2015 27" iMac has pink edges ..anyone else?

[iMac'd]

I want to revive this old thread since my 2015 retina iMac developed this problem probably due to heat?

This gave me headache and since I do not use dark mode I always looked into some pinkish gradient.
Then I stumbled upon a post on iFixit: https://de.ifixit.com/Antworten/Ans...+display?permalink=answer-800015#answer800015

I think that the actual tape around the display might have loosened over time and so I used duct tape to tape over the existing black tape. First I taped over the left and right edge and then the upper and lower.

Unfortunately I have no pictures but it really made a huge difference and the display is now bearable again.

None were needed but it's yet another reason for using Dark Mode; why would anyone want to be looking at a light globe i.e. a white screen is the rough equivalent. That aside this is very useful info. I had recently become convinced that the dripping adhesive etc. theories were debunked so while I won't bother with tape etc. - it should help the re-sale value if I can confidently state that it's not an issue with the LCD.

 

[paardenkapper]

Just in case that it becomes a complete distraction I might go forward with disassembling the whole LCD and cleaning the glass layer like it was shown in the video.

It's just that I completely dislike Dark Mode. I'm a Photoshop user since version 6 and in every programming IDE the first thing I look for is the light mode theme. :-D

 

[breakfastdude]

Just in case that it becomes a complete distraction I might go forward with disassembling the whole LCD and cleaning the glass layer like it was shown in the video.

It's just that I completely dislike Dark Mode. I'm a Photoshop user since version 6 and in every programming IDE the first thing I look for is the light mode theme. :-D

Any updates on your duct tape method? Is it holding up or has it gone worse again?

 

[paardenkapper]

Any updates on your duct tape method? Is it holding up or has it gone worse again?

To be honest - at first I thought it had helped but after a while it seemed to have no effect whatsoever.
What a sham.

After some more research I think the reason for the pink gradient must be degrading glue.
I cannot stand it anymore and now I'm looking into a solution. The iMac is otherwise in great condition, fast and reliably running Sonoma.

Has anyone ever tried to open the screen and remove the glue residue?
I'm kind of hesitant because I'd use IPA - would it damage the layers of the LCD?
There are some videos of people opening the screens and removing the dust collecting between the layers. But as far as I recollect they're only using canned air and microfibre cloths.

As I have the 4 GHz 6700K iMac there must be a relation between prolonged exposure to heat and the pink gradient.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

To be honest - at first I thought it had helped but after a while it seemed to have no effect whatsoever.
What a sham.

After some more research I think the reason for the pink gradient must be degrading glue.
I cannot stand it anymore and now I'm looking into a solution. The iMac is otherwise in great condition, fast and reliably running Sonoma.

Has anyone ever tried to open the screen and remove the glue residue?
I'm kind of hesitant because I'd use IPA - would it damage the layers of the LCD?
There are some videos of people opening the screens and removing the dust collecting between the layers. But as far as I recollect they're only using canned air and microfibre cloths.

As I have the 4 GHz 6700K iMac there must be a relation between prolonged exposure to heat and the pink gradient.

Compare with a 210$ price tag (+90$ shipping) for a new OEM LCD panel, it's really depend on the labour cost where you live to justify the economy of repairing the LCD panel yourself.

 

[paardenkapper]

Compare with a 210$ price tag (+90$ shipping) for a new OEM LCD panel, it's really depend on the labour cost where you live to justify the economy of repairing the LCD panel yourself.

A whole display assembly (used) is way more expensive around where I live. It's more likely to find a complete working iMac for the money.

I was just asking whether somebody had tried to remove the pink colour from the display - if it is even possible without destroying the screen.

 

[breakfastdude]

To be honest - at first I thought it had helped but after a while it seemed to have no effect whatsoever.
What a sham.

After some more research I think the reason for the pink gradient must be degrading glue.
I cannot stand it anymore and now I'm looking into a solution. The iMac is otherwise in great condition, fast and reliably running Sonoma.

Has anyone ever tried to open the screen and remove the glue residue?
I'm kind of hesitant because I'd use IPA - would it damage the layers of the LCD?
There are some videos of people opening the screens and removing the dust collecting between the layers. But as far as I recollect they're only using canned air and microfibre cloths.

As I have the 4 GHz 6700K iMac there must be a relation between prolonged exposure to heat and the pink gradient.

That's a bummer, was hoping I could do an easy fix for my mine when I open it up next week for swapping the HDD for an SSD. But yeah there was someone who mentioned that the pink hue is from the oxidation of the LOCA (liquid optically clear adhesive) layer of the LCD, which, if true, would be a lot of work to DIY fix, if at all possible. It also means that this problem will just get worse over time, as the oxidation makes its way towards the centre.

