HT4044: About LCD display pixel anomalies for Apple products released in 2010 and later
Learn about About LCD display pixel anomalies for Apple products released in 2010 and later
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Jan 17, 2014 8:37 AM in response to SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVEby SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVE,I will say this: I live 100 miles from the nearest Genius Bar, so, anyone in the ATI 5750 mid-2010 camp curious what our fix would be without Apple Care, I'm sure we'd all like to see additional quotes now that this issue is escalating with the Mavericks gen.
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Jan 17, 2014 9:12 AM in response to TerrellPDXby greggfromsf,the update from my end is that installing the latest version of mavericks has solved all the of the issues. it's been about a week and i've havent had any display anomolies i experienced before updating
what i did ...
installed mavericks and updated every possible application - premiere, lightroom, photoshop, CUDA drivers / engine, bridge, all browsers and any other random applications that offered an update.
i deleted all old versions of creative cloud applications, cleared all browser caches and took a good look through libraries to clean out anything i was sure i could delete with bricking in my system.
final thoughts ...
i should have never given any weight to reviews in the app store. a) there's only 16000+ which is a miniscule % of users and only 3000 or so of those are negative ... a good number of compaints were simply that it took too long to download and install. my adivce .. if you're holding off like i was ... dont, instal today. in addition to solving my problem i actually like the os and it has restored a bit of faith in apple.
i suspect the reason this thread hasnt come up with a definitive solution is that lots of issues can manifest as pixel / display problems ... sw incompatability, any number of HW failures (cards, logic boards) dirt, overheating. so ... it's likley that the 50 or so particpaints on this thread actually have 10 different problems.
and finally, this isn't actually a pervasive problem for apple and 2011 iMacs - they sold about 17,000,000 in 2011 - about 1/2 of those in q3 & 4 ... this thread has only been viewed 10,000 times ... let's say that's 2500 unique viewers ... assume only 1 in 10 people experiencing this problem are motivated enough to research the issue and find this thread .... that's 25,000 users of out 17 million, even if it's 250,000 user that's still only 1.4% - not nearly a large enough problem consumer electronics company to get crazy over.
thanks for all the help with this ... hope you find a solution for your whatever's ailing your machine ... it does suck!
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Jan 17, 2014 9:30 AM in response to greggfromsfby SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVE,greggfromsf wrote:
the update from my end is that installing the latest version of mavericks has solved all the of the issues. it's been about a week and i've havent had any display anomolies i experienced before updating
what i did ...
installed mavericks and updated every possible application - premiere, lightroom, photoshop, CUDA drivers / engine, bridge, all browsers and any other random applications that offered an update.
i deleted all old versions of creative cloud applications, cleared all browser caches and took a good look through libraries to clean out anything i was sure i could delete with bricking in my system.
That's awesome to hear your symptoms were cured with Mavericks. The rest of us aren't benefiting from Apple's OS upgrades. And I think it's fair to say that your numbers are unfounded. For example, Apple has a recall in place with a sister display card to the 5750. There's clearly an issue with this gen iMacs. Just becuase your system is running nicely doesn't mean it's OK to write-off the systemic issues many are facing.
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Jan 17, 2014 1:11 PM in response to SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVEby jack fox,I've been able to eliminate the symptoms by reducing the resolution to 1920 x1080 and removing all suspect programs (like drobo utilites etc.) and their remnants with AppCleaner, Etrecheck and LaunchControl. The only time I see squares now is after a reboot and just before the wallpaper background. It is a dark gray blotch on the light gray startup screen and then all's well, and no crashes.
jmf
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Jan 19, 2014 12:48 AM in response to TerrellPDXby Ninklesko,I don’t recall if I mentioned it before but I was quoted that my system also suffered a kernel panic. Based on the two crashes I had documented the Genius bar told me that it was related to the wireless Logitech S530 keyboard that I use (yes I know old but still love the layout of the keyboard). I turned off wireless and removed the wireless connector from USB but still saw the issue with the squares after rebooting.
As mentioned before, I was able to get one of the lead technicians/managers to pass along a discounted offer on a new iMac. I returned the computer 3 times to the Apple store with the same issue and they were unable to figure it out (within reason of “throwing parts at it”). Since I had documentation that I was having issues before the AppleCare ran out they decided it was too costly and time consuming to keep troubleshooting. At that point I was under the impression that I was going to get $600 for my old damaged machine with store credit towards a new one.
I found out today that they were promising me $600 and I get to keep my 2010 machine. I will certainly still attempt to troubleshoot the issues but at the very worst I will now have a second 27” display. I am sharing this information to suggest that if you have documentation of this issue before you AppleCare ran out then they may help you out. Just show a lot of documentation of the issue, notes about your troubleshooting, posts like these to the technician and maybe they will do what they can. Sure it ***** dropping money into another computer after 3.25 years but 25% off a new one with a full sized spare monitor (that may still be fixable?)… I really cannot complain. Seems as though they will cover people with this issue under the right circumstances. Still surprised there was no recall but that may still be in development?
