Ghost image on my iMac screen!!!

Question

Ghost image on my iMac screen!!!

Well, that's certainly something I wasn't expecting to see on my iMac (24-inch, Early 2009) screen!!!

Today, I was checking out some photography site I frequent and I noticed some horizontal lines in a picture, which was showing a clear blue sky. I thought that was strange and I moved closer to check what were they, believing that they were in the picture. Imagine my surprise when I figured out that these were from a "ghost" image of Mail screen. Mail is one application which is constantly open on my iMac, so it somehow has managed to leave a ghost image on the monitor.

Now, I always use a screen saver, which changes randomly, and since this is not a CTR display, I wasn't expecting to see something like that. Is it something I can do about it, is it something that can be removed if I take my Mac to a service station, or am I doomed to live with it? The funny thing is that my Apple Care just expired a month or so ago!!!! Darn!

Any help would be appreciated.

Posted on May 14, 2012 12:29 AM

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Answer 1

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X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

May 14, 2012 2:03 AM in response to John Caradimas

If the mail is always there you the image could be from LCD "image persistence". Try using LCD Scrub to see if it can clear the image.

Here's an apple doc on the topic which also suggest a method to clear the image:

Avoiding image persistence on Apple LCD displays

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Answer 2

May 14, 2012 3:17 AM in response to X423424X

Thank you very much. I didn't know that LCDs could have that problem. And yes, my Mail window is always at the same area of the display. I always have a screen saver, changing random pictures on this computer, in order to avoid such things, but it seems that I am looking more at the Mail than anything else.

I just installed LCD Scrub and I'll let it run overnight, to see what it will do.

Again, many thanks.

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Answer 3

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

May 14, 2012 11:45 AM in response to John Caradimas

Hope it works. Good luck.

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Answer 4

May 15, 2012 12:44 AM in response to X423424X

I've been alternating between a totally white background and the LCD Scrub screen saver since yesterday afternoon, it looks as if the "shadows" are slowly going away. Still visible though.

I'll update this thread when done.

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Answer 5

May 20, 2012 12:39 AM in response to John Caradimas

Well it tiik some time but I've finally got rid of the "persistence" ghost images on my monitor.

I tried running LCD Scrub but that didn't had the desired effect. Following Apple suggestion to create a white background and use it as a screen saver overnight (over several nights) also didn't eliminate the ghost image completely, although it did reduce it somewhat.

Then I finally decided to try something. Since the ghost image appeared only when I had a blue background (Desktop/Solid Colors/ the first color shown) and not in the other colors, I created a background image with that color only. I used that as a screen saver for several nights, and eventually the ghost image vanished.

Thanks are in order for X423424X who pointed me to the right direction.

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