[GUIDE] Fix iMac flickering and dark screen problems out of warranty

GL, i fixed mine after i used the tutorial 🙂 indeed is that **** contact at the back of the screen.. i didnt do any wire sticking .. just added a pad there to hold some pressure and stick it with some glue.. and works just fine 😀 heheh . Cheers Apple for this preistoric moment ! a recall would have been a pice of cake.

Hi guys,

First of all, thanks for this thread. I've been follwing it for a while and it has been super useful to correctly troubleshoot the issue. I also tried most of the tips, from pressing the screen, to adding a piece of cork, to finally soldering (big failure, the pins are **** too small!)

Anyway, I was extremely frustrated at the situation and wanted to find a different solution that would not involve buying a LCD panel (LM270WQ1) from eBay. So I started searching online for the faulty connector.

With some google-fu, I think I found it, it's a JST connector, specifically the SM02B-SRSS-TB (http://www.jst-mfg.com/product/pdf/eng/eSH.pdf).

I just order a couple online, along with the full cable, just in case if I mess up again or if the defect is from the cable to the JST SH connector. I'm assuming though that you don't need to solder the connector the the female part that is tied to the LCD panel... Fingers crossed! 🙂

connector: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10210

cable: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10361

I just joined the Apple Support Communities to paste in this email chain (which I had under the subject "Wanna Scream: iMac Total Screen Fark") I have on my problems on this since 1 am this morning. In short, though my AppleCare plan expired at the end of 2012, the guy suggested that I take my 2009 27" iMac to a local Apple Store here in LA and they said they would check the computer for me (and fix it, if it is just an "LED ribbon" connection problem), generally for free. I am busy now and will go after mid-month and report back at that point. Here's my email chain:

Put it in the category of no good deed goes unpunished.

Turned my iMac on this morning and I have a darkened screen on the left. Not an uncommon problem they say, which may have been precipitated by the machine's 1 am hot flash. Some relatively unsophisticated and/or unorthodox solutions are offered out there for iMacs like mine that are off warranty (hitting it randomly around the edge didn't seem to help much), the first of which from Kaos2K Spain looks the most promising and has lots of skookem pictures of him ripping his iMac to bits:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3081411?start=75&tstart=0

related by Kaos2K: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4041042%2318690234, looking in particular at this procedure for just making sure the screen is properly attached:

I did this last nite and I will post a video ASAP

Here is my exact procedure for fixing it:

1. stand mac up normally

2. put fingernails behind top of screen cover, pull sreen cover off

3. lay mac down on rear

4. remove the eight (8) useless screws

5. stand the mac up again

6. the display comes out at the TOP.........

7. very simply lean the mac forward, and the top will ease out

8. DO NOT PULL IT OUT MORE THAN TWO INCHES AT THE TOP,

as there are a number of short cables inside connecting the display

9. keeping the top out, lay the mac down on its back

10. now ease the bottom of the display out (again only two inches all round)

11. now put the TOP in, and using say an iPhone, wedge the BOTTOM open a few inches

12. plug in the power and let the mac start

13. LOOK AT KAOS' IMAGES TO SEE EXACTLY WHERE THE PROBEM IS.

it is at the extreme bottom left of the display towards you. ie get down onthe floor and look up at the underside of the display and you will see it.

Carefully rip off and throw away the stupid silver tape covering the problem plug

it's now incedibly easy to fix. with your finger, gently tap or push on the faulty loose plug.

in my case a tap fixed it - I added a tiny wedge (say a pirce of rubber) to put more pressure on it

I just didn't bother replacing the pointless eight screws in point (4) above. Slip the display back in, stand it up, put on the glass cover and get back to work. It's that simple! THANKS TO KAOS.

Summary:

1. remove glass screen

2. lay mac down

3. ease display out, but leave it connected and running

4. have the top of the diaplsy IN the mac, and the bottom OUT, wedged up two inches by any object

5. absolutely identify the problem area using KAOS' INFO

5. carefully remove and throw away the stupid silver tape

7. the whole problem is just a loose plug - tap it and you're done

8. ease the display back in, put the glass cover back on (if you bother using the glass cover) and work away.

that's the simple solution. the "badass" solution is to fully remove the diusplay (ie disconnect all the cables that hold the display to the mac), and have a workshop fix the tiny broken plug)

I'll post a video in a minute

IT IS JUST A LOOSE PLUG .... it's that simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2thgf09VavQ

