Up until 2015 this board used to be tucked inside the hinge cover at the bottom edge of the display. All MacBook displays have a small logic board of their own. Poor thermal management leads to the display logic board (T-CON board) getting cooked from overheating. It is believed to be a design flaw from Apple. There is a technical explanation for this. However, in our experience here at Fixxo, the 13 inch MacBook Pro non Touch Bar model 2016-17 (Model A1708) is the most frequently impacted model. MacBooks with Apple M1 chips are considered safe. These include 13 inch, 15 inch, even 16 inch devices.

Technically, all MacBook Pro models launched after 2016, with an Intel CPU chip inside, would be vulnerable to this issue. Read about it here: Flexgate: MacBook Pro display backlight issue - Is it repairable? Which MacBooks are impacted? Although both impact the same MacBook models, that issue is actually entirely different. Note: Is your MacBook display showing Stage Light Effect - alternatively bright & dim areas along the bottom of the display? Or is it going blank when you open the lid beyond a certain angle? If yes, it is not a T-CON board issue. In the worst case scenario, the entire screen is covered with lines rendering the device unusable. In early stages, it may be completely reversible. This of course depends on how far damaged it is. The lines may completely disappear if you shut down the MacBook and let it cool for a few hours.The issue usually occurs when the laptop is used intensively for long hours.

This band of lines is often flickering/strobing.

The MacBook Pro screen starts to develop grey or black horizontal lines from the bottom edge (sometimes the top), typically 1-2 cm “tall”.

The issue at hand is called “T-CON board display issue”. Some of the major “defects” over the years have been MacBook Pro 15inch Battery Issue, Butterfly keyboard issue, FlexGate: MacBook Pro Display Backlight Issue etc. In some cases, they even start a “Quality Program”, under which the affected devices are offered a free service even outside warranty. After endless discussions on online forums, avalanche of tech articles, petitions and lawsuits, the defect is acknowledged by the company. As awesome as they are, most Apple MacBook models do tend to have some flaw - design or build quality related - and quite often that flaw blows up massively.

Late 2017 mac pro lcd screen