Hi everyone!
I've recently experienced a very weird issue on my new MacBook air M1. At some point, the screen became super contrast, the colours don't look right and there is "footprint" of the buttons from the browser window. Please check the attached picture (top left corner).
I've tried to reinstall the OS and colour calibration, but it didn't help.
Has anyone come across the same issue before? I wonder if it is a hardware or software issue.
MacBook
OK, based on your screen pic and making allowance for distortion in reporting here and it was taken with an external camera, it looks like your screen background pic is Big Sur/Night, with its White/Black menu bar instead of my default black/white, and your Dock icons look normal. I think this is going to be a Settings issue. However I can't find all the settings I wanted to check and try to reproduce your problem (you can't say Apple doesn't give us all the controls, and I'm still learning where all the toys are hidden on my MacBook Air/M1)
Suggestions:
Go into your Photos and check how some known pictures appear in Preview. If they look good your hardware is working OK so settings for the screen background wallpaper becomes a stronger suspect.
Do pictures in web pages (or videos, or loads of other external sources) look correct? In other words, is it only your desktop wallpaper looks wrong?
Get a screen capture (Command+Shift+3) then view the screenshot on a different device (?iCloud share to your iPhone? or email it to yourself?). If it looks right the system is generating the correct image but your screen (the display part) is adjusting the image. Whether that is settings or a hardware defect remains to be seen, but this really has the feel of Settings.
Places I found in Preferences where you could have accidentally tweaked a setting include General (dark mode?), Display (try a different picture?) and Accessibility (careful, there are shortcuts for some of the Accessibility items).
I'm sorry to report that I've had the same issue with a M1 Macbook air. Though mine started out with severe flickering (pure whites would turn to light blue and other visual issues). Now it seems to have lost some of its colour resolution (I did play around with resetting / toggling all of the display settings) and produces the same ghosting that you've shared a photograph of. If I leave it unpowered for a few days, the ghosts fade but come right back when used for any length of time.
Things tried:
Other than this (very sad experience) the machine seems pretty awesome given the new Apple Silicon.
Gallex wrote:
Thank you so much @branta_uk! Great stuff!
I played further with the settings, wallpapers, etc. Indeed I had Night mode, true tone (at some point) and most importantly big user dynamic wallpaper. After switching to the light theme and still wallpaper, the background picture looks better. I went further and played with different colours applying them as a wallpaper picture. I found the same "footprint" with a grey colour. Have a look:
Pay attention to the top part, you will see the browser "footprint" there. I thought it might be some sort of weird transparency, however, nothing changes even if I shut down chrome completely.
By the way, screenshots are generated correctly, no issues on other screens. So the question, if it is software or hardware, is still pending. I am leaning towards it being a hardware issue. I have to wait till the lockdown is lifted before I can go to Apple Store for diagnostics so in the meantime I will continue playing with settings and report here.
Your screen pic looks a little odd, the menu and dock look normal enough but the rest of the screen looks almost like it has one of those annoying website popups over it. I think it would be worth trying to identify and close the "ghost apps" - if necessary use the menu, then Force Quit menu to terminate them and see if you can get back to something like the default screen.
I don't see this as high probability for a hardware problem, because it seems to be too consistent. Hardware faults are either random in appearance or (more often) very permanent and dead. A hardware problem in the display would also hit your main menu bar and the Dock.
looks like a screen burn issue. do you happen to increase the screen brightness to its maximum and leave the screen at a static state for a long period of time?
Thank you so much @branta_uk! Great stuff!
I played further with the settings, wallpapers, etc. Indeed I had Night mode, true tone (at some point) and most importantly big user dynamic wallpaper. After switching to the light theme and still wallpaper, the background picture looks better. I went further and played with different colours applying them as a wallpaper picture. I found the same "footprint" with a grey colour. Have a look:
Pay attention to the top part, you will see the browser "footprint" there. I thought it might be some sort of weird transparency, however, nothing changes even if I shut down chrome completely.
By the way, screenshots are generated correctly, no issues on other screens. So the question, if it is software or hardware, is still pending. I am leaning towards it being a hardware issue. I have to wait till the lockdown is lifted before I can go to Apple Store for diagnostics so in the meantime I will continue playing with settings and report here.
If anyone would come across a similar issue, please feel free to share your experience and ideas for a possible fix.
Jagmn wrote:
Ran Apple Diagnostics• - no issues found
• Spoke to Apple Support: they recommended getting the machine in for 'service'.
• So this is the step I'm waiting on. Lockdown means that the nearest service center to me with available slots is over 60 miles away so I'm going to see if Apple can accept a shipped machine.
Other than this (very sad experience) the machine seems pretty awesome given the new Apple Silicon.
Yes, this lockdown is causing a few problems with Apple Stores closed for the duration and staff working under difficult conditions. Your suggestion of more or less random variations does suggest a hardware problem so they need to see it on the test bench to understand and provide a fix. This might take a little longer than usual, but I'm confident Apple will come through to get you a satisfactory result.
macbook air m1 display issues
