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Greyish Smudge marks behind the glass screen.

I have a 21.5 iMac bought in November 2009.

There appears to be numerous greyish smudge marks behind the glass screen on the top left hand corner.

It was not apparent to me at first, but after I started using OMMWriter it became easily visible. I also tried placing a neutral white background like TextEdit and it was easily visible even then.

I have cleaned the screen on numerous occasions and it has not had any effect.

What should I do?

These spots are quite disturbing.

iMac 21.5, November 2009, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 15, 2010 10:55 AM

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Posted on Jan 15, 2010 2:06 PM

Hello swapnonil

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Dennis
1,291 replies

Jan 8, 2012 9:47 AM in response to swapnonil

Is there any legal action regarding these screens? My mid 2010 27" has been to Apple repair 3x and this last time they refused to fix the screen saying it was environmental. I have 12 Apple products right now and after this I think it's over, I can't afford disposable computers. I've never had issues with dust on any system dating back to my first XT.

Jan 8, 2012 10:05 AM in response to Steve876

I wonder, then, if those with most problems are the ones who use the machine a lot.


Perhaps if you just come in from work, check some mails, play with YouTube, upload some pics to FB and quit - the machine hasn't got that hot - you might not run into the problems so quickly as someone, like myself, who has the machine on all day, sometimes into the night, running graphics programs, etc?


(The problem for me showed up within the first few weeks of using the machine, btw. And I run mine in a very clean 'office' type environment.)


Its disheartening to find that although the problem came to light back in 2009, the newer 2011 machines are still showing the same problem: nothing has been done to address or resolve it.


I'd hoped getting a new one would see the end of it...


I asked earlier if anyone knew of other 'all-in-one' products having the same problem. I've checked around the various-message boards and there are no mentions of this kind of staining. Plenty of glitchy screen issues, but not this one. So why just iMac?


What is it with the iMac that does this but not other 'all-in-one' machines?


The sentiment above -- "after this I think it's over" -- is one I'm beginning to share. Which is amazing after all these years of dogged loyalty. What a horrible feeling... 😟

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Jan 8, 2012 10:30 AM in response to IanSn

Hi IanSn


### I asked earlier if anyone knew of other 'all-in-one' products having the same problem. I've checked around the various-message boards and there are no mentions of this kind of staining. Plenty of glitchy screen issues, but not this one. So why just iMac?


I asked exactly the same question a dozen or so posts back (January 6th) Sadly there has been no comments on that subject since.

Jan 10, 2012 6:56 AM in response to swapnonil

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.

Jan 10, 2012 12:41 PM in response to swapnonil

@paulfromme ... you said the forbidden word! Apple expressly forbids mentioning the "P-word" (p e t i t i o n) and/or linking directly to them, per their forum Terms of Service. We've had a lot of posts disappear in this thread because of that. Thanks for trying to spread the word, but subtlety is key as long as we're communicating in the official Apple forum.

Jan 11, 2012 6:15 PM in response to defconnect5

Prepare to be outraged: Most likey they will tell you it's a problem with your "dirty environment", and not a problem with the design of the iMac. And if they do agree to repair it (under warranty or not), you can expect the same problem to occur again in a few months.

Is a typical non-smoker's home office a "dirty environment"? Apparently it is.

Let us know what they tell you...

Greyish Smudge marks behind the glass screen.

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