Greyish Smudge marks behind the glass screen.

My iMac 21.5" (november 2010) has been repaired, screen changed at no cost by the Apple local dealer (I did have no Applecare or other extended warranty) . Warranty is two (2 !) years in Europe ( and finally after years and a court decision in Italy Apple acknowledge this on their Web site). Hope iMac screen will stay pristine for the next years...

FYI, I've owned a 13" Macbook Pro since 2009 and never had a problem with it (knock on wood). I'm pretty sure this screen-smudge issue is only prevalent on the all-in-one iMac line due to the design of the screen and being so close to the internal heat sources in the machine. Whereas on their laptop line the screen is completely separate (when the laptop is opened and in use) from the "guts" which reside below the keyboard.

Bottom line; I'm hesitant about future iMac's but I personally wouldn't think twice about purchasing any other Apple product.

I've had my iMac replaced and had more screen and glass replacements than I can count. the last time it was taken for repairs for almost a week and even though I haven't had any more problems with it......... yet. I bought a HP laptop as a spare and intend to get an all in one pc computer when I eventually upgrade. I'll never buy anything with and i in it again not an iPhone not an iPad and certainly not another iMac. my warranty is up and I'm over it heres to getting another pc in the future.

eddy kestemont wrote:

"and finally after years and a court decision in Italy Apple acknowledge this on their Web site"

Eddy, can you please provide a link to this? I am very interested to see it! Thanks!

Read the small print please:

"1. In most EU member states, consumers may only claim for defects that were present on delivery. There are some exceptions including Czech Republic and Romania. The burden to prove that the defect existed on delivery generally shifts to the consumer after the expiry of a period of 6 months from date of delivery. Examples of countries where the burden of proof does not shift include Czech Republic, Portugal and Romania. Please contact your local European Consumer Centre for details of the position in your country."

hello to all

well im on of all you facing then same issue

of course aim out of warranty and was quite annoyed with this issue

had to options

one..the expensive one to buy a new panel and replace the old one...but the again since this a problem with the architecture the problem will appear again

and second..

to take apart the lcd and clean it myself

well with the help of a friend

bing looking on the details on how to do this

so here you go

this is a video we made...regarding the lcd cleaning...if anyone hasd the strength and courage doing this..he will definately smile if everuything goes as planned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P70WzU0ABBs

Using a knife to open the glass screen is a bit too much so i just tried it with my nail, right in the middle of the screen at the top it opened a bit. From there i moved my fingernail to both sides and yes the glass screen came off and finally after one year my screen is clear again.

Two magnets are holding the glass screen on it;s place. How easy !!!

Of course to clean the screen i used a good screen cleaning kit bought at the apple store.

I am not sure if there is a link to a video demonstrating the screen removal anywhere on this thread but here is one just in case: http://youtu.be/9cHMHzq5E5I

On a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being the hardest, I would put the difficulty of this task at a 2.

Can anyone confirm whether or not this method removes the gray smudges?

The shadows are not behind the first glass they are inside the LCD screen unfortunately

The process on the video you posted is an easy one yes

But to remove the LCD ppanel and then clean the part inside is quite hard

If you check my above post you will see the whole process

This takes a lot of time though and need to be very careful

Daoakley wrote:

I am not sure if there is a link to a video demonstrating the screen removal anywhere on this thread but here is one just in case: http://youtu.be/9cHMHzq5E5I

On a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being the hardest, I would put the difficulty of this task at a 2.

Can anyone confirm whether or not this method removes the gray smudges?

It does not. The smudges are inside the LCD itself.

Just to add one more to the list...

http://www.handprintwebdesign.co.uk/imac.php

From what I've read, sounds like dust trapped behind the LCD, although I'm not sure why it comes and goes. Seems to vanish if the machine is left off or asleep for a reasonable time, but reappears when it warms up.

