Retina MacBook Pro Users Still Complaining of Image Persistence

[brandanasan]

The image you're seeing is the result of watching a 10-minute embedded YouTube video. I returned the Retina pictured here. The image persistence became progressively worse in the two short weeks I owned it. Never could verify whether it was a Samsung or LG display.

It's infuriating to read Apple's response, that this is a known issue with IPS displays. I've owned a Dell WFP2408 IPS display for the past 4 years, and have NEVER experienced even the slightest hint of image retention.

 

[macneubie]

The image you're seeing is the result of watching a 10-minute embedded YouTube video. I returned the Retina pictured here. The image persistence became progressively worse in the two short weeks I owned it. Never could verify whether it was a Samsung or LG display.

It's infuriating to read Apple's response, that this is a known issue with IPS displays. I've owned a Dell WFP2408 IPS display for the past 4 years, and have NEVER experienced even the slightest hint of image retention.

This screen is real unacceptably bad.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

LG has a persistence problem.

 

[rrahimi]

Apple's handling of these hardware defects has not been all that good either. The NIVIDIA GPU defect "extended warranty" is a fiasco for anyone with an MBP that dies after the warranty expires. (Oh yeah, I forgot that we are supposed to get rid of our $2000 MBPs within three years of purchase because everyone knows that they are obsolete by then...) If the GPU failed and Apple fixed it, you received... wait for it... another faulty NVIDIA graphics card. Just keep your fingers crossed that it fails within the extended warranty that starts when you purchased the MBP and not when the GPU was replaced with another potentially faulty graphics card.

The GPU extended warranty was a fiasco even if you were within the extended period. Firstly, a lot of people never knew about the program and Apple gladly charged them to fix the problem. $1100 to $1300 a piece. Secondly, as in my own case, Apple Store refused to replace my 2007 MBP even when I showed them the extended warranty program page. They "genius" played a little bit with the MBP and concluded it's not the same issue. Asked for $1100 to fix it. Then after reading about other people's similar experience I decided to take it somewhere else. The AASP I took the MBP to ran the specific hardware test for this issue, confirmed it was the case and replaced logic board free of charge.

Hasn't failed since mid-2009 repair, abruptly dead battery, display backlight leak, palm rest discoloration notwithstanding.

Sad to say, all the people on this forum who Could Not Wait for the Latest and Greatest Apple product should have known they were taking a big risk by buying the rMBP. Past experience and early reports of display problems should have been enough to keep the credit card in your wallet until the hardware issues came to light and we saw how Apple was going to handle it.

But a lot of people could not resist, being the well-trained lemmings... I mean consumers that America produces by the millions. So it goes. All you can do is Suck It Up and file this memory in your skullbanks so that the next time Apple rolls-out a "revolutionary product" you will do the smart thing and wait for others to do the hardware beta testing.

Not everyone fell for the irresistible. It's been five years and even with memory and disk upgrades my MBP was slow. Five years sounds like a reasonable timeframe to upgrade for me. I assumed Retina has been tested well enough with iPad and iPhone and just making it bigger wouldn't be this troubling. Of course I was wrong.

 

[Tech198]

This is *normal* for an IPS display ? lol....... yeah right...

Unless i am totally wrong here, but i thought the whole reason to go with flat panels in the first place is because it does't suffer from the same "ghosting" as CRT's did. Not to mention who would wanna carry around 50 pounds monitor everywhere. That would give you a workout.

And why only now ? And why only the Retina ? The ipad and iPhone use the same IPS technology too.

 

[rrahimi]

It's infuriating to read Apple's response, that this is a known issue with IPS displays. I've owned a Dell WFP2408 IPS display for the past 4 years, and have NEVER experienced even the slightest hint of image retention.

I have a Dell 2008 Ultrasharp (WFP2408) as well. Really great monitor, though it is not IPS. It's MVA or M-PVA. You still get almost as good gamut as IPS and exact same 178 degree viewing angle but it's slightly cheaper than IPS.

