Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Got my new iMac today! Stuck pixel already

J

jinxen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi!

I got my new 24 iMac today. It's the new released model. After working with it some time now today i found a stuck pixel on the screen. I think it is stuck because it is bright red and not black. Is there anyway to fix this? I have tried jScreenFix without any luck. Is there anything apple will do with this? Spending this amount of money on a new computer it should not come with a stuck pixel...
 
jinxen said:
Hi!

I got my new 24 iMac today. It's the new released model. After working with it some time now today i found a stuck pixel on the screen. I think it is stuck because it is bright red and not black. Is there anyway to fix this? I have tried jScreenFix without any luck. Is there anything apple will do with this? Spending this amount of money on a new computer it should not come with a stuck pixel...
Click to expand...

Return it and get a new one. Don't ask us what Apple will do, ask Apple what they will do.
 
He can't massage it unless he removes the glass plate and there's no guarantees that it will become unstuck. Apple's policy is 5 or more stuck or dead pixels or if a single pixel is dead set in the middle of the screen. I would take it back to the store and see if they will exchange it first.
 
I will call Apple tomorrow and hear what they have to say. I think this is a scandal that this can happen when you spend so much money (it's about 300$ more in Sweden) on a new computer and it arrives with a stuck pixel. If they don't fix it i will go back to pc because this is really bad.
 
jinxen said:
Hi!

I got my new 24 iMac today. It's the new released model. After working with it some time now today i found a stuck pixel on the screen. I think it is stuck because it is bright red and not black. Is there anyway to fix this? I have tried jScreenFix without any luck. Is there anything apple will do with this? Spending this amount of money on a new computer it should not come with a stuck pixel...
Click to expand...

Which machine? Thats awful. These new machines aren't sounding so good. Let us know what Apple does...I bet they will exchange for you.
 
It is the new 24 base model. With the nvidia 9400m gfx card. I don't know which apple to contact though. Bought it online, but i have got 2 apple stores in the city. Which is my best option? I hope they will do something and i don't know what to do if they don't. This is just awful, really awful...
 
Funny how people are so quick to jump ship.

This is not a problem with Apple. It is inherent to LCD displays.


But I also would not be happy with a dead/stuck pixel. Go return it. If Apple gives you are hard time about exchanging it, then maybe that would be a good reason to get annoyed and jump ship.
 
jinxen said:
It is the new 24 base model. With the nvidia 9400m gfx card. I don't know which apple to contact though. Bought it online, but i have got 2 apple stores in the city. Which is my best option? I hope they will do something and i don't know what to do if they don't. This is just awful, really awful...
Click to expand...

Just don't worry too much... I had the similar problem with my iMac that I had bough last year. I had a dead pixel in the middle of the screen. In Europe we can return Apple hardware within 14days and get the money back. So without further ado I decided to do so. Otherwise I would have returned my iMac, have to wait for a replacement to arrive and would have been stuck with that iMac because the 14days-policy wouldn't be applicable anymore.
You can always return your iMac and get your money back. Then you will be able to order a new one again... I did the same: returned the iMac and got after one week a Macbook Pro...
Just don't worry... Apple is well-known for their great service... You're in good hands... 🙂
 
It's not because of apple i am saying that i would change back to PC. I have been a frequent mac user for many years now and have hade a macbook, macbook pro, iMac 2007, and now a new iMac. I had a error with my first macbook and they really gave me a hard time but at last the changed the display for me. But it took me so much time to make it happen. I am a student and putting up this kind of money that i did really stings. I say if they give me a hard time. I will return it and buy something else that is not Apple. I'm sick of things arriving faulty.
 
jinxen said:
It's not because of apple i am saying that i would change back to PC. I have been a frequent mac user for many years now and have hade a macbook, macbook pro, iMac 2007, and now a new iMac. I had a error with my first macbook and they really gave me a hard time but at last the changed the display for me. But it took me so much time to make it happen. I am a student and putting up this kind of money that i did really stings. I say if they give me a hard time. I will return it and buy something else that is not Apple. I'm sick of things arriving faulty.
Click to expand...

Ok, if you are unsatisfied with their customer service I would completely understand you switching.


Just wanted people to realize the same hardware is used in the PC world.
 
I called Apple today and i got great service from the guy i talked to. Since it is completely new and in the 14 day barrier i will get a replacement unit. The department that handle replacements was not open och saturdays so i must call back on monday, but i got the case number etc to speed things up on monday. And he said that i will get a new one. Good news for me, great service from Apple.

