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TotalMacMove

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 18, 2013
1,189
1,828
USA
So I have used my macbook pro retina 2013 in clamshell mode 90% of the time for the past two years.. recently, the computer has been unresponsive when trying to wake up with the keyboard so I have to open up the laptop and hold the power button as the keyboard nor the trackpad on the laptop dont do anything either.. anyone know the problem?

Also, I noticed just today when opening it up and having to restart it, these spots all over the left side of the screen.. it looked dirty so I tried to clean it, no bueno. Laptop has not been dropped nor even moved much so I am confused? You can’t really see these spots too well when the screen is on but they are still there and spreading from what it appears.

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TotalMacMove

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 18, 2013
1,189
1,828
USA
It could be grease (in which case a slightly damp soapy cloth would get it off) or the anti-reflective coating coming off. If the latter, you've got to just learn to love it or painstakingly remove the rest of it.

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/17/apple-extends-free-staingate-repairs/

Oh wow this is the first I am hearing of this "staingate".. It appears that this is what is happening to my macbook. It is much older than 4 years old though so I have to deal with it. Have people been successful in fixing this themselves? It seems like its getting worse so I will need to DIY it..
 

adrianlondon

macrumors 603
Nov 28, 2013
5,491
8,300
Switzerland
Oh wow this is the first I am hearing of this "staingate".. It appears that this is what is happening to my macbook. It is much older than 4 years old though so I have to deal with it. Have people been successful in fixing this themselves? It seems like its getting worse so I will need to DIY it..
If you normally leave it in clamshell mode, then try to forget about it!

Otherwise, I believe people have wiped it off using somethig like Listerine mouthwash! Or I guess an alcohol-based cleaner. Or maybe just gin. Bonus, you can lick the screen afterwards. I have it around the edges/bezels of my 2013 MBP so I'm just ignoring it.
 

jaap.vink.12

macrumors newbie
Aug 13, 2019
1
0
The way I see it seems to be some kind of mold on the inside of the screen. So cleaning from outside will not help.
Try contacting Apple about it.
Good luck!
 
Last edited:

nikotown

macrumors member
Apr 30, 2019
64
145
San Francisco
This had happened to my 2012 iMac. I had purchased extended warranty on it and in 2014 I noticed the same blotches, so I took it in. The person at the genius bar was hesitant in replacing as they called it a "user error" that I had used windex to clean the screen. Not sure if I had ever cleaned my display with windex, but I made sure to never do that in the future. In the end, they were able to replace the screen.
 

TotalMacMove

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 18, 2013
1,189
1,828
USA
Yea i'm just going to leave it for now and see how it escalates. Kind of lame that I tried so hard to keep my MacBook in mint condition all these years to find this, thought Apple had superior quality up until now.
 
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bill-p

macrumors 68030
Jul 23, 2011
2,929
1,587
Well, if you want to push your luck, you can try bringing it in to one of the Apple Stores.

They recently replaced the display on my 2017 MacBook 12". Same problem as yours. Filed it under "anti-reflective coating damage" or something like that. It was a free repair, but YMMV.
 
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