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

Fritz S wrote:

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")

...

Sorry, but your post is way too long and confusing. I'm not even sure what your question is. Please consider editing it down to keep this thread on topic, and re-asking as a shorter question if you still have one.

Just fixed mine.

***BEFORE YOU TRY SOLDERING, TRY THIS FIRST***

Materials: aluminum tape.

Follow all the other guides to remove the LCD.

Once you're at the point where you can see the connector, lift the two white flaps UP.

It will bend the plastic but now you are able to wiggle/pull out the black connector.

After you have loosened the white flaps, leave the connector EXPOSED from the tape and reassemble the LCD and cables into the housing.

While having all cables still plugged into the housing, power up your monitor so you can see the darkness.

Lift the top of the monitor out slowly, no more than 4 inches (there is a wire behind the top)

What you will do is pull out the top slowly, and then slide the bottom out.

Tuck back the top portion back in and use something to prop the bottom off leaving space for you to tuck your hand in behind the connector. One of the previous posts has a picture of the bottom propped up so you can have a visual.

Now that you've exposed and loosened the connector after lifting the two flaps, you should be able to fiddle with the connector and see where your "sweet spot" is to achieve full brightness on the left dim.

Once you've found that sweet spot, use a long piece of aluminum tape to tape down that orientation. (the sweet spot will be the point where all connections are good)

Reinforce the orientation of the cable and connector with an additional one or two layers of aluminum tape.

Now press on all areas of the tape so that it conforms to the shape of the cables/connector.

Press on all areas of the cable and connector portion to make sure you no longer see any changes in brightness or flickering.

I like to put additional square layers on the connector portion itself to make sure it is resistant to shaking/handling in the future.

If all is well, you should have a pretty stable fix without the need or risk of soldering.

*** TIP ***

* when looking for the sweet spot, I realized my screen would not light up because the connector was in too deep. I had to pull the black connector slightly up and away from the board to achieve full brightness. I then tugged on the cable tightly to apply pressure/tension to maintain that orientation and connection. I applied tape thereafter.

BEST OF LUCK AND I HOPE THIS HELPS EVERYONE!

Add another victim to the list.

I have a mid-2011 27" iMac with all the same symptoms. I will be attempting the repair myself soon. Scarry stuff, but hopefully no harder than changing out the screen on my iPhone 4s was.

Great thread, thanks to all.

I have a quick question. I have a 2011 27’’ iMac, the screen being a lM270WQ1 (E3).

I see there are quite a few lM270WQ1 (A2) screens on Ebay at a good price, I believe they have been pulled from 2009 iMac’s. Would a lM270WQ1 (A2) LCD from 2009 be compatible with and be able to replace a lM270WQ1 (E3) from a 2011 iMac?

My story:

About a year after purchase, my LCD started flickering, followed by the left side darkness that everyone else is experiencing. I do have Apple care, and brought the system in for service. Unfortunately they refused to service it as I had the iMac modified by Other World Computing. I had them install a 2nd SSD hard drive, and an External SATA port. Arguing with the store on the phone got me no where. I called the main Apple support line, and after they researched the issue, told me that they could not repair the unit as their policy is to restore it to its original factory condition, and in this case it was impossible. Again, I couldn’t change their minds.

Other world computing are a little vague, but point to a certain consumer rights law that the modification shouldn’t invalidate the warranty. I wished I hadn’t believed that, and I highly recommend that no-one should use their Turn Key program unless their warranty is up.

Anyhow, its now 6 months later, and the issue was getting worse. Pressing on the LCD frame in the button left fixes the problem for a second or two, so that plug is def the issue. Following the advice on this thread, I pulled the LCD with the hope that a simple push would fix the issue. Not to be. After detaching the plug, plugging it back in and wiggling it around, the dark side is now permanent. I don’t have the skill to do the soldering unfortunately. So..my options are to buy a new LCD from Ebay, or perhaps get a 27’’ Ultrasharp LCD from Dell and run it via Display Port.

Anyhow, and help with my above question would be much appreciated. Cheers!

A tiny update to by above post, I can still get rid of the darkness by playing with the socket, but once I find the sweet spot, im unable to keep the plug there.

