If you spend a fair amount of time digging around inside your MacBook Pro, this could come in handy.
Apple has included a slightly longer backlight cable in the 2018 MacBook Pro in an effort to fix a “stage lighting” issue found in the 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro notebooks.
Some MacBook Pro users have previously complained about a problem with the display, where the backlight to illuminate the screen would illuminate improperly as a result of damage to the cable, and show a “stage light” effect at the bottom of the display. The problem, which affected models produced in 2016 and 2017 and at the time of original report was said to impact the 2018 model as well, was narrowed down to a thin flex cable that connected the motherboard to the display wearing down over time.
The cool cats at iFixit have reported that Apple has fixed the issue in the 2018 models via a slightly longer cable. A comparison between the 2018 and 2016 models found that the cable had been extended by two millimeters. The change was discovered in both the 13-inch and 15-inch 2018 models, and is assumed to be a general design change to all variants.
“This is significant because it gives the backlight cable more room to wrap around the board and not come into contact with the board as the laptop is opened past 90 degrees,” advised iFixit teardown engineer Taylor Dixon.
It’s unknown as to how much of the issue was caused by cable length and/or by proximity to the board, as well as whether the cable makes contact. Dixon stated that it’s impossible to see if the updated cable rubs against the board, to what degree, and if this damages the component.
The issue doesn’t immediately appear to be affecting any other Macs. iFixit said it is concerned about the 2018 MacBook Air, which doesn’t use an identical cable design but still wraps them over the controller board and merges them with the display.
The mechanism of failure of the display cable is alleged to be gradual tearing. Increased failure rates should be appearing in the service data for the 2016 MacBook Pro, but is not as of yet.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and iFixit