iMac 2011 27inch i7 screen flicker dark left side

I soldered 6 0.09 mm2 wires to repair the screen. I could't have done without the microscope. And it worked. The screen was bright again on the left side.

But, strange enough, after I put the screews back to fix the lcd again to the computer, the screen went black. I assumed first that some connection was not good and double checked 2 times. To no avail.

I wait untill the second hand imacs get cheap enough to repair this one. I need a new one for the meanwhile!

Hey everyone. I've managed to take apart the whole screen (thanks to this end of life dismantle guide from a HP monitor that uses the same LCD panel: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/productdata/Countries/_Mu ltiCountry/disassembly_monito_201197235232.pdf) and soldered the connector back in its original position. As you can see in the image below, all the pins were severed and the connector moved to the right. I just had to push the connector back in place with a screwdriver and soldered the pins. The problem was (I think) that the plastic piece that holds the connector in place is pushing the connector too far to the right, puts pressure on it and in time, because of the heat, severs the connections.

Hope this helps.

I'll re-post this under this thread since it pertains the same issue:

OK, went ahead and decided to go a bit further. Since I also had the clouding issue, I decided I´d fix both problems at once.

Search for "iMac 27 clouding fixed" on Youtube for a step by step process of the removal of the metal bezel, to expose the glass layers of the screen where dust accumulates.

Going further is even easier, since it just involves removing the screws off the remaining plastic bezel, and snapping some tabs, to undo the whole thing. At this point you have to be extra careful with the flat cables that hang off the top of the panel (digitizer ?)

this will expose both LED bars, which are below a plastic piece that runs from side to side, which has a silver coating or sticker to divert the light upwards (actually, I think this is the responsible of the fault, since it appears that both ends "press" against both connectors.

By removing a few screws that hold the light bar, you´ll have total access to the connector (which was completely off). This way I managed to weld the same connector back in place. I also reinforced it with epoxi to give it some extra strength. Besides, I cut off the tabs that surround the connector to prevent the apparent pressure that caused the problem.

So now I have my iMac 27 back to its original state, with an evenly lit screen and cloud free !

PS: I had a bit of a scare, since when I plugged it back on for the first time, 1/4 of the screen showed colored vertical lines, as if a flex cable had been damaged. At this point I almost burst into tears since I noticed that the LED fix had worked... but ruined the screen along the road. Decided to pull the screen back out and checked on the two flex cables that run below the metal plate that sits on the back of the panel protecting some electronic boards. Removed and reattached them, assembled everything back together, crossed my fingers and pushed the power button. Big weight off my shoulders when I saw that pristine white loading screen !!!

I totally agree with your diagnostic, being the plastic piece responsible for this issue. The tabs press on the connector, and it makes sense that due to constant temperature changes inside the housing, there's a constant cycle of expansion-contraction of the plastic piece, which weakens the solder points.

I cut off the tabs on both ends of the plastic piece before reassembly to prevent this from happening again.

Just wanted to say thank you to @Kaos2K for posting the informaiton on the root cause - I have done a repair on my iMac 27" and made a video which I posted to my blog.

http://gerrysweeney.com/apple-imac-27-dark-side-screen-failure-the-manufacturing -fault-apple-will-not-admit/

Gerry

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/29/apple-hit-with-class-action-lawsuit-over-fai ling-27-imac-displays/

Just received the update that a lawsuit has been filed. I ended up paying $500+ to have my screen repaired after taking my iMac in 2x last year for the dark screen issue. I love Apple, but do believe this is a defect in this particular iMac, although they assured me at the Apple store that it wasn't.

Linda

I too have had the dark left screen problem with my Imac. Attempted to take into Apple Store for assistance and the dweeb, excuse me, the Genius acted like he'd never heard of this problem and I showed him the thread. Then he proceeds to tell me that its a subset of people with the same issue, maybe 50 people and we sell millions of these things. That fired me up and the fact that he then told me I was going to be out $500 bucks. Long story short I am out of warranty, out of luck.

What next to do was to save some coin and attempt to fix this issue myself and with the help of a tech that repairs computers for a living. I've never soldered anything so it's best to get someone with experience to help.

Removing the glass, simple, it's magnetized and comes off easy.

Thanks to all that have posted pictures on here we located the problem by removing the silver tape in the bottom right hand (backside) corner. MY CONNECTION WAS LOSE AS COULD BE. We attempted the "Wedge" technique and reassembled to no avail, same dark screen.

Then we got bold, repeated the steps and began to solder the connections to the pads. This, paired with a micro lense was EXTREMELY difficult even with the help of someone that repairs computers for a living and is used to soldering and has all the tools needed.

DO NOT ATTEMPT THE SOLDER fix unless you are planning on rolling the dice.

Turns out our fix didn't work, either the solder touched each other because the pads with solder are VERY tight or the connections werent great. We tried 5x and kept getting black screen.

My next step in the process is to scour ebay or the internet for a replacement display because after this attempt at fixing the issue we made it worse. Now I have NO screen for my $2000 computer. Thanks APPLE. Not happy, I buy lots of Apple products and this is the support I, and many other get?

