It would be a relief if that was the problem. Even if Apple won’t issue a recall, third-party cables can be made and sold for a reasonable price by places like iFixIt.
If the display itself is defective, then this is going to be real bad for a lot of people unless Apple bites the bullet.
They had a problem with the display cable and it can’t be easily replaced since it’s soldered to the display.
You basically just need to get an entirely new display even though it’s just the cable.
Additionally, some shops will resolder the cable, but it’s not a long term solution.
Even replacing the display by Apple is not a long term solution because they replace it with another display that has a cable that’s slightly too short and will eventually break again.
So the only real solution is to buy a new computer.
Happened in 2022 to a 2017 MBP belonging to someone I knew. She went out and bought a new one, and put the old one in a drawer. She brought it to me in 2023, I investigated and found the shitshow - Apple saying "nuh-uh", the ACCC (Australian consumer advocate) saying "you'd better", then Apple quoting me $1100 because the ACCC never enforced it, and me getting it fixed locally for $550. It needed a new screen, not because the screen itself was faulty, but because the failing flex cable was integrated with the screen. Screw Apple.
Same with my mbp 2019. Failed on me earlier this year, every works fine except a $0.10 flex cable that they decided to solder inside the panel so it can't be changed.
I remember replacing that cable on my 13 in Wallstreet PowerBook. The cable made a 180 degree turn causing it to break internally. Apple replaced it the first time, but I had to do it when it broke the second time.
Apple builds obsolescence into their products on purpose.
If you'd bought a PC, a faulty screen would be easily replaceable. I had to replace my laptop screen myself several years ago, and with a $60 part and ten minutes on youtube, it was an easy repair.
Not really anymore. They make them expensive to repair, but they also don't want you to switch to another brand, because for them a user in the ecosystem purchasing apps and subscriptions is worth way more than a frustrated user purchasing a one time display replacement. Their whole strategy now (for a few years really) is to make devices that last at minimum 5 years, because it makes the user happy that their 5yo phone still works, and that means they are likely to get another iPhone, and because as long as the user is in the ecosystem, they are making money by taking their cut of everything that happens on the device
I still use a 2011 MacBook Pro. It’s running Linux Mint now and hasn’t been my primary laptop for a couple of years now, but it’s still a solid machine. In fact, as is the norm with Apple stuff, it lost OS support long before it stopped being a viable laptop.
Oddly enough, the reason why I did the repair myself was that the shop quoted me $400, haha. It's nice to live in a world where you can fix your own stuff, something that Apple also does their best to prevent.
Hmm. I'm still using a 2014 iMac, as its 27" 5k screen still very good for coding (with added memory). Sometimes develops a bunch of thin vertical lines, which come and go maybe dependent on temperature, but hasn't changed for for ten years and i can live with those. Just wish they'd continue providing security updates for it.
Might just be to indicate when it started happening. They could have written "M1" and still cause the same confusion, and I believed that's what the model is called.
"According to an investigation by one of the affected users, the Apple iMac screen uses a flex cable that must sustain a voltage of around 50 volts when the screen is set to high or maximum brightness. This causes the connector to burn out over time, it was theorized, resulting in short circuits that cause the black lines to appear on the screen"
I would be extremely skeptical of buying something listed as untested. How hard is it to test if a Mac works you just turn it on if it doesn't turn on it's broken. It takes like 30 seconds.
However if you turn it on and it's broken but you don't want to sell it for parts you can always just sell it as "untested".
Yeah, depending on how widespread this is, it's probably worse than staingate.
I bought a 2014 MacBook Pro earlier this year, I got a good deal on it partly because it's got severe delamination issues. With dark mode, it doesn't really bother me enough to spend several hours with a bottle of Listerine to fix it yet.