Chosen Solution
I recently purchased a used MacBook Pro. The rubber around the screen was disintegrating so I ordered a replacement from eBay. While fitting it, I removed a strip that ran along the bottom of the display. Once I reassembled my MacBook the display backlight was no longer working (the display was working as I could see a very faint login screen). The strip I removed was a combination of some kind of silver metal and copper. Am I right in thinking this distributed power to the backlight, and that’s why the backlight is no longer working? I can’t seem to find a replacement part, but I don’t know what it’s called. Please could somebody advise?
Update 1 (08/08/2020) Hi, Thanks for the quick reply. Here’s are some photos of each side of it. It was directly above, and maybe slightly under the clutch cover. The rubber display gasket was glued to the top of it. I couldn’t identify it myself from the display teardown. Is there anything else I might have done to prevent the backlight from working? All I did was remove the old rubber gasket and press in the new one. After the display failed to work I disassembled it again, and this time removed the antenna assembly and found the ribbon connected to the tiny square socket here: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig… had disconnected, so I reconnected that. But still the backlight didn’t work.
Update 2 (08/08/2020) In this picture: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/ig… You can see how in the bottom right hand corner something behind the black covering curves downwards - that’s what I removed Update 3 (08/08/2020) Photo of the ribbon cable
Well you did manage to damage your display so you’ll need to replace it ;-{ As far as what you pulled off I’m not sure as it could be a few things your picture doesn’t offer enough detail for me to identify it. To help you understand review this display teardown MacBook Pro Retina Display Teardown The back light is located at the bottom of edge of the lid shell as you can see here
Note the small ribbon cable exiting from the backlight. I’m suspecting you ripped the flex cable when you pulled at things. You’ll need a full display assembly now, due to COVID good recycled parts are hard to find. The best I can locate is this one 13” MacBook Pro Complete Display (some anti-reflective coating staining) Apple P/N 661-8153 If your display is in good shape, maybe swapping the panels out will get you going! The other option is replacing the backlight LED strip: 13” MacBook Pro LED Backlight Strip from Display