I decide I am not ready to handle pulling my iMac apart personally. So, I call Apple Support. The cyber receptionist mentions that my telephone conversation may require a $19.95 payment. The real guy, with whom I am connected, confirms my Apple Care bought with the iMac only extended the one year warranty by two years and expired in December 2012 (bought in late December 2009 -- yes, the reportedly most likely model to experience this problem/defect). Still, he talks to me and mentions that it may be a "LED ribbon problem" with a connection between the "mother board" processor thingy and the display screen, like what all the discussion threads (mostly from Europe) seem to be having a problem with. He tells me that I can make an appointment to take the iMac to either of my nearby Apple Stores and they will look at the computer and that there is not usually a charge for a simple fix, like fixing is an "LED ribbon" connection issue. I told him that I would double check with an external display to make sure the problem is localized in the integrated iMac display, but said that I expected it was because I did not see the dark left at 1 am when I accessed the iMac with my MacBook on Screen Share while the iMac screen was totally black. I don't have time for this nonsense for a couple weeks and I can kind of see everything on the left side okay (best to keep documents in a window on one side or another of the dark divide). I will report back in late October after I haul the iMac into the Apple Store.

Colorwave: look at page 8 of this thread and you will see some pictures I took, including one with a US penny near the white connector.

I originally considered the approach of taking apart the entire LCD, but decided it was too risky to do that compared to Kaos's through-the-hole approach. Once you start cracking open the layered LCD elements it's pretty much impossible to prevent dust from getting between them. (Unless if you have a proper clean room, which anyone on this thread is extremely unlikely to have.) And even besides the dust I'd be worried about putting it all back together properly. If you know enough to solder at all then you should be able to solder through the hole, as long as you follow all the tips laid out in my and Kaos' posts.

Either way, if you have an affected monitor I wouldn't recommend doing anything for a bit until there's more news about the lawsuit.

i just did what you said kaos, but went one more step, took out the display and put some tape to hold the connector more tight, and it worked just fine till now....THANK YOU SO MUCH! cost me nothing, saved me around 600 dollars....it`s a SHAME for MAC to treat customers like this, they know this is not the way to hold a connector, and still,sell you this thing for around 2000 dollars, they should fix it for free, instead, they are loosing cutomers...NEVER AGAIN WILL BUY SOMETHING FROM MAC

..man, thank you again!

Vic

Another successfully repaired 'dim left side 27" iMac screen' here. Was pretty nervous about doing it, but it worked out fine. So thank you, Kaos2K, Gerry Sweeny (nice video!) et all.

Really didn't fancy driving hours to an Apple store and paying their huge screen-replacement bill. I also bought my iMac when we lived in the UK, so didn't know how that would affect their repair process.

Definitely an LG manufacturing fault, that connector just isn't soldered well at all.

As a tip, I bought some enameled 'magnet' wire from Radio Shack to do this. I used the 26 guage green wire, which seemed a good fit. I also bought a $20 20W Radio Shack soldering iron which was just about small enough for the job: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4314833&locale=en_US

-James in California.

I was able to correct the problem by soldering the connector, as mentioned bij Kaos2K on Jun 22, 2012 11:44 AM. It works like the original iMac again!

Kaos2K, Katya1602,

thanks for this. When I removed the little problem plug, the white socket or female piece came right out with it - that white surface mount plug wasnt even really attached! Apple needs to issue a recall for this production design flaw with the LG screen.

but then I couldnt solder inside that tiny hole! i tried with a magnifying glass and the finest tip I could get for my iron -but it just wasnt happening. I tried bending the contacts on the white socket that came out so that might make better contact - but no luck.

anyway if you're willing to pass on your solder technique I'm curious.

guess Ill take it in to the apple store so I can pay for a brand new screen when my computer is only one month out of one year warantee. Crazy.

I attempted to fix my screen given the description above, but I believe my soldering skills are not up to par. I'm not exactly sure what went wrong, but now my screen is black. I've checked and rechecked the connections, and they seem correct. I must have fried something.

Apple is not willing to even look at the problem now that I've opened the machine. Just a word of warning to anyone who attempts to fix this error on their own. Now I'm off to a third-party repair shop in Palo Alto.

Sometimes I do wonder, why did I buy a computer with the monitor built into the box? Pretty, but **** frustrating when it breaks.

Thanks for your great post however, I had fun trying to fix it myself 🙂

And to Apple: You should be fixing this error for free. Monitors are not built to fail within two years.

Those are fantastic images Emma, thanks for that.

