2017 MacBook Pro Display Flashing Black

Now, I'm pretty sure this isn't the cause but this only started a month or so ago after connecting to AirPlay for the first time (got a new TV with AirPlay built in and was trying it out).

Since then, my built-in MacBook display would very intermittently flash black. It wasn't that the display was turning off, it was that the screen was black (the backlight was clearly on). But very intermittently, and seemed to only happen at certain angles. Not a huge bother, would have been happy to live with that for a few more years until I'd purchase a new model.

Last night though, suddenly started flashing black every other second. And if I move the mouse around, the screen will be black until I stop.

I've tried resetting SMC, NVRAM, disabling anything related to screen dimming, ran diagnostic mode (reported no hardware problems), tried safe mode (works fine), and connected to external displays (no black flashing on both the external display and the problematic built-in). I also reinstalled Monterey, and upgraded to Ventura.

Since connecting to an external display seemed to mitigate things, tried out the BetterDisplay app to create a dummy display I could connect to in the background without being tethered to an external display - that didn't work.

The Genius Bar says that the hardware diagnostic mode pays no attention to the screen, which is why it reports no issues. They also claimed my privacy cover overtop the webcam as putting too much pressure on the display.

In short, it works fine under safe mode and when there's another display connected. Otherwise, now flashing black constantly. Out of warranty and out of ideas and really irritating my eyes. Also worth noting this is an integrated graphics model, not discrete. So, I can't disable automatic graphics switching.

Does anyone have any suggestions besides replacing the machine?

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