27", 21.5" iMac Owners, test your screen for yellow tint issue here

[brobins]

Got the problem here

Hi!

I have just taken delivery of my new 27" i7 and definitely have the yellow tinge issue! Quite disappointed as I waited a long time for it to be shipped and delivered..

So...

What is the best plan of action at the present time? Should I ring Support and arrange a replacement now or wait until Apple acknowledge the issue and then ask for a replacement..

On a side note; I am a CGI Artist who deals with colour on a daily basis so this kind of problem really isn't acceptable for me - I realise that for some people this wouldn't be a major issue.

Many Thanks,

 

[Regnix]

Yellow tinge here too, from week number 48. I noticed it while surfing and googled for "imac yellow tinge" and here I am... I figure I'll wait till it's (hopefully) fixed on newer batches before replacing. Otherwise I'm very happy - no dead pixels!

 

[Btom]

.....Should I ring Support and arrange a replacement now or wait until Apple acknowledge the issue and then ask for a replacement..

.........

Many Thanks,

I'd say change it, specially if color is important to you, otherwise you may wait for a while and miss your 14 day grace period ...

Tom B.

 

[sfmountainbiker]

Hi!

I have just taken delivery of my new 27" i7 and definitely have the yellow tinge issue! Quite disappointed as I waited a long time for it to be shipped and delivered..

So...

What is the best plan of action at the present time? Should I ring Support and arrange a replacement now or wait until Apple acknowledge the issue and then ask for a replacement..

On a side note; I am a CGI Artist who deals with colour on a daily basis so this kind of problem really isn't acceptable for me - I realise that for some people this wouldn't be a major issue.

Many Thanks,

When did you order it online? Are you in the U.S.? You might want to wait until the end of the extended return period:

Return and Refund Policy
Items purchased at the Apple Online Store between October 31, 2009 and December 24, 2009, may be returned through January 9, 2010. Please note that all other terms and conditions provided in the Apple Online Store Sales and Refunds Policy are still applicable with respect to such items purchased, including the assessment of a 10% restocking fee on any open box item. All purchases made after December 24, 2009 are subject to the standard Apple Online Store Sales and Refunds Policy, which requires returns to be made within 14 calendar days of the date of receipt.

 

[drakezero]

bought online, exchange at retail store?

I ordered my iMac through the Apple Online Store.
If I wanted to do an exchange, could I just drive over to the Apple retail store by me, and get it done there?

I had dust as well. Returned it to the store and they exchanged it. They were able to see it under the screen with the machine off. Did you try that?

The yellow tint I can't say if I see it on mine or not. I didn't until I read the forums but now trying to figure out if I do or not. My wife is disgusted with me and says that she does not see it. Oh well

 

[brobins]

When did you order it online? Are you in the U.S.? You might want to wait until the end of the extended return period:

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I ordered the order around 3 weeks ago; I am in the UK. I have a 3 year Apple Protection Cover too so am not too worried about the 14 day period..

Still, I think I should probably try and arrange a replacement sooner rather than later.

Many Thanks

 

[sfmountainbiker]

I ordered my iMac through the Apple Online Store.
If I wanted to do an exchange, could I just drive over to the Apple retail store by me, and get it done there?

I think you have to do it online if you purchased it online. You can always call apple care and see what they say. If you have an i7 or any other BTO model then I'm sure the store won't be able to help you.

 

[drewyboy]

LCD Manufacturer

It's not the video card. I had the issue with my G4 ibook. I has a cluster of pixels go out, had them replace it only to bring it home and see the yellow tint all over the bottom of the screen. I brought it back and had to argue a bit with the genius bar but after awhile I got them to replace it and the one they replaced it with, no yellow tint.

I don't know who produces Apple's lcd's but apple has had many issues with the yellow tint issue. They should go with whoever dell get's theirs from. Those are some nice screens. Anyways, maybe it's because of all of apple owners are anal and expect perfection compared to the average consumer. But I don't think that's too much to ask with the price of merchandise.

Cheers,
Drew

 

[tapplox]

OK, I just did the test on my week 46 i5.

First time, I thought there was a really faint yellow tinge at the bottom corner. Then I realised that I'm looking at the screen with my eyes level with the top. So I tilted the screen so I was looking directly at the middle and perpendicular to the screen, and the yellow vanished completely.

I would recommend anyone else doing the test to do it at different viewing angles.

Unfortunately this is not the case with over 20+ iMacs I have tested at different Apple Stores. The yellow tinge still exists no matter the angle. Some are worst than others. It might get worst over time (according to the Apple Support discussion). However I definitely do recommend that everyone check the test with other angles.

