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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.

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2020 M1 MacBook Air Screen randomly turns off. Backlight is still on.

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction here.

I bought a used 2020 M1 MacBook Air. The machine is in very good condition and everything seems to be fully functional except for this one issue.

Every now & then the screen just randomly turns off. The backlight is still on though & I can even adjust it's brightness. Everything else still continue's to work, YouTube audio keeps on playing, I can adjust the volume & hear mouse clicks etc... Just the image has disappeared.

If I close the lid & open it again, the screen comes back on & is working fine again. Sometimes though I get some horizontal lines on the very top of the screen (about 1cm size) and the image is frozen. If close & open the lid a few times, the display returns back to normal & all is good again. Sometimes I can go days without this happening at all, then suddenly it kicks in & becomes a PIA.

So I'm hoping someone with a more technical background could give me an idea of what the problem sounds like to them.

Is it an actual screen problem (replace the screen)? Perhaps a FlexGate or ribbon cable? Faulty T-CON board or display angle sensor?

Anyone that has a good idea where I should start looking. I don't want to buy another screen only to discover I still have a problem. Any guidance will be appreciated.

Thanks so much.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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Can you plug in an external display and then when the internal display acts up see if the external mirror'ed image is also acting up.

I'm suspecting that will offer you the clue to know what has failed.

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6 Comments:

Thanks for your answer. I actually already tried this using a usb hub with hdmi port. External Display works just fine. It mirror's the image perfectly, even when the macs display goes off

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@arthureschner - Sadly you’ll need a new display assembly. I’m guessing the T-CON logic failed, so when you close the lid you force the logic board to do a screen refresh which then resets the T-CON. The addition of horizontal lines just adds to it.

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@danj Thank you so much for helping. Your explanation majes a lot of sense. I had a suspicion it might be the T-CON as the problem occurs even when the display is totally stationary (physically) and also even if no graphics are moving (no moving pictures on screen). I was just reluctant to purchase a new display without knowing for sure. I take it theres no way to replace just the T-CON board or replace a faulty ic on the board?

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@arthureschner - Sorry it’s new display assembly time. We all can’t be brain or heart surgeons it would take someone with years of practice to pull that off and that’s only if they have the tools and parts to achieve it. Neither you or even me have any of that.

If you’re set don’t forget to score the answer and accept it - Thanks!

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@danj You are 100% correct I just watch a Yootube video of it. It's waaaay beyond what Im capable of!! New screen time it is. Thanks again for all your help.

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Arthur Eschner will be eternally grateful.
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