Black screen with iMac 14,2 system definition

[the_gael]

I hope some one can shed light on this, excuse the pun, I have experienced this issue only since upgrading to 10.12.2 and on two machines.

This is on the machine in my signature. This has worked flawlessly for some considerable time but has today suffered this issue. I have also seen this on a test machine but I rebuilt that one.

I went to wake the system as normal this morning but after wake I have a black screen with a mouse pointer that works. Notifications flash up on the screen so am fairly happy the issue is a display one rather than a system freeze.

Machine is Z97X-UD5H-BK, graphics card nVidia GTX750. I saw the same issue on my other machine with nVidia GT740. Incidentally switching to onboard Intel did not resolve it. I can login as Guest User and all is well but if I log into my own account the issue is present. Indicates something is amiss in my profile.

I have gone to Clover and disabled Nvidia web drivers but that did not resolve.

I can get to the user login screen, I authenticate, screen flickers black, comes up again and then reverts to black screen with moving cursor. However I have no way of doing anything.

I can use my unibeast install USB stick Sierra 10.12.2 to get to a terminal screen but do not know what to do at this point. Advice greatfully accepted.

 

[the_gael]

Can I create a new user using terminal? I believe the issue is somewhere in my user profile seeing as the guest account does not have the issue. Even better where would settings that would affect this be stored in my user profile - would deleting them restore to default?

 

[the_gael]

Ok - I can create a new user but just wondering if NVRAM could be the culprit here. I did notice after updating clover that the Clover preference pane for NVRAM variable was set to auto and not never which is what I believe I normally have. If I have inadvertently changed this could it cause the issue I have described?

 

[the_gael]

Anyone got any thoughts on this, what can cause a machine to have a black screen, mouse pointer works, notifications flash up in top corner but only black screen.

 

[slim.jim]

From: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/164331/i-dont-have-administrator-account-on-my-mac

You can create a new administrator account by restarting the Setup Assistant:

1. Boot into Single User Mode ⌘ + S.
   
   
2. Mount the drive by typing /sbin/mount -uw / then ↩ enter.
   
   
3. Remove the Apple Setup Done file by typing rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone then ↩ enter.
   
   
4. Reboot by typing reboot then ↩ enter.
   
   
5. Complete the setup process, creating a new admin account.

 

[the_gael]

Thank you for that, will be useful. Away from home till the New Year now but will be using that on my return.

What I would like to understand now is what caused the issue. It must be something in the way i have configed my machines and Sierra 10.12.2 everything was fine with previous versions.

Any thoughts on things that can cause my symptoms?

 

[the_gael]

BUMP! Anyone got any ideas what can cause this black screen after boot - mouse moving, notifications pop up but just have no display only black screen. Graphics work fine right up till after login - I can log into the guest account with no problem - display works. The issue is confined to a specific profile - are there files I can delete from that profile to reset its graphics to default or a cache that needs clearing? Should I post this in the general forum to get a wider audience as I am sure some of the more experienced users will be able to comment on this?

EDITED TO ADD: I am thinking corrupted graphic preferences file or something similar that would be specific to this user profile

 

[VioletDragon]

BUMP! Anyone got any ideas what can cause this black screen after boot - mouse moving, notifications pop up but just have no display only black screen. Graphics work fine right up till after login - I can log into the guest account with no problem - display works. The issue is confined to a specific profile - are there files I can delete from that profile to reset its graphics to default or a cache that needs clearing? Should I post this in the general forum to get a wider audience as I am sure some of the more experienced users will be able to comment on this?

EDITED TO ADD: I am thinking corrupted graphic preferences file or something similar that would be specific to this user profile

Black screen when using newer Nvidia cards indicates (inject nvidia) is set to true in config or using wrong System Definition.

 

[the_gael]

Black screen when using newer Nvidia cards indicates (inject nvidia) is set to true in config or using wrong System Definition.

I will check that in January when I get back home - thank you
I had recently restored a config.plist so maybe I missed that Inject Nvidia was enabled in it.
System definition has been iMac14,2 in all iterations of its build history so that should not have changed.

 

[the_gael]

VoiletDragon just had a thought about this, I will definitely check in case Inject nVidia is selected but what throws me a little is that the Guest account display works perfectly. If the issue was in the config.plist would it not affect all accounts given that the config.plist will be loaded before user profiles?