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Q: Greyish Smudge marks behind the glass screen.

I have a 21.5 iMac bought in November 2009.

There appears to be numerous greyish smudge marks behind the glass screen on the top left hand corner.

It was not apparent to me at first, but after I started using OMMWriter it became easily visible. I also tried placing a neutral white background like TextEdit and it was easily visible even then.

I have cleaned the screen on numerous occasions and it has not had any effect.

What should I do?

These spots are quite disturbing.

iMac 21.5, November 2009, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 15, 2010 10:55 AM

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Q: Greyish Smudge marks behind the glass screen.

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  • by ChrisJay,

    ChrisJay ChrisJay Aug 9, 2012 8:55 AM in response to igs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 9, 2012 8:55 AM in response to igs

    Add me to the list of people with this problem. Only noticed it yesterday and it's already gotten worse. Just booked it in at the Genius Bar... really wishing I'd gone with a MacBook Pro now!

  • by Qholmes,

    Qholmes Qholmes Aug 14, 2012 8:22 AM in response to swapnonil
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 14, 2012 8:22 AM in response to swapnonil

    yep add me too.. Just noticed the grey streaks on my iMac 27" too.. talked to apple care and they said take it in to the shop so i think i have some holidays coming up and will drop it off for that and for the not waking up problem i have had since i got it..... display does not come back on if i turn it off either by it going to sleep or if i drag the mouse down to the corner... super fun

     

    Q

  • by judithblades,

    judithblades judithblades Aug 14, 2012 3:51 PM in response to swapnonil
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 14, 2012 3:51 PM in response to swapnonil

    So this problem is STILL showing up on newer imacs????? 

  • by Qholmes,

    Qholmes Qholmes Aug 14, 2012 4:34 PM in response to judithblades
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 14, 2012 4:34 PM in response to judithblades

    Well mine is late 2009

     

    I bought it used from the apple store a year and a half ago.

     

    Q

  • by MisterMayor,

    MisterMayor MisterMayor Aug 14, 2012 4:39 PM in response to judithblades
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 14, 2012 4:39 PM in response to judithblades

    Mine is mid-2011 27" iMac and it has this issue very bad. Apple replaced the screen last week and I'm now waiting for the issue to return.

     

    Two geniuses at the Apple Store told me that this is essentially a non-issue and has nothing to do with the iMac but is to be expected with LCD panels. I explained that I've owned plenty of LCD panels over the years and have only had this issue with my iMac. The repair contract I was asked to sign blamed the issue on toner dust, although I don't have a printer. It was quite a hassel to get them to remove this from the contract as I was unwilling to sign anything that could be used to put me at fault. i

  • by dennis32555,

    dennis32555 dennis32555 Aug 18, 2012 5:44 PM in response to swapnonil
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 18, 2012 5:44 PM in response to swapnonil

    Is this the drawback with the imac. the screen gets dirty easily? I'm planning to buy one but I'm reconsidering my options.

  • by bill33,

    bill33 bill33 Aug 19, 2012 1:33 AM in response to swapnonil
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Aug 19, 2012 1:33 AM in response to swapnonil

    well ive got my imac for over a year and it has absolutely no problem....in any case the screen is super easy to take of and clean

  • by johnpc,

    johnpc johnpc Aug 19, 2012 5:47 AM in response to bill33
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2012 5:47 AM in response to bill33

    don't worry it will come, sometimes it takes a few months, other times a couple of years, but it will come... I am certain of this and I also have a feeling that a lot folks simply ignore the issue and Apple never hear from them, the screen is still usable and to some this issue may not even be nuisance, either way this clearly is a design flaw... and one should exepct better form a company like Apple...

  • by Qholmes,

    Qholmes Qholmes Aug 19, 2012 6:31 AM in response to johnpc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2012 6:31 AM in response to johnpc

    Well this post is not about dirty screens i dont think... it is about some kind of heat marks that appear behind the display glass.. i dont think they are cleanable by the user.. I have come to the conclusion that all in one PCs / Macs are maybe not the best idea.

     

    I will be taking my iMac to the service center and hopefully they will replace the screen and fix my not waking up screen as well. The first time i sent it in they had it for 3 weeks. I hope this time is shorter.

     

    Q

  • by Omek,

    Omek Omek Aug 19, 2012 8:28 AM in response to johnpc
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Aug 19, 2012 8:28 AM in response to johnpc

    I thought a solution would have come by now, but I've been waiting for them to solve the grey-smudge and yellow-screen problems since late 2009. I've had the hard drive fail, a yellow-tinge on the bottom third of the screen, grey smudges appear when using graphics-intesive apps, and now I think the headphone jack on my sound card is no longer working with external speakers.

