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A1706 / EMC 3071—Released in November 2016, this 13" Macbook Pro introduces the OLED Touch Bar. Features a dual-core "Skylake" Intel Core i5 CPU and four Thunderbolt 3 ports.

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Water damage to screen?

A few days ago, I acquired a “water-damaged” A1706. There seems to be no obvious issue inside the main body, and the laptop functions perfectly on an external monitor. The screen, however, is malfunctioning. When I first turn it on, there is only about 0.5” of distorted display showing at the top:

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If I warm the screen with a hairdryer aimed at the upper-half of the right bezel, the full display gradually flickers into life:

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With sufficient heat, all the artifacts disappear and the screen looks perfect, but when it starts to cool, the flickering and horizontal lines re-appear. I have attached a few photos to demonstrate.

My question is two-fold. Firstly, is this a known and predictable pattern of failure? Secondly, is it user-repairable (advanced DIY), or will I simply have to replace the screen?

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I haven’t seen your exact problem but I can explain what it is. Looking at this picture we can see the basics on how an LCD screen works:

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Starting from the right 6 is the backlight source and 5 is a polarizer filter collimating the light in one direction, then the light passes through the rear glass plate 4 that sandwiches the liquid crystal medium 3 with the metal oxide electrodes and the thin film switching transistors 2 and then the front cover glass and the front polarizer 1.

Here the rear polarizer 5 sheet has curled along the edge from what ever got in so its not laying flat. When you heat up the panel the curl is removed. The upper part of the screen is caused by liquid damage on the panel its self causing signal leakage between the lines.

Sadly, this display is not repairable as its sealed. You’ll need to replace the full display assembly which is around $600. Here’s the needed guide to replace it MacBook Pro 13" Touch Bar Late 2016 Display Assembly Replacement

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Eric will be eternally grateful.
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