Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I went into an Apple Store and noticed on one iMac and both LG Ultrafine 4k and 5k displays, there was dust build up on the LCD panels. looked very similar.
 
  • Like
Reactions: interessiert
I’m amazed by how many comments there are assuming that these Macs must be in filthy environments.

The hand few I’ve seen this happen to are in extremely clean office environments. One of them is even in a sterile medical procedure room.

Also - I can understand dust getting into the computer, but with these displays being laminated to the glass, is there even an air gap that the dust could get in to settle? Unless its a fault with the lamination?
 
I thought I was the only one....

Several years ago, this kept happening to my 27" iMac.
As I was within my AppleCare, I brought it in to the store and got the screen replaced.

After the 2nd LCD replacement and this problem resurfaced, I ended up calling Apple (rather than just setting an appointment and taking it in), because it's one heck of a process to take a 27" iMac to the store.
They ended up replacing the iMac (as this would be the 3rd replacement), with an equivalent, newer model.
I even had the option to "upgrade" to better processors, RAM, etc...

Fast forward to today. Both of my parents have iMacs with this problem...

With all of this said, i've never seen this on any of my MacBooks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: interessiert
Also - I can understand dust getting into the computer, but with these displays being laminated to the glass, is there even an air gap that the dust could get in to settle? Unless its a fault with the lamination?
There is a gap inside the display between the backlight and pixel layer, this is typically where the dust spots happen, and Apple's display supplier (LG) does a terrible job sealing these displays.

I owned a Late 2014 27" 5K a few years ago, and a small fly crawled into the display, also between the backlight and pixel layer, and never found its way out. In that case I was able to persuade them to replace the display under warranty, but I've seen other reports of insects or spiders crawling into iMac displays on this forum.

It's reasonable to expect better quality control on a $3,000+ computer, though LG seems to be the only company making 27" 5K panels right now.

My current Late 2015 iMac has a small dark spot inside the panel, and it was presumably like that from the factory. It's also beginning to suffer from both the dust issue, and the image retention common on the 2014/2015 5K Macs.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: profets
Is it in any way helpful? I'd expect them to get plugged and need cleaning/replacement and end up being just one more thing to deal with.
Honestly, haven't ever had a problem with a Lenovo overheating or needing to replace the filters, I only opened them up to upgrade the hard drives to SSDs and add RAM. They also have channels and drain holes for liquid to escape from the casing if something gets spilled on it, doesn't completely prevent liquid damage, but dramatically reduces the risk of it, especially if you immediately power down, remove the battery and let it completely dry out before turning it back on.
 
As a owner of a $3500 2017 iMac, I didn’t expect or demand Apple made sure my office was cleaner than normal. I purchased a large Honeywell Hepa filter air purifier. No problems thus far with dust etc.
Actually, the devices should be designed to work in an average environment, what you have is not an average environment, it is a step away from a clean room. The reality is you shouldn't have to take this step to make things work properly.
[doublepost=1543510446][/doublepost]
And this is exactly why I am afraid to take my iMac in for repairs—even if they do resolve this screen problem...what new problem may be created or set off by technician handling? Not to mention not having my computer and having to wipe the hard drive to protect all of my data.
I take mine to authorized service centers because of this and because I can usually get my system back the same or next day at the latest.
 
I bought 2 iMacs back in 2009 when the 27-inch model came out.

After about a year each of them had dust trapped under the glass ruining the display quality. I used my AppleCare warranty and I believe they just cleaned them both.

One of them had a repeat and I think the Apple Store put a whole new display in it. I'm not really sure if they put in new displays or cleaned them the first time to be honest.

But I thought they must have fixed this problem since then -- I bought those iMacs 9 years ago.

Crazy to hear about it happening on MacBooks where the fan is not even blowing air through the same chamber that houses the display.
 
  • Like
Reactions: interessiert
ironically they need a dust gate.

This is yet another area where Apple really does need to get their act together. Dust is going to get into computers, period. That's reality and it's absurd to think otherwise. However, just like Apple routinely designs computers that can't properly cool themselves, they have also had an ongoing problem with dust all the way back to at least the 1,1 Mac Pro which they released with no dust-filters and a very strange heat-sync design on their high-end card. The result was a system that almost instantly packed the GPU heat-sync with dust, overheated it and caused it to fail. And all they had to do was actually look at, and consider, the design. Anyone who had real-life experience building computers would tell you that it would not work: They just needed a dust-filter. The kind of dust-filter that even the most basic and budget of PC cases include for home-built rigs. It's crazy to produce such a beautiful piece of equipment and then cripple it with a basic and completely avoidable design flaw. The flaw of having no filters continued right through the entire MacPro (pre trash-can) lineup, but at least later designs used a different GPU heat-sync design. Later MacPros (pre trash-can), BTW, will pack-up the CPU heat-syncs quite badly over time however. Be sure to pull those open and dust them very, very thoroughly at least once a year. I see an awful lot of MacBook Pros pretty packed-up with dust as well; something they could avoid by including a dust-filter along the air-intake and simply instructing people how to blow the dust out of the screen on a routine basis.
 
