The host is the most important thing here, since I am finding it hard to get a full replacement for the screen. If someone has an answer for a fix, that would be awesome.
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This is a weird problem. I'm going to open it up this weekend. For about a year it has seemingly randomly done this. Opening and closing the lid doesn't seem to be the problem because I left it open for a couple of years with no issue. I posted here in hopes that there might have been a driver issue along the way. I'll poke around and see if I can see a hardware issue.
To be clear, if it he happened on and off that eliminates a bunch of potential causes. It is entirely possible this is just a loose ribbon cable or similar, though it could be a different kind of intermittent. Does it happen on an external monitor? What about a live USB? Both of those will isolate whether it is hardware or software to some degree.
No problems on external monitor. Only the built-in has issues. I would like to be able to take it places. The issue is so intermittent that I can't chase it down to one cause. I haven't tried a live usb yet - I will do so as soon as I can.
I assumed display damage because every time I’ve seen these artifacts it’s been due to a damaged display matrix, but i agree that if it’s intermittent and isn’t some kind of unusual defect in the display, the ribbon coming partially loose sounds most likely, followed by cable damage (e.g., pinched by lid hinge).
Ribbons are usually pretty secure, especially from factory if tape hasn’t been removed before, but with enough heat (e.g. left in car outside) and jostling, the tape can loosen, and cable’s weight plus jostling can be enough for ribbon to pull itself out.
To quickly check without opening case i would try lifting the machine in two hands and driving it gently but firmly into your right palm (which would jostle the ribbon toward/into its terminal). If it’s loose, i would expect to see the display respond in some way after at most a few tries, if the ribbon cable is loose. If not, it’s still worth opening and re-seating ribbon to be sure, but jostling it a bit should immediately worsen or improve the visual artifacts, confirming the diagnosis.
This actually makes a tremendous amount of sense! I've heard one fan struggle for some time but never saw the temps get serious. Maybe they did and I didn't notice it! I'm going to do as suggested with essentially banging it around once I get brave enough. Thanks a lot for the suggestions.