Horizontal lines all the way down the display

%#*@. I don't have apple care. That's ridiculous that Apple doesn't have this wrapped up in a free repair program, these are supposed to be "Pro" laptops and should be able to withstand heavier use. I never use it on a bed or anything like that. Is the T-CON board something that board level repair places would tackle?

Don't shoot the messenger here! It's not a design I would have done.

Overheating can also be caused when running the system hard for long periods. I would recommend installing a good thermal monitoring app like TG Pro so you can watch things more carefully.

Take a look at the MacBook Pro 13" Function Keys Late 2016 Teardown Jump down to Step 18 to see the part. It's not something you can fix, Apple will only replace the full display assembly.

Once the Apple Stores are open again see what they say.

@danj Where is that board? The teardown doesn't really make that clear. I thought it was inside the display assembly but in the first photo of step 19 I see it in what looks like the area under the logic board in the top case. If it's actually removable, is the obstacle just that it's soldered to its connector?

@bmrt - Can't remove it! It's bonded to the LCD unit inside of the display assembly. Apple has made create strides in reducing the parts count in their systems, a fallout of this means discreet parts are just not replaceable and/or sub assemblies as in this case is not replaceable. Apple could have designed the system to be repairable they chose not to.

Review the pics above

Gotcha, thanks for the pics and explanation. So it is accessible but it is just permanently soldered to those ribbon cables. Is that not something that could be removed and replaced with appropriate microsoldering skills and tools though?

And as far as the "stagelight effect" that Apple is actually covering in their backlight repair program, if the display flex cable isn't the issue then what is? Do they just replace the whole display assembly and call it a day? I've seen some videos showing how the flex cable was lengthened in the 2018 model to keep it from tearing, was this a pointless move by Apple?