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iMac 24" screen - right side darker than left

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philMBP

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 19, 2007
383
18
I just got my new 24" iMac. Maxed out all the options.
I noticed that the right half of the display is darker/dimmer than the left half.
It's especially noticeable on bright background.

I will call AppleCare, but was wondering if anyone else had experienced this?
 
philMBP said:
I just got my new 24" iMac. Maxed out all the options.
I noticed that the right half of the display is darker/dimmer than the left half.
It's especially noticeable on bright background.

I will call AppleCare, but was wondering if anyone else had experienced this?
Click to expand...

The same here.

I bought it 09.08.2008.

And just playing with my bicycle front light which is a flashlight really, I discovered greasy fingertips left and right at the same height, inside the monitor screen plastic...

Yes you read it correctly... Greasy fingertips. Not just normal fingertips like you touch a screen and you left some marks. GREASY...

Probably the iMacs are assembled in the backyard of some ruined Chinese factory, and the workers are eating fried chicken during the assembling of the monitors.

I cannot stretch my thought to some other factory contrition that would sent to the final customer a brand new iMac with unequal toning, greased monitor...

Maybe we should just buy a pc and install MAC OS X on it...

This way seems better.
 
philMBP said:
I just got my new 24" iMac. Maxed out all the options.
I noticed that the right half of the display is darker/dimmer than the left half.
It's especially noticeable on bright background.

I will call AppleCare, but was wondering if anyone else had experienced this?
Click to expand...

There is plenty of discussion here on that subject. Do a search for "backlight" or "screen issues"
 
philMBP said:
I just got my new 24" iMac. Maxed out all the options.
I noticed that the right half of the display is darker/dimmer than the left half.
It's especially noticeable on bright background.

I will call AppleCare, but was wondering if anyone else had experienced this?
Click to expand...
I thought the 24" were supposed to have the better screens?
 
My 24" iMac's backlight is about as even as the number 7. :(:rolleyes:

Completely different tints across the thing too. Too cold on the left, too warm in the center and just to dim on the right. Bleeding everywhere.
 

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I was in the same boat as some of you as well with my brand new customized 24" aluminum iMac. After reading post after post, I stumbled upon supercal. Let me tell you if you really take your time to calibrate everything as best you can, the left to right gradient issue becomes barely noticeable. You can still tell if you concentrate really hard, but at least for me it's not noticeable under normal conditions. What I mean is I can't tell if I'm just using the computer normally, only if i stop to try and see it can I tell. Before supercal it was constantly noticeable and incredibly annoying.

Just search supercal in google and download. Set aside at least 30 minutes if you want to calibrate it perfectly.

Hope this helps some of you out without the need to return only to have the problem again. This wasn't an option for me since I ordered online customized and cannot be without a home computer for any period of time.
 
This is how mine looks:
6wpy


It's a bit yellowish on the sides and the colors are a little bit dull on the left side (hard to see on this picture) but I think that's pretty much it. How do your screens compare to this one on a white background?
 
G-Force said:
This is how mine looks:


It's a bit yellowish on the sides and the colors are a little bit dull on the left side (hard to see on this picture) but I think that's pretty much it. How do your screens compare to this one on a white background?
Click to expand...

Mine is similar to yours except the dull side is on the right and it's much darker.
 
ehaugk said:
...Just search supercal in google and download. Set aside at least 30 minutes if you want to calibrate it perfectly...
Click to expand...
Thanks for your suggestion, but I don't think any amount of calibration will help my situation.

If I push it to full brightness and let it warm up for about an hour and a half it evens out a little. The dark spots on the sides, corners and center of the screen are very noticeable, but usability is increased. The problem is that any normal human being would have to wear sunglasses to use the aluminum iMac at full brightness. This also doesn't fix my problem with the three dramatic temperature zones (cold, warm, normal - from left to right.)

This display and many other alu. iMac's are obviously faulty. I have never seen such poor screens before; its shocking after using the flawless iMac G4 and Core Duo models.
 
sicadera said:
The same here.

I bought it 09.08.2008.

Maybe we should just buy a pc and install MAC OS X on it...

This way seems better.
Click to expand...

You last line shows you're not thinking straight and neither does your first line. You bought it on Sept 08,2008?? Sure about that??
 
