Chosen Solution
My macbook display often freezes with a series of colored lines, or goes completely grey. Jiggling the display or moving the assembly brings it back. How can I tell whether I need to replace the entire display assembly, or just replace the LCD panel? The camera works fine. And the display colors and brightness are great. The only problem is that it goes blank often. Update (01/25/2019) Just wondering if I can avoid the expense of an entire display if the LCD panel will correct the problems. Both repairs seem pretty straightforward.
I’d suggest diagnosing the problem before you attempt repairing it. Hook it up to an external monitor and see if it goes black when your LCD does. This will tell us if it is a GPU issue. Next when the screen goes black, hold at flashlight at an angle and let us know if you still see the desktop dimly. This sounds like a cable issue to me (because it clears up when you move the display). Reseat the LDVS cable as seen in step #9 of this guide: MacBook Unibody Model A1342 Display Data/Camera Cable Replacement
I like swapping out the whole top half just because its less hassle. but if you have the time and patience and lcd swap isn’t impossible just a little more tedious :)
