I’m posting here before Tech SOS section. And sorry if this breaks rules but I thought I’d try here first because here is where Mac knowledge resides.
My wife’s MacBook Pro 2012, os10.13 has a black screen. Turns on OK, sign in OK, but the status bar reaches about 2/3 and the black screen appears.
I’ve tried several multiple key clicks on startup but no luck, always goes through the sequence above then black screen.
Any help or suggestions either here or references appreciated.
Thanks

Try the info on this page. It’s a bit old but should work for your wife’s 2012 MBP.

https://osxdaily.com/2014/11/22/fix-macbook-pro-booting-black-screen/

Good advice there. I had this problem some years back on an iMac, resetting the PRAM cured the problem.

Still no luck, fortunately there is an Apple store with Genius Bar 5 min. from me. Got an appointment today.

I have two identical 15" 2012 MBPs.

This Mac has NV RAM, not PRAM but they have the same functionality.

My first thought is how old is that battery? Black screen on boot is one of the classic symptoms. I've replaced the batteries on both mine in the last few months. The ones on Amazon are ok. The battery at OWC is a bit more expensive but it is rated higher and you can get a free return label for recycling.

Resetting the SMC sometimes works; more often it does not.

Reset Launch Services to Default. If there's anything hanging up the boot process, this will fix it. If you have Onyx, it's one of the tools. Otherwise…

1. Open Terminal and run these commands:
2. /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network
4. killall Dock
5. sudo mdutil -E /
(enter Admin password when prompted)
6. Restart your Mac

Besides your Mac, this will reset the launch services for each installed app. This fixes a whole lot of problems.

Most of the 2010–2012 MBPs have WiFi, Bluetooth or both flaking out. With one of mine, WiFi crapped out while BT died on the other. At first, rebooting gets you going again for awhile; eventually, that stops working. In addition, WiFi pokes along at 802.11n speeds while BT is 4.0.

This fixes all the above:
802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.2 for 2010–2012 Unibody MacBook Pros

He's taking pre-orders at the moment and will be back to shipping soon. The last batch sold out in a couple days.

It's no secret what he does, taking later 802.11ac/BT 4.2 Apple modules and adapting them to the 2011–2012. The trick is the custom board and micro-soldering involved. Is it worth $149? After buying and returning three system pulls @ $50 that were just as bad and dealing with that bracket, I spent the big bucks—then immediately ordered a second which came a few months later.

If you have an 802.11ac router, WiFi performance is up to 15x that of 802.11n. My son-in-law was a test engineer for Apple on that project. Under the right conditions, 802.11ac is faster than Gigabyte Ethernet. It was late 2013 before the Apple line was updated all around (and has been standard since).

As for BT 4.2:



Also, no bracket to deal with on the 15". Once you remove the old one, this lays in the tray. With the 13", he gives you a adapter that takes the place of the bracket you no longer need.

In both cases, took me under 10 minutes to install. If you have the back off to replace the battery already, takes even less time.

Here's the 52 page MacRumors thread on these. As you can see, most of the early concerns (Catalina and Big Sur compatibility etc) are not issues at all as I can confirm. They just work as they should.

802.11ac and BT 4.2 are here for unibody MBPs!

New SSD going in today, thanks for all the suggestions.