Pixel "explosion" on my MacBook Retina

I have the same issue, I have been told I have caused this so they are only willing to pay for half of the cost. It seems to be an issue with quite alot of people though! Sure this is an engineering fault and they should be held accountable? Not what I wanted when I bought a high end product! The worst bit is I am abroad at the moment, I was told to take my device into store which is quite a way (read below what happened) and it was not resolved, and there is no way to contact apple directly correct?!

I attended Apple Chermside in order to attend to a string of permutations that have occurred to my Apple ‘Macbook Pro Retina Display 15”’

I was seen to promptly and pointed to the genius bar where I was greeted by ‘Genius’ Chris Brown.

I showed Chris the problem, he cleaned my display in order to see clearer the problem.

Once cleaned Chris noticed the permutation extruded from the display and were caused by“Particles of dust/sand on the keyboard pushing themselves against the display”

When I confronted Chris why such small particles would be an issue he confronted me “When designing your device certain protective layers of glass you would normally find on a screen have been removed to make the device thinner”

Chris told me he would go and speak to his supervisor (also called Chris) to see how they could aid me.

Chris returned to inform me, “We understand that this is a high end product that expresses a significant investment on your behalf, for this reason we are willing to pay for half of the display repair cost ($700+(AUD))”

I proceeded to say this was unacceptable due to it being a flaw in the design, a compromise had been made when designing the device leading to this being an issue, expressing certain neglect on Apples behalf which I feel they should be held accountable. Chris proceeded to tell me “We have noticed certain imperfections on your device, this has led us to believe it has not lived an indoor sheltered life and has received equal neglect on my behalf” This being said I told Chris and his supervisor it is a portable device and should not require and indoor sheltered life.

Supervisor Chris then countered with “I believe you picked the wrong device when choosing your product, you would be better suited to a standard Macbook Pro which is more durable.”

Don't believe everything you're told. This is not caused by dust. If we are talking about the same issue then some defect in the screen causes it to produce holes in the screen. It has nothing to do with dust or whether the machine is used outside. Try taking it to a different Apple store. Clean the thing so it doesn't look like you're using it in an outhouse. Be nice because its all just a judgement call. Consider calling Apple care hq to get some higher level support.

I meant sand! ***. You have sand on your computer? Ah don't use a computer in the sandbox!

That's just ridiculous. I don't think that pixels "explode" on any screen. Find me some article or example on the web that would entertain that possibility.

If you look at where the holes are, they're by the touchpad where it's a hard surface that doesn't move. Apple designed these computers to be as thin as possible. So there's going to be almost no room between the display and the metal surface.

Something you can do is if you carry your computer in a bag or backpack, you should make sure nothing is pushing too hard on the computer. This will compress the computer, causing the crumbs to drive into the screen and create the holes/dead pixels.

Students who owned the old white macbooks would cram their macbooks in their backpacks, and soon they started complaining about the apple logo, on the other side of the display, burning-in through the screen and being visible from the display. Similar to screen burn-in.

Bottom line:

1. Brush off the surface and screen of your macbook before you close it.

2. Don't push too hard on the computer.

3. Don't use a display protection sheet, because it creates even less space between the display and base.

I use a Thule carrying case inside my other carrying case just to make sure nothing is pushing to hard on it. The Thule is a hard shell and has lots of space inside.

This is irresponsible engineering by Apple, and everyone's screen should be replaced if this happens to them.

When I got my computer and didn't use these guidelines, my computer was getting holes all over. When I got the screen replaced, I did some brainstorming and tried to prevent it from happening again by following the info I just presented.

I have yet to get ONE hole in my screen...

Ok, this is the last time I'm going to say it. I'm only saying it because you're misleading people with your well meaning but false claims. There are tons of posts on other forums on this. My dead pixel with a hole in my screen had NOTHING whatever to do with sand or dirt on the trackpad. This is simply nonsense. The hole was nowhere near the trackpad. Many other people are reporting this issue as some sort of defect in the screen. Apple gladly replaced my display 10 days out of warranty. I very much doubt they would have done that if I had caused the damage, and if it wasn't a defect of some sort. My evidence that this is the case is all over the web. Use your fingers and type google.com and see for yourself. This is not to say that you couldn't damage the display if you put dirt on your trackpad and closed the lid on it. Perhaps this is what you did with your machine. But what I'm talking about is a known defect in the retina display. It's all over the internet. You're generalizing from your own situation and assuming because you put a hole in your screen with dirt this is the only way it can happen. This is misleading and illogical. So, moving along.