Have contacted someone at Apple who helped out when my second Time Capsule died, so waiting to hear back. Have quoted the "LCD panel contamination" thing. Its just frustrating really - I rely on the machine for work, so don't really want to be without it for too long, but would really like this resolved.

I have a apple 27" led cinema display 2010, which was on storage for nearly two years in a controlled humidity environment. The first time a turned it on, it was fine, but after it warmed up, a few minutes later, a couple of cloudy spots about 2 to 3 inches around de middle top section appeared.

Without turning the monitor off, with it warmed up, I massaged the spots with the black microfiber cloth that was included with the display. Using a white background for visibility, I massaged the glass screen, applying variable pressure, intermittently, making the clouds gradually go away, and sometimes the process would continue on its own just even after removing the pressure using my finger. I kept repeating the process until the display cleared up, kind of magically.

The pressure on the screen using the cloth with finger tips was maybe at least a couple of pounds. The display now is perfect, and I hope my experience can be off some use in this forum. The whole process took around 5 minutes, and it also proves that the glass display is pretty tough to finger pressure.

i believe we are experiencing two different problems sir.
most of us here is dealing with a smudge inside the glass/lcd

your's on the other hand seems to be outsude, thus easy to clean using a cloth

dear balugsz, I am glad you have questioned my post, so that I can interact my experience which only was observed in a casual manner, with your knowledge base, and thus be productive in the process. Thanks for contesting and giving me a chance to contribute to this post. I can only try to prove something right if I can also be proven wrong.

So as I said in my last post, the display was totally clean, when I started it, after a few minutes, the smudgy stains appeared inside the glass, and before I massaged the screen, I tried cleaning the outside with screen cleaning fluid, with no results. It was then out of despair that I started rubbing the screen with much more pressure using the microfiber cloth. It sound kind of weird, because it never happened to me before, but for some reason it worked.

I read in this thread that some user have this stain appearing when the monitor warm up, and eventually goes away after it cools. Maybe the problem of smudge inside the glass can only be solved by internal cleaning, but their could be more than one cause for screen smudge, especially if the stain comes and goes depending on the operating conditions. Kind of bubble effect in the sandwich of the lcd and the protective glass.

You can be happy that you have a good Apple-store close by. I bought my iMac 27'inch in Charlotte, NC beginning of March 2010. The grey spots started appearing about a month later and I thought the temperature of the computer was high. I went to the Apple-store in Charlotte in August 2010 and complained about the problem, they started asking questions about the environment the iMac was in and if we were smoking in the room, as this was the cause they told me the problem accured because of the smoking, they told me they opened the computer but couldn't work on it because of the small dust particles in my computer. I was very upset and so I decided that I better didn't pay for this extra guarantee after the one year guarantee was up, because they would never work on my computer because of the smoking. So I can tell you that I'm very upset with the manner they treat customers in the Apple-stores in the USA, there is really something wrong with this model and they know about it, how can they treat people like they are to blame because they are smoking and then consider that they can not repair, why bother and buy an expensive guarantee and never get repairs because of the smoking.

Just recently (june 2012), my son took my iMac to an Apple-retail store (not a real Apple-store) in Dusseldorf-Germany, because the problem is getting worse and it's not very nice to see these spots on such an expensive computer. They told him that they know about this problem, but because I have no extra guarantee it would cost a lot of money. My son, who's a very good customer in that store, told the story of the reactions in the USA and they laughed about it, they opened up the computer and there is no damage or anything caused due to smoking around the iMac. They understood my reaction on not buying this 2-year extra guarantee and applied already for a repair under guarantee with Apple Germany.

I think guarantee issues in the USA are a joke and that guarantee matters in Europe are better taken care off. I hope the retail-store get green light for repairing my computer under guarantee, but they are almost confident in this matter because it is an very common problem on the iMac's and nothing that's environmental related.

You can imagine that I'm very upset with how this problem was taken care off in the USA.

The USA is not very customer friendly and I think you're better off in a Apple-retail store in Europe, maybe you pay a bit more but at least they care about a good customer.