2019 MBP 15” A1990 Screen Dying… is repair worth it?

[cb911]

Well looks like my MBP is on the fritz. Or the screen at least. I thought it could be the ribbon cable or something, but took it to the Apple Store and they confirmed no loose connectors and said it’s the LCD panel for sure as it’s fading around the edges.

All ok using an external display.

The new screen is around AUD $1,200 or so, with a 12 month warranty. Doesn’t seem worth it… is there any chance it’s not the display and there’s something else I should get checked? Any cheaper repair option? (Why is the 15” display so expensive, I can see 13” displays for around $300-400?)

Just wondering why the screen would have failed? It spent most of its life sitting on a desk.

What is the best way to keep using it until I get a new one? I really want to keep the setup as compact as possible and would like to keep using the touchbar… maybe a portable USB C display placed over the MacBook screen?

 

[Bigwaff]

Get second opinion from Apple authorized repair shop. If you don’t want to spend for repair, just use with mirror to external display. Eventually laptop display panel get worse and unusable but external mirror display will keep working.

 

[Fishrrman]

Since "it spent most of its life sitting on a desk", just close the lid and use an external display.

But... I believe the cost of a "repair" isn't worth it any more.
It's time to start looking for a replacement.

A closing thought (my opinion only):
If the replacement is just going to "sit on a desk", then I'd consider either a Mac Mini (with the "pro" CPU) or a Mac Studio. Desktop computers usually work best "for desktop use"...

 

[cb911]

So to throw a curve ball amongst the display issues… I’ve been persisting with an external monitor but needed to boot to Windows and actually move the MacBook from the desk. 😆

Well guess what - there’s no display issues when it boots to Windows!

So what gives? This tells me it’s not a hardware issue at all??

Possibly related to a software glitch I can’t reboot to Mac OS, it gets stuck in a loop asking for the HD password and rebooting. The built in Mac OS recovery doesn’t work, gives “error 21” and greys out the “Macintosh HD” partition. Going to try internet recovery/clean install and see how that goes.

 

[BeatCrazy]

So to throw a curve ball amongst the display issues… I’ve been persisting with an external monitor but needed to boot to Windows and actually move the MacBook from the desk. 😆

Well guess what - there’s no display issues when it boots to Windows!

So what gives? This tells me it’s not a hardware issue at all??

Possibly related to a software glitch I can’t reboot to Mac OS, it gets stuck in a loop asking for the HD password and rebooting. The built in Mac OS recovery doesn’t work, gives “error 21” and greys out the “Macintosh HD” partition. Going to try internet recovery/clean install and see how that goes.

That's weird. I would completely erase the SSD and restore from internet recovery.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

What happens if you start in Safe Mode?

 

[cb911]

Did a fresh install of Sonoma (let the Bootcamp volume remain) and it looked fine. Tho when I came back to it after being in sleep for quite a few hours there was some slight fading around the edges of the display so I’ve shut it down now and will check again tomorrow.

Everything I did before the erase and install still had the display glitch to varying degrees, some were more pronounced than others which is weird. This Apple boot screen was one (attachment 1).

When it was in the Sonoma internet recovery and then the first boot it was fine (attachment 2).

Well I’m glad I didn’t make any rash decisions and put it on eBay as a $0.99 auction. 😅

 

[Arctic Moose]

Very weird! What happens if you run Windows for an extended period of time, including some graphics-intensive tasks?

 

[cb911]

Very weird! What happens if you run Windows for an extended period of time, including some graphics-intensive tasks?

It was showing the faded edges when booting into Windows (same as on the Apple boot screen), but they pretty much disappeared once it started up. Ran this graphics test and it was fine (attached - maybe some very very slight shadowing/fading around the edge of the display).

Ran the same Unigine test booted into Sonoma and it was fine as well. Still acting weird in Mac OS tho, when waking from sleep the screen is a total whiteout and the colour slowly comes into it... was getting a weird flickering as well. Turned off automatic graphics switching and it's been pretty stable since... It's got me so confused. Not sure if maybe it's a power supply issue or maybe the LCD panel is on the way out? Or if either the Intel or AMD hardware has an issue? Or something to do with display modes/settings like Dark Mode or True Tone..?

