Extremely Blurry Screen M1 MacBook Pro 16

I have exactly the same issue today. My Macbook Pro M1 16" is 2 years old. I am taking good care of it.

Tried BetterDisplay without luck. I can't afford to replace the screen if that's only the solution.

One interesting finding I had was that when getting the MacBook into diagnosis mode and running the offline tests (by using an external mouse, keyboard & display to get through the dialogs while having the notebook closed), the screen works perfectly fine. But only during testing. So it seems weird that it is something with the screen or the lid angle sensor.

Maybe some others with the same problem could confirm whether this works on their machines or not? Then it would be something completely different (and I am not sure why replacing the screen would fix the issue as the screen is working perfectly fine).

Maybe something on the motherboard on the path to the lid angle sensor? Diagnosis says "everything works fine"...

Unless you're under warranty, I'm afraid your hefty fee will be US$ 900 to replace the screen. My screen's still like that after few weeks, and many of us are waiting for a product recall or something.

I experienced this issue with my M2 MBP a month after I spilled some liquid on the keyboard. I decided to repair it for around $900 for a screen replacement. But recently (after 6 months), it happened again. I was doing some work when the screen suddenly went dark, leaving only the mini-LED backlight, which shows dark and bright parts of the screen. By the way, probably, I found the same issue with the iPad Pro 12.9 with the mini-LED screen. Here is a possibly related thread:

Gen 5 iPad Pro 12.9, display very dim/blu… - Apple Community

It happened to me again 🥺

I previously posted in this thread regarding my MBP M1 Pro that got the Death-Blur.

While waiting on some type of resolution I did buy a new Air M2 in January 2024 --- And guess what, 2 weeks ago the same thing now happened to it...

Theory:

Looking back at what i did just before this happened that correlate with things i did on my MBP, I do have a theory of what could be a trigger of this issue.

On both my Mac's that got this issue the common action is that repeatedly did placed my iPhone on the left side of the computer leaning towards the screen. Could this potentially be something that effected the screens magnetic lid sensor 😱 ?

as everyone who has posted here has said, THIS issue was not a MacOS issue for them, and hardware intervention was required to solve the problem.

I just had this happen with my m2 pro 16 in

Yes, but it costs about £700 in the UK to do so unfortunately.

I just received a new one, M3 Max, the maximum configuration. After 1 day my screen died. I'm just shocked, I took it to the service center, I'm waiting for repairs

so I have tried three times with apple in London and have been stonewalled they just say one damaged the screen and it must be my fault

I quoted consumer law and they just basically said no

It has nothing to do with sleeping, I rebooted Mac many times and the screen is still the same (occasionally getting normal, but only for couple of seconds).

it is definitely some software or hardware issue

So, no reinstall helped. The problem just kept coming back. I contacted Apple and they replaced it for free (2 months out of warranty, props to Apple) I just had to pay for the labor because I was using one of their approved service centers since I'm not close to an Apple Store, but since I'm in Thailand at the moment the labor was like $20 lol. Oh, and they did confirm it was a hardware issue.

No, data in mine was not corrupted. I started a support case, and they said it could indicate an issue with the display or even a device plugged into the usb c thunderbolt port. Try and see if you can use an external display to see what you are doing and then try the "Better Display" application to turn the built in display off and then on again.

One thing that changed in mine is I recently moved to powering it with the thunderbolt port instead of the magnet power port, so I had less things to plug in when I move it around. Maybe the lower power of that or the tunderbolt docking/port device triggered something in the graphics engine.

Hi ChimarraoMate,

Could you tell me exactly which feature you used within BetterDisplay which allowed turning off / on the built-in LCD? I have BetterDisplay installed, but there are many menus and many options. I don't know where to find the feature that you used and exactly what it is named.

Thanks!

Hey!

When this happened to me, I called up Apple and a technician went through all the different hard reset options etc, before I went to the centre.

None of these worked, and I suspect if you have the same issue they won’t work for you also.

Just a pre warning, if it is hardware and your laptop is out of warranty, without any AppleCare on your device you’ll need to pay atleast £700+ (UK) in order to get it fixed.

If you’re unable to afford that like I was, you can still use the laptop with a separate monitor. Since mine did this in January, I have been booting it up with the laptop closed, and using a separate monitor to do work.

Since it’s a hardware issue, If you have a separate monitor, there’s no reason you can’t keep using your laptop.

Hopefully you don’t have the same issue, and it’s able to be fixed! If not, I hope my reply helps :)