Late 2012 iMac Image Retention Test Thread

[itsamacthing]

Anybody know AppleCare's stance on out-of-warranty image-retention-impacted hardware?

You mean past 3 years? (assuming you include Apple Care for your mac). Unless it turned into a recall, or was a reoccurring issue that Apple has previously tried to fix on your specific machine... probably "your on your own". I can't speak in absolute terms because I don't know for certain, but based on my experiences I would expect them to act like that. All the more reason to discover it as early as possible and not ignore "a little IR".

I wish everyone with the 2012 27 and 21.5 iMac would test it and post their findings so we can start to get an idea of what is going on. It would certainly help those with IR and are scared to go thru a return feel more confident about getting a replacement or repair if they are a minority.

 

[uptownnyc]

You mean past 3 years? (assuming you include Apple Care for your mac).

No, I mean past the one year you get without AppleCare. Which I guess would be the same as whatever their policy is during the first year.

 

[itsamacthing]

No, I mean past the one year you get without AppleCare. Which I guess would be the same as whatever their policy is during the first year.

I can't say what they would do, but in my opinion if its a new issue I think they would ask you to pay for any repair. If its an old issue, with a case number and history you might have grounds to pursue a repair on them. For that reason ill get Apple Care

 

[mrpatto]

Hi,

I have conducted a few tests on my new 27" iMac but only for about 10 minutes. Someone in a different forum told me to try for about 45 minutes. Is this the case or is 10 minutes enough?

 

[shigzeo]

I don't agree with you so you assume I work for Apple? You just lost all credibility with that statement. But then the tone of the op doesn't really show you being open to debate!

Google "IPS Image Persistence". It's a well known phenomena.

The bolded statement is one of my favourite internet tropes. Keep it up, Internet!

 

[itsamacthing]

The bolded statement is one of my favourite internet tropes. Keep it up, Internet!

LOL Love absolutes

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Hi,

I have conducted a few tests on my new 27" iMac but only for about 10 minutes. Someone in a different forum told me to try for about 45 minutes. Is this the case or is 10 minutes enough?

I would say 3 to 10 minutes... no need to go beyond that.

 

[nagareru]

I didnt do the test but I just noticed that my imac 27" late 2012 model has image retention. It is almost not visible but it can be seen with a grey background. I will wait a bit more before I take it to repair. I do not think they have 27" yet here in Korea and I do not want to go twice to the store with this heavy computer. damn..

 

[Chuckstones]

I do not want to go and deliberately look for problems,as i am on my 2nd replacement and thus far am happy with it.
But as for this IR thing. Would i have noticed it if i had it?

I use one of the supplied wallpapers, it is a very plain scene, nearly all beige of a lake with an island. I have had safari open on occasion for more than 1hr, and use 'caffeine' to keep the mac awake. (on occasion)
As far as i can tell there is nothing ominous when i close safari. Does this mean my screen is ok!!?!

 

[large farva]

I do not want to go and deliberately look for problems,as i am on my 2nd replacement and thus far am happy with it.
But as for this IR thing. Would i have noticed it if i had it?

I use one of the supplied wallpapers, it is a very plain scene, nearly all beige of a lake with an island. I have had safari open on occasion for more than 1hr, and use 'caffeine' to keep the mac awake. (on occasion)
As far as i can tell there is nothing ominous when i close safari. Does this mean my screen is ok!!?!

Yes. Usually if a display has image retention, and you have Safari (or another light backgrounded app) open for longer than a few minutes, you will definately notice that you can still see where the edges of the window was. Sometimes it will linger for a bit, sometimes it will fade somewhat quickly. If you've had Safari open for quite a while and haven't noticed anything when you close it, I would assume you're safe and your display doesn't have image retention. Now, if you want to pull up the "chessboard" IR test, then you can, it will help you see it better if there's even the slightest chance if it being there. But from what I've seen, if a display has IR, you notice it.

 

[christophermdia]

My screen is Ok but now my eyes have image retention should I seed them back

I wonder how many people freaked out because they saw image retention here and it was just their eyes.....this is a terrible example because even my keyboard has this checkerboard now!

 

[itsamacthing]

I wonder how many people freaked out because they saw image retention here and it was just their eyes.....this is a terrible example because even my keyboard has this checkerboard now!

Actually, your supposed to take your eyes off the screen while the test is running. These tests have been very helpful with finding defective LCDs, you should go read the MacBook Pro Retina threads. Unfortunately, LG LCDs come in a range of qualities and IR happens to be a big issue. This test, as has already been discussed... works. And I will be running it the day I get my iMac for 3 and then 10 minutes. And if my iMac has IR, I report it to Apple Care and get a replacement. If it does not, I will setup my iMac and move on with my life. No way I'm taking a bottom of the range LG for the next 3 to 4 years.

