Acrylic cinema display yellowed button.

[mustagcoupe]

I recently bought a G4 MDD which came with a 17 inch cinema display. When i disassembled it for cleaning i noticed the silver plastic behind the bezel was badly browned around the led and once i put it back together and turned it on i realized this makes the led glow a horrible yellow brown color. Anybody ever seen this before. I checked the smart power on hours on the hard drive and its only about 2 years which i wouldn't think would be enough to yellow the plastic like that but it may not be the original drive.

 

[eyoungren]

Mine are just yellow. 17" and 20".

These displays are way older than two years. We're talking 2001 to 2004.

 

[mustagcoupe]

I know they are way older than 2 years. I was just saying i checked the hard drive smart power on hours to get an idea of how long the monitor spent powered on as it came with its original computer. The smart power on hours say about 2 years, i just checked and it is the original hard drive that came with the computer. It seems odd to me that such an expensive monitor would have the power button yellow so badly with such low hours. The screen is also rather dim and the backlight has a reddish tint. Are these common problems with the cinema/studio displays. I have a 15 inch that the power button is still nice and white on and the backlight is much brighter despite the case being in very rough condition and i have other monitors/tvs with far more total use hours that don't have these issues.

EDIT: I suppose it could have sat running a screensaver forever with the hard drive spun down and wore out the screen / yellowed the button. Id still like to know if Yellowed buttons / red backlights are common issues with these displays or if i got a lemon.

 

[B S Magnet]

I know they are way older than 2 years. I was just saying i checked the hard drive smart power on hours to get an idea of how long the monitor spent powered on as it came with its original computer. The smart power on hours say about 2 years, i just checked and it is the original hard drive that came with the computer. It seems odd to me that such an expensive monitor would have the power button yellow so badly with such low hours. The screen is also rather dim and the backlight has a reddish tint. Are these common problems with the cinema/studio displays. I have a 15 inch that the power button is still nice and white on and the backlight is much brighter despite the case being in very rough condition and i have other monitors/tvs with far more total use hours that don't have these issues.

EDIT: I suppose it could have sat running a screensaver forever with the hard drive spun down and wore out the screen / yellowed the button. Id still like to know if Yellowed buttons / red backlights are common issues with these displays or if i got a lemon.

Without knowing the specific history of your ACD, the browning/yellowing you see around the power LED can probably be remedied with a little bit of “retrobriting” — if you’re willing to disassemble it again and apply hydrogen peroxide and an ultraviolet light source (which, if where you are the angle is high enough, can be the midday sun). Being powered on (and the LED running therefrom) won’t yellow the bezel. The LED isn’t powerful enough.

If, however, the yellowing didn’t come from exposure to bright environmental lighting (such as fluorescent tubes in an office setting or next to a sunny window for years at a time), then it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that this ACD once lived in a home where indoor smoking was extensive.

But given the way old tar retains old smoke odours on everything to which it adheres, you’d probably have already noticed this with your nose. If the yellowing of the plastic came from that, using a water-dampened, melamine-based “magic eraser” sponge ought to remove the tar grime.

I can attest that a well-kept ACD (my 20-inch model is from 2003), even one used non-stop for almost all of that time, which hasn’t been subjected to the classes of harsh elements like either of those I described, should continue to shine the cool white found in all of Apple’s white-LED-equipped products.

As for HDD hours…

The powered-on hours of the HDD(s) in your MDD G4 is not an indicator of how much environmental exposure your ACD has been subjected to, nor is it an indicator of how long your MDD has been powered on, cumulatively, since it was manufactured.

HDD uptimes of roughly two years, per S.M.A.R.T. report(s), is not exceptional for OEM HDD(s), especially for a desktop system which is anywhere between 16 to 18 years old. To wit, some of the HDDs I run in my Power Mac G5 — WD Black HDDs —have as many as 58,800 hours (that is: going on seven years) of use, and those were units I bought in 2010. (They remain RAID-mirrored and monitored for imminent failure by a third-party utility called softRAID.)

To double-check the actual age of your MDD’s HDD(s), take out the hard drive(s) to see precisely when they were manufactured (many have the date of manufacture on their labels). They might be as old as the G4 itself and thus OEM unit(s), or they might be aftermarket unit(s). If in doubt, get a replacement HDD.

