MacRumours Brothers/Sisters, help my mom with her MBA M1

[AstroRexaur]

My mom called me today (hysteric) and send me these pictures from her MBA M1 (bought it +1 year ago), it happened suddenly. Any suggestions? She's living in a country that sells MacBooks (Costco, Sams, BestBuy) but there's no Apple Store nor authorized service providers (I searched thru Apple website). I was trying to help her we updated the software, hard reset (press down power 'til turned off), tried to erase hard drive and reinstalling macOS or safe mode but couldn't see the screen (see photo). Once apple logo "goes away" (and the vertical lines), the login screen and everything else shows horizontal pattern lines (second photo). Any help will be more than welcome.

 

[wilberforce]

What's going on at the top right? Damage or just reflection? (I see the same mark in both photos)

 

[AstroRexaur]

What's going on at the top right? Damage or just reflection? (I see the same mark in both photos)

View attachment 2038398

Finger smudge. Those are the form of her fingers, haha!

 

[profcutter]

Sounds like maybe a defective GPU core? I’m not sure how this works with integrated GPUs, but the behavior looks like a dead GPU.

 

[wilberforce]

See if it works ok with an external monitor or tv. If it does, then it might be the cable/connector to the lcd screen.

 

[Velin]

I've seen similar problems in laptops before. Vertical color stripes = no bueno. It usually is a hardware problem, including bad/disconnected/broken flat/ribbon cable, possibly a chip issue. Your best hope is it's a cable interface/seating issue, which can be fixed fairly simply, but I think it's going to be something worse.

Prior poster has it right. Plug in an external monitor to the Air and see if the Air can drive the display. If the external display image looks normal, it is almost certain you've had a display hardware failure -- and it's likely you'll need a professional to fix it.

Trying to remove the screen and troubleshoot even just the cable will require taking apart the machine, and you'll need tools like pentalobe and torx screwdrivers along with plastic wedges/separators. Now, do-it-yourself can be done, if you follow instructions and have a lot of patience. You also can make a mistake, cause a lot more damage, and at that point, it makes no economic sense to repair the laptop (better to toss it and buy either new or used). I've worked on iMacs and it's a pain in the ass. Trying to do a Macbook Air is unquestionably more difficult.

M1 Mac Air, not even two years old, I'd probably be calling Apple and looking for a sympathetic customer service rep. This shouldn't be happening to your mom's device.

 

[AstroRexaur]

Update: screen replacement! 😐 $450 USD

 

[profcutter]

Yeah that seems plausible. I didn’t jump to it because I couldn’t see any cracks, but seems like these m1 screens are pretty fragile.

 

[fisherking]

this happened to a friend's macbook air some years ago; she bent the screen back too far, and damaged the connection to the base (not saying it's exactly the same issue, but possible). she took it to an apple store, and luckily, they fixed it under applecare.

 

[New York]

I’m sorry this has happened to your mum. My last laptop had the same issue after an accidental fall. It got worse within a few days, such that I could no longer see what was on the screen. I advise doing any necessary back ups asap if she hasn’t already, just incase that happens and she gets permanently locked out.

I didn’t even bother to find out what it would cost to fix, as I knew it wouldn’t make financial sense (in my case it was a six-year-old laptop). I ended up using it with an external monitor for a few months, waiting for the M2 to be announced. This is an option if you don’t want to pay the $450, although I’m going to guess your mum doesn’t want a desktop 🙂.

It might also be worth asking Apple if they would do a trade in and, if so, at what price. If you can get a couple of hundred $ then it might make more sense to put that, plus the $450, towards buying a new one.

 

[jdb8167]

Update: screen replacement! 😐 $450 USD

Unfortunately screen cracking/failure seems to be a common problem with the M1 MacBook Air. It's hard to determine how common the repair is but there are a lot of posts about it.

 

[wilberforce]

nvm