Gray Screen on Macbook Air

After updating several items on this Macbook Air, it went to a gray screen. It will turn off but when you power up you hear the start up chime and get a gray screen. How can this be resolved?

Gray screen may not be the right term ... the screen will light up just barely. Sorta reminds me of what happens with a very low battery. The charger is plugged in and I have a green light on so I assume its working properly.

13-inch: 2.7GHz
with Retina display
Specifications

2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz
8GB 1866MHz LPDDR3 memory
128GB PCIe-based flash storage1
Intel Iris Graphics 6100
Built-in battery (10 hours)2
Force Touch trackpad

Try resetting the SMC to see if it comes back. Otherwise, take it to an Apple store.

That's what I was afraid of. I've tried several of the reset things but I get no response from the machine at all.

Thanks

For what it's worth .........

After a 2 1/2 hour drive to the nearest Apple store, the problem was fixed in under two minutes ... go figure.

The Tech. said that the problem was the video display. Seems that a common problem after an update to the video drivers is that the computer can't find the screen size it wants on restart and keeps the screen dark.

All he did was press four keys at the same time, which brought up an option box, and reset the screen size.

Unfortunately, my memory was in CRS mode and I don't remember the four keys he pressed to get to the video display options. It was two keys on the right side and two keys on the left pressed at the same time.

Hope this helps some.

Oh, if someone knows what these four keys are please post them.
Thanks

lizardskeep said:

For what it's worth .........

After a 2 1/2 hour drive to the nearest Apple store, the problem was fixed in under two minutes ... go figure.

Click to expand...

Yes a VERY long drive…but definitely worth it! Better then it having a serious hardware problem leading to spending $1200+ for a new computer.

lizardskeep said:

All he did was press four keys at the same time, which brought up an option box, and reset the screen size.

Unfortunately, my memory was in CRS mode and I don't remember the four keys he pressed to get to the video display options. It was two keys on the right side and two keys on the left pressed at the same time.

Click to expand...

It would have been really cool if this was some sort of rarely-known "secret" 4-key combo! One of the most common 4-key combos is the reset PRAM/NVRAM (command + option + p + r).

But if some sort of option box popped up…I'm sure it wasn't that.

Congrats again on getting things sorted out!

- Nick

He said the computer probably responded to the resets I tried (safe mode and the like) but I just couldn't see them with the screen being dark. Whatever he did over rode the dark screen.

Long drive, yes. But I was really impressed with the customer service. Quick and efficient.

Wife said she thinks the four keys were both command keys the R key and either the I or the O keys. Not sure

lizardskeep said:

Long drive, yes. But I was really impressed with the customer service. Quick and efficient.

Click to expand...

Yes it is nice to be treated well after such a long drive!

Hopefully while there (2.5 hours away) you took advantage of some other shopping opportunities & food!

- Nick

LOL .... we live in the woods of East Texas and visiting a "for real" Mall in the big city is a treat.