 

[Chuckstones]

Yes. Usually if a display has image retention, and you have Safari (or another light backgrounded app) open for longer than a few minutes, you will definately notice that you can still see where the edges of the window was. Sometimes it will linger for a bit, sometimes it will fade somewhat quickly. If you've had Safari open for quite a while and haven't noticed anything when you close it, I would assume you're safe and your display doesn't have image retention. Now, if you want to pull up the "chessboard" IR test, then you can, it will help you see it better if there's even the slightest chance if it being there. But from what I've seen, if a display has IR, you notice it.

Thanks!
I'm not going to do any further tests I'm just going to get on and enjoy my new imac!!

As for the eye thing. I get terrible image retention sometimes. I switch between contacts and glasses. And have recently developed terrible migraine. Where I get those terrible kaleidoscope patterns in my eyes that spread for approx 40 mins.
Hell. Why am I worrying about IR on my mac!!?!

Must be all the funny pills I dropped back in the 60's!!: (I still see the white rabbit too)

 

[martinm0]

Actually, your supposed to take your eyes off the screen while the test is running. These tests have been very helpful with finding defective LCDs, you should go read the MacBook Pro Retina threads. Unfortunately, LG LCDs come in a range of qualities and IR happens to be a big issue. This test, as has already been discussed... works. And I will be running it the day I get my iMac for 3 and then 10 minutes. And if my iMac has IR, I report it to Apple Care and get a replacement. If it does not, I will setup my iMac and move on with my life. No way I'm taking a bottom of the range LG for the next 3 to 4 years.

I received a brand new 27" iMac back before Xmas. Was completely perfect, but Target Display mode failed to work. Last week I received my replacement from Apple (they let me keep the other one until the new one arrived) and connected the new iMac to the old iMac to to test Target Display mode (which worked on the new one). I left the two iMacs setup this way for the rest of the day using the old one as the main computer and the new one as a secondary display. Within a few hours I noticed I had image retention on the new iMac.

After it went away (an hour or more), I went about testing again by taking the new machine off TD mode and ran it on its own. Left the test pattern up for 10 minutes and checked...no image retention. Odd. Left some Finder windows open for a few hours, still nothing.

Today I finally connected my TV to the iMac for a second display. I was running RDC to my work laptop on the iMac and nothing on the TV except for the desktop image and found horrible retention on the iMac after about an hour. I called Apple and talked to them. Decided to run a hardware test on the iMac (TV still connected, btw) and through the 10 minutes it took to run the test, it left IR on the screen. Booted back up to RDC and my work laptop and after just a few minutes I had full screen IR.

Is anyone else finding a correlation to IR and having a second screen connected? This is the only time its happened for me and makes me feel like the issue is the GPU vs the screens (as the rMBP's also suffer the same fate and run the Nvidia GPUs).

Even in the 5 minutes it took to type this I now have IR from the reply to thread screen...

 

[large farva]

Is anyone else finding a correlation to IR and having a second screen connected? This is the only time its happened for me and makes me feel like the issue is the GPU vs the screens (as the rMBP's also suffer the same fate and run the Nvidia GPUs).

Even in the 5 minutes it took to type this I now have IR from the reply to thread screen...

Wow. Now that you mention it. When I had my Mid-2011, which had ATI Radeon GPUs, I never saw a single bit of image retention. Not a single one I ever used, either in store or at a friends ever displayed any image retention. Now, all of the sudden they are using a new GPU and BAM, it seems that it's showing up in more cases. Though, to be fare, every single person who owns a 2012 iMac hasn't weighed in, so we can't say for sure, but from how it's looking. I would say it's a way more common problem with the Late-2012s than the Mid-2011s. BUT, there is is. In the Retina MacBook Pros, you have two different display manufacturers. LG, and Samsung. While ALL of the Retina MacBook Pros use the same GPU, ONLY the ones with the LG displays are showing any kind of image retention, while the ones with the Samsung displays aren't showing any. I don't know what to make of this. I still think it has something to do with the heat inside the unit possibly. Or to do with the lamination process. Possibly with no air circulating or just existing, between the display and front glass, the pixels tend to get hotter? Please forgive me if LCD/LED displays don't function this way, I don't know much about them... Or possibly that the computer was made thinner, therefor there's less air inside the actual body of the computer itself to cool it down? Because they made the Retina MacBook Pros thinner, and they are having trouble with them. Be it only with one brand of display.