Regardless of that your point stands; Higher quality IPS are not infected with IR /IP and it is not a feature of IPS displays but a defect of some of them. The fact that Samsung retinas don't suffer from it is sufficient proof.

 

[darkplanets]

Eh, it's an IPS. Noticed it yesterday for the first time and couldn't reproduce. Doesn't really bother me TBH -- I'm not that anal. I have an LG screen.

 

[striker33]

Eh, it's an IPS. Noticed it yesterday for the first time and couldn't reproduce. Doesn't really bother me TBH -- I'm not that anal. I have an LG screen.

Just because it doesnt affect your facebook browsing doesnt mean everyone else is way too anal.

 

[reRESERVEDMD]

Please... all display ghosts? In that case, please tell me why my two Apple LED displays, my old Cinema Display, my 3 iPads, my multiple iPhones etc didn't ghost?!

I understand display may ghost if you leave something for an hour or two on the screen or a year or two down the line. A display ghosting after 5 minutes right out of the box? HELL NO! And I'm willing to exchange mine 150 times to send the message through!

Not all customers are idiots who think owning an Apple device is something that should be dictated by the company. Some of us are engineers and know as much about the technology as Apple. This is not normal, especially when there's a tendency for one manufacturer to make working displays and not the other...

 

[shanson27]

Help !! My screensaver doesn't work after this terminal command



ioreg -lw0 | grep \"EDID\" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

 

[DrStern]

I have the LG display, and the afterimage is easily visible after only about 2 minutes of showing the checkerboard, and it remains clearly visible for at least 10 minutes, even after briefly displaying multiple other images.

 

[Drag'nGT]

The image you're seeing is the result of watching a 10-minute embedded YouTube video. I returned the Retina pictured here. The image persistence became progressively worse in the two short weeks I owned it. Never could verify whether it was a Samsung or LG display.

It's infuriating to read Apple's response, that this is a known issue with IPS displays. I've owned a Dell WFP2408 IPS display for the past 4 years, and have NEVER experienced even the slightest hint of image retention.

I'd be raising hell if it was that bad.

That said, mine is Samsung and works perfect.

 

[DVD9]

I'm glad MacRumors has posted followup about this. Apple is doing nothing about it. Everyone else in the media just dropped it, despite the thread on Apple's support forums growing the whole time – now 200+ pages! I don't even think an Apple rep has responded there (I stopped checking regularly after about 110 pages).

You're kidding?

The New York Times David Pogue hasn't authored a multi-part expose on this problem?

 

[rrahimi]

Help !! My screensaver doesn't work after this terminal command



ioreg -lw0 | grep \"EDID\" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

That's a query type command. It is incapable of changing any settings. Try a reboot. Something else is the cause.

 

[darkplanets]

Just because it doesnt affect your facebook browsing doesnt mean everyone else is way too anal.

Har har har. Presumptuous, aren't we? Please, do tell me what you do, because I'm certainly not on facebook (though I am avoiding work, like many on here). If it's not graphics design and you're not getting an after-shadow after every window movement, it's hardly something to whine about. Then again, people will bitch and complain about anything these days.

 

[idunn]

Less than perfect—oh, really?

I have always loved the screen of this MacBook (2007): no dead pixels, all perfectly bright—and no ghosting. In other words, it lived up to Apple's advertisements of the time, and truly is perfectly beautiful.

So less than thrilled if buying a RMBP—with its screen being one of the key selling points—and finding it anything less than perfect. Apple can claim what it wants, but I already have a standard to go by, and if less than this supposedly inferior screen then they have some explaining to do. Rationales about dead pixels, tints, and ghosting being "in spec" are not going to cut it. Because in the space of five years this is the improvement you've come up with, apparently no factory testing, and otherwise hoping your customers will just put up with the subpar?

