Display Issue - Horizontal blue lines in application windows

I'll submit another ticket today. My last one went into the support ticket black hole where Apple support just drops the ticket and stops helping.

How is Apple still not acknowledging and fixing this problem?!!

Ok, I'm very happy to report that it's stopped happening for me. I'm not sure why, but I know I’m a very happy Apple customer again! :-)

Owning the flagship 16'' laptop maxed out for over a year and dealing with this problem from day 1. All I have to say is that Apple drives me away slowly. I have not upgrade to Big Sur as the problem exists there too (+more). I don't care if the problem lies with Apple or Google Chrome or graphic card driver, all I care about is to be able to do my work without any OS headaches or I can always go back to Linux or Windows.

Resetting NVRAM/PRAM obviously does not work. Only workaround -and not a fix in my case- is to disable hardware acceleration to all apps builded with Electron where that is doable (eg Visual Studio Code) and Chrome. For those of us who need to use hardware acceleration we are doomed. Thank you Apple for ignoring us one way or another!

Resetting NVRAM/PRAM is a temporary fix.

Disabling graphics acceleration is not a solution,

1. Not every application allows disabling graphics acceleration
2. Even if you disable it, the computer fan goes nuts and battery life goes down, and your laptop crawls like a $200 PC laptop.

The common denominator here is MBPro16". Apple needs to fix this bug.

Hi all, I chatted with a representative and Apple. He said that they are aware there is a problem and they are confident it's not a hardware issue. I do believe it's caused by the last update and are working on a fix for the next release. If the issue continues after the next update, then I (we) should definitely contact them again. Meanwhile, there are a few things we can do to minimize the inconvenience.

1) Shut down your computer instead of letting it sleep over night.

2) If putting you computer to sleep, unplugging it, wait a few, put it to sleep, then plug it back in.

3) Turn off "Enable Power Nap" in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in the Energy Saver in Settings.

4) Turn off "Prevent computer form sleeping..." in the "Power Adapter" tab (in the same place).

5) Turn off the "Enable Power Nap..." in the "Battery" tab (in the same place).

Alright some update is in place. The NVRAM reset did solve the blue lines, however...

Now other problems start when an application with GPU acceleration is started and takes only 10 to 20% CPU at peaks and uses 1 or 2 % GPU. All the time my external mouse lags over the screen when it starts. Then when the fans begin to blow with a really loud sound and the MacBook gets unresponsive. Then I have to look in Activity monitor which application is using some resources and stop this application. Then the macbook is somewhat usable again.

So yes, the blue lines did not reoccur.... but it now shifted to a new problem. The 2600 Euro laptop performs like a 200 dollar Windows laptop... Please, pretty please, no really PLEASE fix this issue!

If you're getting the kernel panics (restart while asleep) you have to do this or disconnect from the external before sleep.

Personally I turned off power nap/wake from wifi and I make sure to manually put it to sleep each time, in order for me to leave it plugged in to my official Apple LG Ultrafine 4k display that also powers the machine.

Yes, I have the same issue with both Safari and Chrome on:

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)

2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9

64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

AMD Radeon Pro 5600M 8 GB

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

The system is new, I've not monkeyed with it except to add a few apps and files since it cam out of the box. No OS settings have been changed, the graphics cards are as delivered.

It's not the display itself as it happens both on the MacBook and an attached Acer Display.

The last two times it happened I rebooted the system and this resolved the problem.

It's happened to me only after the system has been up for many days.

I wish Apple and/or AMD and/or Intel would recognise the issue, reproduce it and fix it. So annoying to have an "in yer face" problem like this on a new and expensive system from California's finest. Especially as it's been flagged and discussed by many people.

the issue is that its not just restricted to Chrome - ultimately I find that it happens if the machine is not shut down for more than 3 days and then it will appear across random programmes - at first i thought it was restricted to programmes that are based on Chromium however i have now also experienced in in others as well.

Interesting; I saw this with Chrome on my last MBP and thought the site I was visiting had some sort of hack messing with the display. Now it's starting to fuzz MS Teams, and this is a brand new 16" MBP. Doesn't seem to have an option to turn off hardware acceleration, though resizing the window seems to nudge it

Here are some links corroborating evidence towards this issue:

Google Chrome users, reporting this issue since April 2020

https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/39447594?hl=en

Macrumors forums, reporting the same since April 2020

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sudden-graphics-corruption-16-macbook-pro.2230856/page-2

Google Chromium bug tracker, also first reported April 2020:

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1068170#c179

Apple support was absymal – I was told my request will be forwarded to 'Apple Engineers' (where? when? no follow-up?) when the support session never got anywhere. There needs to be a concerted effort to highlight this known issue to Apple, and for Apple to acknowledge that there is either an issue with the mbp 16" hardware, or why Chromium is seemingly misbehaving with the mbp 16". For what it's worth, this could be an issue in Chromium, but a priority 1 bug that's open since April 2020 doesn't bode well. Are mbp 16" owners left with a lemon?

