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Do you have screen issues with you 24'' Imac?
- Thread starter macsander
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Darkroom
Guest
i don't mean to sound smug here, really i don't, but not everyone is going to notice a slight color gradient, and not everyone is going to care even if there is one. also, it's sometimes difficult to notice bleed out on black screens if the room is very well lit (IE: The Apple Store).
i'm currently under the impression based on these threads, my own experience and information from an apple tech that 24" iMacs produced before week 20 have issues, and those produced during or after week 20 do not.
my current iMac and my first iMac were both week 10 productions. i'm exchanging it for the 2nd time at the beginning of next week, this time for a post-week-20 production (assuming they have one - they should), and i'll let you know more.
by the way, it's totally great if someone has screen issues and doesn't notice them, or care about them, and therefore select "Only if I did the most ridiculous tests to find out.", but this isn't a "finical" issue for people like myself who run a small home business and rely on a evenly lit screens for imaging and color work... it's not even possible to calibrate these gradient screens with accurate color profiles using colormeters.
i'm currently under the impression based on these threads, my own experience and information from an apple tech that 24" iMacs produced before week 20 have issues, and those produced during or after week 20 do not.
my current iMac and my first iMac were both week 10 productions. i'm exchanging it for the 2nd time at the beginning of next week, this time for a post-week-20 production (assuming they have one - they should), and i'll let you know more.
by the way, it's totally great if someone has screen issues and doesn't notice them, or care about them, and therefore select "Only if I did the most ridiculous tests to find out.", but this isn't a "finical" issue for people like myself who run a small home business and rely on a evenly lit screens for imaging and color work... it's not even possible to calibrate these gradient screens with accurate color profiles using colormeters.
Ok please let me know when you exchanged it. So when I order a BTO 24'' (3.06Ghz 750GB) Imac, in about 1-2 weeks, I really should not have any problems?
I Love my iMac's Screen =D ! I don't think it has any problems 😉 ! .. Well , except minor backlight bleeding .. So minor I sometimes can't notice it even if I want to , Appears like a slightly lighter patch on the down-right corner when the whole screen is black . I don't find it a problem though =)
gehrbox
macrumors 65816
My first new iMac, a CTO 3.06, was week 20 and had very noticable uneven backlighting left to right, hundreds of stuck pixels and one dead pixel. Sent it back right away.
My replacement (week 21) has, as close as I can tell by eyeball a perfect display.
I purchased a 24" iMac 2.4ghz the day they were released, and I have had no problems whatsoever (except a slight backlight bleed on black screens, but it is less noticeable than any other LCD I've owned). I am still very pleased with my purchase and after nearly a year I still have not witnessed even a single stuck pixel.
gehrbox
macrumors 65816
First two letters are the factory, third digit is the year, forth and fifth digits are the week of the year.
My old 24" had screenbleed issues, so I let it go.
Here I sit though, still missing it.
*sigh*...
Here I sit though, still missing it.
*sigh*...
let me put it this way...
2 months ago I was sitting on my PC w/ an "average" LCD display, reading all these posts about the imac screens being sub par, and it was worrying me. But when I saw the imacs at the stores they seemed fine to me (also due to lighting).
So anyway, I saw some ppl bring up links to LCD test image websites, etc and decided to try those out on my PC's LCD display which I was using and which I thought was fine at the time. Turns out my PC's LCD had pretty bad backlight bleed, slightly uneven color, poor black color display, etc
But did I really notice those problems when using it? No... just when I applied those tests to it.
I had been using it for 2 years w/o any thought about "hmmm this display looks kinda whack"
I got my imac a few weeks ago and my screen has so far no issues and it only has minor backlight bleed and no gradient issues. And that's while TESTING for it. During normal use, it looks PERFECT.
Unless your eyes are sensitive to this stuff or unless you are a perfectionist freak, you'll probably be satisfied.
2 months ago I was sitting on my PC w/ an "average" LCD display, reading all these posts about the imac screens being sub par, and it was worrying me. But when I saw the imacs at the stores they seemed fine to me (also due to lighting).
So anyway, I saw some ppl bring up links to LCD test image websites, etc and decided to try those out on my PC's LCD display which I was using and which I thought was fine at the time. Turns out my PC's LCD had pretty bad backlight bleed, slightly uneven color, poor black color display, etc
But did I really notice those problems when using it? No... just when I applied those tests to it.
I had been using it for 2 years w/o any thought about "hmmm this display looks kinda whack"
I got my imac a few weeks ago and my screen has so far no issues and it only has minor backlight bleed and no gradient issues. And that's while TESTING for it. During normal use, it looks PERFECT.
Unless your eyes are sensitive to this stuff or unless you are a perfectionist freak, you'll probably be satisfied.
Darkroom
Guest
congratulations, switcher. previous Intel (white), G5 and G4 LCD iMacs never had this problem. something you should know before comparing it to your budget PC.
by sensitive perfectionist freak i'm assuming you mean knowledgeable users who aren't color blind and can pay attention to detail.
