I just bought my iMac at the end of August of this year and it's a got a screen burn-in problem. I noticed when watching a movie in full screen that there was a black line across the top of the screen (I'm guessing from the menu bar?). Can this be fixed? Will the warranty/apple care cover it? What can be done to prevent this in the future if I can get it fixed?
Hi, same issue here, only for me it happens most when I am using Adobe GoLive. The programme only needs to be open for 10 minutes before the tool palette burns into the top corner of the screen. I can even read words left from the site palette in my very neutral desktop picture.
I have called Applecare this afternoon and, after quoting this discussion, managed to have the case escalated up to a senior technician. He has confirmed the pixel sticking scenario and recommends changing the background picture often and going onto screen saver as often as possible in down times, both of which I do.
So - no definitive resolution but hope this helps someone else.
I just got my iMac back from the Apple Store, they replaced the LCD. This did NOT fix the problem, and in fact it's even worse (more noticeable) now.
Like others, what I'm experiencing is NOT long-term burn in. I've had this screen for less than a day (less than 6 hours on-time since getting it back) and I can see burn-in images from my web browser, from scrolling text in XCode, and in my IM window.
This leaves me with two possible causes:
1) GPU/VRAM/logic board failure. Replacing the screen didn't fix the issue, perhaps the problem lies elsewhere.
2) Heat-soaked LCD: Perhaps the LCD is being affected by the heat of the components directly behind it (the problem is most prevalent on the left-bottom of the screen, on both the old and the new LCD). This explains the localized area effect, and why other LCD-equipped devices, which don't front entire computer systems, do not experience this effect.
Neither necessarily explains why the effect is only becoming visible after about two years of ownership (unless the chassis is starting to get warmer because the fans/vents are getting slowly clogged by dust).
Regardless, one thing is clear: this problem is NOT long-term screen persistence, and is NOT an issue caused by leaving the same screen elements on too long, or not running a screen saver/energy saver.
CPU is about 45 degrees, GPU (Nvidia 8800GS) 65 degrees, airport card 60 degrees. The most CPU-intensive app I've run is Flash video (Youtube) within Chrome, for maybe 5 minutes total.
If you look closely at the first image, you can see the "build and run" hammer from XCode's console, and from the second image, you can almost read the names of people from my Skype contact list.
Would be good to hear how you do next. When I called, although the technician in Ireland was very helpful, the outcome of the conversation was "if it fixes itself after a restart, what does it matter?" To me, as a designer, what matters is that it disturbs my field of vision to have this weird halo of type over the top of something I am working on.
I don't recall the TOS on this forum, but if you post up an email address I'll send to you. Sorry for the roundabout, it's just not wholly relevant to the issue discussed here and I don't want to muddy the waters (suffice it to say to those with the issue that very likely an LCD replacement will NOT solve the issue).
