Q: MacBook Pro Retina display burn-in?

Hi JoshD. It does in fact seem you and I are in a similar boat. I'd like to add though (in response to your earlier post) that my rMBP doesn't seem to exhibit any case creaking.

Thanks for letting me know about that. Because of the case creaking I think I'm going to roll the dice. It really makes the MBP feel cheap and I can only see it getting worse over time. Sadly, I do think that the screen itself is one of the better ones from what I've been reading. I’ll let you know how it goes...

Not sure what you mean by backplate bleeding and discoloration.

But I noticed whenever the screen darkens a faint whitish straight horizontal line slightly blurred extending from the left screen edge to right screen edge is visible once you know it is there. It resembles the gap between two tiles in the bathroom. It is ever only so slightly visible. I first thought it is dirt or the screen consists of "two" tiles if you look closer.

I am waiting and hope it will not worsen over time. It would be an issue  doing image processing involving of dark black backgrounds.

Staying positive if Apple does

Officially acknowledge these display issues they will offer replacements to all, even those out of warranty. Wishful thinking.

Mr. Cook, Ive, Schiller read these forums. If any Apple employee does please send this thread up the chain.

But at least the feel good factor with the 15" Macbook Pro Retina is quite good. Sure the keyboard is not great and could be better. I think Maverick has some rough edges but  it is quite stable (for my computer setup).

I was researching other options and glad I did not buy a laptop with the option to installing Linux on it. It would lead to knowhere. I would not want to know what happens if you are on business in a foreign country not knowing the language and Linux cannot connect to the wifi in the hotel.

JoshD, I wish I had your problem , keep the laptop, I would say, if the only thing that bothers you is the cricking, that's actually easy to fix. I know, you should not be expected to do this your self on a high end laptop, but if you like this one, and willing to fix it your self, it’s not too hard. And your chances of getting a better one, in my experience, are slim to none.

So, here is how to fix the cricking noise. First, you will need to by the 1.2mm pentalobe screw driver, they sell them on Amazon or in Fry’s Electronics. Use it to carefully remove the  bottom panel of your laptop. Remove all the screws around the perimeter, then, turn the laptop so the back of it is facing away from you, grasp the far edge of the panel with your fingers and pull up and towards you. The panel is snapped in place in the middle with 2 snaps, they will unsnap without braking or anything, but you have to tug relatively hard (don’t yank, just pull evenly).

Once the panel is off, look on the motherboards for little spring loaded standoffs. There are 8-10 of them. They look like little towers sticking out of the motherboard. Press them with your finger slowly, one at a time. You will notice that some of them make an annoying click sound when pressed in. Once you figure out which of the little standoffs make the click noise, just press them repeatedly for 30 seconds or so, just to where them in, and stop the clicking noise. You can push the top in a circular motion, to make the shaft ware out a bit, this will also make them operate better. If your problem is really bad, you can add VARY little graphite grease to the little standoff shaft, to quite it done. This should not cause any problems, but do this at your own risk. If you spread graphite grease all over the motherboard, it’s not my problem

Ok, once that’s done, snap the bottom panel back on, and screw it in in a star pattern. While applying constant (moderate) pressure in the center of the panel with your palm, screw in the corner screws first. So, do bottom right corner, then top left, then bottom left, then top right. Continue crisscross, like that, until you got all the screws in. When tightening screws, use 2 fingers only. Apply as much force as you can with the tips of your index finger and thumb, but no more. They don’t have to be too tight, and you don’t want to strip them out.

Ok, after this, your cricking should be gone. Takes about 20 minutes to do, and I have done this on friends laptops. Please ground your self by touching some large metal object before starting, to offload any static electricity you may carry, and clean your hands, etc. Just the normal taking apart electronics rules will do.

Hope that helps. And yes, it’s complete and utter ******** that you have to do this on such a high end laptop. I really do hope that Apple learns from it.

x0054 wrote:

 

They don’t have to be too tight, and you don’t want to strip them out.

 

Be careful about stripping the screws because I did this and take note which screws came out of which holes because they are not all identical.

Using logic there is no doubt in my mind that finding a "good" screen for a rMBP right now is very slim to none. All the stories about people getting replacements and the issues still presenting themselves are far too common it seems.

There is a quality isssue, or calibration, or something with the screens coming off the assembly line. Unless that issue is addressed they will continue coming off the line that way.

I did purchase the Apple Care Protection Plan so I should be covered for three years. If the issue is addressed and is known I will take my machine for a replacement even in two years time.

But like I said above, Apple is good with taking care of customers ONCE AN ISSUE IS OFFICIALLY AND PUBLICLY ADDRESSED by Apple. Then I am sure no matter who is covered by warranty or not will be able to have their screen replaced free of charge.

Let's hope sooner rather than later.

Merch Visoiu wrote:

 

x0054 wrote:

 

They don’t have to be too tight, and you don’t want to strip them out.

 

 

Be careful about stripping the screws because I did this and take note which screws came out of which holes because they are not all identical.

Yes, I forgot to mention this. All the screws are the same except the 2 screws by the screen hinge, in the center. These are a little shorter.