Fleetwood Mac said:
This display and many other alu. iMac's are obviously faulty. I have never seen such poor screens before; its shocking after using the flawless iMac G4 and Core Duo models.
Click to expand...

If you kept a computer with a display that you consider faulty there's no one to blame but yourself. It does no good for anyone to come on here and complain about it. It'd probably be best to take it up with Apple.

This is an old, tired and very dead horse which I thought the beating of had mercifully subsided...
 
SaSaSushi said:
If you kept a computer with a display that you consider faulty there's no one to blame but yourself. It does no good for anyone to come on here and complain about it. It'd probably be best to take it up with Apple.

This is an old, tired and very dead horse which I thought the beating of had mercifully subsided...
Click to expand...
I have taken it up with Apple and its apparently "within spec". I appreciate your irritation about the ongoing discussion, but I don't suspect the complaining will completely subside until the problem is remedied by Apple or the manufacturer.

At this point, there isn't much else some of us can do.
 
Fleetwood Mac said:
I have taken it up with Apple and its apparently "within spec". I appreciate your irritation about the ongoing discussion, but I don't suspect the complaining will completely subside until the problem is remedied by Apple or the manufacturer.

At this point, there isn't much else some of us can do.
Click to expand...

Did they really say that? I'm experiencing the same problem and was thinking about calling apple care about it. I actually tried calling yesterday but apparently they don't open until 9, I was calling at 8:30ish...

When I first got it, I didn't notice it, its only after a week of usage that it became apparent. However, as someone mentioned if you let it 'warm up' it seems to become less apparent.

blah.
 
philMBP said:
Mine is similar to yours except the dull side is on the right and it's much darker.
Click to expand...
Well, If you don't like the screen try to get your screen replaced. If the right is much darker I would say there are better screens out there. :)
 
gehrbox said:
Ex-military or military sub-contractor?
Click to expand...

UK standard is to do date then month (DD/MM/YY..). We Brits like to do things different (like driving on the wrong side of the road, etc.). Gets confusing when swapping between different countries that use different date formats :confused: (in my case UK and Philippines).

I don't know where TheDoctah comes from...

Best to stick to full date formats when posting to multi-national forums perhaps.
 
Moks said:
UK standard is to do date then month (DD/MM/YY..). We Brits like to do things different (like driving on the wrong side of the road, etc.). Gets confusing when swapping between different countries that use different date formats :confused: (in my case UK and Philippines).

I don't know where TheDoctah comes from...

Best to stick to full date formats when posting to multi-national forums perhaps.
Click to expand...

I'm Canadian :cool:
DD/MM/YYYY is standard over here. Correct me if I'm wrong, however, isn't dd/mm/yyyy pretty common everywhere but the US?
 
Moks said:
Apparently the international standard (ISO 8601:2004) and is YYYY/MM/DD. Supposed to have been adopted so far by "the United Nations, commerce groups, scientific communities and most Western governments." http://www.vexen.co.uk/notes/dates.html
Click to expand...

The US military uses DD/MM/YYYY. Makes more sense to me then MM/DD/YYYY that most of the US civilian population adheres to.

My short time in the UK I never could get used to driving on the left though:rolleyes:
 
LOL ... i could never figure out what the standard for DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY or what ever other combination you use..

and just write the Month abbreviated to ie Aug, Sept, Oct.

anyway ... I have the yellow discoloration -- except I bought the thing last year, and then spent the majority of my time at work or using the thing to look at spread sheets

only recently have I come across a little extra time and I got a calibration device because I was playing around with some photo's and noticed the fault.

I didn't get apple and it's been over a year ... can't do anything about it now.

just hope it doesn't get worse I guess.
 
revenuee said:
anyway ... I have the yellow discoloration -- except I bought the thing last year, and then spent the majority of my time at work or using the thing to look at spread sheets
Click to expand...
Does the whole screen have a yellow tint or just part of it? I could live with my discoloration if it were uniform across the screen. As it is I areas of blue and yellow discoloration, and then some that look fine.

The good news is that your display likely won't get worse. It may become very slightly dimmer over time, but that's true of all fluorescent backlights.

For those wondering, I spoke to a higher tier rep at Apple who finally agreed to send me a replacement. We'll see how it goes.
 
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