I have a Macbook pro

[tiredtoo]

Purchased in 2016. It seems to be acting up a bit. Screen goes black. I tilt it and screen comes back on. Any thoughts.

[spooky3]

1. Did you check your sleep settings? It may be going to sleep

After 5 minutes, for example, if not plugged in.

[tiredtoo]

2. yes

It is most always plugged in and this just started a day or two back.

[spooky3]

6. I'd take it in for a tech appointment--hard drive may be going bad. Nt

[CloudWatcher]

9. Sleep settings

The sleep settings can be such that ... even when it is plugged in .. it will blank the display.

Check your settings in System Preferences / Energy Saver (or Battery) panel and review the "Turn off Display" settings.

Also check your "hot corner" settings. The four corners can be set to sleep or turn off the display. These settings are under "Hot Corners..." in the "Screen Saver" section of the "Desktop & Screen Saver" panel in System Preferences.

[Tetrachloride]

3. Do data backups.

Screen saver
Energy Saver

settings could use slight modification as a test. Settings can get lost, so the small test is a start

[Jirel]

7. Along with this...

Reset PRAM and SMC. You may have something acting up in how power is being controlled for sleep/wake, assuming it’s not just a purely physical issue that’s sending the wrong signal.

[Auggie]

4. Search these symptoms on Google, etc.

I nearly always find the same issues.

[Meadowoak]

5. I read somewhere that they had a defective hinge mechanism

That wears out prematurely and that somehow causes the screen to go out and come on. I dunno.

[usonian]

8. Probably a bad cable.

https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/486856/Screen+issues,+Back+light+dims+&+goes+out

Problem:

I have a 2016 macbook touchbar 13" and one month after the 1 year warranty I noticed this "stage lights" issue. 5 months later the issue is worse now.

Yesterday, I noticed that when I tilt the screen back beyond the 90 degree angle the screen goes black. Then if I move it back to 90 degrees it gets illuminated. But the angles vary a lot. Sometimes it gets illuminated only If I move it back to 60 degrees and sometimes a little more than 90 degrees.

Answer:

Apple appears to have a run of displays failing in the new 2016/17 models!

Sadly, the cable between the backlight within the display and the connection to the logic board is the issue here. The flexing of the display (opening & closing the lid) fatigues the wires within the ribbon cable. The complete lid needs to be swapped out.

If a fix is not in order, a wild suggestion (I've done this) is to use an external display and keyboard/mouse and call it a mac mini. Definitely not portable, but you can get a large monitor for cheap (a la thrift store). Feel free to ignore this suggestion.