My humidifier destroyed the insides of my iMac with white powder. Is this something that would have prevented that?
 
I’ve seen this happen to many iMacs I’ve had at the office. Didn’t realize it was dust.

When it does happen, it's most visible on boot up when the screen goes all-white with the black Apple logo in the middle.
[doublepost=1543511039][/doublepost]
I have that issue on my late 2012 iMac on both the bottom left and right corners. It‘s taking up a pretty big area and is especially visible on light backgrounds. I have no idea if Apple would do anything about it, especially since I‘m not in the US. Probably not, so I just learned to live with it.

I *think* it may be possible to clean the display yourself by removing the front glass with suction cups. Check youtube to see if somebody has a video how-to. The only times I have had my iMacs cleaned, I did it using my AppleCare warranty, so it did not cost me anything other than the warranty price up front.
 
I’m amazed by how many comments there are assuming that these Macs must be in filthy environments.

The hand few I’ve seen this happen to are in extremely clean office environments. One of them is even in a sterile medical procedure room.

Also - I can understand dust getting into the computer, but with these displays being laminated to the glass, is there even an air gap that the dust could get in to settle? Unless its a fault with the lamination?

Agreed... there is no need to apologize for Apple on this one. These devices should be built to handle an average environment and I've definitely encountered this on older Late-2009 iMacs. I'm still surprised to hear it happening on MacBooks since the display is in an enclosure that does not house a fan or have circulating air. People get kinda defensive when they have not encountered an issue until it happens to them. Can you imagine if iPhone's overheated when kept in your pocket and people just said "well, why are you keeping your iPhone in the enclosed space in your pocket?" Devices should be built for the environments they are going to be used in. Barring construction zones or barns, I think it's fair to say that an iMac or MacBook should be dust proof.
 
  • Like
Reactions: profets
I saw this all the time in iMacs. Used to be solvable in 5 minutes with a couple suction cups and a microfibre cloth. On the newer models with glued down glass you need to replace the entire screen. I assume it's now dust getting in the backlight layers as I didn't see a way for it to get between the panel and glass.
 
  • Like
Reactions: interessiert
This is exactly what happened to my iMac. So much gunk got sucked into the thing that it looked like a water stain covering 1/3 of the screen.
Couple that with the internals cooking the screen to a sickly yellow color due to Apple's inability to comprehend proper thermal management, and I was turned off from all iMacs after that.
 
My iMac looks exactly like this. Absolutely infuriating. I hate lawyers BUT what I hate more is the fact that we need them in cases like this. Comon, Apple.
[doublepost=1543512254][/doublepost]
This is exactly what happened to my iMac. So much gunk got sucked into the thing that it looked like a water stain covering 1/3 of the screen.
Couple that with the internals cooking the screen to a sickly yellow color due to Apple's inability to comprehend proper thermal management, and I was turned off from all iMacs after that.

But it's THIN! So so so beautifully THIN!!
 
Never heard of this, but makes me happy that I opted for the i5-7600K CPU rather than the i7-7700K in the 2017 iMac. The fan never seems to go higher than idle, so it draws less air into the case. My homebrew Windows desktop, on the other hand, has five fans and I clean the screens on the air intakes regularly.
 
The screens are glued and there is no glass on my screen, so where is this dust getting trapped? I'd like to add that this hasn't happened to my screen and I've worked on building sites a number of times.
Between the glass and the LCD display.
 
I think Apple is stuck in a hard sport sometimes with these things because if they seal them up completely then no air gets in or out and if not air gets in or out computer runs hotter and with hotter temperatures other problems arise and people start to complain about other issues. No win situation sometimes. With a little bit of space over time dust gets in but this is the case for just about anything that has holes or a small gap.

I suppose there may be a market now for some iMac covers to cover their iMacs when not in use. Perhaps a light fabric like one that goes over the iMac when not in use. I have a LG Widescreen Monitor and was just looking at it noticing all the dust around the edges as well and I try to dust it once every week or two. Dust these days unfortunately is every where.
 
100% computers in the world collect dust... Apple happen to have the least dust and got sued. Now I wonder if these same people will sue Apple in another case where they claim Apple failed to make the iMacs water resistant?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.