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

I started working on a Mac back in 1992. Back then the Mac was known as a graphic artist's computer, which is what I am. The Mac's back then were rock solid. As a company grows and becomes popular the quality seems to drop. Sadly, I think that's what has happened.

I think, every LED Display from Apple has this problem, my 27" too. I looked in our electronic store, the 21,5" iMac and the 24" LED cinema display has also this yellow-brown color problem. I think, its not correct too pay so much money for such a display. But this is my first iMac, everything else is ok, i will never go back to windows, so i won´t change it.

Best regards

Message was edited by: jolissimo

Hi Zburkett:

You wrote, "So every iMac has ...."

I can't speak for others; however, that hasn't been my experience. I worked with a 27" C2D (4670) and, though ever so briefly, a 27" i7 (4850)--neither seemed to have a tinge issue.

Hope this helps.

"Back then" (1992) probably meant "built in the USA" in the sense of virtually all components manufactured in the USA. Since Apple seems to charge a bit of a premium for their computers, you would think they would be the one company that would want to manufacture a little closer to home. Sure they are designed and engineered in California, but it must be more convenient and reliable if they were built next door. Mind you, I imagine all the electronics today are made in Asia so "built in the USA" today would really mean "assembled in the USA." I don't mean to find fault with Asian components (I am so happy with my Canon DSLR or Samsung HDTV (purchased in the spring) for example. I'm just wondering if the great distances involved are lessening the quality.

I no longer see it as a shipping issue when someone says they have a problem appear for the first time after a week or more of perfection. There's been finger-pointing at various components in manufacture but nothing conclusive from Apple. There may be some that are damaged in shipping but I think now that's a small fraction of the problems. If Apple had used a brand new graphics card, we'd all think it was the new card, but the ATI Radeon 4850 is "old" and we all wished for something better. Ironically it may be good that they went with the old card. The LG panels are certainly new but may not be the problem either if the second monitors also exhibit problems. Could it be the assembly? Something so simple as the connectors are not always secure enough when cold (or hot) or some electronic pathways are not always clean and wide enough?

I understand Apple not commenting until they are certain they have remedied the problem; right now they are doing their best to make most unhappy customers happy, replacing machines if the customers want to try that or refunding for those who want to wait. Very few have said, "I'm done, I'm out of here, I tried Mac but I'm staying with Windows."

It has been edifying to read the posts where other early adopters of new Mac architectures also experienced headaches being on the bleeding edge. I certainly hope the solutions come before Apple announces their new Mac Pro lineup since I would think they'll be going with multi-threaded six-core processors that outperform the iMac once again and we'll be wondering if it's worth shelling out the extra money for that platform! Life is cruel, no?

I also have the yellow tinge, batch 48..

Ouch!

My replacement unit (still in Shanghai) is a batch 48.

Hi. Yellow tinge at the bottom. IMac i5. Batch 46. First mac. So much of excitement.

Don't know if this will help or not. One fellow or gal posts today on MacRumors forum about possible cause of the yellow tinge:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=829676

neonkru, "found yellow tinge source of problem. 'solved,'" 2 Dec 2009, MacRumor forums, link above, in part, "While me and my friends were trying to figure out possible causes of this issue on LED screens, someone came up with the brilliant idea that the problem could be caused by the sound speakers.
His recently LED TV had the same problem. He found out that what was causing the yellowish tinge on his TV were the Sound Speakers ... Volume speakers use magnets, so the magnetic field was screwing ...

Yet more interesting reading!

Tom_N, "Re: yellow tinge..." MacTalk ( http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1017&message=33805923 : accessed 2 Dec 2009), quoting part of a Wikipedia entry and then writing, "I suspect that it uses white LEDs (which the article claims are present in the Apple LED Cinema Display), but I don't really know. Presumably the white LEDs are more prone to appearing blue-ish or yellow-ish, due to using only one primary color and a modifier. (They're also not as adjustable; one could theoretically tune each channel of a RGB LED, though I don't know if every RGB LED implementation allows it.) ..."

Click on the link to read more.

Well surprise surprise after waiting a couple of weeks for the replacement I have an i5 week 46 model that exhibits the same problem as the previous week 41 imac.

This is just annoying now. It's not acceptable to market a product as they have and for it to be as poor quality as this.

So, back to the store tomorow for a refund I think.
Interestingly the 24inch cinema screen I tried in the shop was clean and did not exhibit any tinge.

What I now lack is any confidence in the product and this can only be restored when they tell us the cause and prove it is solved

Update
After several hours it is worse than I thought. The top left 1/3rd of the screen has a magenta cast and the bottom right quarter is green with a yellow colour in the centre.

I received my iMac just 4 days ago and it's a week 48 model with the yellow tinge issue - so I'm guessing there is not a lot of point in seeking a replacement whilst the issue still exists. I'm going to go into my local Apple store this weekend and see for myself if all of the screens there exhibit this issue.

I went yesterday and it is really difficult to tell. The lighting is son bright and strong. If I had to guess I would say i didn't see it on any of them but that would seem unlikely.

I think the only way you'd see any issues is by changing the desktop background to medium gray

My week 47 i7 (had it since Nov 23, so I'm gettin' real close to the magic 14 day mark) has a very slight yellowing or "warming" towards the bottom. Even setting the desktop to the solid greys or white background does not expose any serious yellowing. It seems evenly distributed across the bottom few inches. It seemed to improve after doing the "expert" mode color calibration. It also seems to improve if I try keeping my head/eyes exactly perpendicular to the screen as I move my head down the screen to examine it. For my particular screen and usage patterns, I don't think I'd return mine. I wish I could sit in front of one that someone claims has real bad yellowing so I could see if it was worse (to my eyes), or the same as mine.

Today I went to my local Apple retail store. They only had two 27inch models on the floor - both were Core2 models, both from week 41. I was a bit disappointed in that it appeared that the store screens did not exhibit any yellowing or warming. Makes me even more unsure if I should keep mine, which, so far, has no other issues (no dead pixels, no flickering, etc.). I went back home and looked at mine again. I guess I still think mine is extremely subtle and not enough to make me call it in. Maybe it's the difference in ambient lighting at my home compared to the very brightly lit Apple store.

Edit: I also looked at the one 24inch LED display at the store - no noticeable yellowing on it either.

Message was edited by: mert