Restarting the laptop makes the problem go away, but the glitch will return, especially after a long period of sleep – this behaviour can be consistently repeated especially when your laptop is running a Chromium application and it goes to sleep, with or without a second display. Sometimes the glitch just shows up even after a period of regular use.

What seems to be the most viable interim solution is to disable "Out of process rasterization" in chrome://flags

This will 'resolve' the situation for a while. But the glitch has returned on my mbp 16" after a few weeks, exhibiting the exact same issues as above. For those asking where to disable 'Metal', Chrome's recent updates have removed that option.

'Disabling hardware acceleration' on Chrome is not feasible – as mentioned by the previous post, so many apps rely on the Chromium framework. Running most of them without HW acceleration is impossible. Therefore, not a solution.

Also please don't provide the advice of resetting the NVRAM – this has been tested to not work, and comes across as an uninformed, untested bandaid 'fix'.

This is my current 'testing' routine that I run whenever glitches begin to occur in Chrome. I launch the applications in this list below to see if the glitch carries over to other applications – in all instances this has happened, the glitch shows up across the board.

Safari now added to the list too, with versions added.

Current list of software known to have the blue glitches (when it triggers):

1. Safari Version 14.0 (15610.1.28.1.9, 15610) (specifically, WebGL content)
2. Google Chrome 86.0.4240.111 (Official Build) (x86_64) (specifically, WebGL content)
3. Miro 0.4.2 – main window doesn't glitch, but Developer Tools does
4. Spotify 1.1.45.621.gdddebadc – main window doesn't glitch, but speaker selection popup does

Interestingly, these two applications below seem to have been 'fixed' – perhaps via a recent update from the developers? Did they figure out a way to work around the hardware acceleration glitch?

1. Adobe Lightroom Classic 9.3 Build [202005281810-476e492c]
2. Microsoft Teams 1.3.00.28778

So the signs point to something that is potentially fixable software-wise, which perhaps is a relief (compared to a hardware fault).

Hey Apple, Safari has now joined the blue glitch list. Can you raise this as a priority bug now to investigate?

Added MS VS Code to the list.

It's just a theory right now, but here's the following account of how my glitches occur:

1. Typically, the glitches trigger especially after the mbp wakes from sleep after a longish period (a few hours to overnight – this has been experienced rather consistently since April)
2. The likelihood of the glitch triggering is much higher if I have webGL / HW-accelerated graphic views actively rendered when the mbp goes to sleep
3. After the glitch triggers, any application that attempts to access hardware-accelerated graphics in a particular way/routine will result in the glitch in the application as well – in this case, Chromium being one candidate, but now we know that Safari and Firefox do the same too. For example, I could wake the mbp in the morning, get the glitch in Safari, and have this same glitch show up by opening any software in the list below
4. This problem is not necessarily tied directly to Chromium anymore. Could this be a deeper hardware fault?

Current list of software known to have the blue glitches (when it triggers, see above):

1. Safari Version 14.0 (15610.1.28.1.9, 15610) (specifically, WebGL content)
2. Firefox 82.0.2 (64-bit) (specifically, WebGL content)
3. Google Chrome 86.0.4240.111 (Official Build) (x86_64) (specifically, WebGL content)
4. Microsoft Visual Studio Code 1.50.1 – main window doesn't glitch, but Developer Tools does
5. Miro 0.4.2 – main window doesn't glitch, but Developer Tools does
6. Spotify 1.1.45.621.gdddebadc – main window doesn't glitch, but speaker selection popup does

As I mentioned in my previous comments, interestingly, the two applications listed below seem to not have the glitches anymore – perhaps via a recent update from the developers? Did they figure out a way to work around the hardware acceleration glitch, or simply chose not to rely on h/w acceleration for some of the views causing the problem?

1. Adobe Lightroom Classic 9.3 Build [202005281810-476e492c]
2. Microsoft Teams 1.3.00.28778

Just noticed in today's glitch report. It was the usual 'trigger' – let the MBP go to sleep overnight, wake it in the morning to resume work, blue/green glitches.

This time though, it's not intensive WebGL views that manifested the glitch, but just standard UI webviews drawn via JS from a browser window. In other words, a website / web applications that likely utilised some form of graphics acceleration in JS.

Nothing new, just confirming and renewing the issue here – that this glitch is not an edge case limited to high-intensity WebGL graphics (they simply are more likely to trigger).