Common problems
MacBook screen shows lines, bands or no picture
The glass is smooth to the touch, there is no chip and no sharp edge, and yet there is clearly a crack in there somewhere and the picture has gone: a single line of colour, a band down one side, or a screen that lights up and shows nothing useful. It looks baffling from the outside, and it is one of the more common things we are called out to. The good news arrives early in this page, so here it is now: the computer is almost certainly fine, and so is everything on it.
- No fix, no fee
- We come to you
- The diagnosis is always free
- A real person who does the work, not a call centre
The short version
- The computer is almost certainly fine. Only the lid is damaged.
- Your files are not affected and can be checked in a minute.
- A crack you cannot feel is normal: it is under the glass.
- Which Mac it is decides whether repair is worth it.
Try this first
Three tests you can do before anyone visits
None of these need tools, and between them they will tell you most of what a first visit would. Worth ten minutes before you spend anything.
- Plug the Mac into a monitor or TV with a USB-C to HDMI cable. A perfect picture on the external screen proves the processor, memory, storage and all your files are healthy, and the damage is confined to the lid. This is the one that settles it.
- Darken the room and shine a torch across the screen at an angle. If you can make out a faint desktop or menu bar, the backlight is still working and the machine is still drawing a picture. That narrows the fault to the panel rather than the board.
- Open and close the lid slowly and watch what the fault does. If the picture flickers, returns briefly, or changes at certain angles, the display cable is damaged as well as the panel. That is worth knowing before any part is ordered.
What it usually means
Why a Mac screen cracks under glass you cannot feel
- The layer that actually draws the picture has cracked underneath the cover glass. A Mac screen is a bonded stack of layers rather than a single sheet, and the one you touch is the toughest of them, so a knock can fracture a layer beneath it and leave the surface perfectly smooth. That is why you can see damage you cannot feel
- A single line or band of colour is a partly working panel rather than dead pixels. The Mac is still sending a picture and the panel is still trying to draw it, but most of the connections inside have been severed, so what you get is whatever fraction of it can still fire
- Dark patches that spread over days or weeks are liquid crystal escaping through the fracture. This is the one part of the fault that gets worse on its own, and it is worth acting on rather than waiting to see
- The display cable may be damaged as well as the panel, which shows up as a picture that flickers, returns briefly, or changes as you open and close the lid
- Something was closed in the lid, or the machine was dropped or leaned on. A crumb, a pen, a charger cable, a corner of a desk. It is almost always mechanical pressure rather than age or a software fault
- Very occasionally the panel is intact and the fault is the cable or the graphics side instead, which is why we test rather than assume
Not sure which is yours? That is what the free diagnosis is for. Tell us what it is doing and we will work it out.
At a glance
Whether it is worth repairing depends on which Mac you have
A Mac display is bonded together, so the practical repair is the assembly rather than a bare panel, and the part is the largest part of the cost. That makes the model the deciding factor.
| Which Mac | Usually worth repairing? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Recent Apple-silicon MacBook | Yes | Years of use left and strong resale value, so a display assembly is proportionate to what the machine is worth. |
| First-generation Apple-silicon MacBook | Usually | Still a capable machine that holds its value, and the repair keeps it in service rather than replacing it. |
| Later Intel MacBook | Often not | The assembly can approach what the machine would sell for, and some of these models have a known display-cable weakness on top. |
| Older Intel MacBook | No | The part costs more than the machine is worth. An external monitor, or replacement, is the honest answer. |
We will not tell you which row you are in until we know the exact model. That is why we ask for it before quoting anything.
What we do
How we tell a broken panel from a broken Mac
- You tell us what you can see and, if you know, what happened to it, which is often the fastest route to the answer
- We ask which Mac it is, and we do mean exactly, because display parts are model-specific and the model decides both what is possible and what it costs. The Apple menu, then About This Mac, gives it to you in one line
- We come to you across Leeds, at home or at work, or you can bring it to us if that suits you better
- We plug the Mac into an external monitor or a TV. If the picture is perfect on the external screen, that proves the processor, the memory, the storage and your files are all healthy and the damage is confined to the lid. It is the single most reassuring test there is
- We shine a light across the screen at an angle to see whether the backlight is still lit behind the fault, which separates a panel that has failed from a machine that is not drawing a picture at all
- We open and close the lid slowly and watch what the fault does, because a picture that comes and goes at certain angles means the cable is involved as well
- You get one fixed price before anything is opened, and you decide with it in front of you. If it is not worth repairing we will tell you that, and you will not have paid us to find out
Is it worth fixing?