Yep, resoldering is the only way that monitor will ever work again. And from my experience calling a bunch of repair shops before I decided to do it myself, you won't find anyone willing to do it, at leat not for less than the cost of a replacement monitor.

Indeed, I think your best bet for now is buying a replacement monitor on ebay. Unfortunately I think you may need to find an exact match. I don't have time to find it right now, but somewhere on these forums there is a thread that discusses the difference and the fact that there may be slightly different cable connectors on the motherboard for different model years. I'll find it later tonight. How much are you seeing monitors for?

Why do I say "for now"? I think we should look into the possibility of a class action lawsuit for this issue. I have a few ideas for doing that that I'm going to pursue, but if anyone has more ideas please chime in.

Thanks FlunkedFlank.

Ok, ill go with what you say, and keep my eye out for an E3 monitor. At the moment, the A2’s are quite cheap, but the E3’s are still quite expensive, and also difficult to source. I did come across that thread regarding the different cable connectors a while ago, ill look it up again.

Amount wise, as of OCT 28 2013 in United States Currency:

A2 replacement screens are at about 20% of one thousand.

E3’s at 50% if you find one.

Full monitors, a 27’’ matte Dell Ultrasharp is at about 60%

From Monoprice a glossy 27’’ is about 45%

All in for the class action, heh.

I think I have mentioned this before on this forum, but I had this on my 2011 iMac 27in. I tried all the bodged fixes and it was never sorted.

I eventually found a company here in the UK (in Canterbury) called The iT Store who I sent my iMac to. They stripped down the iMac and resoldered the LCD. Since then I haven't had a problem at all with it, and there's no need to stuff card in any corners or try any wiring myself. It is as good as new and they gave a 6 month warranty anyway. It cost me £200 a few months ago, but I had an email from them last week with a new price of £150 if you ship or drop off yourself, or £200 and they pay for the courier to collect and return from a UK address. They are VAT registered, so I was able to put this through my business to bring the cost down further.

They also cleaned the iMac all out to reduce the chance of it happening again. It was collected and returned again within a week. Nice bunch as well, very friendly and helpful.

Google The iT Store in Canterbury. Very recommended, at a fraction of the cost of a new LCD!

I hope Apple don't remove this for advertising, I'm simply recommending as a happy customer!

Thanks Chesron.

Good news for those in the UK, though im unfortunately (heh) in the US. Ill have a look around on Yelp and see if there are any businesses that are willing and able, perhaps I may get lucky at one of the more full featured phone / iPad repair places or perhaps some place that already does work involving LCD's. Im assuming that these places usually just swap components in and out to complete their repairs, but you never know.

Hmmm. The posts mentiong the lawsuit have been deleted. I'd love to know what the next step is for those like me who have experienced the exact same issues.

Regarding the repairs in the UK for £200, that's about the same price as a certain listing on ebay (in the US) of a place that will replace the LCD with a guaranteed working used LCD, and according to the listing they'll fix all model "A1312" iMacs, which is 2009-2011 models. The listing is from "irepairapple" and the cost is $350. (I found them a while back before I decided to fix it myself.) The only thing is that you have to send them the full Mac and they send it back. I guess they don't want to just send the replacement LCD for quality control reasons.

Or wait and see if there's any breaking news regarding Apple recognizing the problem. I'll try this again more delicately: there's an article about a lawsuit for this on the macrumors web site.

Does anyone know if the new ones that they just rolled out with the Haswell processors have this same defect?

My 2011 27" imac started to develop problems 14 months after I bought it. It began with grey smudges appearing in the top left and top right hand corner of the screen.

About a month later it developed the left hand side going dark grey problem.

No response from Apple, didn't really expect it as it was out of warranty and foolishly no Applecare.

I tried all the suggestions here on the is thread, I couldn't get anyone to attempt the soldering.

Eventualy I had to buy a new E3 Panel from a place in China.

While I was opening up the Mac I fitted an SSD. The screen is great, the SSD makes it a really fast machine. But I can imagine Apple wouldnt want anything to do with it as I've opened it up. (My iMac is one the of the machines that are elibigible for a video card replacement, there's nothing wrong with it at the moment but who knows what could happen next time I turn it on?)

It will be intersting to see the outcome of the class action suit filed recently about this problem.