MacBook Pro display issue: Hardware or Software?

The physical damage cannot be perceived from the exterior. In fact it is possible for the exterior glass to crack while the display panel itself (the component that displays the image) remains intact.

Either way it's not good.

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Answer 4

Dec 18, 2025 2:18 PM in response to haydnj1

That appears to be a hardware problem.

If the "cracks in the display" are an illusion (caused by the screen image that you are displaying), other candidates might be

Damage to the cable connecting the motherboard to the display (especially damage right where the hinge is)
A motherboard or GPU problem

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Answer 5

Dec 18, 2025 4:29 PM in response to haydnj1

Vertical artifacts are almost always caused by defects in the display module itself.

Today's display interfaces are packet-ized. Each packet sent to the display contains data from at most one Row. Cable problems or connector problems can not cause vertical artifacts.

The only way you get anything vertical is when every 'slice' of row data lines up perfectly on the screen.

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Answer 6

HWTech

Level 9

68,708 points

Dec 19, 2025 9:29 AM in response to haydnj1

haydnj1 wrote:

There is no physical damage to the display. What looks like a crack is actually a display image.

That is a physically damaged display.

Try connecting an external display if you wish to continue using the laptop until it is repaired or replaced with another computer. You may need to use Clamshell Mode in order to be able to log into the laptop which requires the power adapter to be connected to the laptop as well as a wired mouse & keyboard along with the external display. Close the display clamshell to trigger the laptop to display everything on the external display. Even with clamshell mode, some Macs may still insist on showing certain items only on the built-in display....hopefully you won't encounter that issue.

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