 

[eyoungren]

The light on both my Acrylic ACDs is yellow. Until now, I never realized that they were supposed to be white. I think prior to purchasing these things around 2015 I think I had used one (a 17" I think) for less than a week in 2003.

My 20" LCD has the habit of shutting off the top backlight whenever it has not been on for a while. After letting it heat up (at least 30 mins) I can disconnect the display cable and then plug it back in and the backlight will 'catch' and turn back on. At which point the yellow power light stops its slow blinking at me. Once it's on, it stays on.

I don't have that issue with the 17", but I am thankful I found a way to force my 20" top backlight back on at some point. Why it has to get hot enough to work, I don't know.

 

[mustagcoupe]

Without knowing the specific history of your ACD, the browning/yellowing you see around the power LED can probably be remedied with a little bit of “retrobriting” — if you’re willing to disassemble it again and apply hydrogen peroxide and an ultraviolet light source (which, if where you are the angle is high enough, can be the midday sun). Being powered on (and the LED running therefrom) won’t yellow the bezel. The LED isn’t powerful enough.

If, however, the yellowing didn’t come from exposure to bright environmental lighting (such as fluorescent tubes in an office setting or next to a sunny window for years at a time), then it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that this ACD once lived in a home where indoor smoking was extensive.

But given the way old tar retains old smoke odours on everything to which it adheres, you’d probably have already noticed this with your nose. If the yellowing of the plastic came from that, using a water-dampened, melamine-based “magic eraser” sponge ought to remove the tar grime.

I can attest that a well-kept ACD (my 20-inch model is from 2003), even one used non-stop for almost all of that time, which hasn’t been subjected to the classes of harsh elements like either of those I described, should continue to shine the cool white found in all of Apple’s white-LED-equipped products.

As for HDD hours…

The powered-on hours of the HDD(s) in your MDD G4 is not an indicator of how much environmental exposure your ACD has been subjected to, nor is it an indicator of how long your MDD has been powered on, cumulatively, since it was manufactured.

HDD uptimes of roughly two years, per S.M.A.R.T. report(s), is not exceptional for OEM HDD(s), especially for a desktop system which is anywhere between 16 to 18 years old. To wit, some of the HDDs I run in my Power Mac G5 — WD Black HDDs —have as many as 58,800 hours (that is: going on seven years) of use, and those were units I bought in 2010. (They remain RAID-mirrored and monitored for imminent failure by a third-party utility called softRAID.)

To double-check the actual age of your MDD’s HDD(s), take out the hard drive(s) to see precisely when they were manufactured (many have the date of manufacture on their labels). They might be as old as the G4 itself and thus OEM unit(s), or they might be aftermarket unit(s). If in doubt, get a replacement HDD.

The yellowing is in the inner thin piece of plastic that fits around the display that is painted silver and only around the led. That inner piece of plastic is more like the plastic sleeve in a candy box than something ive seen people retrobrite and it would probably remove the silver paint to. Whats so weird to me is its only that inner piece of thin plastic and only around the led thats browned, i wouldnt expect an led to put off enough uv or get hot enough to do that. The clear acrylic housing itself is still crystal clear.

I know 2 years hard drive uptime is not a lot, I was surprised at the relatively low hard drive hours compared to the condition of the lcd screen itself and the power button. My daily driver laptop is 3 years old and has 2 years uptime on the drives because its always running. I checked the date on the drive and its a 2002 dated drive with the apple logo so safe to say its original to this 2002 mdd.

The light on both my Acrylic ACDs is yellow. Until now, I never realized that they were supposed to be white. I think prior to purchasing these things around 2015 I think I had used one (a 17" I think) for less than a week in 2003.

My 20" LCD has the habit of shutting off the top backlight whenever it has not been on for a while. After letting it heat up (at least 30 mins) I can disconnect the display cable and then plug it back in and the backlight will 'catch' and turn back on. At which point the yellow power light stops its slow blinking at me. Once it's on, it stays on.

I don't have that issue with the 17", but I am thankful I found a way to force my 20" top backlight back on at some point. Why it has to get hot enough to work, I don't know.

