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The display on my 2012 Macbook Pro Retina (10,1 with 2.6 GHz i7) suddenly stopped working. It still turns on (startup sound, keyboard backlight) and I was able to enable remote access for diagnostics and double-checking that all files are recovered. I'm fully prepared for the machine to be toast, but if I could continue to use it in some capacity that would be nice. Perhaps the integrated graphics are still working and need to be switched on somehow. I have tried a full set of resets, including bringing it into an Apple store. (They could only do resets at the Apple store, as they wouldn't open it due to its age. It takes a while to turn on, so it wasn't clearly on for their diagnostics.)

It looks like the discrete GPU (GT 650M) is the problem, because it is no longer even showing up the output of system_profiler:

Graphics/Displays:

Intel HD Graphics 4000:

  Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics 4000
  Type: GPU
  Bus: Built-In
  VRAM (Dynamic, Max): 1536 MB
  Vendor: Intel
  Device ID: 0x0166
  Revision ID: 0x0009
  Automatic Graphics Switching: Supported
  gMux Version: 3.2.19 [3.2.8]
  Metal: Supported, feature set macOS GPUFamily1 v4




Hardware:
      ...

It looks like there are some similar issues (How to disable discrete graphics card and use only integrated graphics MacBook Pro Early 2011?, MacBook Pro: How to disable discrete GPU permanently from EFI?), but none of those mention the display itself not working. In an attempt to switch (at least temporarily) to the integrated GPU, I tried:

sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 0

based on 2015 MBP - how to force integrated graphics?, but that did not work. Generally, I'm looking for advice or next steps. Specifically:

  1. How can I determine what has happened to the dGPU, and whether there are any other problems? I cannot see the screen (obviously), but I can SSH in and see the output of system_profiler.

  2. If the dGPU is toast, why aren't the integrated graphics working? I tried plugging an external display into the HDMI port to no avail, would a thunderbolt display be tied to the integraded graphics?

  3. Are there any logs I can look at to see on (say) startup what's going on? If there are any onscreen error messages, I can't see them.

I'm happy to perform whatever diagnostics I can and report on them here.

Ross
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    You say you took it to an Apple Store? What did they say? I'm surprised they dealt with a 10-year-old Mac. Realistically, this is a hardware problem that needs physical inspection and testing of the Mac. – benwiggy Mar 06 '22 at 09:31
  • @benwiggy I should have clarified - they only did some resets, the same ones I performed ahead of time. They wouldn't take it apart given it's age (which is understandable) and it wasn't clearly on and they couldn't do other diagnostics. You say it needs physical inspection? – Ross Mar 06 '22 at 15:39
  • I'm saying there's a limit to what software can tell you about hardware failures, and that hardware problems usually need hands-on inspection. The 'takes a while to turn on' doesn't sound promising. – benwiggy Mar 06 '22 at 15:58
  • @benwiggy it’s old and had been restarted by holding down the power button, so I think it was taking extra time to load, maybe 3-4 minutes to login screen. – Ross Mar 06 '22 at 16:12
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    If you can access the Mac remotely but the screen never comes on, have you tried an external monitor? It could be just the display that has gone bad. – Steve Chambers Mar 06 '22 at 20:54
  • Do you see different behavior by booting into Safe Mode (hold Shift during boot)? – pion Mar 07 '22 at 04:38
  • @SteveChambers Yes, I tried this with the HDMI port. If you know whether the HDMI port is hardconnected to the GPU and the thunderbolt display can pull from the integrated GPU, let me know. – Ross Mar 08 '22 at 20:06
  • @pion Yes, I tried this and no change - this is among the resets I tried myself and had recommended to me when I went for service. – Ross Mar 08 '22 at 20:06

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