone.
She recently decided to sell it, so i formatted the drive and reinstalled OSX and sold it. About a week later, the buyer returns it, as it won't boot anymore.

When i boot it, i can hear the startup sound.
If i force shut it, i can see that the display goes from black to "off", so something is happening.
Also the apple logo on the back is on, so the backlight is OK.
I am sure that the battery is OK.
Tried booting to safe mode, no difference.
Tried resetting SMC, no difference.
Tried booting to Recovery, screen is still black.
Tried clearing the NVRAM, i can see the screen flicker to white for about a quarter of a second right before the second startup sound. Then it is back to black.

Any ideas?

The MAC is of course too old to take it to Apple, and i am not willing to pay much to fix it.

You can take it to the Apple Genius bar, and they will diagnose the issue for free. https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=arshw.

In my opinion, it sounds like the purchaser did something to it? Maybe dropped it if it is a laptop?

You can look at ifixit.com, https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac and find your specific model year, to see if taking it apart is something you want to attempt? They have great step by step repair guides.

lehaug said:

About a week later, the buyer returns it, as it won't boot anymore.

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I don't know 100% of the story (maybe you don't either).

But how do you know that the new owner of the MacBook Pro didn't do something to it during the week it was in their possession? Are you 100% sure it's even the same computer?

- Nick

It is impossible to know if he did anything. I am sure it is the same computer.
It has no visible damages, but he might have dropped it.

What i also have found out now, is that i get the same problem if i connect it to a external display.
This tells me that it might be the display adapter that is causing this. I recon this is embedded in the MB, and if so then i can just go ahead and throw it in the trash..

People still buy them "as is", on Craigslist, ebay or Amazon. Maybe even "Offerup" or other phone apps like that.

lehaug said:

It is impossible to know if he did anything.

It has no visible damages, but he might have dropped it.

Click to expand...

Exactly...new owner could possibily have spilled liquid on it too. This is why refunding the purchaser their money probably wasn't a good idea. Too many things can happen to a delicate piece of electronics like a laptop computer.

lehaug said:

...and if so then i can just go ahead and throw it in the trash..

Click to expand...

As member ferrarr mentioned. Try selling it for parts. better than throwing it the trash and getting nothing.

Sorry to hear about things. Good luck,

Nick