Is there a way to check whether Intel or AMD graphics are currently being used? I thought "About This Mac" would show that, but it's been showing Intel graphics this whole time, even after I switched off automatic graphics switching?

 

[JustAnExpat]

This is unusual!

What programs are you using? Are you using any utilities that change the display color temperature?

What happens when the screen is ultra light like that, and you log into a new user profile? Does the screen return to normal?

 

[Arctic Moose]

I thought "About This Mac" would show that, but it's been showing Intel graphics this whole time, even after I switched off automatic graphics switching?

Disabling graphic switching actually keeps the dedicated GPU on all the time, which of course is not great if the GPU is failing.

I looked into this briefly when I suspected my 2010 MacBook Pro had a GPU issue, but it didn't look simple enough to be worth my time.

Not sure if this is relevant for your Mac, but may be a starting point:

Disable MacBook Pro Dedicated GPU

You haven't had any issues with an external display though, right? I would expect a GPU hardware issue to affect all displays. My gut feeling is that it is in fact a display issue, but that something about the drivers, OS or other environmental factors cause it to be more noticeable under certain conditions.

At this point I wouldn't put a single penny into an Intel Mac. Maybe something like a ZenScreen would be an option if it needs to be portable, or even an iPad with Sidecar if you already have one?

ASUS ZenScreen MB16AHV｜Monitors｜ASUS Global

ASUS ZenScreen MB16AHV Portable Monitor- 16 inch (15.6 inch viewable) Full HD, IPS, HDMI, USB Type-C, Blue Light Filter, Anti-glare surface, Antibacterial treatment

www.asus.com

Use an iPad as a second display for a Mac - Apple Support

With Sidecar, you can use your iPad as a second display for your Mac.

support.apple.com

 

[sublunar]

Weirdly, I think the GPU sounds fine and it’s the intel graphics that’s playing up. Is it possible windows might try to go into the GPU where possible which is why it generally looks alright whereas the Mac side tries to switch to intel graphics to save power? External displays always go through the GPU so it might rescue your Mac if you used it clamshell closed?

if you keep an external display connected the Mac should always keep the GPU fired up so this theory holds water if both displays look fine.

 

[leifp]

Apologies for sidelining a bit, but this is fascinating to me. I have had a 32” LG 4K display for many years now. Originally it was hooked up to an 2018 MBPro where it started to display fringed edges just after warranty ran out… so I decided to suffer with it. It did the same hooked up to a 2020 iMac 5K and then to an M1 Mac mini. Le sigh

But lo and behold, it worked fine when I hooked up a WinPC! And it works without niggle on my M1Max MBPro but this forum has reminded me of it. I wish you luck and hope to find out what might have caused it! I’ll include a pic where you can see minor screen discoloration at the edges, which was how it started. I took a photo to see about warranty, found it wasn’t covered, and ignored it as it got progressively worse. At its worst it was a band nearly half an inch around the entire screen… I now wish I’d taken a photo of that…

 

[ipaqrat]

So it's NOT cabling, not physical damage, not the panel's pixels failing.... and it misbehaves under normal circumstances, not just in heavy rendering/gaming... and Windows is not affected... That leaves Apple's jiggery-pokery...

Consider tweaking combinations of TrueTone, Night Shift, auto-brightness, and the display profile. I once found a horrible processor lag was resolved by switching profiles from AppleRetina to plain old Adobe RGB; go figure.

 

[nathan_reilly]

This is probably the most interesting thread I've come across here in a few years. It challenges what I understand about diagnosing failing Mac laptops. I wish I had an answer for you but I am eagerly awaiting someone with some clarity about what's going on here. Good luck!

 

[ipaqrat]

There's a effect similar to what the OP described, when swapping iphone screens, like-for-like, without repairing. This observation has been around long enough for the underpinning tech to have been incorporated into a 2019 model.

Apple has always built "bunny traps" into their hardware and software. They've always been secretive with documentation and paranoid about repair part assemblies. This behavior is not new for Apple.

