Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

My theory on the Yellow Tinge - The Cause.

Hi all,

I will say this.. I am on my 4th i5.. my first two were 1tb seagate drives, and I noticed some yellow tinge on the bottom and mid right of my screen, but my last two have been 2tb Hitachi drives, and have significant yellow tinge going down the center (top to bottom) of my screen.. I also noticed that in the center of the machine is the 2tb drive.. Not sure that means anything (I am not technical so be gentle!) but it seems both my 2tb iMacs have a yellow band right where the hd is located...
 
Kronie said:
I still don't think there are. I think some people are more sensitive to it than others. All three of my i7's had yellowing, and some people I showed it to could clearly see it and some people couldn't find anything wrong with it.

If a 27" screen is yellow in the forest and no one is around to see it does it, is it really yellow?
Click to expand...

One of my iMac replacements was so poor that a side by side comparison showed that one screen was clearly yellow. I now have a yellow tint free screen. Others have also claimed to have yellow tint free screens. I have posted proof on macrumors and it was scrutinised by the community - it is yellow tint free.

It is for this reason I am disputing the theory of heat causing the issue, I have not disputed heat being a contributing factor to the worsening of the yellow tint issue.

With this information the only logical explanation is that LG are indeed producing faulty panels.
 
mdewberry said:
Hi all,

I will say this.. I am on my 4th i5.. my first two were 1tb seagate drives, and I noticed some yellow tinge on the bottom and mid right of my screen, but my last two have been 2tb Hitachi drives, and have significant yellow tinge going down the center (top to bottom) of my screen.. I also noticed that in the center of the machine is the 2tb drive.. Not sure that means anything (I am not technical so be gentle!) but it seems both my 2tb iMacs have a yellow band right where the hd is located...
Click to expand...

I have the 2TB Hitachi Drive and no yellow streak / tinge going down the centre - just a subtle, but distinguishable, yellow hue in the lower right hand quarter of screen. My perception of the yllow hue is that it worsens when the screen has been active for 15-20 minutes - which I believe, according to the service manual, is the time that the screen reaches its optimum performance.
 
Apple: "We have a lot of costumers returning iMac because of yellow tinge"
LG: "That amount of yellow tinge is within spec"
Apple "What?! You can't be serious!"
LG: "Well, after we offered the lowest bid, you negotiated another 5% discount. We agreed, under the condition we could change the specs again"
Apple: "It is obvious that such amount of tinge is unacceptable!"
LG: "See you in court"

:D
 
lexvo said:
Apple: "We have a lot of costumers returning iMac because of yellow tinge"
LG: "That amount of yellow tinge is within spec"
Apple "What?! You can't be serious!"
LG: "Well, after we offered the lowest bid, you negotiated another 5% discount. We agreed, under the condition we could change the specs again"
Apple: "It is obvious that such amount of tinge is unacceptable!"
LG: "See you in court"

:D
Click to expand...

Nice - But is LG the only producer of the panels available?
 
I think that if LG was really the problem, then apple would have the balls to definitely stop production, explain costumers what was going on and arrange a deal with another display producer! However, it makes even less sense being apple fault.. Anyway, my iMac is coming this month (i7's are only now starting to arrive resellers here in Portugal (INCOMPETENT Portuguese Distributor - Interlog - it as the monopoly so does not give a ****) and i hope it will be yellow tinge free!
 
Focks said:
I think that if LG was really the problem, then apple would have the balls to definitely stop production, explain costumers what was going on and arrange a deal with another display producer!
Click to expand...

lol Please don't assume Apple is going to put the customer before profit... Apple will not issue a recall or acknowledge the problem until it receives enough complaints. LG is the only producer of a 27" panel so no Apple can't simply jump ship.
 
All Taken said:
lol Please don't assume Apple is going to put the customer before profit... Apple will not issue a recall or acknowledge the problem until it receives enough complaints. LG is the only producer of a 27" panel so no Apple can't simply jump ship.
Click to expand...