The problem with your macbook air was what is called a "white pixel". These are caused by either a transistor malfunctioning, or a morphing in the liquid or the LCD screen. Your rMBP had holes in the screen I'm guessing, while your macbook air did not. Your problem with the macbook pro retina and the macbook air are completely different. I "used my fingers" and found nothing about the possibility of a pixel exploding out of a screen. Just people giving a description of what the result looks like. If it's an explosion powerful enough to break through glass, you would think you would see, or hear, it happening right in front of you. Like maybe a *snap* or something. I bet you that people have never seen the pixel explode when they had their computer open. It is always noticed after they open it up.

You say that my case is misleading and illogical, but I don't see much evidence on your side of the argument. I gave an story of how I solved my problem, which was almost identical to all of these complaints people are having. I had the problem, I applied my logic and proposed solution, and the problem was eliminated. A pixel exploding is an unheard of event. And it's much less likely than a piece of dirt or debri puncturing the very thin and tightly packed glass. This is probably one of the thinnest displays every made for a computer. It's going to be more sensitive to small, hard objects.

No I said you are being illogical and misleading. You are generalizing from your own case. Everyone case must be like yours. This is not literally an exploding pixel. There's no bang. Anyhow, if you're actually interested just head over the macrumors and read all about it. I, for one, have never had sand, or chunks of dirt on my retina mac. The hole was caused by a defect. That is why Apple replaced it out of warranty for free, and why they did not replace yours. So, read, think, use your mind.

They did replace my screen. Free of charge.

I go on MacRumors all of the time and I have never seen anything posted on the news feed mentioning this. All that's there is a couple posts on the forums of people explaining what it looks like, not actual legitimate explanations of what caused them. You're telling me to search the web through Google (which didn't return anything that supported your claim that your reasoning is "all over the web"). Then you tell me to search MacRumors, which didn't turn up anything either.

Send me a link of an explanation as thorough and reasonable as mine and you might seem credible.

I know that mine might not be everyone's problem, but my problem was identical to most people's, and I have prevented it from happening using my "outrageous" claim.

To further back up the 'exploding' pixel, we used a digital microscope to investigate our seemingly regular dead pixels, however when back lighting the microscope, there seemed to be tiny explosions.

http://www.mikcx.com/macbook-pro-retina-exploding-pixels/

The best way to describe its appearance would be if an stone hit a glass window, or a bullet hole.

Maybe tiny LED *is* exploding and causing a small shock in the composite plastic screen? Exploding LEDs can be quite violent :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXEZtePxa0U

It's best not to argue with fools. So, I'm done. Take your machine to Apple if you have holes in the screen. Chances are they'll fix it unless you dumped sand on it or something. For the rest it's probably a few bad panels out there, as it was in my case.

I believe I'm having a similar issue right now. This is the second screen on an early 2013 rMBP that this is happened to for me - and in light of the first repair, I've been treating this thing like a newborn baby. Really glad I changed the keywords of my search to "exploding pixels". Here is the link to my thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread/5626392

DogDutyAscetic, I'm sorry to hear they were such douchebags about it at the Apple Store. Are you in a spot in OZ where you could call AppleCare, and then follow up with a visit to an authorized Apple Service Center once you have a case number? If Apple Stores are few and far between, or there is only one in a major metropolitan area, see if there are any other Apple resellers in your area that offer service and make your case to them. Good luck. 🙂

This exploding pixel is still very real (Macbook pro Retina Late 2013)! It happened on my computer after two flights. After the first flight I noticed some spots. After the second flight I noticed a bunch more.

After reading online about Camera sensors being affected by XRay scanning at the airport and the correlation of defects to my two flights I am pretty certain that has caused the damage. Anyone else who has seen this happen after having their stuff xrayed?

Same just happened to my macbook pro early 2013 retina display. I read some ware else that someone experienced it after the computer was put through x-ray scanner. I travelled recently and just noticed it. A tiny hole on the screen with a constantly lit pixel. Very strange indeed and painful after the warranty is over.

yes I have