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iMac 27 - black spots

@YoFromPhilly Thanks to you for your reply. Therefore the problem is not due to gaming or Boot Camp ( not exclusively at least ).

I just thought of something. I've been noticing a distorted image that lasts a second or two almost everytime I turn on the computer when the OS is loading. I took some pictures, have a look.

Do any of you also experience something like this by any chance?
 

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No, I have never seen that.

*I just restarted my Mac to double check and it did not appear - it went from the white Apple logo - with loading animated circle, to the log in screen.
 
I've experienced those distorted images also, but never at startup, I don't think. It wasn't with the new alu iMacs, but an old 20". While I'm not perfectly sure, I believe it was some problem with the graphics, whatever that might really be. It usually happened when I was running something that was intensive on the resources, such as iMovie or DVD-encoding in iDVD.

After turning my 27" iMac off for the first time in a week, I noticed the dark splotches occurring in the top right for the first time. This also happened with the 20" iMac (on both sides!), but it won't be happening with this one. Now I get to deal with Apple and their store two hours away, or have to ship my computer off. I bought this thing pre-college for the sole purpose of working with video and color... :rolleyes:
 
Well, I loaded up the iMac into the car early this morning...carefully covered in a towel - Didn't expect a slight dusting of snow when I woke up, and a wind chill of 5 degrees!, eck. Trekked a little over an hour to my nearest Apple store for 9:45am appt.

From the Apple Genius rep, his reaction when he saw the spots was not a shock at all. He admitted that he is seeing this issue more and more. Asked if my office is humid, that condensation can build up. (Sure, Philly can get humid in the Summer, early fall, but this room is cool at all times, AC is cranking 24/7 when its humid and hot..And again, I have an 8 year old Vaio, 1 year old laptop PC..and a 3 year old Sony TV with LCD screens. Not one issue with humidity, weather changes affecting those)

Kicker is this fix would have taken 1-2 days to replace the screen..BUT since the last 27" LCD is already reserved for another repair, this will take 3-5 days..NOT business days either, which is fine. This could be ready as early as Sat or Sun.

What he did mention..more like a standard disclaimer. That 'condensation is not covered under AppleCare.' Meaning the replacement would cost me $817.31 (670.31 for the LCD, 108.00 for glass panel, 39 bucks for labor) SO...Right now, I owe $0. I just hope they try not to pull some nonsense on me, stating its because of 'humidity' and force me to pay that. I won't be paying that! Monitors should not begin to die after a few months. My TV fine and that is 3 years old.

Pretty obvious this Apple store is seeing the problems..heck they ran out of the new display last night, forced to order more for my repair. I'm sure other Apple stores all over the planet are as well. This whole topic is about an ongoing flaw.

Ah, well. I dont expect a problem with paying this time being that I am a new Apple owner, with the Apple care. I just HOPE I wont have to haul this thing back in Feb or March for the same issue.
 
Me too

Would you look at this! I just noticed the black spots today and came to here to research it and I found this thread on page 1!

Located on the top and towards the right. I also have the distortion field on boot up as well. No boot camp. I'll post some pictures.

This is a refurb (purchased March 30th) and I've been already living with yellow tint and horrible back light side leakage. Now these black spots!

:mad:
 
Although I have an older 24" iMac (last of the "white Intels"), I've been following the "display defect" threads as they appear.

There are far, far too many complaints about blotched (dark spots) and "yellow" displays for this to be a matter of "bad eggs" getting through the build process.

Rather, it suggests that something within the existing iMac design is leading to these problems.

There was a very interesting thread a few months' back about a component of the LED display panel (was it a "diffuser screen" or something of that order?) that is fragile and can get knocked out of alignment during the routine handling of shipping -- and thus, the result was the "yellow screens". This seemed unique to the LED backlit displays. I don't recall complaints of this nature with the earlier fluorescent-backlit displays used in the white iMacs.

The "dark spots" and blotches, though, seem to be coming from something else -- not an "inherent defect" with the design of the panel itself, but rather a result of how it is interacting with the other components of the iMac.

I'm going to take a _guess_ that these LED panels tend to be a bit more sensitive to internal heat than their fluorescent-backlit predecessors were. And -- when used in the overly-warm environment that is present inside the iMac by reason of its design constraints -- the heat is literally "getting to" the LED panels.

ASIDE: the reason that the iMacs tend to run on the warm side _is_ a design constraint. Apple could design the iMac run cooler -- MUCH cooler -- but to do so would require larger and _noisier_ fans. And anyone who peruses the MR boards knows how sensitive many Mac users are to ANY noise coming from their iMacs or laptops.

So Apple skimped on the cooling and they're winding up with the unintended consequences that the displays are discoloring on them due to heat.

Just today, we read in the rumors section that updated iMacs are coming in the first half of 2011. I'm wondering if we might see Apple forsake the LED-backlit displays for the time being, and revert to fluorescent displays again, even if it means going back to a 24" panel.

I, for one, would prefer a 24" display that still looks good after a couple years' use, to a 27" panel that goes bad prematurely.
 
