MacBook-Pro Display – Dealing with Black Screens and Shutdown after Few Minutes’ Use

crashdisplayhardwaremacbook proshutdown

I have a MacBook Pro 15" (mid 2014, running Sierra). Recently, it has started black screening and shutting off shortly after, after a few minutes' use—let's say 3 to 10 minutes. The screen will go black but the LCD backlight will remain on for about 5 seconds, then the laptop will completely shut off.

I have reset PRAM and the SMC. Things I have determined:

  • The built-in hardware test passes
  • Problem is not tied to my user account (occurs when I'm logged in to another freshly created user)
  • Problem is not tied to my OS installation (I wiped and re-installed)
  • Problem does not manifest itself in Safe Mode or when booted into Windows 10. (Also didn't manifest during OS X re-installation.)
  • Problem does not seem to be overheating: I can game with no issues on Windows, graphics performance and fans are fine.

This behaves like a classic overheating problem, but I'm stumped due to some of the weirdness of it not being an issue in safe mode or Win 10. Any thoughts?

Best Answer

As discussed on the MacRumors forums thread, Help! Updated to macOS 10.12.4, MBP randomly shuts off, it is likely that AppleThunderboltNHI.kext is the culprit:

So if you disable (move out of /System/Library/Extensions) AppleThunderboltNHI.kext driver then reboot. Everything runs ok, you can connect external screens via Thunderbolt.

The only drawback is that Ethernet via Thunderbolt will not work.

Related Question