Pixel "explosion" on my MacBook Retina

You have a defective display, stop using it and take it to an apple store.

Same thing happened to me - after using it for 4 weeks, a single pixel got stuck and literally burned a hole through the outer coating of the screen. Looks like a regular stuck pixel but the hole can be felt from the outside - and when looking at it through a magnifying glass, there's a small crater visible.

I couldn't freaking believe my eyes :-( Screen being replaced ATM

I have had the same problem with and I'm on my 2nd screen. The 2nd has now had a dead pixel explosion of 4 on the screen having started with just 1 larger bright one. My MBP Retina 15 is only 3 months old.

This is worrying and Apple won't acknowledge it is a known fault.

Mulleady wrote:

I have had the same problem with and I'm on my 2nd screen. The 2nd has now had a dead pixel explosion of 4 on the screen having started with just 1 larger bright one. My MBP Retina 15 is only 3 months old.

This is worrying and Apple won't acknowledge it is a known fault.

You better buy Applecare because once it is past the standard 1 year warranty Apple will charge you an arm and a leg to replace the screen.

You are right Shootlist007 but it is a shame to have to pay Apple for their lack of reliability.

This is not what I bought into when I gave up my ultra-reliable Thinkpad :-(

Mulleady wrote:

You are right Shootlist007 but it is a shame to have to pay Apple for their lack of reliability.

This is not what I bought into when I gave up my ultra-reliable Thinkpad :-(

Right. That is why just afteer buying my first Mac (a 15" late 2011 model), and coming to these forums, I bought Applecare for it and then bought a New Dell Latitude E6420 as my main notebook computer. I really don't trust the Mac as if anything breaks on it Apple charges an arm and a leg to fix it.

Mac's are no better then Windows PCs. They just cost more and come with a different operating system.

I would have said the MBP Retina is an exceptional laptop if it was reliable and I could depend upon it.

I have this same problem, about 6 months after purchase. I panicked and thought I must have somehow punctured the screen myself, since I also felt a small hole at the bright pixel. Will be seeing my local genius this weekend. How long do you normally have to wait for a replacement?

Had the exact same thing happen to my ~ 5 month old 15" rMBP. I noticed it a couple weeks ago, and thought I could live with it... However, it is just to the left of mid-screen, and is very anoying when watching movies or playing games. Especially worrying is that mine also has burned a small hole right where the stuck / bright pixel is.

I brought it to the Raleigh, NC - Crabtree Mall store today at noon, and the Apple tech said "yep, that would be really annoying to me too - especially for an expensive laptop" - which is explicitly marketed on how wonderful the high-end screen is. The store had 3 of these screens / clamshells in stock (which makes me wonder if this is an increasingly common issue) - and they didn't hesistate at all to replace mine.. ( I should have my rMBP back in 2 days... I'm experiencing withdrawal symptoms while using this clunky Thinkpad W520 work [IBM] laptop) .

So I had this happen about 4 months after launch day, and they were great about fixing it. Now a second screen has done the EXACT same thing in the EXACT same place, and there are 2 smaller ones on the periphery. I took it to the local apple store and they said that they would not be fixing it since it was customer caused and the last time they did it for me, they were "doing me a favor". I don't recall them telling me it was a favor, and why exactly do they owe me favors? The manager was "kind" enough to offer to replace the screen for $300. I'm not really sure what to do. I was blamed for causing the damage, and the manager refused to budge. Any tips?

Yes Print out this thread, look online for other threads, on this forum and others, and print them out then take them in to the store and show them. If they refuse Call Apple Customer Service right from the store and speak to a rep.

It would be interesting to see what the common denominator is here. I'm in Australia, so a particularly warm climate, which could cause a pixel to "over heat" i guess. I also have 2 external monitors running off Mini DisplayPort, and running windows via parallels. Does anyone else who's had this issue have anything in this list? Or do you generally push your laptop pretty hard? The multiple screens and multitasking keep the MacBook fairly warm most of the time. Maybe it's a heat thing?

I had the same problem with mine. I brought it in to the Apple store and they replaced mine and explained what the problem was. It's actually very common:

The rMBP is so thin that the screen shuts to the base with almost no space between the screen and the base. What happens is that if there's, a grain of sand for example, it can break through the screen and cause a dead pixel. It's a design issue that's insanely difficult to prevent since a screen cover could make it worse by making even less space between the display and base.

You will notice that all of the dead pixels are located where your keyboard is not. So all of the pixels are in the upper-horizontal of the screen. Since that will have the highest chance of having a piece of hard grains.

Hope your problem is what I'm describing.

No, it has nothing to do with hard grains of sand. It's an electronic issue. When the pixels burn out they literally burn a hole right into the surface of the display.

I had this happen too. At first I thought I somehow caused the problem. Then I started reading about the problem online. Unfortunately mine was 10 days past warranty. I took it in anyway. They did the screen replacement for free. However, I'm concerned since I didn't buy Apple care and I don't trust the engineering on this first version of the rMBP. I'll be selling this and moving to the next version. Hopefully they'll solve it by then. I had a similar disaster with the Air a year ago. I was on my second screen there and just got fed up and sold after the screen was replaced the second time. In that case I was getting the problem of white dots. Holes in the display takes the cake for me. I need this machine to just work.