Yellow tinge from bottom to top of the screen, 27" iMac

Mine is from the W8945 batch and has a pretty serious yellowing problem in the bottom left corner and just to the right of center, extending roughly a third of the way up the screen. It's pretty easy to notice when you've got a white window stretched all the way down the screen (like this window that I'm currently writing in).

I've been debating on whether or not to do something about the yellow screen issue. Like Tony Milman, mine seems to be getting worse - initially I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me but I am definitely finding that it is becoming more discoloured with continued use.

My nearest Apple Store is quite a distance away. Is it likely that they could simply replace the glass and then send me home with the problem solved? Or would they need to keep it for a few days? Or simply issue a replacement?

Mine is a custom build i7 with 8gb ram.

Very frustrating - without this issue my iMac would be perfect!

Thanks fonso,

My batch/week is 46 then and the yellow tinge is noticeable more in the right bottom part of the display although is visible in all the bottom area. (I also have flickering issues sometimes).

What kind of routine test did they tell you to do? Did they get your Mac and deliver you a replacement or do you have to pack the iMac and take it to the store?

Thank you very much in advance!

julen,

Mine is from batch 47.

I was told to boot from the install disc. That was about it 🙂. After discarding a sofware problem, they proposed to replace it right away. Hopefully on Monday UPS will collect the iMac and when they get it they'll ship a new one.

Do all iMac that are currently being built come from the factory close to Shanghai or are there other factories as well? Mine came from Shanghai (week 45) and the one of a friend of mine as well (both had that yellow tinge issue). Maybe other factories have other panels? If this is caused by faulty panels, wouldn't Apple already have intervened by waiting for good panels to arrive at the factory instead of keep on sending out those faulty units?
Also, in 3 of my local Apple stores (one being an official Apple store in Zurich, the other two being Resellers)I was able to find iMac with the yellow tinge issue. So this problem cannot be limited to just a few faulty units but must be wide spread or limited to a whole production batch (i.e. from one specific factory, etc.). Also, units from several production weeks have the same problem.
Hope my replacement unit will be fine this time. Otherwise, goodbye to Apple, welcome Windows 7 (since this would have been my first Apple computer ever...I love the OS and design but not their quality assurance they obviously seem to have).

My iMac i5 also has a noticeable yellow tinge from the lower third of the screen downwards. I am a photographer and not only is this simply not good enough but I can't use it. I'm not sure if it getting any worse but I've only had it 48 hours. I will take it back in the morning.
Batch is W8946

Don't bother waiting for another batch, because the previous iMac models had the same issue. Very annoying issue I must say. I was very disappointed by this and sold the iMac. Be prepared because it gets worse.

Hey everyone. So after my first iMac 41 (flickering issue) and my 2nd iMac 47 (really yellow), I went back to the Apple store to replace it for my third (46). However, I had them open it up to take a look before I walked out again with a faulty computer. Once it booted up, I put it to the gray bar test ( http://tapplox.com/imac-led.html ) and sadly, it also failed. It was in much better condition in regards to the yellowing than my second iMac, but when color-correcting and designing, it was going to become an issue. I also tested the display iMacs, all of which failed some worse than others. However, this yellowing issue seems to be across all iMacs, with levels of severity.

Sadly, I opted to get my money back and wait till Apple figures it out. Good luck everyone.

As Mighty Tim mentioned, don't expect to find a 27" iMac that doesn't exhibit the uneven display issue.
The problem goes back to the 24"iMacs. I had a 2 year old white 24" intel iMac that was replaced by Apple with a 2009 24" Aluminum iMac. The replacement exhibited the same exact uneven display as the one it replaced. I think the same thing is happening with the new 27" iMacs. Don't know if it's the display or, all the stuff crammed into the iMac behind the display that causes the problem.

My second iMac just went into "Prepared for shipment" status today.....this is the last chance I'll give to Apple to do things right. If this one will have the same yellow tinted screen again (which I am afraid is going to turn out just like this), I will return it once again and wait for the new Macbook Pro. If this will have decent performance I'll use it with an external good-quality(!) monitor like Eizo and be happy with it. If not, I'll give Windows 7 a try (luckly I haven't invested too much in to Mac OS just yet which makes switching to one or the other platform easy)...Let's keep our fingers crossed though.

So Might Tim, what you're saying is that all aluminium iMacs are useless? How do Apple spend years producing an over priced product that simply doesn't do what it is designed to do? I didn't buy a first gen aluminium because the monitor couldn't be dimmed enough for calibration - it was almost twice as bright as necessary. My very first G3 iMac came out of the box with 7 dead pixels (in a CRT!), my iPhone G3 was DOA and went back for a refurbished model, the display casing warped on my Macbook and the keyboard face-plate cracked on both sides, the Mighty Mouse needs constant cleaning and has subsequently been thrown out, the HDD in the G5 iMac HDD fatally failed after 3 years and 2 weeks, the Super Drive in the Macbook doesn't read installation CDs......and on and on it goes.

Steve must read a post like this and know that he's doing something right because we all keep buying these ridiculous products! You can get a 24inch Dell IPS monitor for $600 AUD that is, from experience, perfect and it comes with a comprehensive warranty.

What to do?

^ seems that you've had a lot of faulty apple hardware in the past. So I don't think it's hard for you to believe a lot of aluminium iMac's have screen issues. I would of thought they'd fix it with this new series of iMac's, but by the looks of it, it only got worse. Because my iMac screen was perfect for about 6 months, and "yellow tint" topics pop up rather quickly now. I know about 10 people with a 20" aluminium iMac (previous gen) and their screen is still white. The yellow tint only affects the 24" models as far as I know. I think all 24" iMac's have yellow tint screen issues eventually, yes. I don't buy an iMac ever again. A buddy of mine had a G5 iMac and his screen was perfect, but after 4 years his logic board went nuts and now he has weird screen issues too! Totally different than the yellow tint but nevertheless he has screen problems.

I will never buy another Apple product before investigating the problems. The iMac was my first Apple product. I blindly bought it... It costs a whole lot of money and there's an Apple logo on it which led me to the conclusion that "it just works". Boy, was I wrong...

My iPod ears stopped working too after 3 months. I barely used that thing. My 10 year old Sony ears are still working. My ears form my Zen Stone, which I have used heavily, are still working too.... I don't know, but in my experience Apple costs a lot of money for the quality it offers

I have just been to the Apple Store in Chadstone to pick up my new i5 that just arrived in stock, only to be told that it had been reserved for somebody else. During my 30 minutes waiting I mentioned the issue to a few of the staff who all said that they had 'never' heard of such an issue??? Are you kidding?

As it turns out, I had my money refunded and will either wait for an i7 and hope and pray, or buy something else - unfortunately, or fortunately it will be an Apple product. Too many investments in software, experience and you still can't beat the appearance of the interface.

I am genuinely disappointed with this outcome as the computer was extremely fast, the mouse was amazing and I didn't miss the numeric keypad too much either.

Can you successfully run OSX on other architecture?

Apple, nor it's employees will ever admit that there's an issue with the displays on the iMac.

So EVERY iMac has this issue to some extent? That's horribly depressing -- I'm quite surprised that there isn't more uproar about this problem, especially if it was present in the previous generation of machines. It seems like there would be more people than the relatively few of us that have posted about it.

If Apple isn't able to remedy this issue, they surely should not be touting their iMac to have the "ultimate" display if it can't even display consistent color from top to bottom. Sadly, I may make the jump to a Windows box if this iMac can't provide the desktop computing experience that I need.