possible cooling problem with screen flickers

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Level 1

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possible cooling problem with screen flickers

hi good day

I am using a MacBook Pro retina late 2013 15 inches (ME294)

about 6 months ago I replaced my front assembly and it was working ok since then

a few days ago when I was watching a High-quality movie(x265 1080p) suddenly some lines horizontal appeared on the screen. pretty organized. I did all the tests such SMC reset, using HDMI and etc. no help. Tomorrow morning it became ok but after a few hours, I saw the problem became worse. the screen became totally flickers and color mixed and stuck. with small touching and pressure, the bottom of the screen would come temporarily but again goes...

I did a compressed air on the inlets and just wait...

one of the local repairs told me it is the problem with the screen ribbon (without opening) but I don't think that be the case.

Right now it is working almost normally. It shows random behavior. for many hours it's working perfectly but suddenly it shows some small flickers or change in brightness momentarily. but not crazy like the first day. right now it's working perfectly only it just stuck for a second randomly.

I doubted the problem be the cooling and with onboard GPU so I disabled graphic switching.

I just got a report for iStatica it shows my fan is on 2000 rpm but the temperatures are quite high although I am not actually doing anything special now. just a few web tabs open.

Is this report normal?

do you recommend I open and give the fans and heatsinks a cleaning or add some thermal paste on the GPU?

right now

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Jan 12, 2022 9:16 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,602 points

Jan 14, 2022 9:06 AM in response to alireza787b

Assuming Spotlight is not index a drive and assuming you do not have any anti-virus software, cleaning apps, or third party security software installed, then those temps are high for just a system idle especially if you've given the laptop time to cool down after working it. You can use Activity Monitor (select "All Processes" too) to see if you see the "mds" processes doing a lot of extended work.

First, I would run the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected.

Then cleaning the fans and heatsink fins would be a good idea. You may also want to put fresh thermal paste on the heatsink. Keep in mind that the GPU may not require any thermal paste so go by what Apple has done from the factory (if the GPU doesn't get thermal paste you may see that the heatsink is not meant to make contact with the GPU die). The original Apple heatsink thermal compound tends to fail after several years of use and your laptop is eight years old.

How are the temps when booted into Safe Mode?

Since you have the 15" model, it may have a bad GPU which is a very common issue and the 2013 model did have a free GPU repair program back in the day (now expired). You can try forcing the laptop to use the Intel GPU instead of the discrete GPU by using the gfxCardStatus app.

https://gfx.io

https://github.com/steveschow/gfxCardStatus

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Answer 2

alireza787b Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 29, 2022 10:02 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks for the great guide... It helped alot

I upended the case and used the blower to just clean it a little. I didn’t replace the thermal paste.

but again it happened...

suddenly by accident, I had to use my battery until the last percent. After that when I recharged this problem never occure again.

I have no idea if it is by accident and this problem can return any second or it was actually a power problem and not a display problem. My cycle is 1050 now. exactly the day before this problem happen, I used my laptop in a very cold environment (-5 c) although I had 80% charged it showed me no battery. when I returned indoor and charged it, it came back to life...

I just doubt maybe this problem is just a noise or some deficiency from old battery? Can it be the cause? It`s been a week and the problem never returned.

The only problem I have right now is since that amatuer repair service man first adviced me that my display module is dead and no longer usable, I pushed on the screen edges for temporary fix… because of that, some columns of dead flickering pixels (very limited and small) appeared on the edge of my screen. Is there anything I can do to prevent those few columns to spread? Because I feel it is slowly spreading… I am ok to have them :) but spreading flickering pixels is a nightmare.

unfortunately, there is no apple authorized service in my country and I am on my own :)

P.S: You won't believe it:))) It JUST happened again now (after a week). just after submitting it(It is acting smart :D) . but it was temporary. with just doing a sleep and login again it goes. Now it is ok after two minutes:))). Its interesting when I enter this apple forum page my fan start spinning so fast :) Why exactly:)))) even faster than using Matlab and Simulink and editing software.... My CPU is at 93 now.:)) better get out sooner :))

So I want your advice to know if it is a power problem or thermal problem or sth more serious

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

60,602 points

Jan 29, 2022 10:41 AM in response to alireza787b

I think it is time to retire this laptop. There is nothing you can do if the screen issues are affected by touching/moving the Display as that indicates cracks in the LCD Panel or a cable associated with the LCD or Display Assembly.

When waking a Mac, macOS can do a lot of work to get back up running so it is not unusual for the CPU to get hot for a short period of time. The longer the Mac has been asleep or off, then the more things macOS will do once booted such as scanning the system and checking for macOS & software updates.

For any heat issue, it usually means the CPU is doing some work with some app or process. Make sure Activity Monitor is configured to show "All Processes" when looking to see what is using the most CPU cycles or power. macOS and the Apple laptops regulate the system temperature to keep the maximum temps below about 100C (some systems may go a few degrees higher), so as long as the laptop's temps stay below that and the fan speed is actually above idle at times, then the cooling system is most likely working fine although new thermal compound can lower the overall idle temps by about 10C.

Of course I'm assuming that you do not have any third party software installed that may be causing the system to be stressed and heated. Anti-virus apps, cleaning apps, and third party security software are notorious for causing problems with the normal operation of macOS. A clean install of macOS by first erasing the drive before installing macOS (internal or external) is the only way to truly eliminate a software issue as long as the laptop is thoroughly tested before restoring/migrating from a backup and before installing any third party apps. If a clean install is fine, then try manually reinstalling your apps one at a time (or a few at a time) to see if one of them is causing a problem.

You can run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. If you give EtreCheck "Full Disk Access", then the report will contain more information which may contain clues especially since the report will also include a summary of recent logs which can sometimes indicate apps which are having issues.

The Apple Diagnostics will usually reveal a problem if there are any power or thermal/cooling issues especially with the fans and sensors. If you boot into Safe Mode, then the system idle CPU temps should ideally be about 35C to 40C although with old thermal compound the temps could be as high as 50C at idle.

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possible cooling problem with screen flickers

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