I finally bought the 13" retina display macbook pro and the screen is beautiful.  I've been following this thread for over a year now.  I was afraid to buy but I really needed a new computer and couldn't wait any longer.  I've shopped for all computers but there's not a one that comes close to this in quality for the price.  Not all the screens are bad.  I did have a moment when shutting down pages, there was a horizontal line across the screen for a second or two but it vanished.  I know most of the people posting here are having problems but I thought I'd let you know that they're not all bad.  I got a nice one.  I ordered mine from

B & H not from Apple. 

M5Marco wrote:

 

Using logic there is no doubt in my mind that finding a "good" screen for a rMBP right now is very slim to none. All the stories about people getting replacements and the issues still presenting themselves are far too common it seems.

 

There is a quality isssue, or calibration, or something with the screens coming off the assembly line. Unless that issue is addressed they will continue coming off the line that way.

 

I did purchase the Apple Care Protection Plan so I should be covered for three years. If the issue is addressed and is known I will take my machine for a replacement even in two years

time.

 

But like I said above, Apple is good with taking care of customers ONCE AN ISSUE IS OFFICIALLY AND PUBLICLY ADDRESSED by Apple. Then I am sure no matter who is covered by warranty or not will be able to have their screen replaced free of charge.

 

Let's hope sooner rather than later.

They have done nothing so far to address the 2012 problems, somehow I have my doubts. Maybe the tech is just not there yet. But considering that some people do get perfect screens, and I have seen rMBPs with perfect screens, it’s likely that the production methods need to be adjusted, not just quality control. Considering that out of 5 laptops I had 5 bad screens (one marginally acceptable), They would have to have at least a 4/5 rejection rate the way it is right now, and that’s simply not realistic.

I think the issue is with pressure distribution throughout the screen. The screen is glued into the aluminum casing, not loosely bolted in, like the older models. The aluminum casing is probably not 100% true, it has small imperfections, which is understandable, as aluminum can deflect as it cools. I think that the problem, at least with uneven color and backlight distribution, is caused by this deflection of the screen. A solution would be to glue in a thin layer of foam or rubber, and then to laminate the screen to it. The foam would allow for small amount of give, allowing the screen to settle naturally, which would likely eliminate all uneven backlight issues.

As for the red glow, it’s clear that the actual LED lights that are used to light-up the backlight have a red hue to them. This is likely the result of the increased levels of light necessary to light up a retina screen. Adding small amount of intermittent blue LEDs to the light strip would solve the problem. This way you can also do proper white point calibration by changing the backlight color temperature, rather then doing so with pixel color.

As for the cricking problem, it’s caused by the poorly designed standoffs, and by the fact that the bottom panel fits into a groove in the main laptop body. Solution would be to use single piece (deflecting type) grounding standoffs, they are cheaper, easier to make, and would not exhibit clicking problems. The groove  into which the bottom plate snaps into should also be lined with a thing layer of silicon or soft plastic. This would be cheep to do, and would completely eliminate all case crick noise.

Need more ideas, call me Apple But you guys seriously need to start addressing these issues. Screen problems aside, I am guessing that Jobs is rolling over in his grave right now over the cricking noise issue.

This is what happens to you returned macbooks, or at least their screens:

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/sys/4223954691.html

So sad

hi.

if you have a late 2013 MBPr - how did you find out this information ??

Color LCD

LSN154YL01-A01

DLM3343005LFF0PA3

Color LCD

because I thought that you cannot use this terminal command anymore ?

ioreg -lw0 | grep \"EDID\" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6

at least this string does not work with my roommate's 15" late 2013 MBPr ?!

is there a new terminal command to find out ??

open system preferences and goto display.  open the color LCD profile and scroll down to 'mmod'.  you should see "0000A022" in the model description

Quick update - just back from the Apple Store.

First of all, thanks for the suggestions guys. x0054 awesome write-up on a fix. But actually I think my creaking was coming from the bottom plate tolerances being too sloppy. I think the plate was actually shifting around during moments when stress (carrying) was applied to the body. I did use pentalobe to tighten the screws a bit which did seem to help some but ultimatley it wasn't going away.

Second of all, Apple *still* has unparalleled service. Given the fact that my rMBP was still insdie its holiday return period but  was really great about making sure things was good. I brought back my rMBP which has an A022 Samsung display but really bad creaky/flexing noise. They were very understanding and really it was no questions asked. They agreed that "it should be perfect".

The replacement luckily has the same Samsung A022 screen (vs the LG) which as far as I can tell is definitely the lesser of the two evils when compared with the LG. Color and lighting is even overall (as it was with my original machine) with maybe a very very slight shadow area in the center, vertically. No obvious yellow spots, backlight leakage, etc. It does have the warmer, yellow tint... which also confirms it's a Samsung. In fact, according to the serial number, the new one was from the same older K build week as my first machine. But this one (so far) feels much more solid and doesn't seem to have the creaking issues of the first.

So, I have to say that I'm glad I swapped. I think purely from the point of view of letting Apple know there's a problem it's the right thing to do. We'll see if the build quality holds up. For now I'm "keeping it".

Will try to balance the yellow tinting wtih my Spyder4 later.