If yours are yellowed to it might be a common thing. I wonder if its only certain years that do that or if it has to do with use or storage conditions. This display is a 2002 same as the computer. If i had to guess you have a bad solder joint in the inverter and when it heats up it reconnects enough for the backlight to work. In my case its the backlight bulb itself beginning to burn out giving the entire screen a reddish tint as well as the screen being very dim even at full brightness. This happens on thinkpad T2x series laptops to which is how i know whats causing it.

The outer acrylic shell and the stand on this display are still in good condition with no cracks or gouges so i may keep an eye out for another display with cracked or gouged acrylic and a good screen and inner screen surround and combine the 2 as the urine colored power button and reddish tinted screen are pretty awful in person. Its a display piece for now i guess since it looks fine when powered off.

 

[eyoungren]

The yellowing is in the inner thin piece of plastic that fits around the display that is painted silver and only around the led. That inner piece of plastic is more like the plastic sleeve in a candy box than something ive seen people retrobrite and it would probably remove the silver paint to. Whats so weird to me is its only that inner piece of thin plastic and only around the led thats browned, i wouldnt expect an led to put off enough uv or get hot enough to do that. The clear acrylic housing itself is still crystal clear.

I know 2 years hard drive uptime is not a lot, I was surprised at the relatively low hard drive hours compared to the condition of the lcd screen itself and the power button. My daily driver laptop is 3 years old and has 2 years uptime on the drives because its always running. I checked the date on the drive and its a 2002 dated drive with the apple logo so safe to say its original to this 2002 mdd.



If yours are yellowed to it might be a common thing. I wonder if its only certain years that do that or if it has to do with use or storage conditions. This display is a 2002 same as the computer. If i had to guess you have a bad solder joint in the inverter and when it heats up it reconnects enough for the backlight to work. In my case its the backlight bulb itself beginning to burn out giving the entire screen a reddish tint as well as the screen being very dim even at full brightness. This happens on thinkpad T2x series laptops to which is how i know whats causing it.

The outer acrylic shell and the stand on this display are still in good condition with no cracks or gouges so i may keep an eye out for another display with cracked or gouged acrylic and a good screen and inner screen surround and combine the 2 as the urine colored power button and reddish tinted screen are pretty awful in person. Its a display piece for now i guess since it looks fine when powered off.

Good luck at getting it together. I look forward to seeing the final result. These are really nice displays and there was a time where I was in pursuit of them. I got as far as one 20" and two 17".

I've since moved on to the aluminum displays, which for my purposes have far greater real estate and fit better in my desk layout. I am still using my 20" ACD as a monitor for Finder windows.

There is one late model 23" Cinema Display (M8536) that everyone wants. I've run across them but at the time I was buying ACDs I didn't have the cash. Lastly, and a bit of a holy grail is the very early 22" Cinema Displays. Model M5662 (DVI) and M8149 (ADC). The thing about these two is that the brightness controls are underneath the panel on the right side.

 

[mustagcoupe]

Good luck at getting it together. I look forward to seeing the final result. These are really nice displays and there was a time where I was in pursuit of them. I got as far as one 20" and two 17".

I've since moved on to the aluminum displays, which for my purposes have far greater real estate and fit better in my desk layout. I am still using my 20" ACD as a monitor for Finder windows.

There is one late model 23" Cinema Display (M8536) that everyone wants. I've run across them but at the time I was buying ACDs I didn't have the cash. Lastly, and a bit of a holy grail is the very early 22" Cinema Displays. Model M5662 (DVI) and M8149 (ADC). The thing about these two is that the brightness controls are underneath the panel on the right side.

Honestly i will probably only bother to repair it in the event i find a suitable doner locally. Im not a huge fan of ADC and the extra stress it puts on the g4 power supplies especially. Plus its only usb 1.1 which is kind of useless at this point. For now it looks good on a shelf. Im looking into getting a nice 23 inch aluminum because it has the built in firewire ports which would be great for me. It looks like you can get ones on ebay missing the stand for pretty cheap comparatively. I have a 20 with a smashed screen and housing that i could steal the stand from.

 

[B S Magnet]

The yellowing is in the inner thin piece of plastic that fits around the display that is painted silver and only around the led. That inner piece of plastic is more like the plastic sleeve in a candy box than something ive seen people retrobrite and it would probably remove the silver paint to. Whats so weird to me is its only that inner piece of thin plastic and only around the led thats browned, i wouldnt expect an led to put off enough uv or get hot enough to do that. The clear acrylic housing itself is still crystal clear.