Again it shows how ASTOUNDINGLY SIMPLE the problem is ........ A LOOSE MICROPLUG.

It's just that simple - a loose microplug.

It's difficult to fix unless you're a professinal electrician - but a professional can fix it in literally like "2 minutes"

1. remove screen.

2. remove 1x piece of silver sticky tape.

3, fix loose plug.

I hope you saw my video .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QJ4rqvn2G8 ..

which shows perfectly clearly it is nothing other than a loose plug, behind that "silver paper" ... my ten year old made that video, for goodness sake.

It is totally astounding that Apple won't just fix this problem.

The moment any skilled person -- like our Kaos - opens the machine and pulls off the silver sticky tape, any experienced person instantly realises ..

"Oh, it's a loose plug"

To repeat - it si simply utterly amazing Apple don't just fix it, for the PR value.

It is an unbelievable black mark on Apple's reputation.

It is CLEARLY a consistent problem that is affecting 1000s of people with the LG screens, and it is CLEARLY nothing more than a loose microplug!!!!!!!!!!!

You know Apple are reading this .. every time someone watches this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QJ4rqvn2G8 they are more and more embarrased!

Let's consider this -- Apple knows, absolutely undeniably -- that it is an incredibly simple fix.

And they know, absolutely undeniably -- that it is a known consistent problem with these LG units.

That's a bad conbination.

Thanks Emma

hi John-Paul May,

yes, there were these 2 white plastic feet to stop the white connector from falling out. I had to cut them in order to remove the white connector along with the black cable without doing too much damage. I think that is also where our problem begin as that white connector was not a snug snap in that hole.

Hey Kaos !!

Here's some exciting news .. have a look at this post ...

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1151134

at one point they changed a stupid plug on the Controller Board, for no reason!

So, if you get a new panel, you may very ell have this problem.

(I was thinking "if only Kaos was here to weld this stupid little plug!" 🙂 Fortunately I was able to "merely" swap the controller boards.)

(Note for anyone new to the thread - I don't mean "the" plug that causes problems on these displays. What I mean is that if you buy a new display perhaps from eBay, to swap out ... crazily at one point LG changed a small plug on the controller board of the display; this will cause you a big heartache when you try to swap panels. Its incredibly silly of them to change an internal plug like that, meaning you can't interchange the old/new parts (they are identical unchanged boards).)

BTW here's a video showing the basic problem, for anyone new to the thread!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QJ4rqvn2G8&feature=youtu.be

right !

" I can't really notice if the "pin-out" is the same as on the white one."

To be clear, I did NOT HAVE a male plug for the C2 "white" plug. I had only my "black" A2 plug.

The shape is very different.

So fo rme, I had to swap the boards. I guess this is easy enough: it is just scary (for me) to change the ribbon cable. But, thank God, it all worked out. (I guess the new Pope helped 🙂 Even though I'm not catholic, Francis loves all animals and computers!)

Thank you again, you are #1 ! I thought I would have to send you my Mac to Spain to have it fixed! I would have done it but I could not find cheaper than about €80 to ship a mac.

It is an incredible waste my other display is just throw out. (My children destroyed it playing with it when I took it out 🙂 ) All because of one loose tiny plug.

I tried to solder this myself, and didn't succeed. I got 3 of the wires soldered in there, but couldn't get the others because it was just too tight, even with the finest tip I could buy on my iron, a good well lit magnifying glass, pre fluxing the contacts, hours of meticulous attempts that ended up just making a mess in that connector socket...

Then I got ******. Worked my way up the service higherarchy on the tele with apple support. finally some regional service manager made me an appointment at the local apple store - 40 miles away in Anchorage, AK. Got to the apple store and was told I didn't have an appointment. Then was told (after turning the computer on and showing them the half dark screen and pointing them to this feed) that it would cost $600. I just said no - I'm not paying that nor am I leaving the store till they make it right. The manager came over and signed off on the replacement at no cost. Then I was told there was a 3 week backorder of 27" screens probably because everyone is having failures. eventually after carrying the giant f'n computer back and forth to the apple store 3 times it was replaced at no cost. And they did the seagate 1tb drive recall work as well which I didn't know about prior to that visit...

i have the same problem. anytime after 1 hour of use, the left of the screen goes dark, and got some interlace like flickering. yesterday, after disassembling my imac, i realized the connector is in "perfect" condition and no melted or any kind of damage found... after reassembling the imac, i tuned on, and the dark on the left appears immediately (not after 1 hour) now i have a FIX dark on the left ... :/