Fix Your Stuff Community Store

Repair guides, support, and troubleshooting information for the first 13-inch MacBook Air to feature Apple's Arm-based M1 SoC (with an 8-core CPU and up to an 8-core GPU). Released in November 2020 and identified by model numbers A2337 or EMC 3598.

175 Questions View all

Options

Can someone please help me with newly fitting blank display?

Hi all,

I replaced a display on a customers late 2020 M1 Macbook Air 13" using the iFixit guide. All powered on, display looked fine but it was a bit clicky so I unscrewed the hinges and realigned it (didn't unplug any cables at the time - other than the battery).

Now the display is completely blank, although I can hear the mac noise on startup. I get nothing when I plug in an external display (but I know it doesn't show sometimes unless logged in). I have unplugged the display cable and tried an external display again but still nothing (still makes the startup sound).

Have disconnected and reconnected cables, checked they are not damaged and all look OK.

Can someone please help me work out what the issue is?

Many thanks!

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score 1
Add a comment

1 Answer

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Chosen Solution

Options

In my experience Apple Silicon based machines are really weird about outputting to external monitor at times. I have heard more than one case of these machines (as well as having personal experience) that still report an internal display detected, even when there isn’t one. And it will attempt to output to the primary display first. In fact if your machine has FileVault on, likely it won’t output to the external monitor until you’ve logged in.

As for what’s going on, was the old display functional enough to test and see if it still works when it’s installed? That may be worth testing.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 3

17 Comments:

Thanks for the reply. After logging in I get a visual on the external display. I have reconnected the original display, but that is completely blank too now (before it was blank, but you could see some backlight through the crack - now there is nothing).

Really puzzled as to what is causing this.

by

@f4ll3n - You need the display mounted, and closed to enable the external display (called Clamshell Mode) using an external keyboard and mouse/trackpad.

Sadly, it does sound like the displays cables might have gotten damaged. Was it working just after you replaced the display? Was this a new or a used unit?

by

Hi Dan, new unit - was working fine. Never touched the cable when I was adjusting the hinge, but then stopped working. Does sound like a display cable seeing as the old display has no backlight at all. Very odd though seeing as I never touched it and it wasn't caught.

Changed a Macbook Pro display not too long ago, more complicated but no issues.

by

@f4ll3n - Using a flashlight see if the display lost the backlight by pressing it against the display at an sharp angle do you see a faint image of the desktop and its icons? If not then the displays data side is messed up, if you do then the backlight logic needs to be checked.

I’m assuming when in Clamshell Mode then external is working.

by

Hi Dan, there's nothing at all on the display even using this method. External display is fine.

by

Show 12 more comments

Add a comment

Add your answer

Gary Ogilvie will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 0

Past 7 Days: 0

Past 30 Days: 7

All Time: 146