Yah, I’m familiar with the inner square of plastic which frames the LCD, sandwiched between it and the acrylic (I’ve disassembled my own ACD when I removed the anti-glare sheet from the LCD back in 2018).

Even if the plastic is thinner than what one typically sees in retrobrite videos and tutorials (typically done on white-adjacent and/or opaque plastics, a clear plastic yellowed by UV light can probably still benefit from some hydrogen peroxide and a few hours under a bright light (or sunlight). If you’re hesitant to try this because of risking harm to the silvery coating on the rest of the plastic, you can make a mask using something like electrical tape and apply the hydrogen peroxide (a hair colour developer, which has a creamy texture, is what would be best here) to only the clear area within the mask.

I know 2 years hard drive uptime is not a lot, I was surprised at the relatively low hard drive hours compared to the condition of the lcd screen itself and the power button. My daily driver laptop is 3 years old and has 2 years uptime on the drives because its always running. I checked the date on the drive and its a 2002 dated drive with the apple logo so safe to say its original to this 2002 mdd.

As the ACD and the Power Mac G4 were sold as separate products, are you definitively sure that the previous owner bought the pair together? Unless the serials on each reveal that the weeks when they were produced are within a few of one another, it’s entirely possible to have bought one used afterward to pair together, especially if one was bought a few years afterwards when finding used units in the second-hand market was more common than it would be now.

Also, bear in mind the possibility that the pair, if bought together, were not used often and, wherever they got long-term stored, something present in the vicinity caused the exposed portion of the plastic (the portion without the silvery coating) to discolour.

If yours are yellowed to it might be a common thing. I wonder if its only certain years that do that or if it has to do with use or storage conditions.

Given how I’ve not heard this come up either here or elsewhere, I’m going to hazard a guess it was the previous owner’s storage conditions.

 

[mustagcoupe]

Yah, I’m familiar with the inner square of plastic which frames the LCD, sandwiched between it and the acrylic (I’ve disassembled my own ACD when I removed the anti-glare sheet from the LCD back in 2018).

Even if the plastic is thinner than what one typically sees in retrobrite videos and tutorials (typically done on white-adjacent and/or opaque plastics, a clear plastic yellowed by UV light can probably still benefit from some hydrogen peroxide and a few hours under a bright light (or sunlight). If you’re hesitant to try this because of risking harm to the silvery coating on the rest of the plastic, you can make a mask using something like electrical tape and apply the hydrogen peroxide (a hair colour developer, which has a creamy texture, is what would be best here) to only the clear area within the mask.

The monitor at present is not worth putting further effort into repairing. The screen backlight is shot and gives the whole screen a weird red tint. Since the acrylic is in good condition if i find one with a cracked off stand or that is otherwise damaged but has a good lcd i will combine the 2 into one good one.

 

[Amethyst1]

Im not a huge fan of ADC and the extra stress it puts on the g4 power supplies especially.

The DVI-to-ADC adapter circumvents that problem. The 23” acrylic ACD is a thing of beauty, and the adapter makes it compatible with pretty much every PC/Mac.

Im looking into getting a nice 23 inch aluminum because it has the built in firewire ports which would be great for me.

Some alu 23” ones had an issue with a pink tint on the LCD IIRC, so you might have to look for a good one.

 

[barbu]

I had that with my 20" ACD (silver apple logo) and it was so ugly. I disassembled the whole thing and just removed that bit of film around the frame. I think it looks at least as good without, it has more of a clear-case look and you can see some components. It does make the white LED much brighter though, since there is nothing to obscure it.

 

[Amethyst1]

it has more of a clear-case look and you can see some components.

WOW

(I don't normally post single-word messages so please bear with me!)

 

[barbu]

it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that this ACD once lived in a home where indoor smoking was extensive.

Exactly! Mine had belonged to a smoker and i had to scrub every single panel in the bath tub. Well worth it, it came out beautifully and has served me well and looked great ever since.
They are pretty easy to tear down, too, so give it a try and give that screen a new lease on life!

