Greyish Smudge marks behind the glass screen.

Same issue here. The apple store replaced my iMac and I purchased the AppleCare for it, but I'm afraid the problem will come back again. They told me explicitly that if I have the same issue again, they will not do anything about it. I can't believe the lack of response from Apple about this.

The exact problem has affected my iMac 27", bought in the UK last August. I have took it back to Apple and have been without the computer for a week up to now. Apparently they have replaced the screen and logic board, but the computer would not power up after the repair So I have to wait for them to order a new fan and power supply. What a joke.

same problem here. occured just after 70 days. 1/3 of the upper screen is crowded with dark spots.

apple support told me to have it cleaned and that this is caused by smoke, dusk or - imagine this - coffee underneath the imac. can you believe this rubbish? a 2k Euro computer? every 200 Euro dell computer can handle all of the above mentioned. we dont smoke and the environment is very clean. yes, we do drink coffee...
basically the imac 27 is not made for everyday use.

i sent it back to amazon and they agreed to take it back and pay back my money.

i believe this was the last imac in my life!

Egg wrote:
I have an intel imac from 2006 (thus, no glass front).

I've had this issue twice now. Once within the first year, and the screen was swapped. Now, over the course of the last 2 years, the problem is back (and now it starts to be much more visable).

I've two blotches, one in the bottom left and one in the top right.

Being out of warranty, I don't suppose they will repair it, which pi$$es me off as this is obviously a design issue. CLASS ACTION lawsuit anyone?!!?

I will call them, just in case, of course... 🙂

To be fair, your iMac is 5 years old. Not many things do last 5 years these days, least of all computers/monitors, so I don't think your case is Apple's problem at all.

On the other hand I have a 27" iMac which is less than a year old, so like most of the other people here DO have reason to be annoyed.

It's going to the Apple store on Saturday, will report back.

yes, I understand that. However, as I mentioned - this is the second time I've had that issue. It's quite clearly an apple HW design issue - so I should never have had this problem to begin with.

So we both have a right to be annoyed 🙂

I think what I meant is that yours is/was a completely different issue. Yours doesn't have a glass screen and has a different cooling system, so it can't be the dust problem. It's probably just screen degradation, which is inevitable. At work we have a white iMac like yours which also has grey patches on the screen which at face value do look similar, but I just put that down to age. Annoying I agree, but perfectly normal on an LCD screen 2+ years old.

understood (but dont agree with the last statement about 2+ yrs)

Interesting that you also saw the issue on another imac - which comes back to the 'bad design' concept.

I've worked in the IT industry for 15 years, used LCD screens since forever - still own loads of old knackered ones. I never saw this 'smudging' issue before I saw it on the imac.

anyhow, i will just live with it. but i will be a sad customer.. 😟 🙂 🙂 🙂

I have a 27" iMac that I bought in Dec 2009 and just in the past 3 months I have noticed those grey smudges. I can best describe them as someone having sooty powdery hands and lightly tapping the glass on the inside. They started to spread and become more noticeable so I decided to call Apple Care.

Since I am under extended warranty, rather than remove the glass myself to see if I can clean it, I called Apple care. They were very helpful and provided me contacts for area authorized repairs in Victoria, BC, Canada. There are no actual "Apple stores" here.

I called Moore Associates (one of the two available to me) and found out they actually have a guy who makes house calls. Wonderful!

He came in, removed glass, we realized that it is an LCD issue, he ordered the parts, and 3 days later I now have a new LCD screen covered under my warranty.

WW

Spoke to Apple who at first said I would need to take it to an Apple store to get it assessed. I told them I had bought AppleCare specifically because I was told I could get this checked and replaced on-site. The case was instantly escalated to senior support who were very helpful and understanding and helped to arrange an on-site visit as well as asked for photos of the issue (I hope this means they are consolidating similar cases).

A replacement screen was approved and thankfully installed on-site (ie; in my living room).

It actually took three visits since the first two replacement panels appeared to have other minor issues - one had a blueish hue to the right side, the other had some dark banding towards the bottom). The engineer's were very understanding since they too could see the same problems - the screens were described as DOA in the report.

I was happy with Apple's support and response, but am a little concerned that the grey smudges may come back given other stories I am reading. Fingers crossed for now.

Message was edited by: Deedan

Message was edited by: Deedan

i want my experience to be somewhat "documented" with the rest here.

i'd purchased my late 2009 27 in. imac i5 refurbished machine from apple.com on april 16, 2010 and everything was peachy. around late july/early august of 2010 is when the blotches first began. to be honest, i'd initially thought they were part of my background image, appearing as smooth and puffy clouds, but i knew there was a problem when the background changed and the blotchy pattern hadn't. it has since spread half-way down the left side of my screen, and it is beginning to take root in the top right corner.

i never game on this system, but i do regularly record and edit audio using Logic 9.

justin

<Edited by Host>

As with everyone else, I had a 27inch, late 2009 model. I had it for roughly 8 months and noticed it had the grey smudges in the top right corner. It looked like a 'ghost image' i get sometimes on an older dell lcd screen. However it never went away. Since I was having an issue with my hdd fan speeds, I took it in to my local apple store. The guy tried to clean the screen, no luck. He said the screen would need to be replaced, and since it was still under warranty I wouldn't have to pay the $800 for the part! They called me the following day stating everything was done. When I went to pick it up, they didn't replace the hdd like I had request (had a kb number they ignored). So they kept the imac for another day. When I went back the following day, they had damaged/scratched the casing in the front. After a 'bit' of talking, I walked out with a new 2010 imac, So far there are no issues. But from what I have read in this post, I don't have high hopes that the marks wont appear on this model.

If they charge $800 just for the part (that doesn't include the labor), they should be absolutely sure that there are no issues, or at least do some sort of volunteer recall to fix/solve the problem, instead of selling products with apparent issues.

Well I took mine into the Apple Store on Saturday to show a 'Genius' and didn't get the sympathetic response I was hoping for (eg admit there's a design flaw and give me a new one or my money back.) He said it was due to smoking, me pouring water on it, etc etc, none of which are true. They kept it in and will call me within a few days to let me know their outcome.

I'm really not impressed, they obviously know it's a problem and cleaning it or replacing it with another screen is not good enough if this is going to happen every 8-12 months. That means I'll have to take it back a further 2 times during the life of my Apple Care! I'm hoping I get a better response when they phone me back.

Just had the same problem; brought it back to apple and replaced screen in a few days. Did anyone who had their screen replaced notice that now when waking from sleep, the display kind of flickers back on instead of the normal wake up?

I bought my iMac 21.5 December 09 from Greece , i've recently discovered the gray shadows on the top left corner. I called apple retailer and told me that it might be dust on the glass or dust inside the monitor part. Because i have no guaranty any more , i opened the glass and cleaned it , but the problem still remains.

Is there any official response from Apple's side. Apple's retailer Elite in Salonica suggested that i should pay for the replacement of the monitor. Should i pay for a new part?

ps. If there are any other iMac owners with the same problem in Greece , please contact me.

Do not pay for a replacement screen. The problem is not with the screen. This is a design flaw. If you buy a new screen the grey marks will only return after a month or so as mine and many other unhappy iMac users have.