Display Issue - Horizontal blue lines in application windows

Last week my 14 month old 2019 MacBook Pro 16 with i9 Core started producing thin black horizontal lines 2 mm apart on my screen. Lines would vanish when screen was closed to a smaller angle (30 degrees) and then reappear, when opening wider. Also experienced occasions ghosting of images or overlapping app windows. Took the MBP 16 to the Apple Store for further diagnosis. Techs indicated that it could be a loose display cable. They offered to check for a possible loose display cable and re-seat it. If not resolved, said display would have to be replaced. For what it’s worth. (Apple offline and online diagnostics performed all indicated no other hardware problems, with the GPU, etc. yet... Problem seemed to be diagnosed. Attaching an external display is also helpful in diagnostic of the GPU, and external display was normal. Headed back to the Apple Store next week. Not at all pleased with this situation.

Issue isn't be solved in Big Sur Public Beta10 as well.

Big Sur 11.0.1 Beta for developer is released, has you tried to see whether the issue is fixed in this version?

Same here, but I'll add that I've also been noticing that the computer seems to restart randomly over night too. In the morning I get messages like "This computer restarted because of a problem..." and browsers asking if I want to re-open the tabs.

At one point I was working late and the screen froze. I could still hear music and people talking on Zoom. That lasted about 1 min, then the screen had that crazy color pattern and I was kicked to the main login screen. I restarted and everything was fine again.

I did reset NVRAM/PRAM that night, and had the issue again this morning. Seems to start in the browser inspector, then eventually spreads to youtube videos, and then the whole screen. This happens in Chrome and in the new Edge for Mac.

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)

Processor: 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9

Memory: 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 4 GB

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

Out of curiosity I ran the Color Sync Utility. It found these errors that it wasn't able to fix:

Searching for profiles...
Checking 60 profiles...
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/VideoPAL.icc
   Header message digest (MD5) is not correct. 
   The file is locked. Could not be fixed.
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/VideoHD.icc
   Header message digest (MD5) is not correct. 
   The file is locked. Could not be fixed.
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/VideoNTSC.icc
   Header message digest (MD5) is not correct. 
   The file is locked. Could not be fixed.
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/Recommended/image-P3.icc
   Header message digest (MD5) is not correct. 
   The file is locked. Could not be fixed.
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Color/Profiles/JapanColor2011Coated.icc
   Tag ‘desc’: Description tag has a bad Unicode string. 
   The file is locked. Could not be fixed.
/System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/ITU-2020.icc
   Header message digest (MD5) is not correct. 
   The file is locked. Could not be fixed.
Repair done. 0 out of 6 profiles fixed.

I hope we can find a cure for this thing. :)

I have the same issue; chrome, MSTeams, WhatsApp & safari are all affected. I didn’t see this post, and exchanged my 16inch MBP for another one however, the issue is still persistent on the replacement.

Clearing NVRAM does nothing. Disabling GPU on MSTeams caused it to freeze so it is also pointless.

I have also noticed that it happens only after the display is woken from sleep, if that helps anyone in the short term. I was convinced it was the hardware however we all have different graphics cards.

Apple really needs to try to resolve this issue.

That's the proof I was waiting for; i.e. reinstalling OSX doesn't solve the problem! My theory is that it has to be either a hardware problem in the GPU installed on MacBook pro 16, or a software bug in how the device access and uses the GPU! The SW bug is much easier to fix since it is basically a fix that can be included in a next release of the OSX. The hardware problem is only solved by exchanging the motherboard with one that uses a different GPU. And it is an "if" that different GPUs are pin and function-compatible with the one installed in the 16" units. If it is not, it means a new design of the motherboard, hence the delay!

How can we get an official response from Apple on how they intend to resolve this problem?

Unfortunately, the above interim solution does not work consistently. See follow-up comment posted there (#189).

Apple, Safari is now affected too. This is not a one-off problem with just my hardware – the glitches are being reported across multiple users on the mbp 16".

To be clear, resetting NVRAM doesn't work – this should not have been accepted as the 'answer' for this question.

Restarting resolves the issue, only for it to come back again.

I'll share links here again for anyone wanting to understand the extent of this issue:

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

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

chuank wrote:

From the Chromium bug tracker (which is now locked):

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1068170#c195

Everyone: Apple has indicated that they have created a more reliable set of steps to reproduce this in-house and continue to investigate it.

Whose court is the ball in now? I do not know.

Perhaps it's just us software devs complaining about this issue. Seems that way. I believe software devs encounter this more often as we are coding, testing and leaving our WebGL views open and running on our browser tabs all the time. The problem is particularly easy to reproduce if you have intensive WebGL operations running (say three.js/babylon.js/pixi.js), let your machine go to sleep and wake it up after an hour (or overnight).