Hope that everyone else out there with this issue will be able to get a good deal out of it. Still seems to me as no one knows exactly what the solution is but hopefully I am wrong.
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Jan 20, 2014 8:24 AM in response to TerrellPDXby denmoff77,It's on Windows as well?! I thought this was strictly an OS X issue. As a reminder, i have a lab that has 9 of these iMacs (Mid 2010 27" iMac i7 2.93GHz, ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024MB). One had this issue bad and is now being completely replaced by apple with a new generation iMac(under applecare). I have now noticed a second having this similar issue on Mac OS X with red/pink squares appearing. However, now i notice them appearing in Windows 7 (running bootcamp). I don't remember seeing this behavior with the other iMac.
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Jan 20, 2014 8:28 AM in response to denmoff77by SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVE,denmoff77, have you ever tried a TDM thunderbolt from a Macbook on these problem iMacs? Does it clear up?
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Jan 20, 2014 8:31 AM in response to SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVEby SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVE,I ask, becuase if I can go glitch-free on TDM, then I basically have a thicker 27" Thunderbolt display instead of an $800 repair headache...
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Jan 20, 2014 8:51 AM in response to SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVEby Frudah,I'm running my early 2011 MacBook Pro to a secondary display (32" LG TV).
I've had 'RGB Square' issues on both windows(bootcamp 5.0.5033) and OSX 10.6.7. When I don't let it sleep it doesn't crash and issues are minimal. However, the other day, I let it sleep and upon booting up, my LG display was covered in RGB's.
I find that interesting, because as far as I know, the external display is a completely different video chipset. Right?
Does apple really want to tell me that both my video cards are going bad with the same issue?
Anyone know roughly how apple designs the chipsets for these machines? Are they using shared ram between the cards?
Or, even just using system ram?
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Jan 20, 2014 8:51 AM in response to Frudahby SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVE,Frudah wrote:
I'm running my early 2011 MacBook Pro to a secondary display (32" LG TV).
I've had 'RGB Square' issues on both windows(bootcamp 5.0.5033) and OSX 10.6.7. When I don't let it sleep it doesn't crash and issues are minimal. However, the other day, I let it sleep and upon booting up, my LG display was covered in RGB's.
yep...doesn't matter what OS you have going, you let these lemons cool down, expect it to light up like a Christmas tree until it runs semi-hot again; then a "mostly" stable operating environment resumes....
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Jan 20, 2014 9:18 AM in response to SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVEby Frudah,Actually, it's not the temperature that does it for me. It's just the fresh reboot. My studio where I mostly use my computer is typically 50 degrees. My mac will be cold to the touch and run beautifully. My theory is this problem is due to the display ram somehow getting corrupted and when it gets bad enough a reboot clears it all out. If someone could confirm how the two display adapters work with eachother?
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Jan 20, 2014 9:26 AM in response to Frudahby SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVE,Frudah wrote:
Actually, it's not the temperature that does it for me. It's just the fresh reboot. My studio where I mostly use my computer is typically 50 degrees.
I'll be dammed if 32-90 deg. farenheit ambient room temps make a differene. It's the operating internal & surface temps coming of the hardware. Sleep mode cools down the hardware, the room temp doesn't do really anything to affect the machine unless your using your iMac directly in the sun with a black sticker on the back of machine. I'm guessing we've all seen what Apple heat sinks look like....
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Jan 20, 2014 9:29 AM in response to SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVEby Frudah,Of course. What I've heard other people say, is that they need to let theirs warm up to perform at some level of stability. I'm saying I don't need to. I will leave my computer in my studio (powered off). The entire computer will get to room temp (50 degrees). The computer performs no better or worse upon boot than it does an hour later when the thing is quite defintely warmed up.
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Jan 20, 2014 9:35 AM in response to Frudahby SOULNATIONAL ARCHIVE,oh, sorry. miss read what you were concluding. Well, that blows. I fear that level of corruption, but I also inevitably expect it. I would have it repaired if I was at that level of damage now that I can grasp the general behavoir of this gen iMacs.
...Or TDM and hope the issue is circumnavigated.
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Jan 21, 2014 5:54 AM in response to dgd2000by jack fox,dgd2000,
How is the patient doing?
jmf
dgd2000 wrote:
jmf,
This is Day 3, and so far the hard drive swap (or cleaning the dust and lint out of the iMac interior) has eliminated the red and green squares. I'll report back if they reappear...
