OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 Upgrade Black Screen

[ekkehard]

I updated an late 2013 Mac Pro with one Thunderbolt and one 30 inch Apple monitor form OS X El Capitan 10.11.0 to OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 got a black screen with mouse cursor. Option Command p + r NVRAM reset does not seem to make a difference. Typing in username and password does not seem to make a difference either. The below mention policy banner issue does not seem to make a difference either.

Any ideas?

An update on a MacBook went without a hitch.

Note: In OS X Yosemite there was an issue when there was a policy banner installed at /Library/Security/PolicyBanner.txt that with a thunderbolt monitor that banner was presented but not viewable on Thunderbolt monitors so I have removed any banners but it does not seem to be the issue.

[stevewood]

@ekkehard have you tried unplugging the monitors one at a time to see if that fixes it? I'd say, disconnect the 30" first and try. If not, disconnect the TB display and try the 30".

[Josh_OKState]

Can you get into Recovery mode? CMD-R or Internet Recovery Mode? OPT-CMD-R? If so try disk repair/permissions repair. After that, if it won't go past the black screen try safe mode. Turn off, turn on and hold down the left shift key until you get to the login screen. If that works log in and then reboot. If that doesnt work you may go back to recovery mode and reinstall the OS - it shouldn't erase your system it will just lay a clean image down on top of the current OS.

[ekkehard]

None of the above suggestions worked unfortunately. I decided to take some screen shots of the supposed black screen. Well upon removing the MDM profile which also removed the Passcode Configuration Profile I was able to log in and it turns out that it was asking me to change my password on the screen shots. I guess this happens every time that you upgrade.

[ekkehard · Accepted solution]

Filed a radar on this one. RADAR # 23210225 Black Screen Upon - OS X El Capitan 10.11.0 to OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 Upgrade. I am attaching what the screenshot of the black screen looked like.

[justin]

i am having the same issue. ran the 10.11.1 update, rebooted and i get a black screen with a mouse cursor that i can move. stupid question perhaps, but when you say "removed the MDM profile" how did you do that without being able to get display?

[andrew_nicholas]

I got the same thing when upgrading my machine, though most of our early adopter users haven't had the issue. If I let the machine work itself out, the login takes about 6 minutes, but I've lost the ability to move around accounts on the local machine. Didn't see anything like this in my standalone tests of 10.11 Betas and the final releases.

[mchristiansen]

I have had this error several times. The fix that has worked every time for me is to reboot the computer, get into the recovery environment and repair the disk permissions and then reboot and it boots up with the installer continuing on the screen. From there, all issues are resolved.

[Kaltsas]

Craziest thing I just got a report from a user about this today happened to them with the 10.11.3 update. "hung up with a black screen, moveable arrow". We jiggered it back to life with some reboots but this is a high profile user who has been gung ho against Casper enrollment and we only recently got them enrolled and they are claiming this was a Casper issue, but it appears to really be an OS update issue.

[Digistyle]

Just had the same issue when updating my MacMini to 10.11.3 I got the black screen and movable cursor. I thought this was normal so decided to be patient. After about 30 mins I started thinking something must have went wrong. I almost did a hard reset, but decided to get on my MBP and do some research to see if this had happened to others. After reading all the above posts I decided to go back to the MacMini to do the hard reset, but to my surprise the screen was grey with a progress bar doing the upgrade. Be advised this was at least 45-60 minutes after it initially reset. So I assume the update is compressed or something and it is uncompressing the update or moving it in the background while leaving you with a black screen that looks unresponsive. My advise is to just go take a break and come back in 45-60 mins instead of having to go through the recovery process. Hope this helps.

[donmontalvo]

@mchristiansen and @Josh_OKState Repairing permissions went away with El Capitan. OS X updaters/upgraders fix permissions when they are run.

Might want to look into whether antivirus is running, and if so, are your LDAP cache files being excluded. If those files get bonked, it can cause black screen at reboot.

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=13822#responseChild82947

[taylorhousworth]

I encountered this problem this morning after upgrading to 10.11.3 as well. Sat at a black screen for a while with a mouse cursor. Unplugged and replugged monitors, rebooted, unplugged power, went into recovery mode, all that stuff.

I don't know if it's just coincidence, but the exact second I finally decided to click the mouse button on the black screen with the cursor, the login screen popped back up and everything has been normal since (I had hit enter on the keyboard a few times hoping for something, but got nothing). So I guess I'm suggesting simply clicking the mouse button if this happens before going through a bunch of different possible fixes. I'm interested to hear if this works for anyone else or if I just got lucky.

[brsherwood]

Yes it worked for me, Mac Mini with an HP monitor, I had this problem with the last update, but I forgot how I recovered, thanks!

[andi_sp]

Hi my rMBP early 2015 boots with black screen. Apple logo and sounds are working and it also works using external monitor. I've tried doing the PRAM reset and it didn't work. I've looked at the display, it detects both the internal retina and external one but only works using external monitor. What could be the problem? Thank you.

[#15]

I am a single user who had the same problem happen to me this evening while upgrading El Capitan; black screen with white moveable cursor. I googled the problem on my iPhone and found this thread. Just wanted to thank ekkehard, above, for the image of what was behind the black screen. I was able to trial-and-error around using "tab" and typing my password, and it worked; the installation progress bar was back within a couple of minutes (when I hit typing my password on the right two places. You saved me lots of grief; I made an account just to thank you personally!