Interestingly, the Google Chrome support page is now rife with end-users claiming the problem was 'worked around' when they disabled H/W acceleration – as I've mentioned multiple times above, not a permanent solution given the drastic reduction in WebGL graphics rendering performance.

Some are even claiming success in resetting NVRAM – or what I call the slap-the-TV-in-case-of-poor-reception fix. No, it doesn't work. Would have been great if it did! I'm wondering why folks would post things like that and call it a day. It is more likely that resetting NVRAM simply forces you to restart the computer, but the problem will eventually come back again.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm not the only one facing a similar situation that is impacting how we work. The Chromium GPU process restarts no longer work reliably for me – I just force a reboot. Incidentally all similar Chromium apps have the "GPU Helper" process that you can also attempt to spam kill but it hasn't worked for me.

I just wish more will step forward to echo these similar issues. Thanks for chiming in.

+1

I think it's critical not to describe this issue as being 'fixed' when the proposed solutions are just workarounds. This is not to disregard the helpful advice others in the community have been providing though. However, the problem is still there, and there's an elephant in the room.

Disabling HW acceleration sidesteps the issue. The combination of software/hardware issues triggering the graphics corruption is still there, you are just sticking duct tape over the leaky hole. For those of us who rely on the machine to write WebGL-intensive code and projects, this isn't a satisfactory solution, and I'm glad I'm not the only one saying this here.

Automatic Graphics Switching is similar too – I would venture that toggling it off/on again gives the graphics subsystem a way to re-initialise certain portions of the hardware acceleration without rebooting. It does not work for me – I wish it could.

At the very least it seems like Apple folks are getting cc'ed into the loop at the Chromium bug tracker

@brain_ : Well, for starters, this discussion thread has been flagged by a Level 10 community member @leroydouglas with a solution that Apple has recommended.

It is very clear that this 'recommended solution' does not work. Unless you're happy resetting NVRAM every time the glitches appear. But the true workaround to resetting NVRAM is that the restart of your computer during said process is the step that temporarily fixes the issue. Nothing to do with NVRAM at all. I likened this previously to having your car mechanic change the engine oil for anything that's gone wrong; put in a decently complex reset keyboard sequence and most non-tech folks will probably see it as a legitimate initialisation cure-all. Granted it is a good troubleshooting step to perform, but it is not the solution here.

So, as long as there are folks here (and on the Chrome discussion list) claiming one of the following as 'fixes', we will never see an expedited resolution to this. Perhaps the next generation MBP will make us forget about it?

1. Disable H/W acceleration – this is actually needed to perform WebGL work
2. Toggle Automatic Graphics Switching – never worked for me (although others have claimed it does?)
3. Reset NVRAM – might as well go change the engine oil in your car while you're at it

For the devs out here still suffering from this issue, is it ok to suggest that you open a support case so that this can be heard more loudly from more of us. It just might be the fact that it's not on the priority list, or that it's being looked into actively, but we'll never quite know at this rate.

Just to add some more information:

MacBook Pro 16-inch 2019

Big Sur 11.2.3 (up to date)

RAM 64GB

CPU 2.4 GHz Intel i9

Graphics AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8GB

And I have been having the problem with more than one software, not only with Google Chrome (for instance, today it has happened with WhatsApp own app).

I have the same problem with a new company-administered laptop - using Vivaldi & Chrome

Rebooting seems to fix it - without the need to reset NVRAM/PRAM

Very, very annoying

Glad I'm not the only person having that issue.

I have a Macbook Pro from 2019 and I've seen this issue recently show up on a couple of websites and web apps, but can't track down the exact issue.

I suppose it has something to do with GPU and some websites being GPU-enabled or something similar. I haven't tried resetting NVRAM/PRAM yet as this only happens occasionally and usually goes away when scrolling or closing/reopening the app.

Oh my god I thought I was the only one that experienced it as well. Tried googling but all the issues were in 2018 and something else until I finally found this thread.

I see the exact same issue as you. Blue horizontal lines only on chrome (Version 80.0.3987.163 (Official Build) (64-bit)

It shows up mostly after a night of sleep, and it appears on various sites (randomly) as well as popups, youtube video play bar ... etc

First two times, issue went away after restart. Third time issue went away randomly

My mac is also the latest 16" - refurbished

Hmm, this makes me wonder if Chrome is crashing my mac? If that is the case, then Edge for Mac browser would have the same feature. Maybe there's something new about the Mac OS that is at fault? So many questions, so little Apple reps to answer them. :( Oh well. Hopefully this thing goes away. Thanks for the tip! I turned off hardware acceleration.

Hi there, glad i'm not the only one getting this as well, it happens in browsers, whatapp and even figma this is defiantly a graphics card driver issue.. Hope they get this sorted soon as opening and closing apps is getting dam annoying.