How to remove black horizontal lines appearing on the screen of MacBook Pro

Add me to the list. Yesterday (8/14/24) my MBP 13" (2018) developed a screen full of black horizontal lines. It looks to be every 16th line of pixels. Very consistent. After reading this thread, I slowly closed the screen and (surprise, surprise) at about 45 degrees, the lines disappear. There seems to be a little screen flicker from time to time as well. The lines can even reverse, with white horizontal lines on a black background- interestingly, when I took a ss of this, the ss looks fine (those lines didn't show up). So what does that tell us as far as trouble-shooting?

Given the age of my computer, I think I'll be replacing rather than repairing (although I really am going to miss the LED ribbon!). I think it's shocking how prevalent this problem is with Apple, so the question is- replace with an M4 MBP when they arrive, or jump ship?

Its extremely shocking that a corporate of the strature of Apple does not have a conclusive diagonistic for this huge issue faced by large number of users. It should be bought to the notice of industry observers and regulators since taking Apple to courts is not easy for individuals. It borders on mis-guidance and mal-practise and leaves the door open for incompetent unaccountable Apple Service center ( who focus more on sales than service) to give tentative and speculative advice . Apple warranty and Apple Care terms probably include this matter but its definately not loud and clear to many many like us.

Same issue today, with exact behavior other users reported:

> if i tilt the screen toward the keyboard, at about 45 degrees the lines go away

Apple where are you? the solution can't be always "bring your mac to an Apple store, they will fix"!

LCD panel can't be damaged since it works perfectly then the screen is half-closed, seems more like some software bug on Sonoma?

Edit: I already tried to reset anything, NVRAM, PRAM and SMC, issue still there.

Same issue here with my Macbook Pro 16 2019: When closing / tilting the screen to about 45 degrees the lines disappear until you open it again. The lines then permeate the entire screen in regular intervals.

Playing with the issue a bit I also find other behavior that might narrow the issue down

1. as described the lines are permanent when the display is open, disappear when the display is closed to 45 degrees and then reappear when you open it again
2. they do not appear on any of my extended monitors
3. when you have your screen open and scroll through content, the first displayed content becomes a permanent watermark that interferes with the display of other content

I am guessing here, but

1. this sounds like the display itself is working (otherwise the lines would be permanent)
2. the graphic card is by and large working (otherwise the lines would appear on the external monitors)
3. it has to be an issue between graphic processing and the actual display (someone mentioned further down that a cable might be faulty? ... I am not certain how a faulty cable could create such a regular pattern though)
4. this pattern seems to exist for many other users, folks that had the device less than a year and longer. Hence indicating a systemic issue with the device

Consequently I would definitely point at Apple here to fix the issue since they shipped a device that is now malfunctioning and (at least for my case and others apparently here as well) without user error.

Apple will probably argue to read the warranty / general "fine-print" about device longevity though ...

For my part I have to weigh the same decision now as others did below: Is the next one an Apple device or do I finally break out of the ecosystem lock ... once gone, I will probably not come back.

orin146 wrote:

Apple, how are you not going to respond here with a solution??

Welcome to the Apple User-to-User discussions forums.

Readers are other Users like you. Apple does not monitor the forums for technical issues, and only respounds when a discussion goes completely unanswered for days. Otherwise, NO official response are provided here, and the discussions are not tracked or tabulated.

If other Users are unable to make enough helpful suggestions to solve your problem, you should contact official Apple Support.

Official Apple Support

.

I have had a similar issue recently, found a very thin vertical line across display. I just bought my M2 Air not more than a month ago, it suddenly appear to me yesterday. Then I took real notice, and got really scared. Most of articles i found online would suggest some kinda damage and rest will ask you to install cleanMyMac to run tests(lol).

Anyways I search for diagnostics, found wireless diagnostics, ran it. Then i tried inverting color from settings, then i didn't found the line. I tried deadpixel test online, looking at the display really carefully in complete white color. But it was gone. I have no idea how or why. And it was not there earlier than I noticed, i can assure that.

Yes I have just developed the same problem with my 16" MacBook Pro 2019. Same issue; close the screen a bit and the lines disappear. I am hoping I can plug into an external screen and ignore the problem for the time being, but was hoping for another three years of service at least, on what was an expensive piece of kit and with what should have been a good resale value. Always well looked after. One thought: this issue only arose after I installed the latest Sequoia software. Have people experienced a similar issue? There are no fixes it appears.

charliestudio

I am still running Monterey on my 2018 MBP and have the same problem, so it can't really be the OS. To me it has to be the connection between the computer and the screen (what we used to call the ribbon). Such as shame that Apple chooses to ignore this relatively common problem that seems to occur across many years and models. Many of us have specifically posted how carefully we handle our MBPs, which makes it that much more annoying.

I have the same issue on Mac M1 2021 Ventura. Is the trouble shooting the same as above ? How does one find the root cause ?

Same thing happend to my macbook air which I just purchased this year. Haven’t dropped it and I barely used it

I have the same issue, if I tilt the screen back lines pop up. MacBook 16 inch 2019. Must be a hardware issue

Same thing happened to my macbook pro m1 2020 last night. It was on the desk and I was talking to my friend when I realised there are horizontal lines filling about 3 centimeters of bottom of my screen and they flicker.

I tried resetting, updating os, reseting PRAM. None worked. Don't know what else to do.

Tilting the screen tward my keybord make the flickering weaker but still see the lines.

also now some times when I shut the macbook down, for a milisecond the mac screen becomes pink entirely.

Any solutions?

I purchased my MacBook Pro 16 Inch M1 and I'm experiencing the same thing. Luckily I'm still under warranty and have insurance in my MacBook Pro, but I had to buy THIS new MacBook Pro because my old 16 inch MacBook Pro took a s*** after 1.5 years of use (was told I needed to buy a new logic board on that model while hundreds of users were experiencing a similar defect).

Been getting really disappointed with Apple as of late. I've spent more than $20K on Apple products over my lifetime and I'm starting to see Apple's priority over profit vs. its product.

I'm getting my screen fixed and if this happens again, I'm done with Apple.

It is a genuine problem which should be addressed by Apple. Considering already many have spent a considerable amount on screen replacement buut the problem persists.

Found a link to help with the potential cause.

[Edited by Moderator]

Hi, did they charge you any amount to fix it? My MacBook is also under warranty and it’s the same situation with me as well. It neither dropped nor got hit but has strange horizontal and vertical lines on it. The lines don’t appear on the screenshot but appears on the laptop screen!