Black lines on macbook pro screen

[Kelly Greer]

Sigh. Do you have any experience with thing black lines appearing on the screen? Then if I move a finder folder or switch apps, the photos leave remains. I followed most of the instructions I found on Google, other than updating to the newest OS. I'm assuming I've got a connection issue? 

MacBook Pro, 15 inche 2019 (old, I know) and I attached the rest of the "about this mac section." I'll get on my phone and try to attach a picture of my screen. 
 

[Kelly Greer]

Oh, and if I close the laptop, the lines go away until I move something on the screen. 

[Brian]

Well, this isn't good. The things that cause this issue are usually 1 out of 3, or even a combination of them: 

1. Loose / Faulty Display Cable between the Motherboard and Display
2. Display Panel itself. 
3. Graphics Card issue, but since it's built onto the main board, it's a Motherboard Replacement, which isn't cheap. 

If you don't want to take it to Apple, and pay out the nose for the repair, I'd recommend Rossmann Repair Group. Louis and his Team moved to Austin, TX from NYC. They do these types of repairs all day long and will go as far as component level repairs, rather than just replacing the board. I'd contact them for a quote. If you head to Apple, automatic $1000 at the very least for this type of repair, between parts & labor. 

[Kelly Greer]

That's what I figured. I'll look into them, thank you. At 6 years old, probably better to save my money for a new computer than fix at Apple.

[Kelly Greer]

Happy Holidays! I'm finally ready to pull the trigger on a new Macbook Pro. (sigh) I was going to go with your early 2025 recs, but then saw someone mention going with the M5 chip for a mac mini, and you said yes do that. However, the macbook pros only have M5 chip on a 14" and those seem to have a lot less cores (10 vs 14/32 on the 16" m4 max). So, just clarifying if I should stick with the early 2025 recs you have listed.  

[Brian]

Honestly? If you can hold out for a few more months, I would. The M5 chips are on the horizon, and the Mac Mini will be refreshed soon. 2027 will likely be the Mac Studio with a M5 Chip.

The Mac Laptops that usually get the newer chips tend to be ones with the smaller screens; larger screens come later, usually around the time of the Mac Mini refresh. 

In a nutshell, now is NOT the time to be buying anything when it comes to Macs.  If you can wait 6 months, that would be ideal.

Now, here is a curveball…

Memory (RAM) manufacturers are gearing up to jump on the AI Datacenter Bandwagon. It’s the new “Tech Goldrush” and prices of RAM are insanely high. Why? Limited supply and manufacturers are only producing RAM (in large quantities) for these Datacenters that have yet to be built. Bonus Points, after they build them, the power companies can’t provide power to them, so they sit idle. 

What does this mean for us? The RAM Prices are going to push Apple’s profit margins, which may or may not affect pricing. Since there is no upgrading after the fact, you have to buy the RAM configuration that you think you will need in a few years and not for right now and that costs money. 

Adobe keeps adding AI Crap and other fancy tools / bloatware, which causes a higher demand on hardware performance. So you are right to be concerned about Cores and such. Kudos to you. The days of CS6 are gone, and Adobe wants to keep people hooked on their subscription model so they keep adding things which then in turn add more hardware requirements, which determines what you pay. It’s a stupid cycle. 

So what to do? 

At the end of the day, it’s your money. The M4 units should work perfectly fine for the next 5-7 years. If you want a 7-8 year lifespan, then look towards the M5 line when they are released. 

I would not buy a 14” Laptop for photo editing, unless you absolutely have no choice otherwise. A 16” M4 MBP would work for about 5 years or so, just be sure to purchase AppleCare because that Lithium-Ion Battery will need to be replaced in 3-4 years on average. Plus, you will need to purchase ALL the upgrades that your heart desires, because there is no upgrading after the fact. 

This is such a hard time for me to write a concrete set of upgrade instructions, and I’m waiting on Apple to release things, which is why nothing has been touched. 

Adobe’s products are relying on the Video GPU and Dedicated Video Memory more-and-more, with each and every update. So make sure you have as many Video Cores that you can afford and at least 64GB RAM. 1TB HD is a Minimum, and I’m toying around with the idea of 2TB being optimum. 

it just sucks that all of this costs so much money. Use my current recommendations as a guide, and if you want to buy more of something, that’s perfectly fine. 

[Kelly Greer]

Thank you for sharing your insights, Brian. Always appreciated! I make book covers, too, and my author said, "I can tell you the language I used to generate the title font." and was VERY surprised when I told her that I don't have that option right now. Then was surprised when I told her an upgraded computer was almost $5000. (But, of course, was asking how to get her computer running better maybe a month ago.) 

Thanks, again! Happy Holidays!!