 

[fredward]

Hey guys, so I just recently bought the 2012 iMac as well. The $2599 with the fusion drive installed. Everything worked great except for the screen. I returned it three different times with three different replacements and I keep getting the Image Retention. Been going through three of them in a whole week. The third one was actually from this afternoon after I picked it up from the store. I'm pretty sure most people are having this issue at least from what I've been hearing and reading around the online forums. I had it pretty bad on my very first one. The other two weren't as bad but if your going to pay for something this expensive you expect to have no issues with something like this. Apple seems to not care about their quality control. I don't know but I sure hope they get this resolved soon. I'm back using my Late 2009 27 inch iMac which still runs great. Just wanted to put my thoughts in here as well.

 

[crovian]

Hey guys, so I just recently bought the 2012 iMac as well. The $2599 with the fusion drive installed. Everything worked great except for the screen. I returned it three different times with three different replacements and I keep getting the Image Retention. Been going through three of them in a whole week. The third one was actually from this afternoon after I picked it up from the store. I'm pretty sure most people are having this issue at least from what I've been hearing and reading around the online forums. I had it pretty bad on my very first one. The other two weren't as bad but if your going to pay for something this expensive you expect to have no issues with something like this. Apple seems to not care about their quality control. I don't know but I sure hope they get this resolved soon. I'm back using my Late 2009 27 inch iMac which still runs great. Just wanted to put my thoughts in here as well.

You don't have to put your same thoughts in 3 different IR-related threads
I got lucky with my unit, no IR yet and hopefully stays that way

 

[itsamacthing]

I'm not sure how wide spread an issue this is. It's certainly not like the Retina MBPs. I will get my imac tonight and post my results.

 

[itsamacthing]

my iMac arrived

Well, I actually went to DHL because I had no patience to wait till tmr when it was only a few miles from my office. So just ran a 3 minute test for IR and nothing. Now, I will start to warm her up and see how it goes...

So far:
No dead pixels
No light bleed
No IR..but will need to get it warm now and upgrade the ram

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Installing apps off my NAS, and wow! so fast, LOVING IT

 

[Fatboy71]

My advice is.

If you can't see image retention in day to day use, then you don't have it. There's no need to run tests like this

If you notice image retention in your day to day use then by all means contact Apple to arrange a replacement.

From what I've read the image retention issue seems to have been sorted out now, and was only affecting a very small amount of panels anyway

 

[itsamacthing]

My advice is.

If you can't see image retention in day to day use, then you don't have it. There's no need to run tests like this

If you notice image retention in your day to day use then by all means contact Apple to arrange a replacement.

From what I've read the image retention issue seems to have been sorted out now, and was only affecting a very small amount of panels anyway

Everyone has their own opinion, and I respect yours. I feel almost the same as you, but I wanted to run tests on my monitor like dead pixel, yellow band at the bottom, IR, etc. This will be my baby for the next 4 years or so and I want to make sure it's perfect in my little window of "give me what i want" with Apple.

So far, I can't find any issues with this machine...it's beautiful

 

[Binarymix]

After a month of use, my iMac is starting to show faint IR where the Dock is.

It was not showing it last week at all.

The slight tinting towards the bottom half seems to be getting worse also.

Might be having to call Apple soon. What a PITA Apples products have become as of late.

 

[itsamacthing]

After a month of use, my iMac is starting to show faint IR where the Dock is.

It was not showing it last week at all.

The slight tinting towards the bottom half seems to be getting worse also.

Might be having to call Apple soon. What a PITA Apples products have become as of late.

Of course, this is worrisome. You should be contacting Apple about this. I will be keeping an eye on things... to see if these issues develop over here. Are you manually controlling your screen brightness?

 

[Binarymix]

Of course, this is worrisome. You should be contacting Apple about this. I will be keeping an eye on things... to see if these issues develop over here. Are you manually controlling your screen brightness?

Yes, auto-brightness is off, and I have a screensaver set to come on after 2 minutes. So it's not like the screen is on for hours on end.

The IR also isn't fading too quickly.

This sucks. I had to replace my 2011 iMac screen 3 times for yellowing, then just settled.

This is a $3000 machine. It shouldn't be having issues like these.

I think I'll be calling apple tonight to at least document it.

What's suck now is its after the 2 weeks, now I have to go through the hassle of having repairs done, and my closest apple centre is 30 minutes away, and I don't drive.

 

[Fatboy71]

Everyone has their own opinion, and I respect yours. I feel almost the same as you, but I wanted to run tests on my monitor like dead pixel, yellow band at the bottom, IR, etc. This will be my baby for the next 4 years or so and I want to make sure it's perfect in my little window of "give me what i want" with Apple.

So far, I can't find any issues with this machine...it's beautiful

Yeah I can understand that

Glad to hear your's is issue free.

I'm glad mine is issue free too has I am planning on having my iMac for 5-6 years before I will be replacing it again

 

[itsamacthing]

The proof will be in the pudding, let's see how the screen looks in a month or 2... hoping it's exactly the same as it is now. This particular LCD has been in use for a few years now, with no major complaints.