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

Reason for Yellow Tint

K

kolax

macrumors G3
Original poster
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
Don't know if this has already been posted but I'll bring the info to those know who don't know.

I was speaking to a college at work (we sell laptops, tv's etc) and he said he had had to deal with a customer returning a MBP because of yellow tint. I was interested since I have the same problem with mine.

Apparently, the problem is that there is a yellow sticker at the side of the screen that is there to act as a seal - so if it gets broken Apple know you have tampered with the screen. But, this yellow sticker reflects light sometimes and is projected onto the screen, hence causing this problem.

I'm not sure where the sticker is, but it might be near the last 3rd of the screen ; possibly why people notice the bottom of the screen being yellow.

He said that he called Apple, and they confirmed the yellow sticker problem, and said it would be a 2 minute job opening the screen and removing the sticker.

I'm going to take mine to my local Apple vender and see if this is truely the case - nothing fully confirmed yet.
 
Kilamite said:
Don't know if this has already been posted but I'll bring the info to those know who don't know.

I was speaking to a college at work (we sell laptops, tv's etc) and he said he had had to deal with a customer returning a MBP because of yellow tint. I was interested since I have the same problem with mine.

Apparently, the problem is that there is a yellow sticker at the side of the screen that is there to act as a seal - so if it gets broken Apple know you have tampered with the screen. But, this yellow sticker reflects light sometimes and is projected onto the screen, hence causing this problem.

I'm not sure where the sticker is, but it might be near the last 3rd of the screen ; possibly why people notice the bottom of the screen being yellow.

He said that he called Apple, and they confirmed the yellow sticker problem, and said it would be a 2 minute job opening the screen and removing the sticker.

I'm going to take mine to my local Apple vender and see if this is truely the case - nothing fully confirmed yet.
Click to expand...


That would be very interesting if a small piece of a yellow sticker is the cause. Hey, you never know. Please get back to us once you return from your Apple vender.
 
Unfortunately, my Apple vender is shut on Sunday's.

So I'll be there on Monday early, and let you guys know the story.
 
Kilamite said:
Unfortunately, my Apple vender is shut on Sunday's.

So I'll be there on Monday early, and let you guys know the story.
Click to expand...

nooo. I really really hope this is the reason there's a yellow tint at the bottom of the screen. I guess I'll have to wait until Monday.
 
If this is true Apple wasted a whole lot of money on shipping for no good reason. :D

Kilamite, if this is true I think I will call AppleCare to see if they know about it, because just a week ago when I called they did not. :apple:
 
And so to stop like 1-2 people from "tampering" with their screens they wasted tens of thousands on return shipping, as well as another few hundreds of thousand selling many MBPs as refurbs...

On top of that they had to spend on the stickers as well!

Does make you wonder...
 
If there is indeed a yellow sticker on the display that is causing the problem, I very highly doubt that the sticker was put there to prevent people from tampering with the screen. Out of all the reasons to take apart one of these machines for upgrades and so on, the display is the last thing that a user is going to "tamper" with. What reason would anyone have to open up the display housing and then remove the yellow sticker? Maybe if they busted their display and are replacing it, but that would not be covered anyway.

It makes no sense. The sticker may be there, but it is not so Apple will know if someone was "tampering" with the display.

I don't believe much this college student (or whoever) has said (I am not talking about the OP). First of all, Apple I am sure has not confirmed anything to anyone about this problem. Second of all, anyone who has taken apart one of these knows that it is MUCH more than a 2 minute job to take a sticker off the LCD panel. Maybe 2 hours, but not 2 minutes.
 
I for one believe this for two reasons. Apple is goofy enough to do something like put a tamper sticker on their display, and a something added during assembly [like a sticker] would explain why there is no discernable cause of the tint issue, as it is found in both glossy and matte, LG and Samsung displays. That both companies were manufacturing displays with the same defect is pretty far fetched. :)
 
Mr Fusion said:
I for one believe this for two reasons. Apple is goofy enough to do something like put a tamper sticker on their display, and a something added during assembly [like a sticker] would explain why there is no discernable cause of the tint issue, as it is found in both glossy and matte, LG and Samsung displays. That both companies were manufacturing displays with the same defect is pretty far fetched. :)
Click to expand...

At the same time, you'd think Apple was putting these stickers in the same place on all screens, so you'd expect all screens to have the yellow tint. This is not the case, as we've heard of people replacing their yellow screens for perfect ones.

Perhaps there are slight differences in the locations of the stickers, and the slight difference is enough to create the tint. Probably not, though.
 
Mr Fusion said:
We've seen sloppy thermal paste application, why not sloppy stickering? :D
Click to expand...

