Display issues on MBP after High Sierra update

[TwiceNightly]

Hi all,

I updated to High Sierra on Friday and since then am having some fairly major issues with my display. There are two visible issues that are seemingly linked and hopefully you guys can help me out here please!

When the brightness is turned down I get a "floodlight" sort of effect along the bottom of my display - I took a photo of the screen (attached) and you can see it at the bottom. Please excuse the smudgy fingerprint, I work in graphic design and people are always pointing at things!

The second part of the issue is that when the brightness is not at max the brightness fluctuates a lot, more obviously when the brightness is all the way down, it's like it's sort of flickering.

I called Apple and we have (excuse me if I get the terms wrong) - reset the SMC, reset the display RAM, booted into safe mode, ran diagnostics (came up with no errors) and we also wiped the hard drive and reinstalled the OS (High Sierra again). It possibly seems a little better after the wipe?

Just wondering if this is a common issue with MBP and is just a coincidence that it happened at the same time as I upgraded? Or is it possible that there's a bug in the OS or something like that?

The MacBook is a "Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014" (bought in mid 2015), has 2.2GH i7, 16GB DDR3 memory, Intel Iris Pro 1536MB.

Thanks very much for any help!

 

[Heruhur]

Well, looking at your picture I'd say it's a hardware issue. To me it looks like the backlighting has failed.
You could try going back to sierra and see if that fixes it . . .
If not, then I hope it's still under warranty.

 

[campyguy]

It's likely a hardware issue. It's not that common, but it does happen - a couple of my late-2013 rMBPs have had it happen. It's got a cute name, too - the "Stage Light Effect". Both times, it was the LVDS cable (low-voltage differential signaling) - check the seating of your Mac's cable. My WTH? moments happened last year, on two of my office Macs (of course, when I was at my field office in the middle of nowhere). Google was my friend and maybe this link I found that helped me can help you, good luck:

Stage Light Effect

 

[idboy]

If you assuming that is software issues try to install Windows via boot camp... And if you have same issues again maybe is hardware issues
And when you are done please give me feedback

 

[TwiceNightly]

Thanks for your help guys, much appreciated.

The more I see of it the more it seems like a hardware issue like the LVDS cable that campyguy mentioned. It seems to happen more when the MacBook is started from cold and not so bad when warmed up a bit.

At maximum brightness now I can't really see it any more, the brightness starts to wobble when the brightness gets down under half and is pretty bad when down to one notch.

I've got a genius bar appointment on Monday (earliest they could do) so hopefully it's the cable seating and they'll be able to sort it - do they fix that kind of thing on the spot or send it away?

 

[campyguy]

I've got a genius bar appointment on Monday (earliest they could do) so hopefully it's the cable seating and they'll be able to sort it - do they fix that kind of thing on the spot or send it away?

I did mine in the field, but I had tools on hand and plenty of time at the field office (some of my job sites are pretty remote with cellular being the only tech comfort…). My point is that the repair really didn't take too long and it's not too involved - I'd rather check that cable than install an SSD in one of my Mini Servers! A Geek Squad rep performed this "fix" on a friend's Mac - opened it up, checked the cable and adjusted it, then closed up the rMBP in under 10 minutes, and I'd hope that Apple could do the same with your Mac and no need to send it to Tejas for that IMHO.

 

[TwiceNightly]

Hi all,

Took my MBP into the Apple Store yesterday and it was the LVDS cable as campyguy suspected! I did get told it would have to be sent off and was quoted for a new display and logic board until I told her that I had a friend who bought the same MacBook at the same time and it was the LVDS cable ;-)

She then took it out the back and came back after a while confirming that she had reseated the cable and the problem had gone away! She said she had never seen this before.

Thank you for your advice, looks like it saved me potentially over 1k

 

[Heruhur]

Hi all,

Took my MBP into the Apple Store yesterday and it was the LVDS cable as campyguy suspected! I did get told it would have to be sent off and was quoted for a new display and logic board until I told her that I had a friend who bought the same MacBook at the same time and it was the LVDS cable ;-)

She then took it out the back and came back after a while confirming that she had reseated the cable and the problem had gone away! She said she had never seen this before.

Thank you for your advice, looks like it saved me potentially over 1k

That’s a relief for you.
Glad it worked uit.