Hopefully Apple takes a greater interest in putting this whole issue behind then. For one thing, because their customers paying top dollar deserve it—and no one should have to deal with defects which should never have shipped. Also because I would dearly love a 13" RMBP. But if taking that plunge will damn well be taking a keen interest in determining what quality of screen it has.

These all could, and should be perfect.

 

[ATC]

Our third gen iPad does this also. My wife plays scrabble a lot and I can often see the scrabble board grid outlines in other windows. It does go away after some time so it's not permanent but still I think this shouldn't be happening.

Our 2009 24" iMac started doing this also but it was related to heat issues behind the display and Apple replaced the LCD and it's been perfect since.

 

[sik08amg]

If it's an inherent characteristic of image ghosting in ips screens, does it happen in ipad or iPhones?

I had a keynote presentation up on my 3rd gen iPad and noticed a ghosting when i was viewing a light grey background. I think it is kind of fading after about 3 hours of use. but I may take it into the local Apple store.

 

[Dale-D]

OK, I've tried copy and pasting the commands into terminal and nothing happens. ???

ioreg -lw0 | grep \"EDID\" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

EDIT> OK, rebooted and tried again and got it to return the info. Good news is that I have a Samsung display.

 

[Kaledatheone]

LCD sreens, even IPS, are not supposed to have image retention problems. High end TVs use IPS screens and have no image retention. Why do Samsung screens have no IR problems while LG do? Answer is inferior product from LG. Once Samsung stops supplying Apple with their screens you'll problably be seeing more of these problems.

 

[DVD9]

The Samsung screens are PLS displays. It is a proprietary - dare I write it, a patented - technology. Samsung uses this PLS panel in the 13" Series 9 and their new 27" premium monitor that went on sale a couple of months ago.

According to Anandtech, the new 27" Dell AIO also uses a Samsung PLS panel.

 

[Dralt]

The GPU extended warranty was a fiasco even if you were within the extended period. Firstly, a lot of people never knew about the program and Apple gladly charged them to fix the problem. $1100 to $1300 a piece. Secondly, as in my own case, Apple Store refused to replace my 2007 MBP even when I showed them the extended warranty program page. They "genius" played a little bit with the MBP and concluded it's not the same issue. Asked for $1100 to fix it. Then after reading about other people's similar experience I decided to take it somewhere else. The AASP I took the MBP to ran the specific hardware test for this issue, confirmed it was the case and replaced logic board free of charge.

Hasn't failed since mid-2009 repair, abruptly dead battery, display backlight leak, palm rest discoloration notwithstanding.



Not everyone fell for the irresistible. It's been five years and even with memory and disk upgrades my MBP was slow. Five years sounds like a reasonable timeframe to upgrade for me. I assumed Retina has been tested well enough with iPad and iPhone and just making it bigger wouldn't be this troubling. Of course I was wrong.

They replaced my logic board without any arm twisting, but...2 days after the 90-day warranty on the repair had expired, the logic board failed again and they wanted me to pay $1K for another repair.
I simply said "crooks" and left the store. I have not owned an Apple notebook since.

 

[gerwitz]

Replacing?

My wife's rMBP has this issue quite noticeably. Given she makes her living as a graphic designer, this is not just an annoyance.

Our visit to the Genius Bar resulted in a diagnostic test that showed that the display was "behaving normally" (which, of course, a diagnostic software with no external sensor would be able to saw) and though our Genius "knows what the Internet says" (we were taking an agreeable stance and hadn't even mentioned any expectations) they were not replacing these machines because we'd just get another of the same part.

His advice? "Change your workflow."

 

[frjonah]

Not sure what's with all the "this is what happens when you buy Rev A products". If people didn't buy Rev A products there wouldn't be Rev B products for you, those we are so brilliant for waiting, to buy.

We all rely on you to take care of getting us to Rev. B so, without further ado: Thank you!

 

[beeboywhoo]

My base retina is still working like new... only thing is it averages 140-155 degrees . Which is pretty hot