 

[B S Magnet]

Exactly! Mine had belonged to a smoker and i had to scrub every single panel in the bath tub. Well worth it, it came out beautifully and has served me well and looked great ever since.
They are pretty easy to tear down, too, so give it a try and give that screen a new lease on life!

I really like what you did with yours here, as it hearkens back to the iMac G3 Rev C and D aesthetic. It’s almost a shame they didn’t make all the ACDs like this from the outset.

 

[salamanderjuice]

Good luck at getting it together. I look forward to seeing the final result. These are really nice displays and there was a time where I was in pursuit of them. I got as far as one 20" and two 17".

I've since moved on to the aluminum displays, which for my purposes have far greater real estate and fit better in my desk layout. I am still using my 20" ACD as a monitor for Finder windows.

There is one late model 23" Cinema Display (M8536) that everyone wants. I've run across them but at the time I was buying ACDs I didn't have the cash. Lastly, and a bit of a holy grail is the very early 22" Cinema Displays. Model M5662 (DVI) and M8149 (ADC). The thing about these two is that the brightness controls are underneath the panel on the right side.

The M8149 isn't that rare or desirable is it? I can totally understand the DVI version because well it doesn’t require a special adapter to use. They also have an oddball resolution of 1600x1024 which AFAIK are the only monitors to use it. I have the ADC one. It's alright, my random modern cheapo Dell 1080p monitor is better in every way but looks though.

The 23" one has a better 1920x1200 resolution which I imagine is why everyone wants it.

 

[eyoungren]

The M8149 isn't that rare or desirable is it? I can totally understand the DVI version because well it doesn’t require a special adapter to use. They also have an oddball resolution of 1600x1024 which AFAIK are the only monitors to use it. I have the ADC one. It's alright, my random modern cheapo Dell 1080p monitor is better in every way but looks though.

The 23" one has a better 1920x1200 resolution which I imagine is why everyone wants it.

Rare? No, not that much. But based on all the times I've searched for one of these on eBay I've only ever found the common ACD models with the controls on the front panel.

One DVI model I did find, I put on my watch list just to see what would happen to it. It took a couple of months to move but finally did. But the seller never went lower than $150 on the auction. If I'd have had the money at the time I would have gotten it just for the unusual location of the controls.

 

[Amethyst1]

I can totally understand the DVI version because well it doesn’t require a special adapter to use.

I have the DVI version

They also have an oddball resolution of 1600x1024 which AFAIK are the only monitors to use it.

The SGI 1600SW premiered that resolution along with its 25:16 aspect ratio and, with a release date of 1998, predated the ACDs by quite a bit… and it is "delightfully" difficult to hook up to modern systems since it also predated DVI and the standardised digital connections which were around at the time (DFP and P&D) couldn’t handle that high a resolution/pixel clock.

 

[barbu]

I really like what you did with yours here, as it hearkens back to the iMac G3 Rev C and D aesthetic. It’s almost a shame they didn’t make all the ACDs like this from the outset.

It's a super easy mod, I'd be interested to see if others have done the same.

 

[barbu]

The M8149 isn't that rare or desirable is it? I can totally understand the DVI version because well it doesn’t require a special adapter to use. They also have an oddball resolution of 1600x1024 which AFAIK are the only monitors to use it. I have the ADC one. It's alright, my random modern cheapo Dell 1080p monitor is better in every way but looks though.

The 23" one has a better 1920x1200 resolution which I imagine is why everyone wants it.

agree, I got rid of my 22" ACD because it was the same res as my newer 20" I posted above. And there was something I hated about those physical buttons. They are more practical, but the elegance and balance of the capacitive display button that opens the display prefs is so much more appealing to me! And yeah I would almost kill for a 23" ACD :->

 

[666sheep]

It's a super easy mod, I'd be interested to see if others have done the same.

Yeah, I did it today to my 22" ACD - thanks to you shared the idea. Back in the days I made the clear case Clamshell, but I didn't think about ACD until I saw your.

 

[Amethyst1]

And yeah I would almost kill for a 23" ACD :->

Why didn't you tell me when I had three acrylic 23"s... They ended up selling for basically nothing because I didn't have a means of safely shipping them.

 

[B S Magnet]

::sniffs the air::

I detect a Club ACD thread coming on…

 

[Amethyst1]

::sniffs the air::

I detect a Club ACD thread coming on…

How did you know?