Greyish Smudge marks behind the glass screen.

whoo-hoo! People power in action!

Get down to your Apple Store dude!

Same problem here in Madrid with a 2010 27`imac

:-(

I think you should all try cleaning your screen well first. I just cleaned my screen for the first time today and it is a bit of a hassle but once you figure it out, the screen becomes spotless.

It seems that because of the high reflective quality of the screen smudges that aren't visible from all angles appear to be below the glass - but are not.

Go and get an authorized Mac screen cleaning kit or follow the insructions ont the Mac site on how to clean apple products and you should be fine.

For most people in this conversation this is a serious problem that you can't solve by some cleaning solution - of any kind. And popping the glass off won't do either.

when you clean your screen in general follwo the instructions on the mac site and make sure when you are wiping your screen it is turned of and there isn't but a drop of cleaning solution on your wipes. Temperature differences may cause these problems as well.

if the problem is serious, the solution is simple, call Apple. If it is not then follow my instructions - Im tellig you the screen can be hard to clean sometimes....

hope everything goes well

bill33, I understand you are trying to help, but it really isn't as simple as that. You should read all the posts here, this is a major flaw in the iMac which cannot be solved by simply cleaning the screen.

OK. I understand, but if there are some that have minor problems they may be weeded out. Thats all. No worries.

I have exactly the same problem with my 27" iMac (late 2009 model). Have attached a photo which hopefully shows a corner of my screen where it's particularly bad.

But basically it follows same trend as other posts in this thread. I only really became aware of the problem about 6 months ago (so well out of warranty) and had assumed it was dust under the screen. But on removing the glass, the smudges stare back at me tauntingly, and the marks are clearly behind that secondary screen and therefore out of reach.

Like so many others here, I'm now using my iMac for serious photography and am having to resort to my macbook pro instead of my iMac. A win-win for Mac, but crap for me as a customer.

It clearly is one of those issues that Apple know about and choose to pretend it's a few neurotic users. If it were a cheap piece of kit then I'd shrug my shoulders in a 'get what you pay for' manner. But I feel so often now with Mac products we are not getting what we paid for.

Get down your apple store with printouts of this entire thread and get it fixed for free. Or at least try! If you're in the UK, get trading standards involved. Items are meant to last for a "reasonable amount of time" 18 months is NOT a reasonable amount of time!

Thanks Dan

no worries mate. I got mine done for free (albeit only a week out of warranty) at the apple store in Liverpool. There's someone in South Africa who printed out the thread and got hers done OoW as well. It really seems that Apple are expecting folks to buy Applecare and are not prepared for the anger from people whose stuff breaks down whilst still very much in what is its reasonably expected useful life. Maybe stuff is being downgraded - i.e. they're sourcing cheaper kit, because they expect you to buy Applecare. But, if you haven't, then you're stuffed.

But that's just not right, and in the UK at least, we do have legs to stand on thanks to Trading Standards. Go get 'em!

There is no way this is "enviromental" or the aluminum design acts like an oven. No problems for the alu Macbook lineup as far as i know. I have a 27i iMAC (late 2009) model. It is a few months out of warranty, and the smudges are spreading in the same pattern as most of the guys here, starting at the top right and left and spreading downwards.

This is clearly a design problem, probably the LCD panel is not sealed correctly from dust and the fans located at the top of the MAC are circulating dust around.

I am in Greece, and there is no Apple store here, only authorised resellers. Any people dealed with that problem in Greece? Did they charge for a display change and how much was it?

It is a frustrating and dissapointing issue, espacially if you've paid 2000euros for a computer and after just a few months you get a crappy display.

Apple you losing customers and credibility by the minute! You address a problem for the 1TB Seagate HD for some iMACs but you play deaf for this huge issue (25 pages and counting). Eventually you will lose more customers and future sales than the money needed to replace the lcd panels with proper ones.

Same here - 27" iMac late 2010. White marks at the top right corner. I have just been at the apple store at brent cross in london today and the store manager said that he has never heard of any problem like this before. They change the lcd the second time now. The warranty ends next month. Shall i pay another couple of hundred quids for apple care? NOOOOOOO. They were useless in the shop, pretending they cant do anything. I am really disappointed in apple.

useless...they changed your lcd twice...