My iMac is the base model with the i5-6500, so should have run cooler than the 6700k version yet it's still plagued with this pink nightmare. Though I did buy it for super cheap, and god knows what the last owner subject this iMac to.

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

Adding to the choir here - my parents 2017 iMac has blue-purplish around the right edge of the screen. No problems with the computer, outside of it being nearly 6 years old.

I also noticed this on my previous 14" M1 Pro MacBook Pro. Curious if this issue persists into the M1/M3 iMac era. Seems like the only real way to avoid this is to own a Mac mini/Studio/Pro and bring your own monitor. When the monitor goes bad, much easier to toss that rather than the whole system.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

A whole display assembly (used) is way more expensive around where I live. It's more likely to find a complete working iMac for the money.

I was just asking whether somebody had tried to remove the pink colour from the display - if it is even possible without destroying the screen.

Without professional tools and devices, it will take you like 6-8 hours to completely detach the LCD layer from the protective glass, and clean-up the adhesive.
Supposed you have done that, the next thing to think of, is what kind of new adhesive you will need to buy to attach them back, and how you are going to remove the tiny bubbles from the liquid adhesive.

300$ to get the new LCD + glass combo delivered to your door, just don't know how much import duty you would have to pay.

Even the professional repair shops would not consider about buying expensive tools and devices just to fix iMac LCD panel issues. They just advice their customers to replace with new OEM parts.

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[paardenkapper]

$200+ is somehow the amount of money I will not throw into a device that is close to 10 years of service.
I will keep my eye out for a broken device with a known good screen and do the switcheroo.

As much as I love tinkering the potential for further degradation is high.

One thing that crossed my mind is replacing the screen with a non-retina one from a 2012 model (also A1419) but they‘re incompatible it seems.

 

[Retroworldnews]

Yea , same here noticed on my old iMac , think is 2015. I watch stream do notice those pink hue around every corners. Middle part don't have.

 

[rin67630]

Yea , same here noticed on my old iMac , think is 2015. I watch stream do notice those pink hue around every corners. Middle part don't have.

Me too, i just wonder if someone with an LC screen does NOT experience the same.
Be happy, actually pink is the fashion color...

 

[Retroworldnews]

Me too, i just wonder if someone with an LC screen does NOT experience the same.
Be happy, actually pink is the fashion color...

On white background , obviously can noticed those pink hue around all edges...but if on black background will not. As mention i just use for streaming radio and watch stream. As long still workable i already happy at least the LCD still working and display image beside sound.

 

[onnomark]

Like many others My Imac 27 5K 2015 desktop has a pink edge after a while. Not at the start though. After it is heating up the pink edges start. I am using Linux with gnome and first wrote a small app which is providing an overlay at the edge which covers the pink edge with a reverse color. It eliminates most of the pink. Not to bad but not a root cause solution.

The thermal design of the Imac is upside down. Heat will rise but Apple fan tries to suck it down to leave the chassis at the bottom.

Thats not smart and I believe thats the design flaw. Heat will build up within the chassis. The fan is designed to remove the heat from the cpu and gpu. The remaining components (like power supply) will obviously also generate heat. Where will that go?

Look at the picture. At the top in the middle there is a gap between the "ribon" like insulator. Heat will be happy to go there and it will build up behind this insulator. Thats a very likely cause of the pink edge. Second, everything else will slowly heat up. There is no natural escape for the heat.

I am now looking into removing the apple logo as a test. It sould provide a natural path for heat to escape and avoid heat accumelation. If that works I will likely dril some holes into the back at the top to allow airflow and hence heat to escape.

I attached a picture i found on internet. From edge of the screen to the inside: First the sticky tape to hold the display, second the "ribbon" like tape, followed by the motherboard hardware.

 

[frou]

Possibly, but as I understand it, the concept of "heat rises" ceases to be a significant factor when there is active airflow (i.e. a fan) in a chassis.

 

[paardenkapper]

I sold my iMac months ago because I could not take this eyesore anymore.

But: In my case the pink hue was visible right from booting up.
Heat was probably the root cause to accelerate the LED degradation or backlight bleeding but the damage was done.

 

[onnomark]

Thats unfortunate that the degradation was that far. I am crossing fingers I can provide sufficient cooling before it becomes worse.