Cheers.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

That's good news. Their customer service is brilliant. Ok the iMacs are pretty expensive but at least when theirs a problem they help out big time. I'm getting my new 24" in two weeks. Can't wait!!!!
 
Don't think i've ever bought an LCD panel that didn't have a stuck pixel or two ... depends if they're stuck or dead... Stuck ones can (and very often do) fix themselves over time ... dead ones are usually irreparable

Most panel makers have a 5 or more policy before they consider it "faulty"

But to make statements about quitting apple and returning to PC because of a single pixel fault on a display is a little amusing
 
If you bought it at a retail Apple Store just exchange it. My experience has been they are very helpful when you get defective merch.

If you bought it at the Apple online store it's a little dicier. I haven't found them to be as helpful or knowledgeable as the retail managers. Typically the first line techs that answer the phone have one goal in mind... assume you are a dumbass, blame the problem on you, and get you off the phone ASAP. Nonetheless, I'd call, be sweet, and see what they'll do. Elevate to a 2nd tier or higher tech, as needed. Don't let them push you off the phone.

If you bought from a 3rd party store, its going to depend on that store's policy. Amazon and Microcenter are pretty good about exchanging defective merch. Most of the other guys will tell you to go ask Apple. Apple of course will tell you that 1 dead pixel is "within spec."
 
For what i can see it is only 1 stuck pixel, i don't think its dead because it is bright red. A dead pixel should be black, am i right? I have tried to fix it with JscreenFix. But that did not fix it. I could live with the pixel, but it is the principle of the whole thing when you buy something new it should not be faulty out of the box. Period. But the bright red pixel is almost in the middle of the screen and very disturbing when you work with graphics as i do. You can't miss the pixel even on a big screen as the 24.

I bought it at the online Apple store. The guy i talked to on the phone said that i would get a new one due to the 14 day barrier. If they would have said no, i would have just turned it back anyway so they don't really loose anything if they give me a new one. If they havent given me a new one i would have returned it to buy something different instead. I think it is a smart and good move by Apple to do like this.
 
I bought my iMac 24" 3.06 8800GS from the Apple On-line store in December 2008. All went well on install without me noticing any pixel issues until I installed COD4 and on the introduction black screen sighted 2 great big white dead pixels towards the bottom of the screen.😱😱 I logged out of COD 4 and went through each of the desktop backgrounds scanning the screen intently with the various colour schemes.

I found I had 5 pixels in total out. Including a bright red one (the worst of the lot as it was on eye line level).

I tried the download programs of flashing lights which you can place over the dud pixels and read up for literally hours on the internet about pixels whilst I grew depressed and angry.

When I rang Apple two days later well within 14 days of arrival (after a restless sleep weekend) I was polite and calm and explained the situation. Apple noted it all down and agreed without issue to replace my iMac. (all this done via UPS, and TNT efficiently, I just had to pack it up and label it up).

I was obviously very worried when the new one arrived but all seemed well although I must confess there is a tiny tiny black spec of a dud pixel top left area which I located some few weeks later but I am happy enough that it is so small and out of viewing area that I can genuinely live without bothering about it because it is so easy to miss.

So, in conclusion, my experience was that Apple were very good about the exchange. I think it helps to purchase from an Apple Store or from their on-line store because you could be at the mercy of other outlets.

As an aside, I have NEVER met anyone who has "massaged a pixel back into life" and would never recommend removing glass screens and poking pens at pixels unless someone can say otherwise.

Sincere good luck.
 
jinxen said:
I could live with the pixel, but it is the principle of the whole thing when you buy something new it should not be faulty out of the box. Period.
Click to expand...

The problem is that if you READ the fine print on MOST monitor manufactures supplied documentation (yeah i know ... none of us do that) a lot do actually say about pixel damage

The question is what do monitor manufactures consider faulty and what you consider faulty are NOT the same thing.... it sucks, yep... agree... but in many cases unless you have around 5 pixels (seems to be an agreed magic number) you might not get it resolved simply
 
You should download the pixelmurder.mov

It cycles thru many different colors. I have seen many stuck pixels fixed thru this method. Some took 5 minutes, some an hour, some did work at all. It's worth a try. Either download the mov file and play in the affected area or even run full screen. You can even just run it in a browser in the affected area.


http://itasor.com/pixelmurder.mov

You can run it in a loop in Quicktime
 
reading this thread makes me nervous. my imac has an expected delivery date of march 10th. has this issue been somewhat prevalent in the new or old imacs?

the worrying has begun.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back