I've had 5 ipods, 4 iphones, imacs, 2 ipads, timecapsules, airport express, etc. not to mention what my wife and kids own of APPLE. THIS WILL BE MY LAST APPLE PRODUCT for the very reason they don't stand behind their own products.

So, has anybody tried replacing the screen all together with a newer model? I have the LG screen LM270WQ1 (SD) (A2)..... Can somebody tell me whether or not I can go with a C1?

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I can report that even if you can handle the soldering, you are not safe. I have some experience with soldering and even bought a soldering station that allows me to regulate the temperature. Next I bought several sets of very thin wires, in order to choose the right one during soldering. Then a friend allowed me to use his stereo microscope. We soldered as a team. After about 2 hours everything was rewired. i switched on the imac and everything was perfect. The screen was bright again on the left side. That worked for about 10 minutes. After that the screen went totally black. It is unclear to me now what exactly doesn't work anymore. Maybe the screen, maybe the graphic card. It is frustrating. And it is not apple like to leave us with this problem alone. If Steve was still among us, things would be different...

I received an email from you about this problem?

If it wasn`t you can you please let me know because I keep on getting emails from this site about this issue.

Right! did the fault occur while it was still under warrenty.

If it did Apple is suppose to fix it,and you will have to have proove that by having documents that you complained about the issue when it was still under warrenty.

It does not matter if it`s out of warennenty or not.

Apple are a joke and you are quite right what you said about them.

This Frenchman who has a website called dirtyscreens.com he gave me a list of people just in France with thousands of people with this problem. I myself found over a thousand people with this problem,and these Genius`s don`t know what they are talking about.

I live in England and I myself complained about this issue for over 3 months.

It was making my nerves that bad that I had an Advocate take over the case who is a kind of legal person.

In short I was refundered my money back of £1213.

I was going to buy a Mac Mini but that had a fault has well the HDMI port which Intel and Apple owned up to this one and put a firmware update 1.7 to fix this issue,but guess what it didn`t.

One guy on a site said "I might has well use it has a door stop"

At presant I am using a Mac Mini off 2007 and it`s just say doing the job,and I bought a monitor the same specs has the Apple one. After a year uptill now it`s still has good has when I bought it,that tells you something about Apples monitor.

I am still waiting for the new Mac Mini to come out. Whish you luck!

I would be you are receiving emails because you've subscribed to notifications on this issue. To turn it off, go to "Your Stuff" up at the top, right-hand side of the page and click on your profile. To the right of the profile page, in the Actions box, you'll see "Manage email notifications". Click on that and you should be able to cancel any notifications you don't want.

If that doesn't work, well I don't know what to tell you... 😕

We have had this problem too with one of our 27"s.

Our repairer says its an Apple design fault. Basically there is a fan used near an important solder. The fan blows superheated air onto it and its just a matter of time before it 'pops'. I contacted Apple Support today, spoke to a supervisor and they basically said there are lots of this particular problem because there are loads of iMacs, and if you look for the fault you will undoubtedly find other people with the problem!. No they wont fix it for free. No there is no recall.

I bought two of these. Just waiting for the other one to 'pop'

I had it fixed for £150 in Canterbury. They redo the joint and wrap themal tape around it so there less likely a repeat. It worked.

But i got the iMac back and it doesn't boot. Needs a new HD. Great! Coincidence or foul-play, I will never know.

I suggest everyone report to apple. Lets get it on BBC's Watchdog - its worked with the likes of BMW who similarly like to think their brand is of real value, whilst fobbing off loads of customers hoping they don't put 2 and 2 together. Fortunately technology lets us piece together the real picture. People power.

Unfortunatley Apple now have this same God complex. Its now lucrative for them to be repairng and charging for there own design faults. They need to have their brand aired on primetime TV - and the threat of brand devauation by the 1,000s of customers with known, but ignored, issues.

Some one should make a song about that design flaw and how apple handles it an put it on youtube, like this guy here did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Count me in! another very unhappy Apple customer. My siutuation is further compounded becuase although I bought this in the new Covent Garden store I now live on a Greek island and there are no Apple Stores in Greece 😟

Just over two years old now so I have sent a recorded delivery letter today asking for a replacement machine, I doubt they will even reply, if they don't I am going to take legal action just like that chap in Idaho.

Wiscan is right us Brits should get in contact with Wartchdog or create somekind of online petition this is quite clearly an efficacy problem (failure to perform it's intended function) and just to rub iut in they are making more money out of us due to their own faults.

This is completely wrong! 😠

As I have mentioned here before If you are in the UK, I took my iMac to The iT Store in Canterbury, who fixed it for £150 inc VAT and put a 6 month warranty on it. I fould them through their eBay listing for this repair.

I have had two of these iMac's fail and they have repaired both. The first they organised collection and return via insured courier for an additional £50, but £200 is still better than a £600 new LCD. The second more recent repair I couldn't do without the iMac for even a couple of days so they agreed that if I drove it to them they would repair it same day. I popped into Canterbury city centre for a spot of lunch and within two hours I was driving home with a fully repaired iMac. The engineer even told me they have repaired a few from across Europe, and in total they have successfully repaired over 50 of these units. They even add an extra heat shield to prevent the issue re-ocurring.

Can't recommend The iT Store enough. Saved by bacon, and around £850 on the two units!!