21.5'' iMac - Screen Noise

brought mine in to my local service shop for the second time. The owner has not heard of any fix to the buzz or of any new panels for 21" or 27".
Since my case is one of the more complicated, "money back" seems to be no way for me 😟
The service guy was very cooperative and told me, he would order up to 3 panels in sequence. If it was not fixed then, he would guess, they give the old panels to us while (maybe) delivering better ones on the new machine (this was of course totally unofficial). His advice for that case was to "stand it through" for a year and then try a repair again (of course, you need to have AppleCare for that - Apple's standard warranty is sub par to what you generally get in Europe for electronics).
He also did not give me any hope for the buzz. In the first attempt of repair, the LED dimmer circuit got exchanged and also the panel. The panel I received was better in terms of backlight leaking but still yellowing.

3rd panel in the machine was having 5 "fingers" of yellow. Thanks, but no thanks! The service technician ordered the 4th exchange panel without even closing my Mac's glass front screen...

SuAlfons, Not really understanding. Was there fingerprints on the Screen? Did Apple Store fix it or an AASP? Sorry!

no no, not fingerprints. The Yellow Tinge problem had the shape of "fingers" or flames 5 of them from left to right, extending to the middle of the screen.

It also continued to be moisy, since that was not even attempted to fix (has been tried on the first time I had it in service).

The Serviceman told me, that "professionals" would rather not use an iMac anyway and the "typical" iMac client would not notice. So we few that actually hear the noise and see the yellow screens are a minority. He said, his own parents have a non-perfect 27" and they won't notice. Actually, I can see business reason behind this, but that is not what I want for my money.

I did not buy at Apple directly (electronics chain with a christmas offering) and even have it at a different store for service (where I also bought Apple Care) - so I'm in a situation where "refund" seems very unlikely. I will attempt to get a refund if the screen number 4 or 5 is not better than the 3 I came to visit in the serviceman's shop. That said, the serviceguy is very supportive, but can only repair with parts he gets sent from Apple, of course. There is no different order number for displays, there is no how-to on the noise, there is no kit to fix the noise (you might get the dimmer board exchanged, which makes it quieter, but not go away). There is not even an official statement from Apple to their Service Partners (speaking of what I was told).
I would settle for a near-perfect screen - but I yet have to see one! You can see those anywhere you look in any electronics store - for external displays from any brand manufacturer.

I'm tired of whining - I hate myself for being so. Just want to have a decent machine for my money.

SuAlfons, Don't beat yourself up. This is not your fault. Your Service Man is an Idiot & a Moron all in one. He deserves to lose his job for such a moronic statement. It's totally unacceptable & you should get Apple on the phone & calmly tell them you are at your wits end. And if the Tech sounds like he won't help you, then ask for a Supervisor. I have to guess this was an AASP & not Apple. Go through Apple. Tell Apple your bad experience. Totally unacceptable.

I did not want to make the service guy look like an idiot. He actually seems to be a very smart guy and tries to be helpful. I believe him when he states, most people simply do not report their yello iMacs because they a) get it from their boss for Office-Work and/or b) upgrade from an even worse screen and think this is state of the art.

He continuously re-orders the panel (he has to stop after 5 tries...) to supply me with a good screen. Right now, I have seen 3 panels in my iMac, with number 3 being the worst. That he did not call today tells me, he did not bother to show me number 4 (which was likely to arrive yesterday) and continued to order number 5.
We agreed on a max. of 5 tries, because we do not want to overstress his business relation to Apple. If that one still is not OK, I will go to AppleCare Hotline again and maybe there is a chance for a refund.
There is also one (of three or so) of Germany's rare Apple Shops in Frankfurt, which opened just a couple of week ago, maybe their service department is worth another try.

Thanks for not bashing my whining, I feel comforted.

So, got my iMac21" back from Official Apple Service Partner.