Way back in the late 80s I remember Apple's Laser Printer repair test flummoxed some takers, who forgot to use the right type of screw in every required spot, because Apple used some of them to bridge circuit paths instead of wires, as well as being structural. You think HP, Compaq and Dell were jerks for non-standard power and drive rails? Pfft! Did you ever get a load of the power supply in the platinum Mac Plus 36 years ago? The ones from Cork Ireland were better.

Add software to the critical path, and the permutations are multiplied. Apple is converting ordinary parts in the chassis and on the mother/daughterboards into a networked devices (on the computers own internal network) that use certificates to log on to the core system. This does refer to parts pairing, but also means ordinary cause-and-effect analysis can be largely ineffective.

 

[cb911]

This is unusual!

What programs are you using? Are you using any utilities that change the display color temperature?

What happens when the screen is ultra light like that, and you log into a new user profile? Does the screen return to normal?

No weird programs or anything new... just Safari mostly. Spotify, Bear (notes app), WhatsApp, Messenger, Zoom. All the same programs I've been using for years. Occasionally the GoPro app and Capture One.

Not sure if being such an old OS install finally created some bugs, it never had a clean install since I bought it in 2019/2020, just kept doing OS upgrades. I also rarely shut down, almost always just sleep and wake but not sure if that's likely to cause this sort of issue? Anyway I erased the drive and it's a clean install of Sonoma (I hadn't previously upgraded) and it's still doing the same things so I'm just confused.

Haven't tried a different user profile yet, will give that a shot.

 

[cb911]

Disabling graphic switching actually keeps the dedicated GPU on all the time, which of course is not great if the GPU is failing.

I looked into this briefly when I suspected my 2010 MacBook Pro had a GPU issue, but it didn't look simple enough to be worth my time.

Not sure if this is relevant for your Mac, but may be a starting point:

Disable MacBook Pro Dedicated GPU

You haven't had any issues with an external display though, right? I would expect a GPU hardware issue to affect all displays. My gut feeling is that it is in fact a display issue, but that something about the drivers, OS or other environmental factors cause it to be more noticeable under certain conditions.

At this point I wouldn't put a single penny into an Intel Mac. Maybe something like a ZenScreen would be an option if it needs to be portable, or even an iPad with Sidecar if you already have one?

ASUS ZenScreen MB16AHV｜Monitors｜ASUS Global

ASUS ZenScreen MB16AHV Portable Monitor- 16 inch (15.6 inch viewable) Full HD, IPS, HDMI, USB Type-C, Blue Light Filter, Anti-glare surface, Antibacterial treatment

www.asus.com

Use an iPad as a second display for a Mac - Apple Support

With Sidecar, you can use your iPad as a second display for your Mac.

support.apple.com

Cheers for that. Yes does seem like a display issue, no problems at all with external displays, Apple TV mirroring etc. The Genius Bar checked it out and said that it was, but I wonder if it's worth taking back to them now and showing it booted into Windows and see what they say...

I think I can make do without a portable screen. Starting to question whether I need a MacBook at all or whether an iPad would do the job, feeling like that's the much more reliable option. Tho I'm probably one of a very small number to have this type of display issue I guess.

 

[cb911]

Weirdly, I think the GPU sounds fine and it’s the intel graphics that’s playing up. Is it possible windows might try to go into the GPU where possible which is why it generally looks alright whereas the Mac side tries to switch to intel graphics to save power? External displays always go through the GPU so it might rescue your Mac if you used it clamshell closed?

if you keep an external display connected the Mac should always keep the GPU fired up so this theory holds water if both displays look fine.

Thanks for that. Yeah Windows system information was showing the GPU so I'd say it did default to that!

Is there a way to force Mac OS to use GPU all the time? I'm guessing there is, it would be the opposite of the link that Arctic Moose shared I guess. Yeah I can use external displays no issue. I'm guessing there isn't any type of fix that can be done if the Intel Graphics are on the fritz?

 

[iMacDragon]

Windows on on macbooks with a DGPU has only ever used DGPU and the IGPU has been unavailable for use in windows, so this may very well be relevant somehow.

And there is some power management command that can effectively force gpu to one mode or other but I can't recall anymore what it is, I used to do it to keep in IGPU mode to manage thermals unless I wanted DGPU for something.

External displays will always force use of DGPU also whether on windows or mac.