Chosen Solution
Hi, I have purchased the A1708 (MBP 13in 2017) secondhand and there is this weird graphical issue that occurs on it. The first thing that is noticeable is the vertical stained or vertical washed out effect on images. This is obvious on images with a black background and white content (See picture with ifixit logo, the staining looks a little like that in person, it is not caused by camera shake or blurry image).
Another issue is the flickering. It stops whenever I move the mouse, watch videos or whenever I enter safe mode. It also stopped at some occasions when moving the lid of the computer. (See the video, It’s a bit hard to see because the camera could not capture the flickering properly, the black text becomes more light because of the flicker).
The final issue I have is the appearance of horizontal lines on the screen (on video asewll). Another thing to note, is that the bottom of the screen, where it says MacBook Pro, has shallow cracks on it. The previous owner however told me that the graphical artefacts did not occur right after the cracks appeared, but begun spontaneously after almost a year that the crack had happened. I don’t think the glitches are caused by the cracks, since there are no permanent lines or spots that appear after lcd damage. Connecting an external display to the computer works and has no graphical artefacts like on the laptop’s display. What I want to know is if this issue is caused by flexgate of the display connector or this is really a lcd damage issue or logic board/gpu failure. Thanks in advance!
So while this is not FlexGate it is still a display T-CON board failure which is part of the display assembly. What happens is the heat sink cooks the T-CON board as it’s so close to it. The reason could be someone sat the system on their bed or soft rug so the vents where blocked so the system couldn’t cool it’s self. It can also happen when the fan fails or is loaded up with dust, again preventing the system to cool it’s self. At this point you’ll need to replace the display an make sure the dust buildup is fully cleaned out of the fan and heat sink fin area. I strongly recommend installing a good thermal monitoring app like TG Pro it will allow you to see visually what’s happening and allow you to boost the fan to prevent overheating. Needed part MacBook Pro 13" Retina (Late 2016-2017) Display Assembly and here’s the guide to put it in MacBook Pro 13" Function Keys 2017 Display Assembly Replacement
