A MacBook Air shouldn’t have failed at just 4½ years. Mine has a cracked screen, not visibly shattered but cracked inside. It’s inoperable but fixable, according to a repair shop, which wanted $330 to replace the screen. Although I hate to throw away repairable items, the same model was on sale for just $599 at Walmart, so I sprang for a new one.
Before the blank dark screen appeared, while the laptop had thin horizontal lines across its lower half but was still usable, I searched for ways to fix it. None worked, but I learned that MacBook Airs with Apple’s M1 chip are prone to mysterious screen cracks. Thousands of people have reported on Reddit and Apple Communities that their M1 MacBook screens have cracked for no apparent reason. Like them, I hadn’t dropped the laptop or banged down the lid.