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My new macbook screen is very poor quality

M

maverickuk

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 13, 2004
85
0
Hey guys,

This is my second macbook. My first had a beautiful screen but it also had 4 things go wrong with it and it was eventually replaced.

The new macbook 2.2ghz with the x3100 chip is 1 day old. As soon as I booted up I could see some banding in the wallpaper. The drop shadows on open windows are blocky and banded.

The transparent mac menus appear to be made up of tiny blocks, rather than the usual smooth appearance. http://mediagods.com/tools/images/spectrum.jpg is a good example. The colours are very pixelated and the black band at the top, turns in to cubes towards the white.

I took it to the store today, where the lights were very bright and reflected off the screen, somewhat masking the issue. The manager said he could see my problem but didn't sound concerned. I was told to reinstall Leopard which I've done to no avail.

I'm a web designer and can't work with this screen. I have this horrible feeling they're going to put it down to me being fussy and I'll be forced to buy a new laptop.

Has anybody else had this issue with a recent macbook?

Cheers

Paul
 
maverickuk said:
Hey guys,

This is my second macbook. My first had a beautiful screen but it also had 4 things go wrong with it and it was eventually replaced.

The new macbook 2.2ghz with the x3100 chip is 1 day old. As soon as I booted up I could see some banding in the wallpaper. The drop shadows on open windows are blocky and banded.

The transparent mac menus appear to be made up of tiny blocks, rather than the usual smooth appearance. http://mediagods.com/tools/images/spectrum.jpg is a good example. The colours are very pixelated and the black band at the top, turns in to cubes towards the white.

I took it to the store today, where the lights were very bright and reflected off the screen, somewhat masking the issue. The manager said he could see my problem but didn't sound concerned. I was told to reinstall Leopard which I've done to no avail.

I'm a web designer and can't work with this screen. I have this horrible feeling they're going to put it down to me being fussy and I'll be forced to buy a new laptop.

Has anybody else had this issue with a recent macbook?

Cheers

Paul
Click to expand...

Not that problem, but I would definitely get it fixed. Set up an appt. at the Genius Bar or call AppleCare - sounds like it's probably still under warranty.
 
It has a full years warranty. My old macbook was actually 14 months old but during the first 12 months I had an issue with the screen flickering, plastic around edges cracking, power cable melting and hard drive died. Because my screen started to flicker again, the manager felt I'd had my fair share of problems and deserved a new macbook. It was extremely nice of him and I was ecstatic.

I'll take it in tomorrow and see what they say. I just hope I get somebody with a keen eye. I also pray this problem is rare and not just the quality of the TFT being used in newer macbooks. That I would find pretty devastating.
 
well, I think that if all that happened to you, you should demmand a new macbook and not to fix it. if apple wants to serve its costumers 100%, they should know that a costumer will get tired from going every month to fix its laptop... if all that happened to you with the same macbook, I would demmand a new one, because that is one defective macbook =\
 
Galapp said:
well, I think that if all that happened to you, you should demmand a new macbook and not to fix it. if apple wants to serve its costumers 100%, they should know that a costumer will get tired from going every month to fix its laptop... if all that happened to you with the same macbook, I would demmand a new one, because that is one defective macbook =\
Click to expand...

yeah, they're usually pretty good about that. i'm actually waiting for my second MBP replacement to ship
 
What's happening to Apple guys. :(

I've just been reading the forums, tons up tons of issues with the products.

After all these problems, I'm losing a bit of faith in them.

Admittedly apple has always fixed the issues I've had but each time I've lost my product for a few days which is a major issue as I use it for work.

I can't even imagine using windows but I'm feeling so let down by Apples products it's gonna have to be an option.

It's kind of uncanny how they swapped my macbook for a brand new one because of the issues I had, only to be given a faulty macbook. :rolleyes:

I guess I'll have to see what tomorrow brings.
 
maverickuk said:
What's happening to Apple guys. :(

I've just been reading the forums, tons up tons of issues with the products.

After all these problems, I'm losing a bit of faith in them.

Admittedly apple has always fixed the issues I've had but each time I've lost my product for a few days which is a major issue as I use it for work.

I can't even imagine using windows but I'm feeling so let down by Apples products it's gonna have to be an option.

