What is that mark on your screen?
Put the screen in full-screen white, black and grey. The mark tells you what it is. Then read whether it can be fixed, what it costs, and whether warranty covers it.
Pick your symptom
Black spot on laptop screenA black spot that stays in the same place on every colour is physical: a cluster of dead pixels, a crack in the LCD layer, or pressure damage where the liquid crystal has been crushed.White dots in laptop screenWhite dots that show on dark screens and vanish on white are almost always in the backlight, not the pixels: a tiny reflector dot inside the backlight has come unglued and is bouncing light straight at you.Vertical black line on laptop screenA one-pixel-wide vertical line that runs the full height of the screen is a failed column driver on the panel or a broken trace in the panel's flexible connector.White spot on Lenovo laptop screenOn Lenovo ThinkPad and IdeaPad screens this is a known pattern: a bright, soft-edged white spot that shows on dark backgrounds, most often near the lower half of the screen.Laptop screen bleedingBacklight bleed is light leaking around the edges or corners of the screen, visible on a black screen in a dark room as brighter patches.Patches on laptop screenLight or dark patches — cloudy areas, often called mura or clouding — come from uneven pressure on the panel or the backlight diffuser: the lid was pressed or twisted, the laptop was carried under weight, or the panel warped from heat.Laptop half screen whiteHalf the screen turning white (or grey, or a block of colour), usually with a sharp vertical or horizontal boundary, means half the panel is no longer getting image data: the panel's driver board has failed, or the display cable through the hinge has broken some of its lines.Pressure damage on MacBook Pro screenMacBook Pro displays are thin enough that pressure on the closed lid — a bag with a charger inside, a hand leaning on it, something left between the keyboard and screen — pushes the layers of the LCD together.Heat damage on MacBook Pro screenHeat marks appear as yellowish or brownish tints, faint blotches or a warped-looking area, usually along the bottom edge above the hinge where the machine runs hottest, or wherever the lid was left closed on a hot surface or in a car.MacBook screen pressure damageApplies to MacBook Air and MacBook Pro alike: the display is a thin LCD or mini-LED panel bonded to the glass, and any point pressure on the closed lid leaves marks — dark blotches, lines, colour shifts — with the glass intact.Black pressure marks on laptop screenDark, sharply defined marks on a white screen — dots, smudges or short lines — are pressure marks: the liquid crystal has been squeezed at that point and no longer twists to let light through.Lines on laptop screenHorizontal lines, vertical lines, coloured stripes, or a flickering band each point somewhere different.Laptop screen flickeringFlicker has more software causes than hardware ones.Dead pixel testA dead pixel is a pixel that stays black on every colour: its transistor has failed and it never lets light through.
Rule of thumb
| You see | It is | Fixable? |
|---|---|---|
| Black dot, same on every colour | Dead pixels or a crack | No — panel |
| Coloured dot, same on every colour | Stuck pixel | Often — pixel fixer |
| Soft white glow on black only | Loose backlight reflector | Yes — repair shop |
| Dark smudge on white only | Pressure mark | No — panel |
| One-pixel line, all colours | Panel driver | No — panel |
| Line or flicker that changes with lid angle | Display cable | Yes — cable |
| Bright edges on black | Backlight bleed | Cosmetic |