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Do the new imacs fix the Backlight Gradient Problem?

I am... like many... the owner of a 24" 1st gen aluminum imac with a terribly uneven backlight. The left side of the monitor is twice as bright as the right.

Using this machine for aperture isn't really an acceptable solution, which is sad, because my $1099 macbook has a better more accurate screen.

I returned the machine twice, and when I got the 3rd one that still had the problem, I just decided to wait it out a year on the warranty and see if the 2nd generation fixed the problem.

Does anyone who is familiar with the problem have 1st hand reports of how much better the screen panel / backlight / CCFL inverter is in the new model? Has anyone gotten through to applecare on this issue successfully?

24" imac 2.8 gen1, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Apr 28, 2008 8:14 AM

94 replies

Kevin Horn

Level 4

1,836 points

May 16, 2008 8:03 PM in response to Matthew Bergsma

I finally got around to Best Buy to take a look at the new iMacs. The 20" ones I'm afraid look still the same, very bad gradation of dark at the top to light at the bottom. But the 24" was beautiful and perfect. I wanted one even though my iMacs are only 6 months old and I don't like glossy screens.

May 17, 2008 3:35 AM in response to Matthew Bergsma

Just bought a 3.06 iMac, and I'm noticing the gradient issue too. The display is clearly a shade darker on the right side than the left, but truth be told, I had heard of this problem, and so was always looking for it. For general day to day use, I'm honestly not sure if I would have noticed it yet, but now of course, I can't help but study the **** thing to death!

After migrating my old Mac over, and installing Windows on it, I'm not sure if I'm up for taking it back, as it seems the problem is present on all 24 inch screens to a varying degree.

Has anyone had one they would say is perfect? I'd take it back in a shot (it's only 1 day old) if I knew this was a minority issue, and I had every chance of getting a perfect screen next time out, but as it stands, it seems to be a design flaw/limit of the screen used, and I can't be bothered getting on the return -> replace - > return, merry go round, if the best case scenario is just getting a screen back with a little less gradient.

I'm sure many will simply put this down to my imagination, but I can barely notice the problem when running Windows on it (via boot camp). Last night I spent a good half hour just looking at the blue Windows install screen, and I swear I didn't notice a colour shift. The problem also seems to be less noticeable after the machine has been on for about an hour.

Don't get me wrong though, it truly is a lovely machine. Virtually silent and it runs Crysis like a dream, it's just a shame that such an expensive machine is compromised out of the box.

Defcom-UK

Level 6

15,488 points

May 18, 2008 6:59 AM in response to David Perkins1

Could the fans be causing this, running a widget( http://buschfeuer.com/fans/ )and i find that the middle and right hand fans are running faster.

May 18, 2008 1:49 PM in response to Defcom-UK

The fans in that widget are not necessarily in physical order. Looking from the front of your iMac, the CPU fan(1200) is on the left, the HDD(1200) is in the middle, and the ODD(600) is on the right. Take a look at this topic where there have been some ideas as to where the fault may be. http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7211118#7211118

George

Do the new imacs fix the Backlight Gradient Problem?