Posting here for others that may search for this. Hoping this isn’t a sign of a new defect out there. I have a MacBook Pro M4 Pro 1TB/24GB about 2 months old. Randomly opened screen, no damage to system and black line across horizontally. Reboots, resets, etc no help. Apple replacing the screen under warranty. Unfortunately it will be 3 weeks as support told me there is a backlog of component replacements required. Whatever that means but they could also tell me anything.
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MBP M4 Pro - horizontal black line on screen - display panel failure
- Thread starter sixth
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racerhomie
macrumors 6502a
Got my machine back today, new screen, lid entirely and replaced the ribbon connectors and lid tilt sensor according to the paperwork received. Just noted "defective components" and not much else said. Back to normal.
racerhomie
macrumors 6502a
This isn't a bad point I agree but still a gamble I think. First 3 months of new hardware is usual failure window and outside 1 year nothing happened your out of the woods on hardware component failure of standard type. I dunno...a gamble all around but yeah....refurb probably would have caught this.
Parowdy
macrumors 68000
? What does that have to do with anything? I bought a refurbished MBP once and it shipped with a faulty screen.
Very similar problem. November 2024 MacBook Pro M4 16" - Yesterday, the screen went all black, today at the Apple store, the screen came up - but there was flickering and craziness. They said it was cracked but there is NO physical damage of any kind to the bevel, case or screen. It WAS NOT dropped. The staff tried excuses, like saying a little crumb could cause it (seriously) or if I squeezed it between my thumb and forefinger too hard when closing it... (I'm not the Hulk) - so NO WARRANTY, even though i'm still in the period.
Best of all, its EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS to replace it.
Best of all, its EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS to replace it.
keksikuningas
macrumors 6502
hey guys. just had this issue with a horizontal black line on the screen, 14inch M3 Max. it appeared while I wasn't looking and then disappeared after a while. I thought it's some software issue but it didn't go away after a restart. It went away after I started looking on this forum for similar issues. I am not kidding, when I pressed Enter on the "black line" search on this forum, it went away. Really spooked me, I am going to call the partner store tomorrow (we don't have official apple stores in Finland) to get a warranty replacement, I am afraid something's not right with the display assembly or the cable. While I was typing the last sentence the line appeared for a moment. Must be me pressing the keys kicking up something inside the laptop :/
my question is, how did Apple react to any of you who had to replace this and was it replaced / repaired under warranty
my question is, how did Apple react to any of you who had to replace this and was it replaced / repaired under warranty
keksikuningas — a line that comes and goes based on keystrokes or lid flex is a very different failure signature from the OP's solid always-on line. The transient one is almost always the display flex cable that runs from the logic board up through the left hinge into the panel — it micro-fatigues from open/close cycles and starts intermittently losing rows on the ribbon. The solid black line without any pressure sensitivity is usually TCON or a dead row driver in the panel itself, which is what Apple replaced for sixth.
Practically for the warranty conversation: get a video of the line appearing while you press gently near the top-left of the keyboard deck (right above the hinge) or slowly move the lid through its arc. That footage is much harder for a genius bar tech to write off as accidental damage than a static photo, because it demonstrates a mechanical/electrical fault correlating with hinge movement, not impact. Made a big difference when I had a similar issue on a 16in — they swapped the whole display assembly under warranty and didn't push back on the "no visible damage" angle once they saw it flicker on cue.
Practically for the warranty conversation: get a video of the line appearing while you press gently near the top-left of the keyboard deck (right above the hinge) or slowly move the lid through its arc. That footage is much harder for a genius bar tech to write off as accidental damage than a static photo, because it demonstrates a mechanical/electrical fault correlating with hinge movement, not impact. Made a big difference when I had a similar issue on a 16in — they swapped the whole display assembly under warranty and didn't push back on the "no visible damage" angle once they saw it flicker on cue.
keksikuningas
macrumors 6502
It's not seems to be based on lid angle or keystrokes. I saw it appear and disappear while the laptop was just sitting on the desk. It also does not appear on an external monitor. Another thing which really surprised me is that the bottom part of the screen on the leftmost edge where the lines (now it's several solid black columns instead of a transparent black line) gets scalding hot. I am taking the laptop to the certified apple store tomorrow, gonna record a video of the laptop beforehand to show that there's no external damage of any kind. Thanks for the tip