Uneven Illumination, as bad as White Spots - Having problems? Speak up!

[Gallows Pole]

Hi Grizzli,

Nice to hear from you, even though I wished it were more good news.
My experience is not the same as yours.
I've had 1 iBook and 2 PowerBooks before this one. All have worked flawlessly and did not present a single defect 'no dead pixels or whatever other problem might occur).
So this is my first bad experience and I am waiting for Apple to solve the problem.
But as you say, I think it is not acceptable that Apple stays so long without recognizing that :
1°) there is indeed a problem
2°) tell if they are able or not to fix it
3°) tell what they've done or what they plan to do to fix the problem

The whole "secret" and opacity that has always surrounded Apple isn't always a help to customers…

I agree tha a Mac is for life, not only for an Expo !

 

[Paolo30]

I have requested a full refund from Apple Australia, so I will let you all know how that goes.
I actually asked for a refund on Friday, and the Apple Care lady who was previously my "best friend" spat venom down the phone at me and told me that she would get back to me "sometime next week," so I sent my request straight to the CEO this morning. He seemed a bit nicer than the people in Apple Care.

good luck everyone, whatever you decide to do.

 

[Paolo30]

Well, refund approved.
This is a sad day, *sniff*, I had had such high hopes for this beast.
ce la vie...

 

[CyVice]

here is my suggestion:

 

[Shaughn]

HAHAHAHA, that's pretty hilarious. And it'd certainly do the trick, too.

~S~

 

[gopher]

Apple is acknowledging the white spots problem:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86632

Next time you speak to customer support refer them
to that knowledgebase article number 86632.

Also if support is less than helpful, ask to speak to customer relations.

A friend of mine waited till the end of December to send her Powerbook G4 15" in, and got it back in good shape. It seems like the problem has finally been solved. So try again.

 

[Shaughn]

Originally posted by gopher
Apple is acknowledging the white spots problem:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86632

Next time you speak to customer support refer them
to that knowledgebase article number 86632.

Also if support is less than helpful, ask to speak to customer relations.

A friend of mine waited till the end of December to send her Powerbook G4 15" in, and got it back in good shape. It seems like the problem has finally been solved. So try again.

Unfortunately, the two issues are completely different. There are a number of people who got their screen fixed for white spots and got uneven illumination on their replacement screen.

Uneven illumination does NOT have a working fix.

~S~

 

[Shaughn]

The saga continues.

Though the nature of my third screen failure adds no more insight, only confusion. I hadn't touched my 'Book in about 30 minutes. I had iCal running and I was looking at my schedule when the right side went dim right before my eyes. I was shocked. I'd never actually seen it fail before.

This kills several of my theories about what's causing this:

1) Temperature extremes. I wasn't actively running any apps. My PB had been in my office and running for 6 hours so it wasn't cold. I hadn't been playing videos, watching DVDs or doing anything processor taxing all day, so I know it wasn't hot.

2) The fans. The fans weren't blowing, so the hot air on the screen theory doesn't apply to this particular failure.

3) Sleep mode. The first screen of mine went down after it woke from sleep. This time around, thinking that might have something to do with it, I didn't put the PB to sleep ONCE in the past 2 weeks. I turned it on at work, then turned it off to go home. I turned it on when I got home and off again when I packed it up for work the next day.

4) Lid movement. Same as above. I opened and closed the lid only to turn the PB on and off. In the past 2 weeks, the lid has been moved less than 30 times. Certainly not extreme and not even applicable in my current case, because I hadn't been doing anything with the book that might unseat something or warp something in the lid assembly.

Here's the kicker. I went to my Apple Store while I was at the mall yesterday (Cambridgeside Galleria in Boston) to look at the iPod mini and gaze at PowerBooks prettier than mine. Sure enough, at first glance, the 15" model on the PB demo table was bright and pretty. It occurred to me that the brightness was probably set to maximum, so I took a look. Set the brightness to 6 bard and the background to white, and sure enough, uneven illumination.

That in of itself wasn't shocking. This was:

EVERY 15" model in the store had the problem. Not only that, but I saw 2 17" PBs with the problem as well.

The one 17" model I saw without the problem had a build date in January 2004; even at low brightness, the screen was solid white throughout with NO trace of grayness. This is how my screens have always looked right after a repair.

What is it about time and NORMAL use that's causing these screens to look like this?

Confused,

~S~

 

[jameskk]

I too have the problem with my 15" Albook and it is driving me nuts. I had the famous white spots on my screen but that didn't bother me but when the right side of the screen went noticably dim, I called Apple Care for a replacement. They replaced the screen and the new one was perfect, for about 3 or 4 weeks and then the dim right side came back. So I went to the discussion boards on Apple's website to research the problem and here I am. I hope they have a fix soon. This is definately a problem.

 

[killmoms]

Wow, um... I've NEVER seen this problem. I had white spots on my PowerBook when I got it, but those were replaced; I do have the issue with the creaky, clicky hinge now (and they didn't connect the sleep on latch thing). So I'm not entirely pleased with AppleCare, but they're issues I can LIVE with, unlike the white spots. But I've never seen uneven illumination on my screen, at very low brightness when I'm working in a darkened classroom or at full brightness anywhere else. The right side looks just as good as the left to me. Maybe my eyes aren't good enough... is the problem really dramatic, or just something a VERY exacting person would notice?

I might add that I haven't seen this problem on any of my three other friends' new 15" PowerBooks. Two (mine and my roommate's) are from the initial run w/ white spots, both of which have had replaced screens via AppleCare. Another friend ordered his in late November after the white spot problem was fixed. These three are SuperDrive, 1.25GHz ones, stock. The fourth is another friend's, a BTO Combo w/ backlit keyboard and Airport Extreme sans white spots. None of these have problems with uneven illumination to my knowledge.

--Cless

 

[Shaughn]

Maybe my eyes aren't good enough... is the problem really dramatic, or just something a VERY exacting person would notice?

--Cless

You might only notice on anything but a white background initially. But if the problem develops, it tends to get worse.

At its worst, I could barely read the text under my desktop icons on the right side of my screen, and the right side of my Safari window would be dark grey, making text hard to read.

If you want to test it, set your brightness to around 5 bars and set a white desktop. If your white is even across the screen, I'd say you're safe.

~S~