Help me salvage this 2015 15" Retina MacBook Pro

[FocusAndEarnIt]

Hi all,

Was given a 15" MacBook Pro mid-2015 retina from a family member. It was dropped on its top left side near the magsafe port, picture attached. No issues there. The backlight turns on but no image is displayed. No cracks on display. Everything seems to work fine via external monitor but then out of the blue I'll get a kernel panic when waking from sleep or changing the monitor set up around. No cracks on the screen...just no image.

In order of priority (getting the screen working) - any thoughts on what got damaged or how to go about fixing this? I popped it open and didn't see any obvious things wrong. I am wondering if a cable somehow went bad and how to figure that out.

edit: to add, the system becomes pretty unstable when I open the monitor from clamshell mode. It's almost like it's plugged in partially but not all the way? When in clamshell mode, no issues (thus far).

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

Here's some photos of the internals:

Of note, the camera works.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

I unplugged the battery and reseated the LVDS cable and the screen came on but was flickering. Tried it again, unplugging battery and unplugged LVDS, tugged the LVDS cable away from the logic board (putting pressure on the screen connection, maybe a bad idea but was trying to see if it would help) and then reseated LVDS to see if it needed more positioning... and now it's not coming on at all. I think the cable is pinched or torn.

One upside is that the system is now totally stable with the screen open. That cable being unseated (or whatever was wrong with it) was causing system instability. Now that the cable is not working at all, the system is stable again.

I'm going to try and replace the LVDS cable and see if it works.

Not much to lose other than $15...

MacBook Pro Retina (2012-2015) Display LVDS Cable

Replace a damaged connector or torn LVDS display cable.

www.ifixit.com

For now, it works well with an external display.

 

[Macdctr]

Curious to see how repairs are going for you... are you making good progress?

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

**** hit the fan at work since the part came in, and I haven't had a chance. I hope to do it soon.

 

[CYB3RBYTE]

I'd guess your issues are to do with the LVDS. I'd also check the liquid contact indicators just incase those have been tripped so you don't have much more to worry about...