While some people can live with this issue, graphic designers absolutely cannot use a display with the yellowing issue. I can at least say this for myself. I would not go as far as to say we are expecting perfection... It just doesn't make sense to make your 27" iMac a secondary screen when it should be the primary one for work. Color uniformity wise, my Macbook Pro and previous iMac beats the 27" in every way possible. So does my Samsung panel. We are just expecting something better than what it is now.

If this poll is a real indication of anything, not everyone are having this issue. But it is indeed very common.

 

[dbmnk]

Got the yellow fever. week number 45.
27" received Dec. 2nd.

 

[SkyFox244]

Got the yellow fever. week number 45.
27" received Dec. 2nd.

Slightly yellow bar from the middle down and on the right-hand the screen is brighter. It's a week 47 27"i7 iMac with 8 GB RAM and 1 TB HD
The disk is not noisy, the screen does not flicker, no dead pix .. but yellow bar will eventually annoy me so I think that I’m going to exchange it...
The wait begins again....

 

[teerexx52]

Slightly yellow bar from the middle down and on the right-hand the screen is brighter. It's a week 47 27"i7 iMac with 8 GB RAM and 1 TB HD
The disk is not noisy, the screen does not flicker, no dead pix .. but yellow bar will eventually annoy me so I think that I’m going to exchange it...
The wait begins again....

What I'm wondering is will you get one any better. Have the week 48 models fixed the problem?

 

[SkyFox244]

What I'm wondering is will you get one any better. Have the week 48 models fixed the problem?

I think we will never now if the problem is fixed until the issue disappears in time, without any official announcement by Apple… Maybe it already is? Second; “if you do not fire a shot; you always miss” If I take a shot at getting a good imac, chances are I will.
The downside: maybe I get a noise hard disk, a flickering screen or dead pixels.
In that case I will be calling them again and again…. For that amount of money the system should be free of such bugs..

At least I’m in there systems, in case a fix is introduced.
And hopefully I’m getting a week 49 edition…

.

 

[peteyD]

Just a thought

I can't detect this problem on my 27" i5, but then my eyesight isn't great.

But when running the OP's test, I had a thought. As the lower boxes moves down, my head stays still, so the viewing angle changes. Could this be more of a viewing angle problem than a location on the screen problem?

Please ignore if this has been raised before and is a red herring.

 

[SkyFox244]

I can't detect this problem on my 27" i5, but then my eyesight isn't great.

But when running the OP's test, I had a thought. As the lower boxes moves down, my head stays still, so the viewing angle changes. Could this be more of a viewing angle problem than a location on the screen problem?

Please ignore if this has been raised before and is a red herring.

In my case; no i tried tilting the screen and going up and down with my eyes.
It stayed yellow. BUT I think a lot of people could make that mistake you've mentioned.

btw it is raised before in this treath.

 

[teerexx52]

This is driving me crazy. I can't say the screen actually looks yellow but it is more gray than my laptop. The whites are not as white as on my MacBook Pro but it seems it is consistently that way top to bottom. It is very hard to tell.

 

[SkyFox244]

This is driving me crazy. I can't say the screen actually looks yellow but it is more gray than my laptop. The whites are not as white as on my MacBook Pro but it seems it is consistently that way top to bottom. It is very hard to tell.

scroll this treath up and down and follow one of the light-gray bars with your eyes. About half way the screen the color in the bar gets warmer.
scrol it up again and it looks colder. try changing the viewing angle by moving your head up and down the screen borders.

 

[epo]

I don't believe there is a problem here

My screen is mounted so that the centre of the screen is more or less at eye height and the screen more or less vertical.

I did this test and no difference was found. Then I stood up and looked down at the display and there was a tonal difference between the grey bars at top and bottom of the screen (colour intensity not colour tinge). So try this test standing up I'll bet it exaggerates any effect you are seeing.

My guess? viewing angle. Try adjusting your chair and the screen angle.

Reminds me of the people in the Nikon community who suggested doing long exposures of the D90 with the lens cap on to prove there was a fault in the sensor, sometimes you just see what you want to see.

For people who don't yet have a new iMac, this could be a good time to look in the refurb store for perfectly good machines returned for no good reason.

 

[tapplox]

The issue being referred to is color temperature uniformity, the common issue here being a warmer tone (thus, white becomes yellow) starting from the middle towards the bottom of the screen (like a yellow gradient effect).

Color intensity and color temperature are not related issues. Some displays are better than others.