But you seem to forget that the gradient and backlight bleed problems vary from machine to machine, they are not constant, you cannot just state something like that based on your experience with one machine. The screens on the three 24" iMacs I went through varied immensely, the first one being the worst.
I still think when you are investing hard earned cash in a top machine which promises to deliver, you should get what you pay for.
Where can you se this code? and Why week 20 because all the parts are put together but built at different places so it could be that the screen is older then week20 and the ea. the hard-drive isn't, right?
Darkroom
Guest
the code is your serial number. it's printed on the outside of the box, or from the menu bar:
About This Mac > More Info... > Hardware > Serial Number.
example: M8820 (only the first 5 digits of a number)
first 2 digits = production plant (M8 is China, there are other different ones representing different plants)
3rd digit = year of production (should be "8" for 2008)
next 2 digits = week of production from production year ("20" would mean it was assembled May 11 - 17, 2008 as that was the 20th week of 2008. it doesn't mean the actual week from the start of production, but the week of the year of production.)
you can decipher apple serials yourself, or you can go here: http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
On my 3rd one now, and it looks like I'll have to go for number 4 🙁
1st machine had a rattly fan.
2nd machine had a noisy hard drive and a large grey smear across the middle of the screen until it had fully heated up
This one has an annoying colour gradient from cold blue in the top left to warm yellow in the bottom right.
Mobile phone photo is attached - OK, so it doesn't look quite as bad as this to the naked eye, but it is still noticeable, even when I apply the Shades app.
I also think there may be a problem with my airport card, since it often struggles to find a signal from cold boot, and won't load any pages. Once I switch it off/on in Prefs, it gets full signal and works fine.
Seriously, if I wasn't so fed up with windows, and so enamoured with the form-factor of the iMac, I'd have given up on this thing and got a Dell.
No way I can afford to upgrade to a Pro either, otherwise I'd be begrudgingly considering that right now.
1st machine had a rattly fan.
2nd machine had a noisy hard drive and a large grey smear across the middle of the screen until it had fully heated up
This one has an annoying colour gradient from cold blue in the top left to warm yellow in the bottom right.
Mobile phone photo is attached - OK, so it doesn't look quite as bad as this to the naked eye, but it is still noticeable, even when I apply the Shades app.
I also think there may be a problem with my airport card, since it often struggles to find a signal from cold boot, and won't load any pages. Once I switch it off/on in Prefs, it gets full signal and works fine.
Seriously, if I wasn't so fed up with windows, and so enamoured with the form-factor of the iMac, I'd have given up on this thing and got a Dell.
No way I can afford to upgrade to a Pro either, otherwise I'd be begrudgingly considering that right now.
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I just got this one a few hours ago (built week 22). I don´t know about "every issue fixes past week 22", but I think it´s a keeper. Despite the small color variation in white. No backlighting bleed though.
Am I a happy puppy? 😀
edit: The thing that looks like a dead pixel (below) is just the mouse pointer
Btw; I think brightness is a bit low, does anyone know a hack to brighten it. Figure it can go higher since a lot of people complained about it being to bright. Apple prob turned the default down now that they fixed some of the gradient problem.
Am I a happy puppy? 😀
edit: The thing that looks like a dead pixel (below) is just the mouse pointer
Btw; I think brightness is a bit low, does anyone know a hack to brighten it. Figure it can go higher since a lot of people complained about it being to bright. Apple prob turned the default down now that they fixed some of the gradient problem.
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Darkroom
Guest
interesting that you say that, i too feel that my iMac isn't as bright as i remember it being... the first one i had was hard on the eyes in a dark room, but this one it doesn't bother me in a dark room, and it just feels not as bright as i think it should be..
i wonder if maybe 10.5.3 update changed the brightness?
also, what production plant is your mac from? it's great that you don't have any screen bleed-out, but if you say your whites are uneven that still really sucks (for me anyway).
Nope, this machine came with 10.5.2 installed. Also, it was assembled at the chzec plant. My whites are uneven but it´s not that bad. Actually it looks pretty much like my MBA which has a LED. It is minimal.
Darkroom
Guest
humm... can you explain further your uneven whites? would you say it's a screen gradient? how is it uneven? is it more warm (yellow) in the middle, cooler (blue) on the sides?
personally, i found that when i switched my screens profile to the Adobe (1998) profile (sys prefs > displays > color) that my screen gradient became less prominent, albeit the screen became colder than the warm default iMac profile. perhaps your whites will become more uniform by doing so? i also upped the screen contrast just a touch (sys prefs > universal access > seeing > enhance contrast) as well.
I´d say it´s a little uneven (a bit brighter on the left side), minimal darker patches in most of the corners. And if you look at the picture I posted abowe there is a slight bluish color stretching from both sides. But all this considered it is minimal, and I think Apple did something to fix the issues. Especially since there is no backlight bleed that´s what I think. I can live with this.
Great, I´ll the trick with the contrast! 🙂