It's kind of uncanny how they swapped my macbook for a brand new one because of the issues I had, only to be given a faulty macbook. :rolleyes:

I guess I'll have to see what tomorrow brings.
Click to expand...

more than 98% of happy consumers don't lurk around forums trying to find their apple notebooks any weird problem....just relax, buy one and if it has something wrong, you'll probably be able to fix it with applecare ...
 
maverickuk said:
What's happening to Apple guys. :(

I've just been reading the forums, tons up tons of issues with the products.

After all these problems, I'm losing a bit of faith in them.

Admittedly apple has always fixed the issues I've had but each time I've lost my product for a few days which is a major issue as I use it for work.

I can't even imagine using windows but I'm feeling so let down by Apples products it's gonna have to be an option.

It's kind of uncanny how they swapped my macbook for a brand new one because of the issues I had, only to be given a faulty macbook. :rolleyes:

I guess I'll have to see what tomorrow brings.
Click to expand...

You only read more issues recently because more people are posting here about issues. Apple overall still has a very high quality rating, from what I can tell. Not all products can be 100% perfect, that's part of doing business..especially in the world of IT.
 
maverickuk said:
What's happening to Apple guys. :(

I've just been reading the forums, tons up tons of issues with the products.

After all these problems, I'm losing a bit of faith in them.

Admittedly apple has always fixed the issues I've had but each time I've lost my product for a few days which is a major issue as I use it for work.

I can't even imagine using windows but I'm feeling so let down by Apples products it's gonna have to be an option.

It's kind of uncanny how they swapped my macbook for a brand new one because of the issues I had, only to be given a faulty macbook. :rolleyes:

I guess I'll have to see what tomorrow brings.
Click to expand...

Like the others are saying, you're reading about problems under a topic that is dedicated pretty much to MB/MBP issues. Trust me, all these issues you see here are like 2% of the entire MB/MBP population. Here's to hoping you get your issue fixed!
 
maverickuk said:
I hope so. I'll post an update tomorrow.

Thanks for all the input :)
Click to expand...

Man, keep your eyes off the forums, you will just make yourself crazy. You have to be honest with yourself, do you really think that everyone that owns an Apple computer posts on forums? No. The amount of people that post here are like 1/10th of a half percent.

Now about your issue, your post title states "Very Poor Quality" but then you state that you hope you get an Apple employee with a "keen eye"? If the quality is really as poor as your title is a keen eye won't be necessary and Apple will address your issue.
 
maverickuk said:
Hey guys,

This is my second macbook. My first had a beautiful screen but it also had 4 things go wrong with it and it was eventually replaced.

The new macbook 2.2ghz with the x3100 chip is 1 day old. As soon as I booted up I could see some banding in the wallpaper. The drop shadows on open windows are blocky and banded.

The transparent mac menus appear to be made up of tiny blocks, rather than the usual smooth appearance. http://mediagods.com/tools/images/spectrum.jpg is a good example. The colours are very pixelated and the black band at the top, turns in to cubes towards the white.

I took it to the store today, where the lights were very bright and reflected off the screen, somewhat masking the issue. The manager said he could see my problem but didn't sound concerned. I was told to reinstall Leopard which I've done to no avail.

I'm a web designer and can't work with this screen. I have this horrible feeling they're going to put it down to me being fussy and I'll be forced to buy a new laptop.

Has anybody else had this issue with a recent macbook?

Cheers

Paul
Click to expand...

I had that issue with my Macbook. For instance in the Forums Blue-ish color I could see tiny block specs. I thought it was my eyes but I guess my LCD wasn't good. Doesn't matter since I returned the Macbook.
 
@ HLdan, I can imagine some people simply wouldn't be bothered by the poor quality screen. Some people don't know what a gradient is, never mind whether it's banding or not.

However I took the macbook in and pointed out the issue to the Genius who instantly said oh yes, thats not good. He ran a few tests and said yep, it's definitely not right.

He went in to the back to speak to a manager, luckily the same guy who replaced my macbook, who them come out to speak to me personally. He apologized and said he will simply replace the macbook again.

I was really pleased with the level of service and especially the manager who went out of his way to resolve my issues. I wasn't sure what to buy as a 'thank you' so I purchased some gift vouchers which can be used anywhere in the shopping center.

New macbook is perfect. Brilliant result. I'm still in disbelief that my 14 month old macbook was replaced for a brand new one. I didn't even have Apple care. Though I will be buying it for this one.

Thanks everybody.
 
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