Solve – Black Screen of Death Mac [Step by Step Guide]

If your Mac doesn’t start up to the login window and instead shows a black screen, you need to thoroughly troubleshoot your computer. This unusual event is technically called a “Black Screen of Death.” When this happens, you can no longer access your system and login into the OS.

The Black Screen of Death can also occur randomly when you’re working on the OS. Usually, it’s because of a malfunctioning battery or certain OS-related bugs. Besides, here are all the reasons you might be seeing a Black Screen of Death on your Mac:

How to Fix Black Screen of Death Mac?

When you get a black screen on your system, first restart your computer to check if the issue persists. Plug in your AC adapter and check your system brightness (using the F1/F2 keys) as well. Then, follow all the methods shown below.

Power Cycle Your Mac

You can perform a power cycle to fix this startup issue. Doing so will dissipate the electric charge from your hardware capacitors and refresh your computer. Here are the exact steps to do so:

1. Press Power once. This automatically brings up the shutdown dialogue box. 
2. Then press S to put your system to sleep.
3. Now, hold Power for 10 seconds to force shutdown the system.
   
4. After the system has turned off completely, hold Power again for 10 seconds to perform a power cycle.
5. Wait for 30-60 seconds.
6. Turn on your computer normally.

Unplug External Devices

External peripherals can sometimes cause startup issues on a Mac. Moreover, Non-Apple external devices are known to cause compatibility and stability issues. It can then create conflict within your system workflow and can even influence a Black Screen of Death. So, turn off your computer, unplug all your external devices and restart your system.

First Aid Your Startup Disk

macOS offers you a way to scan your Mac for disk fragmentation and permission issues. For this, you can run the First Aid test on your start-up disk. If any errors are found, First Aid aims to fix those errors as well. Here’s how you can run the test:

On Apple Silicon Mac

1. Turn off your computer.
2. Hold Power to start up your system.
3. Release Power after you see Options.
   
4. Then, select Options and click Continue.
   You’ll now enter macOS recovery mode.
5. On the macOS Utilities, click on Disk Utility.
   
6. Click on your startup disk from the sidebar.
   By default, it’s named Macintosh HD.
7. Now, choose to perform First Aid.
   
8. Accept to Run this test.
9. After this process is complete, restart your computer.

On Intel Mac

1. Turn off your computer.
2. Press Power to start up your system.
3. As soon as your system starts up, hold Command + R.
   
   You’ll now enter macOS recovery mode.
4. On the macOS Utilities window, click on Disk Utility.
   
5. Click on your startup disk from the sidebar. By default, it’s named Macintosh HD. 
6. Now, choose to perform First Aid.
   
7. Accept to Run this test.
8. After this process is complete, restart your computer.

Troubleshoot From Single User Mode

The single-user window is like a Mac’s failsafe mode through which you can troubleshoot your computer. It logs you in as a single superuser and takes you directly to your system’s command line. The single-user window should be accessed as soon as your computer starts up.

1. Turn off your computer.
2. As soon as your system starts up, hold Command + S.
    
3. On the command line interface, enter the following command:
   /sbin/fsck -fy
4. Wait until this process is fully complete.
   
5. If you see a “The volume x appears to be OK” text on the screen, there is no problem on your startup disk. However, if you don’t see this text, enter the following command until your issue gets fixed:
   /sbin/fsck -fy
6. Then, enter shutdown -r to restart the system.

Try to Safe Boot

When you safe boot your Mac, your system starts up with only the minimum required mandatory programs and drives. No system resources are allocated to unnecessary applications. So, if this issue still persists when you safe boot your Mac, you can be sure that third-party extensions working in kernel mode are causing this problem.

On Apple Silicon Mac

1. Turn off your computer.
2. Hold Power until you see the startup Option icon.
    
3. Select your bootable drive.
4. Hold Shift and choose to Continue in Safe Mode.
5. Log in to the OS.

On Intel Mac

1. Turn off your computer.
2. Press Power to turn it on again.
3. As soon as the system startup, hold Shift.
4. Release Shift after you see the login menu.
   
5. Log in to the OS.

If your issue no longer persists in safe mode, then you can fix it in normal mode by deleting the conflicting application.

1. Turn on your system normally.
2. Press Command + Space to open Spotlight.
3. Type and enter Terminal.
4. On the terminal, enter the following command:
   kextstat
5. This returns a list of extensions working on your OS kernel mode.
   
6. Here, if an extension does not start with com.apple.*, it’s a third-party extension.
7. If possible, track this extension back to its original application and delete that application from your system.

Reset NVRAM/SMC

Both NVRAM and SMC are an integral part of your Mac computing system. NVRAM manages and maintains your software interfaces.  Whereas the SMC is responsible for handling and ensuring that the hardware parts of your computer work well. 

Whenever you’re having startup issues, you can reset the NVRAM and SMC to fix the problem. The steps to do so should be carried out as soon as your turn on your computer. However, those steps vary depending on your Mac’s chipset characteristics. So, considering that, we decided to dedicate a separate article to help you reset NVRAM and SMC on a Mac computer.

Reinstall macOS

If none of the aforementioned steps work, you have to reinstall your operating system. macOS offers you two different ways to install the OS. One method shall install a fresh copy of the OS by deleting all the previous files. While the other method copies the new OS on top of the previous one. So, here’s how you reinstall macOS.

On Apple SIlicon Mac

1. Turn off your computer.
2. Hold Power to start up your system.
3. Release Power after you see Options.
4. Then, select Options and click Continue.
   
   You’ll now enter macOS recovery mode.
5. On the macOS Utilities, click on Reinstall macOS.
   
6. Enter your password if prompted.
7. Continue forward to the installation menu.
8. Agree with the terms and conditions.
9. On the Select the disk where you want to install macOS window, select Macintosh HD to install the OS without losing any data.
   
   Here, if you select Macintosh HD – Data, it will reinstall the macOS by deleting all your files and folders.
10. Wait until the setup process is complete.

On Intel Mac

1. Turn off your computer.
2. Press Power to start up your system.
3. Immediately, hold Command + R on your keyboard.
   
   You’ll now enter macOS recovery mode.
4. On the macOS Utilities, click on Reinstall macOS.
   
5. Enter your password if prompted.
6. Continue forward to the installation menu. 
7. Agree with the terms and conditions.
8. On the Select the disk where you want to install macOS window, select Macintosh HD to install the OS without losing any data.
   
   Here, if you select Macintosh HD – Data, it will reinstall the macOS by deleting all your files and folders.
9. Wait until the setup process is complete.