Yellow Tint on New Imac..

I picked up the 2011 i7 iMac in store just the other week. Mine suffered from yellow tint and strong light bleed from both corners on a black background. In addition, I found the monitor was "set" overly warm. I ran it quickly through a calibration, and had to change the standard D65 temp to 7000. ONLY THEN, did the full top go neutral.

This is wholy specuation on my part, but it seems Apple might be putting the B-stock monitors from their Cinema Display line in these, and then intentionally warming the whole screen temp to try and mask the display's base yellowing.

I had to a chance to later test both i5 2011 iMacs, and both had similar screen problems. When I moved onto the Cinema Displays, however, there was no yellowing in the lower half of the screens.

Thanks to PGDesigns, this is very useful info.

Would you please teach me how to calibrate the display and change the color temp?

Thank you so much.

Dammit! I got another 27" custom iMac tonight and it has the f@@@ing yellow tint again!!! This time it goes from the right center of the screen all the way down to the lower right corner of the screen. It's still a bit yellow on the lower right but worse on the middle to left.

What the F am I going to do. I keep carting these heavy things to and from my office because I have to get Fed Ex at work...no one to get them at home.

I'll try to post some pics if I can figure out how...I've never posted pics on here before.

Any recommendations? I'm thinking I might take this one to the nearest Apple store and see if they can replace just the display.

I've never had consistent problems like this with an Apple product ever!

So ******! 😠

It's pain to hear another fan to suffer!

I just received my second 27" custom configured iMac.

Now, unboxing and crossing fingers...

Good luck iApp!

Must be a different issue. I tried to calibrate and the yellow got whiter but the white got blinding so the contrast between both parts of the screen are still the same.

This is just unacceptable

Do most think this is a display hardware issues. Any change a software fix could be issued that would fix this?

M.

Just power on and check the screen.

It seems no yellow, but ...

a but grey across from left to right at the bottom, but not very noticeable.

I think I will get stick with this one, because I think I may draw another yellow one if I return it.

You may be right to keep it. I can't believe I am so unlucky to get another yellow one

I forgot to ask...what did customers do for resolution on the 2009 iMacs that had the yellow screens?

I did some googling.

I found 2009 customers did the same - keep returning the faulty iMac.

I really want to shout and tell Apple that, for an iPhone user he/she may be a customer.

For an re-purchasing iMac customers, they are fans!

If Apple doesn't care about fans, at least care about the cost of returning goods.

Hi iApp,

Go to System Preferences/ Displays / Color

Hit the "Calibrate" button, and just click through every standard setting under "professional" until you get the very last, which deals with color temperature of your screen. A properly pre-calibrated IPS panel, along with its supporting hardware, should be rendering whites at near-perfect levels/tones around D65 on the chart. However, I found the ENTIRE screen had a slightly tinted white that was too warm ( including the even more yellow base). So in my new calibration, I cranked the slider to the right until it stopped at 7000k and then saved it off as a new profile. After, I was able to quickly switch between the standard "imac calibrated" that shipped with the machine, and the "7000" calibration I made. The diference was night and day. A majority of the screen was now neutral looking and quite acceptable, with just the bottom being bad.

Further, I should point out that Apple's IPS panels are not using RGB led backlights, but WHITE led backlights. What's the difference? RGB leds use a separate led for each color which, when shone at 100%, create a perfect blend of white. However, WHITE led backlights are actually blue lights with a yellow phosphore coating. I'm wondering if the screen yellowing has anything to do with an inconsistent amount of this applied phosphore.

The alternatives to Apple's method of backlight are pretty limited. You're either talking the Dell UltraSharp 27", which uses the same panel but with a CCFL bulb, or you're going super high end towards EZIO to pick up an IPS Panel with RGB leds. Those options range anywhere from 950 to 2500+.

Thanks to PGDesigns.

I will try it out soon.

I'm typing this from a local Best Buy where I'm checking out one of their i5 27s with a Cinema 27 that's sitting side by side, but hooked up to a Mac Mini.

To test both, tried several open window grays, as well as an open folder with its blue and white bars. In addition, I also brought up the gray bar test online, for both. Here's what was odd --

The i5 screen had perfect uniformity without a yellow tint at the bottom. The Cinema Display, however, did have the yellow tint at the bottom. What that tells me is that is probably the luck of the draw in either purchase that you could get a perfect or lower tinted screen.

Where it gets interesting is in the screen temperature between the iMac's native 27 and the stand-alone display. On the stand-alone, I can select sRGB IEC1966-2.1, and the screen is well calibrated to it. Grays (other than the yellow tint at base) appear uniform and neither too hot or too cool. Clearly, Apple has set the display up for pro use. But in the iMac, while you'd expect the same result, the whole screen looks warmish yellow with the sRGB setting.

Wondering if the above was just a hardware issue, I unplugged the Cinema Display from the Mini and plugged it in as a second iMac monitor. What do you know, I set sRGB for both, and STILL the Cinema Display looks perfect with the built-in display looks way too warm. What that means is Apple is either, through neglegence or purposeful will, changing the base iMac calibration to make it harder to use for design.

How to make the iMac match the sRGB look of the Cinema Display

Go to your iMac's System Prefs and select "Displays". Click on "Color". Then click on "Calibrate". When the the first screen appears, click on "Expert Mode" and hit "continue". You should now be presented with several screens showing an Apple icon in the middle and several sliders. Click "Continue" until you reach the 3rd of 5 steps -- "Luminance resp. curves". Take the ball that's sitting almost dead center in the right square and move it NW by a couple screen pixels. Do NOT overdo it!. Now, hit "continue" several times until you reach the last screen which has to do with your monitor's white point. Rather than using "native white point" or D65, adjust the slider until you get a reading of between 6800k and 7000k. Hit "continue" and save off the new calibration.

While this won't eliminate the light bleed and yellow tinging at the bottom, it can correct the overall temperature of the screen so you're finally working "Cinema" style, rather then in some warmer BS "Entertainment" mode.