So, in response to epo, your display probably has no such issue. But this isn't related to the viewing angle. The yellow tinge is very easily visible if you have it, especially in white/grey colors, like the finder window itself. When compared side by side to a LED Macbook Pro, it is also clearly visible (if you have the issue). The test provided here tests for a yellow tone that isn't suppose to be there. Not anything else.

Height wise, 27" 16:9 isn't much larger than the 24" 16:10. You certainly do not need to tilt your head to view the screen from top to bottom. At least this is the case for me.


I have updated the test to remind people to check within various viewing angles. Remember to follow the instructions carefully. The issue should be fairly easy to spot.

 

[CeeZee]

I am so knocking on wood now ....

First i5 had some slight yellowing on the bottom left. I was totally undecided how much of a problem this was going to become. I do a lot of digital photography and this change in color temperature could really be a nightmare but I wasn't yet clear on how much of an impact it would have. Well, as I was still deciding on Tuesday, I got the flicker (to black) and tearing that has also been reported. I bought this i5 at my local Apple store on Black Friday. So I dragged the (not light weight) iMac back over to the store just to see what would happen. I explained the problem about the flickering. They asked a couple of questions (had I been running lots of high CPU apps - no I hadn't) and then came back with another i5.

This one has no yellow tinge. This is day two so the jury is still out regarding the flickering but for sure there is no yellow tinge.

I can definitely say that there is quite a difference between my first iMac (with the yellowing) and this one. No confusion as to what is meant by yellowing. To be honest, even though it was obvious in the test provided here, I had the best indication of it by simply fully enlarging a blank document in TextEdit. Even my husband saw it then!

First iMac was from week 47 and this one is 48, but I don't think that matters and it is merely a luck of the draw. Even at the store they said that changes don't come to the production line that quickly. So now I'm waiting to see if I get the tearing again. Sure hope not.

 

[davemoser]

slight yellow i5 tint

mine noticeable but is acceptable for now.
serial number: W8946....

 

[SkyFox244]

The issue being referred to is color temperature uniformity, the common issue here being a warmer tone (thus, white becomes yellow) starting from the middle towards the bottom of the screen (like a yellow gradient effect).

Color intensity and color temperature are not related issues. Some displays are better than others.

So, in response to epo, your display probably has no such issue. But this isn't related to the viewing angle. The yellow tinge is very easily visible if you have it, especially in white/grey colors, like the finder window itself. When compared side by side to a LED Macbook Pro, it is also clearly visible (if you have the issue ). The test provided here tests for a yellow tone that isn't suppose to be there. Not anything else.

Height wise, 27" 16:9 isn't much larger than the 24" 16:10. You certainly do not need to tilt your head to view the screen from top to bottom. At least this is the case for me.


I have updated the test to remind people to check within various viewing angles. Remember to follow the instructions carefully. The issue should be fairly easy to spot.

The yellow thinge, in my case, is visual... doing your initial test.
I mentioned the head tilting because some responses in this thread think it's just the viewing angle. I understand that thought but i don’t think it is the solution. The only way to prove it, for those people, is to test the viewing angle (maybe in some cases it actually helps) In my case the screen stayed warmer below the middle than upwards the middle. Proving to me it isn’t the viewing Angle

 

[SwiftLives]

Out of curiosity -- is anyone with a Core2 processor in their iMac having the color uniformity issue? From what I can tell, it's only people with the i5 or i7. And the color temperature variation is always at the bottom 1/2-1/3 of the screen.

Someone in another thread suggested it might have something to do with improper shielding of the speaker magnets in the machine. However - I haven't been able to locate a straight answer as to whether or not magnetic fields cause discoloration in LED panels. (I thought it was only on CRTs).

 

[teerexx52]

Out of curiosity -- is anyone with a Core2 processor in their iMac having the color uniformity issue? From what I can tell, it's only people with the i5 or i7. And the color temperature variation is always at the bottom 1/2-1/3 of the screen.

Someone in another thread suggested it might have something to do with improper shielding of the speaker magnets in the machine. However - I haven't been able to locate a straight answer as to whether or not magnetic fields cause discoloration in LED panels. (I thought it was only on CRTs).

Not the speakers in my case. I tried it. Still "warm"

 

[brobins]

I have just finished arranging my replacement iMac to be delivered! Apple support were great! They are sending me a replacement and allowing me to keep hold of the current one until I have taken delivery of the new one. Then they will arrange another currier to come and collect the faulty one..

They said I should expect the new one early next week..

I will report back to let you know if the new one has any screen issues!

Thanks