Is a MacBook screen worth replacing?
Honestly, it depends on which Mac it is, and this is the repair where that matters most. A Mac display is bonded together as one assembly, so the practical repair is replacing the assembly rather than a bare panel, and the part is a serious fraction of what the machine is worth. On a recent MacBook that still has years of use in it, that is usually money well spent. On an older one, the part can cost more than the machine would fetch, and we will say so rather than take the work. There is a third answer that people forget: if the Mac lives on a desk anyway, an external monitor turns a broken laptop into a working computer for the price of a cable, and that is a perfectly respectable outcome. We would rather tell you that than sell you a screen you did not need.
This is a mac repair job. The diagnosis is free, then you get one fixed quote before any work starts. If we cannot fix it, there is nothing to pay.
Call 0113 460 2103 for a free diagnosisWhere we work
We come to you across Leeds, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire
Home or work, Monday to Saturday, 9am to 7pm. There is no walk-in shop, so we come to the machine, or you can arrange to drop it to us. Start at computer repair in Leeds, or pick your area.
Questions
MacBook screen questions we get asked
The glass is not cracked, so why has the picture gone?
Because the part that draws the picture is not the part you touch. A Mac screen is several layers bonded together, and the outer glass is the strongest of them. A knock can fracture a thinner layer underneath while the surface stays perfectly smooth, which is exactly why you can see a crack but cannot feel one. It is not your imagination and it is not a strange fault: it is the normal way these screens break.
Is a line of colour the same as dead pixels?
No, and the difference is good news. Dead pixels are a handful of dots that never light. A line or band of colour means the panel is still receiving a picture and still trying to draw it, but the connections that carry the signal across the screen have been cut by the crack, so only a fraction can still respond. It tells us the computer is still doing its job properly, which is the expensive half of the machine.
Have I lost my files?
Almost certainly not. This is damage to the lid, not to the storage, and your files sit on a component that has nothing to do with the screen. Plugging the Mac into an external monitor usually proves it in about a minute, because you will see your own desktop looking entirely normal on the bigger screen. If you would rather have a copy made before any work happens, we can do that first.
The dark patch seems to be spreading. Should I worry?
That is worth acting on. Spreading dark blotches are the liquid crystal escaping through the fracture, and unlike the crack itself, that part does get worse over time. It will not damage your data or the rest of the computer, but it does mean the display will keep deteriorating, and it can make the machine harder to use in the meantime.
Can I keep using it in the meantime?
Usually yes, if you can see enough to work with, and plugging in an external monitor makes it entirely usable. The one thing worth avoiding is putting more pressure on the lid: no stacking things on it, no closing it on a cable or a pen, and carry it in something padded. The fault is mechanical, so more pressure genuinely can make it worse.
Which Mac do I have?
Click the Apple menu at the top left, then About This Mac, and it will tell you in one line, something like MacBook Air 13-inch M2 2022. If the screen is too damaged to read that, the model number is printed in small text on the underside of the machine, or the serial number is there and we can look it up. It genuinely matters: Mac display parts are model-specific, and the model decides both what the repair involves and what it costs.
Is it cheaper to replace just the panel rather than the whole screen?
On some machines it is possible, but it is delicate work: the layers are bonded together, so separating them risks dust getting trapped and the seal never being quite right again. On most Macs the sensible repair is the display assembly as a unit. We will tell you which applies to yours once we know the exact model, and we will give you one fixed price rather than an estimate that moves.
Other problems
Sound more like one of these?
Tell us what is wrong.
Call and describe the fault. We will diagnose it for free, give you a fixed quote before any work, and if we cannot fix it there is nothing to pay. A real person who does the work, not a call centre.