Honestly come on now. I know you're all enthusiastic and I wish nothing more than a speedy fix for those of you with the yellow tint, but look at your screen and tell me if you think that some reflection from a yellow sticker could really be the cause. From descriptions thus far, the tint is evenly distributed across the lower 1/3 of the screen and there's no way that reflection from a sticker on one side of the screen could cause that.

Hopefully Apple discovers and admits the problem, fixing it for everyone who it affects; it's not going to involve the removal of a sticker though.
 
Kilamite said:
Apparently, the problem is that there is a yellow sticker at the side of the screen that is there to act as a seal - so if it gets broken Apple know you have tampered with the screen. But, this yellow sticker reflects light sometimes and is projected onto the screen, hence causing this problem.

[snip]

He said that he called Apple, and they confirmed the yellow sticker problem, and said it would be a 2 minute job opening the screen and removing the sticker.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but this is unbelievable for a few reasons. Firstly, removing a screen is not a 2 minute job. The screen clamps are located underneath the motherboard. To get to them you first have to remove the topcase, ambient light sensors, speakers, disconnect virtually all internal cables, AirPort, Bluetooth, and finally remove the entire motherboard. That's only to disconnect the display. After that you have to open up the display, which is not an easy job. This would take far longer than 2 minutes. If you can take all this apart and put it back together in an hour I'd be seriously impressed.

Secondly, the job is tough. Without professional tools, glue, etc, you are never going to be able to disconnect a screen, open it up, and put it back together without there being very obvious signs. For this reason, there is simply no need for anyone to put a sticker to stop people "tampering" internally as it would be obvious without the sticker, so I don't believe there's any sticker there.

Finally, what on earth would people "tamper" with if they did open the screen?

There's no reason for this sticker to be there, and it isn't. The yellowing is caused by something in the hardware itself, not some sticker.

By the way, after receiving a SR MBP with yellowing at the bottom of the screen and flickering I called Apple and got them to send a replacement. The replacement has a perfect screen, no flicker and no yellowing at all. I'd advise people with yellow screens just to return them, as I believe it's defective hardware.
 
If I recall correctly, most lcd screens I opened were sealed in some way. Mostly a sticker with a warning about voiding warranty or something. Hey it could even be a yellow one.

If this sticker runs along the entire bottom of the screen, it might possibly be the cause of the tint issue. Why not?

And please stop nitpicking about how much time it would take to open up a display. Figure of speech you know.
 
I highly doubt Apple would put a sticker to detect tampering. Signs of tampering would most likely be visible well before some service technician taking apart your computer got to the LCD screen, and adding stickers to detect tampering has never been a tendency of Apple's. I mean, where's the stickers to tell if you opened the case and swapped out the hard drive? It doesn't seem very likely. And for what its worth, the my Apple Genius friend who recently replaced my thermal paste replied that their weren't any such stickers when I asked him (I want to swap out the HD eventually :p ) and I doubt he would lie to me. Anyone without the preparation or experience to take apart a laptop would leave some kind of marks, and that's what Apple is looking for not some broken sticker seal.
 
I have to agree that it seems highly unlikely that a sticker is the cause of this problem. It seems way too much of a hassle for Apple. The gain also appears to be minimal. It seems to me that somewhere along the grapevine, some things became altered.
 
Indeed, no stickers in the machines themselves (except for the ones that hold the wires in place). I've opened a lot of them and swapped quite some hard drives. The screens however are different. They are wrapped in some sort of plastic, held together by a sticker.

Ask you genius friends before stating things as facts.
 
I've not said this is 100% true. It is purely information I've been told that has not been confirmed.

I'll find out when I take my MBP to my Apple vender tomorrow. Until then, this is just a rumour - since we are on a MacRumours forum :)
 
redeye be said:
Ask you genius friends before stating things as facts.
Click to expand...
Sounds like they already have. Terms like "highly unlikely" and "impossible" are phrases I'm used to hearing from Apple Geniuses. :rolleyes:

Kilamite said:
I've not said this is 100% true. It is purely information I've been told that has not been confirmed.

I'll find out when I take my MBP to my Apple vender tomorrow. Until then, this is just a rumour - since we are on a MacRumours forum :)
Click to expand...
Don't feel like you have to defend yourself, I for one am very anxious to hear the verdict on this theory. :)
 
Might have overreacted OT. Thanks for the Zen Mr Fusion.
Like you I just want to know if this could be the issue. Doesn't really matter if somebody saw a sticker somewhere. I just like to know if there's one right there, reflecting and such.

:)
 
this is caused by a sticker?
Picture31.png

541314612_1e5335f2f3.jpg

Picture3-2.png


highly unlikely.
 
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