They're stuck in a 5 year contract with LG too aren't they?
 
All Taken said:
lol Please don't assume Apple is going to put the customer before profit... Apple will not issue a recall or acknowledge the problem until it receives enough complaints. LG is the only producer of a 27" panel so no Apple can't simply jump ship.
Click to expand...

Precisely why one should be proactive in procuring a defect-free machine instead of settling. It sends the wrong message to Apple and placates them.
 
Bitwise said:
They're stuck in a 5 year contract with LG too aren't they?
Click to expand...

Is that so?

Yikes. Somethings gotta give. I wouldn't hesitate to pay a little extra for a higher caliber screen either.

Let's hope these growing pains are short-lived.

Apple has a great future in terms of capturing a broader market. Not properly addressing this could become a major misstep for them and alienate the many prospective consumers (often ex-PC users) out there.
 
@OP

If it were in fact a heat issue then wherever the iMac is assembled and tested has horrible quality control. Mine was yellow out of the box, in fact all 3 I have had so far have the yellow tinted area's on them prior to it even getting to the OS login screen.

So they either never turn them on prior to shipping, OR they run them for 24/48 hours straight and have someone that is color blind as "inspector 13" :)

I'm not terribly concerned at this point, Apple knows they have an issue based on the store managers I've dealt with and the 3 different "Apple Experts" that have called me via their support line. All have acknowledged the issue, offered me yet again more swap outs and none have tried to hide or ignore the issue at hand.

I've had Apple products for 15+ years and in the past 5 or 6 that I've actually had to use Applecare, never been an issue, always taken care of. Probably one of my top 3 companies I've ever dealt with in terms of customer satisfaction if I ever have an issue.
 
LG products have in the past been on par with Apples quality. I have not heard of any major screen issues from any LG products so I believe LG are having teething issues, although admittedly wide spread teething issues with the 27" IPS panel.

Not to sound like i'm trying to silence opinions but could a small crowd of users stop being such fanboys?

I mean come off it, Apple is the manufacturer you just paid good money to for that faulty iMac and although the fault lies with the LG manufactured panel it is still something Apple should have/did pick up on at quality control.
 
All Taken said:
How much heat do you think the iMac is producing under test? How long do you think the iMac is subjected to the heat? Long enough to turn the display yellow?

I think it is much more plausible that LG are supplying defective screens.
My first unit had a High Pitched noise issue (PSU problem) however the screen was fine, how would your theory account for some units having yellow screens whilst others don't? All iMacs would under go the same testing/quality control regardless of where assembled.

In my opinion.
Click to expand...

I don't know the exact manufacturing process flow (which at the production ramp-up is not very uniform and not identical for all units), but I can see some units being ON for several hours.

Your are right however, that the ultimate cause is the LCD panel (screen), which passes less blue component in selective areas. I did some Photoshop experiments and my assessment is that 5% to 10% blue is missing.

As for the cause of that, it might be premature thermal aging of parts of the LCD panel, due for example to some manufacturing process fault (like not enough cure, or contaminated, substandard ingredients).

There could be many reasons, but the good news is, that the LCD technology is quite mature and provides stable TV screens (no yellow tinge there), so the iMac problem seems to be faulty batch, rather than basic technology limitation.

Tom B.
 
Btom said:
I don't know the exact manufacturing process flow (which at the production ramp-up is not very uniform and not identical for all units), but I can see some units being ON for several hours.

Your are right however, that the ultimate cause is the LCD panel (screen), which passes less blue component in selective areas. I did some Photoshop experiments and my assessment is that 5% to 10% blue is missing.

As for the cause of that, it might be premature thermal aging of parts of the LCD panel, due for example to some manufacturing process fault (like not enough cure, or contaminated, substandard ingredients).

There could be many reasons, but the good news is, that the LCD technology is quite mature and provides stable TV screens (no yellow tinge there), so the iMac problem seems to be faulty batch, rather than basic technology limitation.