     

    I now believe it's probably just not happening. They are likely going to release the new model of iMac soon, where they have probably already solved the hardware design flaws. The only way to solve it on previous iMacs is to completely re-design the hardware, and Apple just isn't going to do that now. At best, maybe they'll take these older models and allow some sort of trade-in for the new ones, but I might also be skeptical of that as well.

  • by judithblades,

    judithblades judithblades Aug 19, 2012 1:43 PM in response to swapnonil
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2012 1:43 PM in response to swapnonil

    I am of the same opinion..even then the response wouldn't be universal...some stores would trade and others would say.."never heard of it"...

     

    I love my imac but too many flaws...my DVD/CD player stopped working very soon after 1 year warranty expired, the clouds started 3 months after purchase, there's a blue line permanently on the screen (clearly dead pixel thingies)

     

    we have so many apple products but I will never buy another imac....

     

    my apple loyalty is gone

  • by judithblades,

    judithblades judithblades Aug 19, 2012 1:48 PM in response to swapnonil
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2012 1:48 PM in response to swapnonil

    yet another reason not to buy another imac...I note the following from another thread..this guy had white stripes on the screen ..

     

     

    So i spend 2hours today opening my iMac. At first glance i could see there was some amount of dust in different places which i blew away with air on a can. Afterwards i disassembled the LCD and opened it. There was a big amount of dust on the backlight (white) plate and some burned dust on the backside of the LCD (yes it was burned onto the screen!!).

     

    I cleaned it all through, blew all dust away and assembled it.

     

    The screen is much brighter now and all the smudge is gone! It looks like new. :-)

  • by dirty-imac-screen,

    dirty-imac-screen dirty-imac-screen Aug 19, 2012 4:44 PM in response to swapnonil
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 19, 2012 4:44 PM in response to swapnonil

    If you think Apple has to recognize the problem of imac dirtry screen, you can just sign in to diry-screen.com... If a lot of us subscribe, it wanna mean that there is a BIG problem. If Apple erase this message, it also want to mean that there is a real problem!

    With dirty-screen.com,we just want to have dreamed computer!!!!

    See you!

  • by Vectorkraft,

    Vectorkraft Vectorkraft Aug 25, 2012 12:54 AM in response to swapnonil
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 25, 2012 12:54 AM in response to swapnonil

    I'm having a smudge/smear problem too.

     

    As my iMac (i5 2.7GHz mid-2011) is outside the guarantee period I decided to look into this problem as my screen has also developed darkened smears.

     

    After taking the whole thing apart, it's now clear (in my case) it isn't simply a dust problem, the outer screen, backlight and LCD layers were found to be surprisingly dust free. The same goes for the general interior of the iMac. No 'burnt' or stubborn dust was found  on any layer of the panel.

     

    However, there seem to be problems with the actual liquid crystal layer, this would explain why the smears fade or accentuate depending on the temperature of the working environment and the heat output of the processor block. Sadly, they never truly disappear.

     

    A replacement panel is the only answer.

  • by Jason Nemeth,

    Jason Nemeth Jason Nemeth Aug 26, 2012 3:11 PM in response to swapnonil
    Level 1 (55 points)
    Aug 26, 2012 3:11 PM in response to swapnonil

    I'm about to go in for my third replacement of the LCD.  Apple Executive Customer Relations has ruled that the cause is environmental, and that the high humidity in Ohio causes water vapor to settle on the LCD panel.  It was also claimed that both dehumidifiers and humidifiers can cause the issue, which besides not making sense, eliminates your only defense against this ridiculous assertion of high humidity being the cause.

     

    They claimed that turning your machine off allows the water vaport to condense on the LCD as it cools.  Of course, they told me that last time, too.  Since then, I haven't turned the machine off or let it sleep enough to cool down.  It made no difference.

     

    I also explained that I no longer lived in Ohio and that it recurred in Illinois, and they said they'd have to get back to me.

     

    The absurdity of the statement "if you use an iMac in Ohio, you're voiding the warranty" (paraphrased, obviously) boggles my mind.  I am quite literally 1 city block from an Apple Store here in Illinois.  I want to see what they have to say about environmental issues here.

     

    In all fairness, they did offer to replace the LCD one last time, but after that I'm on my own.  I'm selling it as soon as I get it back, maybe someone else will have better luck.  I won't be buying another iMac, that's for sure.

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