2019 MBP 15” A1990 Screen Dying… is repair worth it?

[cb911]

Well looks like my MBP is on the fritz. Or the screen at least. I thought it could be the ribbon cable or something, but took it to the Apple Store and they confirmed no loose connectors and said it’s the LCD panel for sure as it’s fading around the edges.

All ok using an external display.

The new screen is around AUD $1,200 or so, with a 12 month warranty. Doesn’t seem worth it… is there any chance it’s not the display and there’s something else I should get checked? Any cheaper repair option? (Why is the 15” display so expensive, I can see 13” displays for around $300-400?)

Just wondering why the screen would have failed? It spent most of its life sitting on a desk.

What is the best way to keep using it until I get a new one? I really want to keep the setup as compact as possible and would like to keep using the touchbar… maybe a portable USB C display placed over the MacBook screen?

 

[Bigwaff]

Get second opinion from Apple authorized repair shop. If you don’t want to spend for repair, just use with mirror to external display. Eventually laptop display panel get worse and unusable but external mirror display will keep working.

 

[Fishrrman]

Since "it spent most of its life sitting on a desk", just close the lid and use an external display.

But... I believe the cost of a "repair" isn't worth it any more.
It's time to start looking for a replacement.

A closing thought (my opinion only):
If the replacement is just going to "sit on a desk", then I'd consider either a Mac Mini (with the "pro" CPU) or a Mac Studio. Desktop computers usually work best "for desktop use"...

 

[cb911]

So to throw a curve ball amongst the display issues… I’ve been persisting with an external monitor but needed to boot to Windows and actually move the MacBook from the desk. 😆

Well guess what - there’s no display issues when it boots to Windows!

So what gives? This tells me it’s not a hardware issue at all??

Possibly related to a software glitch I can’t reboot to Mac OS, it gets stuck in a loop asking for the HD password and rebooting. The built in Mac OS recovery doesn’t work, gives “error 21” and greys out the “Macintosh HD” partition. Going to try internet recovery/clean install and see how that goes.

 

[BeatCrazy]

So to throw a curve ball amongst the display issues… I’ve been persisting with an external monitor but needed to boot to Windows and actually move the MacBook from the desk. 😆

Well guess what - there’s no display issues when it boots to Windows!

So what gives? This tells me it’s not a hardware issue at all??

Possibly related to a software glitch I can’t reboot to Mac OS, it gets stuck in a loop asking for the HD password and rebooting. The built in Mac OS recovery doesn’t work, gives “error 21” and greys out the “Macintosh HD” partition. Going to try internet recovery/clean install and see how that goes.

That's weird. I would completely erase the SSD and restore from internet recovery.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

What happens if you start in Safe Mode?

 

[cb911]

Did a fresh install of Sonoma (let the Bootcamp volume remain) and it looked fine. Tho when I came back to it after being in sleep for quite a few hours there was some slight fading around the edges of the display so I’ve shut it down now and will check again tomorrow.

Everything I did before the erase and install still had the display glitch to varying degrees, some were more pronounced than others which is weird. This Apple boot screen was one (attachment 1).

When it was in the Sonoma internet recovery and then the first boot it was fine (attachment 2).

Well I’m glad I didn’t make any rash decisions and put it on eBay as a $0.99 auction. 😅

 

[Arctic Moose]

Very weird! What happens if you run Windows for an extended period of time, including some graphics-intensive tasks?

 

[cb911]

Very weird! What happens if you run Windows for an extended period of time, including some graphics-intensive tasks?

It was showing the faded edges when booting into Windows (same as on the Apple boot screen), but they pretty much disappeared once it started up. Ran this graphics test and it was fine (attached - maybe some very very slight shadowing/fading around the edge of the display).

Ran the same Unigine test booted into Sonoma and it was fine as well. Still acting weird in Mac OS tho, when waking from sleep the screen is a total whiteout and the colour slowly comes into it... was getting a weird flickering as well. Turned off automatic graphics switching and it's been pretty stable since... It's got me so confused. Not sure if maybe it's a power supply issue or maybe the LCD panel is on the way out? Or if either the Intel or AMD hardware has an issue? Or something to do with display modes/settings like Dark Mode or True Tone..?

Is there a way to check whether Intel or AMD graphics are currently being used? I thought "About This Mac" would show that, but it's been showing Intel graphics this whole time, even after I switched off automatic graphics switching?