Well I've just (today) bought a 27 incher with the CPU upgrade to the i5.

I am now praying to God that this machine doesnt have and wont, over time, show black blotches like the ones in this thread.

Why do apple do it? I mean their products fetch more premium than most, I would expect a little better component selection and design. I would also expect them to have learnt from past mistakes. When I bought my now dead, MBP in 2007 there was all bru-haha over yellowing screen then and now I come back 3 years later and they still have issues with screens? what are they doing over in the design office? sitting on their thumbs!?

By the way, apple care was a spot on purchase with my MBP. Apple spent over £3000 fixing my MBP. Yearly it **** its logic board and other various pieces all over the place. This year it did it just out of warranty. Could of been a number of things, dodgy south african electricity, Windows 7, gaming or GPU based HD video decoding. Heat, it seems, really doesnt play nice with apple computers. Light room routinely had my machine closing in on 100 deg C. I put up with it for some reason, but this time its 3 strikes and my money back.

If they have to repair this iMac 3 times, on the 4th time its going in the shop and Im walking out with money in my pocket.
 
Black spots on iMac w/ SSD?

I was on the verge of ordering an iMac, but this problem has me concerned to make a purchase.

I was planning to add the SSD option to an i7 iMac so was curious if anyone here who has had the black spot issue is running with an SSD? I thought maybe the heat issue would be less using an SSD to running the system/programs.
 
I'm on my second display with spots and I don't have a SSD, just a basic HDD.

otispunkmeyer's post makes me think: if you, like me, happen to buy a defective iMac and after two times the screen gets replaced the stains reappear and you grow tired of going back and forward to the Apple Store, what are the requirements to get a total refund? Let's consider you are covered by the Apple Care warranty, can you go to the store, tell them you don't want a defective product, deliver the Mac and get your money back like so? Or even better, can you request a brand new one?
 
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Yellow tint has been a issues for several years now, just not as pronounced as it is now. My 24" has some yellow.
 
iMac back from repair - LCD replaced (4 day turnaround)

Brought it in Wed, Dec. 15. Got the call that its ready for pick up yesterday, Dec 19th. Picked it up a few hours ago. Before leaving that madhouse (place was packed!) Made darn sure the rep at the store that the blotches were gone - they were thank God.

Issue: LCD Display replaced, glass panel was cleaned, no charge under AppleCare. - But NO real explanation as to why it happened. (Different rep today stated "various causes can do this" - smoke, no smokers here, no scented candles as well. Humidity.."Weather changes!?" The one thing that makes sense is the 'overheating' cause.

Nothing that I haven't already read on here.

But overall I'm pretty satisfied with the quick turnaround of the repair. Glad the ordeal is over and done with and I have my Mac back. And pray the issue doesnt happen again, that's all I can hope for.

I suppose the only advice I can give: if you are a new iMac owner, you're contemplating getting one - even those getting one as a Christmas present in 4, 5 days. BUY the APPLE CARE/Make sure it has it already! My final invoice would have been 790 bucks if this wasnt covered.

Thanks for letting me vent on here, your input..it does suck that this is a flaw and inconvenience for us with the iMacs

Happy Holidays, Have a great 2011.
A.C.
 
Worried about investment

Hello everyone,

I am going to sharing my experience. I received my iMac i7 in Oct 2010. I noticed a 1 small gray spot 2 weeks after use. Then, in November I noticed the spot had spread like cancer. There were several spots that covered the right upper corner. I went to apple store and the LCD and Power supply were replaced Nov 20 2010. Today I was editing photos and realized the spots were on my new display. They are new as I carefully checked the new LCD when I received it back from the apple store. I haven't really noticed any temperature issues. I know it gets really hot but the temps all seem within range. I am taking it back to the store tomorrow. I am wondering if this is a widespread problem and if my second replacement will break out with this same issue. I take great care of my macs and just want to know if there is any technique to save my new lcd. Other than this problem, I love this thing but its hard to clean photos when the whole top middle of the screen is covered in these gray spots. I will need it for my business and photo editing so it is very in convenient to drag this really heavy mac to the apple store and not have it for a whole week, again.

Please share any info regarding recurrence of the issue after repair and I will definitely update with my results.

Thanks
 
Hi everyone,

Unfortunately I discovered today that I'm in the same boat with my 3 months old 21.5" i3. In fact, this is not the first time and I may be able to shed some light on the possible cause, or at least one possible cause.
This is my first iMac in 5 years. I've been using Macbook Pros until September. Before that, I had a 20inch G5 iMac which developed the same problem. The spots looked just like the ones that can be seen in the pictures posted here. Apple exchanged the panel. After about 3 months the spots reappeared. At that point, the iMac was out of warranty. After a lot of reading, I finally came across an iMac owner from Spain who had opened up his machine to investigate and actually managed to remove the spots. It turned out that the spots were actually on the rear panel cover. The areas of the panel that looked like dark spots on the front looked like tarnished metal on the back.. The guy managed to clean them with alcohol. After reassembly, the dark spots were gone.
Since my iMac was out of warranty, I followed the guide he posted and managed to get rid of the spots.
Granted, that was a long time ago, but these spots on the current iMacs look exactly the same. The original thread on Apple's boards still exists, and the cleaning guide (in spanish) is also still online. I can post links if anyone's interested.
 