As mentioned, he has been very helpfull and tried 3 different panels. The Last one has only a very light shadow at the bottom if the screen (where the dock usually is) and a hardly noticeable 3cm long yelowish-darker shadow at the left and right lower side of the screen. So I can hardly spot any yellowing in the "typical" areas (there might be, but we always said, we would settle with a "good" panel, since there will never be a "perfect" panel, we said so, didn't we?), only those shadows.
If it where like that in the first place, I would have never noticed a problem.

But it makes the loudest screen noise I ever heard! From Bootscreen on - the brighter the louder (not typical for our problem!). I thought I had the noise problem before, I surely got it now. You really honestly can't stand it. It's about half the loudness of an alarm clock.

So I called Apple Care the moment I came home with the machine. They escalated to 2nd-level technician. Who politely offered me a "pick-up" service (I told him I was tired of driving 45km several times to see yellow panels and now get screemed at by my own computer). This way, the mac would go to another service company (their own?). Maybe the (also exchanged) LED dimmer board got damaged while fitting all those panels in my machine...

Hooray for the pick-up. But alas for another 1-2 weeks without my computer. I actually did buy it for it to sit on my desk!

SuAlfons. That Stinks! Man, talk about bad Luck. I was going to suggest giving Apple your Credit Card Number & keeping the noisy one until you get the new one. But I guess that noise would have driven you crazy. Good Luck on the new One!!!

Did anyone with a whistling 21.5" iMac got the problem fixed? Mine makes a high pitched noise as soon as I lower the brightness and also has a yellow tinge in the lower third. The latter is not such a huge problem since the difference is not that big, but the whistling noise is very annoying. I guess a lot of people (especially adults) don't even hear it because of the high frequency.
Anyways, I went to a local Gravis store here in Germany and got a new display, but the problem persists (+ I now have a fuzz on the interior side of the glass covering the display, but this shouldn't be a problem to get fixed). I was now wondering where the noise comes from: is it the display itself? If some of you previously had a whistling machine that is now fixed, what was replaced?

Since nobody answered: It's most likely the LED inverter board. That's basically a dimmer circuit for the LED backlight.

My iMac now has been nearly as long away to service as it sat on my desk. The last time it retuned with panel no. 5 and inverter no.2 built in, it gave a **** of a whisteling noise. Now I was promoted to a "pick up" by Apple to another service partner, where they fit inverter no.3 and maybe panel no.6 (I told them I only wnated one that was better than the one I had with no.5 which was not very yellow but had the "grey bar" problem).

When it returns now, I expect it to whistle again (not as loud, but audible), because that's simply how they are designed. Let's see if they can convince me not to complain about this machine again.

I would rather have some yellow than the noise. I have been through a bunch of LCD panels that are just too **** noisy when the brightness is lowered.

On the fluorescent models I always assumed it was the power supply. Do you know if this is true?

Hi all,

sorry if this is totally OT.

As I am waiting to get my money back after returning 3 iMacs, I have come across a refurbished iMac 24'
Intel Core 2 Duo
3,06 GHz
4 GB RAM
HD: 1 TB
NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 (512 MB)

What do you guys think? Is it a good deal selling at € 1.249 (it says it's 40% off).

Are there any main flaws with these machines?

Hello!

Does somebody know if this screen noise also affects 27" iMac-s?

So, I got mine back from repair trip number 3.

They fixed the screen noise from "clearly defective" to "within specs" (still audible). I dont know if they also swapped the panel - I think so since it does not have the grey bar issue I meant to see the last time. (I hardly got to see the machine I bought in October, ya know)
Now, it has an "acceptable" screen with very slightly yellowing. I guess I would never have noticed this when I SLEPT UNDER A ROCK the last 10 years of LCD development.

But now, they left a significant amount of dust and fibres under the glas. Can you believe it? I'm so fed up with the iMacs - I continue to warn everybody not to buy one of those!

I guess I would have settled with this machine if it were clean inside.

It's very easy to clean under the glass. It isn't really sealed, so I've had to clean dust behind mine.