Regarding the active airflow: the problem is that the fan is responding to the CPU / GPU cooling demand and not really to the ambient temperature. So I believe it kicks in too late to prevent heat buildup. I will see what happens after drilling some holes into the imac backchassis, starting with removing the apple logo. I might even include a small fan to improve the airflow.

From what I understood when the Imac is new there is no pink edge. After a while ( +/- 2 years) the pink edge starts to surface. Which in my mind could confirm poor cooling due to for example dusty inlet and hence heat build up. Ignore it long enough and the actual display gets ghosting.

 

[PaulD-UK]

The 'ribbon-like tape' is called the Air Gasket. The pink edge problem is worse with 2015 'B1' screen panels, but unfortunately even the later models can have the problem if they are used very intensively, with the fan ramped up.

I've even seem a 4 year old iMac Pro with quite strong pink edges, and that has much better cooling, but still gets hot with constant flat-out use.

I don't know if cutting holes in the back will really help.
The problem is that the screen panel edges are getting heated. Possibly high screen brightness and heat from the backlight LEDs is a factor?
In the end the only real solution is to replace the screen panel...

 

[onnomark]

Interesting and I am new to this forum. So my appologies if I am sharing thoughts and idea's which might have been long known.

I just removed the cover from the memory and it created a new inlet. I tested with a small piece of paper and the paper is sucked against the opening. It is interesting and I will monitor the behavior over time.

 

[PaulD-UK]

@onnomark That has been suggested as a solution for the high spec 2020 iMacs having memory problems. It stops the memory overheating, and the CPU is just above the memory so gets cooled as well.

 

[rin67630]

@onnomark That has been suggested as a solution for the high spec 2020 iMacs having memory problems. It stops the memory overheating, and the CPU is just above the memory so gets cooled as well.

the pink edges are appearing distributed equally around the whole screen, if it were a pure temperature problem I would have expected it to be worse at the top of the screen where temperature is higher.

 

[onnomark]

I did some further testing.

1- wrote a small script to alternate the brightness between 0 and maximum for X11. It repeats the alternation N times. After that the pink edges are gone, plus any ghosting from previous windows (if there were) are gone. This is as expected from older displays. I just need to be careful since it could trigger epileptic episode during the extreme flashes.

2- used the vacuum cleaner to clean the small inlet at the bottom of the chassis. Lots of dust collected over time. It changed the pace for the bottom pink edge. I might open the Imac to clean it properly.

3- removing the door from the memory did help but another symptom appeared: the bottom edge became pink much quicker then before. Since the inlet of the memory door is large compared to the small inlets at the bottom of the chassis I think the airflow got messed up causing the bottom to heat up quicker than before.

Unfortunately I do believe like others say, the backlight / pixels are already "damaged" and hence they tend to discolor quicker at the edge. I do believe it is all connect to heating as my display starts 95% correct and slowly during the day the pink edge gets slowly visible.

Regarding equal distribution I don't know. The chassis is not equal in shape and volume.

When the pink edge occurs and I rerun the script the pink edges get less for a small period.

 

[onnomark]

Just an update:

1- The flash-brightness script is really doing well. I have run it several times a day for a week. To my surprise the pink edge is pretty much gone (just a slight hint of pink) and does not appear anymore. Even after running for hours in a row.

2- The flash between minimal and maximal also removed the ghosted images which I had a times when a X11 window was open for a whole day (terminal display). Overall it seems to have a significant effect on both pink and ghost.

3- Obviously it might be connected to cleaning the air intake too. I don't know which change had the biggest impact.

4- I placed tape at the back at the four corners, in the top center, and around the air outlet. I have tracked the temp and during heavy computing it rises. by a few degrees (+5 maximum). There is one area where the temp rises more which is where the actual CPU resides. The air outlet temp is much warmer (+20 up to +40 Celsius), hence my suspicion any air trapped inside must be warmer too.

I have just received the tools to remove the display. Want to swap the nvme drive for a bigger / faster one. As well (vacuum) clean the imac 100%. Last but not least I will investigate how the airflow goes through the imac. Since I have no emotional bond with the Apple / Imac I will see where I can drill the appropriate cooling holes. I thought about the comments on the chassis / housing providing cooling but that is not really true. The volume of air between the components and the housing is large and hence it will heat up the air a lot more than transferring heat through the housing. The display seems to be shielded too if I understand the pictures i found on internet. I believe allowing the volume of air to escape quicker would lower the internal temperature too. The fact that my edges are a lot less pink than before cleaning the air inlets confirms what I believe is the case.

Lets see what happens. By the way: It is an I7, 32Gb memory, 2TB disk and 128G NVME. It is pretty quick with compiling code and intensive applications.