I just notice the same thing on my 21.5" iMac 2010 model. Had it for about 6 months.

Man, I thought it was just dirt on my screen I could just wipe clean. It might be dirt inside the glass rather than outside. :(
 
Grolsch30 said:
I have had this also,

On my 4th one now.

Anyone also got the grey tinge at the bottom right/left hand side of the screen on black backgrounds?
Click to expand...

You mean the 4th replacement on the same machine? Geez.

That just proves how to keep on replacing the display doesn't solve a damn thing.

Regarding the last question no, I don't seem to have that.
 
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Just wanted to add that my iMac 27" (late 2009) has recently started to exhibit the black blotches syndrome. Worth adding that it comes from a centrally heated, smoke free, candle free house with no real huge variations between hot and cold and no humidity issues. Also, when I do anything that may cause the GPU or CPU to heat up a little I use SMC Fan Control so the internal temperatures never get ridiculously hot.
 
my March 2010 base 21.5" iMac has just started to show blotches on the screen, top left and right of the screen. Glad I have just bought applecare.

same as others here house is smoke / candle free and centrally heated. Its also never got hot never been gamed on etc. Just basic WP/Net/Email use.
 
A little update:

got my third (!) display a week ago.
Two days ago while watching a movie I notice nasty backlight bleeding coming from the bottom corners and also from the top of the screen.

Called Apple in a very angry mood, they are sending another technician to check this new issue.

I'm very, very disappointed. Three displays, one worse than the other.
 
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TMRaven said:
Well for one you're stating the obvious. The design of the iMac does have its limitations when compared to a tower with all sorts of space for airflow inside of it, and space for really big heat spreaders. The dark spots seems more of an isolated problem, it could have been caused by some computers being built less effectively than others-- bad application of thermal paste could be one reason. I've had my i7 iMac for months now, and have underwent hours upon hours of intensive video encoding that maxes out the cpu the whole time. The temp of my i7 never got above 69c before fans started kicking in, and it only took the cpu fan going from 940rpm to 1300 rpm for the cpu to be cooled down to under 60c again. The i7 also idles at 39c on my iMac. I've played demanding games like dirt2 and starcraft2 on the iMac, the gpu has gone up to 75c, but never higher. You can even rev the optical drive fan up to 2-3k rpm and the gpu will never go above 60c.

So I for one don't appreciate acting as if the new iMacs are ticking time bombs, because they're designed well for what Apple chose to limit them as. They run warmer to other computers because of their slim case and really low fan rpms-- Apple choses quiet computers over ultra cool computers. That doesn't mean they're bad on the cooling department though. Keeping internal parts below 30c all the time is fine and dandy, but doesn't really improve lifetime expectancy. Temps of 80c or below for gpu and 70c or below for cpu are perfectly within normal operating temperatures, and you could force them to stay well below that if you forced the fan rpms up to speeds you'd normally see on PC rigs. The new iMacs have pretty good cooling performance, no reason to declare jihad against Apple for the occasional lemons they produce, such as the ones in this thread that are experiencing burn marks on their screens.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to say my i7 870 27" shows the same temp/fan behavior. CPU never above 68°C, GPU never above 70°C. No blotches on mine.
 
I just want to share. My iMac was a first gen BTO i7 27 inch iMac. I posted my case in another thread in the forums tackling the same problem. When I brought it to the repair shop, the Apple representative told me it was because of humidity but I can still have the screen replaced provided this will be the last one because it was MY FAULT.

Bullcrap! My office has several PC and older iMacs (the white matte ones) and none of them exhibited any smudging that my 27 i7 iMac had - so humidity my butt! So I took the exchange and even got a dehumidifier and placed it besides my iMac to make sure the air is dry. After 6 months of use it seems the smudges are back and starting to build up again. This is a pity, I really love this thing.

I guess you guys are correct. It must have something to do with the heat that burns the LCD. I used my iMac a lot for editing videos, converting the videos to different formats via handbreak and tons of Photoshop - so the iMac works hard and gets hot all the time.

I think this is silly, the i5/i7 iMac was meant to do stuff like this. If I only knew this would happen I would have saved up for a low end Mac Pro and a decent monitor instead.

dwarnecke11 said:
Just wanted to say my i7 870 27" shows the same temp/fan behavior. CPU never above 68°C, GPU never above 70°C. No blotches on mine.
Click to expand...

How long and what kind of work do you do on your i7 iMac? Perhaps the newer versions have tweeks that quietly addressed this issue. TIA
 
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People should buy a Mac Pro and an Eizo LED screen if they want to use PS or gaming.

Those glasses on iMacs just make the machine hotter and it's so annoying.

Apple should listen to their customers.

I have a MacBook Pro 17" anti-glare LCD.
 
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