MacBook Pro 2017 (13") – screen pixel/line flickering

Hi everyone,

I ran into a very frustrating issue today and have tried a variety of solutions (all described in more detail below), to no avail. I would greatly appreciate any help or useful pointers that you provide!

My questions with regards to the information below:

1. Has anyone encountered this specific issue before? If so, was it on the same/similar model?

2. Does anyone know what the cause may be, and if so, what the fix/solution is?

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Hardware and software:

• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
• masOS Catalina Version 10.15.5

Description of problem (see attached images):

• Short horizontal lines (one to several pixels wide) randomly flicker/flash on the screen.
• The problem seems to be worse in certain applications, especially web browsers (this holds for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox). However, there seems to be no difference between pages with static (only text/images) and dynamic (GIF/video) content.
• This flickering can also be seen above the Dock from time to time, especially when an application is open and on screen (i.e. not minimised).
• When all windows are minimised and only the desktop is visible, these random flickers do not seem to occur.
• During boot/start-up, when the Apple logo and loading bar are shown, there is a single, vertical line stretching all the way from the top to the bottom of the screen, on the right-half of the screen.
• Now, whenever I open the screen, the Apple logo and loading bar (i.e. same as during boot/startup) are shown briefly before the lock screen is show. This is new behaviour that I have never encountered before.

Further notes:

• I frequently use an external monitor as a second display. None of the above mentioned flickering occurs on the external monitor. For example, if there is flickering in a given browser window, as soon as I move that window across to the other display, the flickering in that window stops.
• I have never dropped or otherwise damaged by MacBook.

Attempted solutions:

(Please note that none of these attempted solutions have fixed the problem.)

• Regular restart; regular shutdown and boot/startup
• Unplugging and re-plugging external monitor/display (HDMI via Apple "USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter")
• NVRAM reset
• SMC reset
• Safe Mode boot (and subsequent shut down and boot in normal mode)