Tom B.
Click to expand...

I agree with your diagnosis. The LCD technology is mature and such problems are rare - how mature is IPS display technology?

Intelligent and logical post, thank you for giving me an interesting read. +1
 
All Taken said:
I agree with your diagnosis. The LCD technology is mature and such problems are rare - how mature is IPS display technology?

Intelligent and logical post, thank you for giving me an interesting read. +1
Click to expand...

Thanks. By no means I am an expert on the display technology, by IPS is supposed to be one of the best (all of them are relatively mature).

The big driver to improve display quality was TV screens and competition with the plasma.

Older LCD technologies unfortunately still stay with laptops (and cheaper computer displays) - even at Apple. It is really a shame, since for those displays darkness and color saturation depends strongly on the viewing angle (now you see it - now you don't thing). I learned about it looking for a laptop suitable for photoediting (there is none). But since people don't complain, things are staying where they were...

Tom B.
 
My theory of the yellow tinge is that it has been and gone.
My replacement i7 continues to operate faultlessly after a couple of days. No yellowing at all or other problems. Thanks to Apple's outstanding service in allowing me to keep the previous one until the new unit arrived, I haven't missed a day of i7 use and now have what is easily the best Mac I've owned.
 
Sir Cecil said:
My theory of the yellow tinge is that it has been and gone.
My replacement i7 continues to operate faultlessly after a couple of days. No yellowing at all or other problems. Thanks to Apple's outstanding service in allowing me to keep the previous one until the new unit arrived, I haven't missed a day of i7 use and now have what is easily the best Mac I've
owned.
Click to expand...
Lol you're a douche, problems are still very much a reality. :)
 
Sir Cecil said:
My theory of the yellow tinge is that it has been and gone.
My replacement i7 continues to operate faultlessly after a couple of days. No yellowing at all or other problems. Thanks to Apple's outstanding service in allowing me to keep the previous one until the new unit arrived, I haven't missed a day of i7 use and now have what is easily the best Mac I've owned.
Click to expand...


Unfortunately they're not all gone. Too bad because everything else about it is spectacular. I just received my i7 27" and sure enough it has the tinge/hue. The top side of the screen is definitely darker than the bottom (particularly the edges). Right now I hope Apple's service is as outstanding as some have experienced.
 
Kronie said:
I still don't think there are. I think some people are more sensitive to it than others. All three of my i7's had yellowing, and some people I showed it to could clearly see it and some people couldn't find anything wrong with it.

If a 27" screen is yellow in the forest and no one is around to see it does it, is it really yellow?
Click to expand...


There are some that are yellow and some that aren't.

There is a thread about someone who got their 4th iMac 27" and it's perfect.

His 1st had the flickering screen
His 2nd and third had the yellow tinge.
 
Sir Cecil said:
My theory of the yellow tinge is that it has been and gone.
My replacement i7 continues to operate faultlessly after a couple of days. No yellowing at all or other problems. Thanks to Apple's outstanding service in allowing me to keep the previous one until the new unit arrived, I haven't missed a day of i7 use and now have what is easily the best Mac I've owned.
Click to expand...

The advanced replacement service Apple provides is excellent - it is designed for these very situations where a customer is in receipt of a faulty machine and a new one is required ASAP. I would expect no less from a company that prides themselves on fantastic customer service.

I think it is a bit presumptuous to assume that all iMacs are now free and clear of defective panels based on your receipt of a screen defect free unit. I too have received a defect free unit however this does not indicate that faulty units are not still in production/being sold.
 
Just called Apple, very helpful to be fair. Getting an advanced replacement. Woman on the phone tried to talk me out of it saying the new one won't take long to come, until I told her this one took over 3 weeks! She checked the availability and agreed I could keep my old one. Just hope I'm not lumbered with two yellow beauties now!

Interestingly, the two people I spoke to didn't even question my yellow screen problem, none of the usual checklists they must fulfil before offering a replacement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back