MacBook Pro screen flashing and flickering with vertical gray strip...

Hey everybody,

I have a 13” 2017 MacBook Pro (2.3 GHz Dual-Core i5, 8 GB RAM, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) that is having a major screen display issue. I believe the issue is hardware-related after doing lots of research. However, I wanted to create a SUPER detailed post here to help narrow it down even further.

I bought the computer in Portugal, am currently in Brazil (where prices are crazy to fix Apple products), and won’t be going back to the USA (where I am from) for at least a month. I need my computer to work for at least a month without paying the $1000 USD an authorized Apple service provider wanted to swap out the entire display unit.

Here are two threads that have similar issues to mine but not exactly the same:

MacBook Retina Screen Flickers, which stops when the mouse is moved

MacBook suddenly has inverted/flickering vertical strip on the screen

The Problem:

In the morning, I turned on my Mac, opened the screen, and there was about a 2” wide vertical segment from top to bottom that is dark gray (not black, I am still able to see the content beneath). In addition to this, the screen was flickering/flashing, very similar to a strobe light. I didn’t see any flashes of other colors, just flashing of the light brightness very rapidly.

I quickly reset my computer and the issue went away for a few hours, then came back, and hasn’t gone away since.

The 2” wide gap sits on the left side of the screen, and appears to be centered among the left half perfectly.

What I have done to try and fix and diagnose the problem:

I have reset the SMC, PRAM, NVRAM, and all that stuff. The problem persisted.

I plugged my computer into an external display. No issues on the external display.

I took a screenshot to see if the problem showed up in the screenshot. The screenshot came back as normal with no issues.

I booted into safe mode and the following happened: no more flashing/strobe light effects, but the 2” wide gray stripe from top to bottom is still there. I thought that I could use my computer like this for a month, but my Mac just runs TOO slow in safe boot mode…

Other weird things:

The flashing/strobe effect stops when any of the following occurs:

• I use the trackpad.
• I type with any key.
• A webpage is actively loading content. When it finishes loading the content, the flashing continues.

The metal part above my keyboard (where the touchbar would go if this model had one) gets pretty hot now, even when the computer is just starting up or doing very basic things and not using a lot of processing power. Specifically, the right side of this metal part is hotter than the left (even though the gray space on the screen is on the left side of the screen).

Additional Information:

I was messing around with Docker, VirtualBox, and installing Ubuntu on a VirtualBox, before this happened. I noticed my computer didn’t seem to have enough power to run VirtualBox without lagging, so I deleted everything.

I didn’t drop my computer or bang it on anything. I left it on the table the night before, opened it in the morning, and this problem presented itself.

I updated my operating system to Big Sur (Version 11.1) after experiencing the issue, but the issue persists.

Conclusion:

I am 99% sure this is a hardware issue based on the above tests. That being said, I would like to avoid the $500-$1000 USD charge to replace the entire display if I can. Any ideas? Is it worth opening up to see if the ribbon cable is cut or the digitizer has issues (Apple Support suggested it could be these issues, as the problem doesn’t seem to be CPU, GPU related)?

If the issue is just one piece in the display unit, is it easy enough to find the part, get the proper tools, and install it?

If anyone has had this exact experience or has any tips, I would really appreciate it! I am hoping to have this computer work at least for a month until I can replace the part or buy a new MacBook for pretty much the same price in the United States.

Thanks so much!

Update: Forgot to include this video as well when I am booting up my Mac. This is the only time there is a color distortion (green, turquoise color). The same spot that was previously dark gray now acts as a “window” of sorts into my main screen before logging in to my user profile. Crazy.