Imac 27" core i5... same problem. I bought it 15 months ago... for ~3800$ with accessories ( Apple is expensive in my country ) 2999$ for the iMac + 180$ for extra 4GB DDR2 RAM and 240$ for EyeTV Hybrid + 265$ for Airport Extreme
After 10 months, had yellowish/gray smudges whatever you wanna call it. Took it to the Apple store and spent like an hour trying to convince them it was a known issue and I that I don't smoke cigarettes nor weed whatsoever in my office at work... They asked for a new replacement screen which took 4 weeks and had meanwhile a Laptop for 88$ charge ( Macbook ) with 1 month warranty on the screen..
Now after 4 months, a Deja vu... Screen now showing plenty of gray clouds on the upper right side which are really annoying on white background ( I am annoyed at the moment as I can see it everywhere ). Tried to clean the panel but no joy. My warranty has expired 3 months ago and Apple guy asked me to bring the iMac back to inspect it for 33$ ONLY and if the screen needs replacement, they will " UNFORTUNATELY" HAVE to charge me 980$.
Trust me it is not easy to move that thing everytime I need to take it to the Genius guy...
So I said okay I have to live with it, let's run the AHT as advised on the Apple website to check if I have any hardware problem... It appeared that it is not possible anymore after Lion installation. As per forum advices, I can still load it from disk.
So I opened the iMac box and pulled the Snow Leopard Installation DVD and tried to boot from that "SuperDrive" which I barely use ( maybe twice in the last 15 months just to install win7/Bootcamp ) and tadaaaa.... Drive is not accepting DVDs... investigating, it's only reading CDs but ejecting any kind of DVD.
Well, I took it to the Apple guy; they said the screen needs replacement and the DVD drive is failing and also needs replacement: 980$ for the screen and 270$ for the DVD drive EXCLUDING LABOR ( not to mention that the SD card drive only works when I restart the iMac with the SD card inserted which is a known issue )
A charge of 1350$ to fix the screen and SuperDrive. Deal or no deal ? I fold...
Gentelmen, my Apple products are all now on something like ebay in my country. No more Apple ( selling my iPhone4, iMac, Eyetv and Airport ). Thank you Apple, I was not paying for the Design but for the quality as well; fair enough I guess
If someone from the Apple community is reading, I have been in the IT/Engineering field for more than 20 years and the iMac has been for business needs ( no gaming or DVD playback ) . Complaining on a Forum where everyone can register and chat is somehow useless and I seriously doubt you could offer some help as this issue has not been confirmed by Apple since years.
I will be sending an officia/ formal E-mail to the management departement at Apple from work with my signature and contact number ( which is a top ranked multinational firm anyway ) maybe they won't look at me as one of their average-joe customers bragging about their Apple product.
Will keep you posted.
Regards.