My Retina Display has stain damage, HELP!!!

I have a very similar problem on my Macbook Pro 13" retina display (late 2013) bought on Jan2014.

Started only 11 month after I purchased the laptop.

It started like small "bubble" on the left bottom corner and then spreaded all over the screen.
Also I have keyboard mark on my screen like other posted here.
I'm cleaning always my screen and keyboard and working only with clean hands.
It looks like retina coating damaged very easily with normal use.

Unfortunately my warranty already expired 😟 and it cost of a lot of money to replace the screen.

I hope Apple will see how their premium products look like and will treat its customers.

I'm very sad that I suggested to my friends to by Macbook retina.

here's my screen. It started about 6 months ago at the section across the center between the trackpad and spacebar (right across the middle of my screen!!) but its been spreading faster the past month to be above quite a few of the keys and down the left-hand side of the trackpad. And I can't stop it, it's like a cancer spreading across my screen.

I'm only using water and microfibre cloth, which is actually a crap way to clean it because you can see that it just spreads the dust / grease around the screen. And I hardly take it anywhere. What gets me is why they make the screen SO **** sensitive. I used to use screen cleaners on my other laptops and TVs, which obviously does a great job of removing everything. But with these premium screens, you have to treat them like an egg shell.

Jony Ive, in his pursuit of making things look nice, has forgotten that we need to use these for many hours every day. The screen should have tough gorilla glass, or whatever is used on iPads and iPhones. Imagine this screen was used on an iPad/Phone, it would be scratched to pieces in a day I wouldn't mind a few extra millimeters on a MacBook it meant that the screen could be used in a 'normal' way. It's like they expect us to store these in a glass case and only handle it with gloves.

Jony Ive and the rest of the design team (and everyone else at Apple) must also realise that these retina screens are overly sensitive for an everyday machine. Makes me think that they must get their screens replaced free of charge every 6 months.

It's got to be something to do with the coating as someone mentioned before (the production manager guy). But why, even now, can't they use the same screens as the iPad. My 7 year old Compaq laptop doesn't have any marks on the screen at all, and that traveled to many countries with me.

(the photos uploaded upside-down for some reason)

We need to get more people, who have the same problem, to join us, and put pressure on Apple. This is such a ridiculous situation for a tool that we use every day.

We should look to get some legal advice, and also advice from more production engineers. And some media attention, like what caused Apple to fix the video card issue in MBPR 15's recently. This is DEFINITELY a manufacturing defect. I feel entirely ripped off for this and am also considering moving back to PC if they can't resolve this obvious problem.

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Hello All,

Same problem here ... (Mid 2012 production unit, Unremoveable stains, No cleaner used, No replacement)

My stains are clearly due touchpad edges and keys (see attached picture). I did copy

the layout of the keyboard / touchpad area to transparent paper and matched it

with the stains on the display. Left shortside corner of the touch pad = perfect match

some key corners perfect match.

These findings also support Jakaya's findings ... especially the flat rest areas.

Needless to mention that i always carried my notebook in a case purchased in

a apple store.

all in all 😟 for a approx. 3000 USD device.

Regards,

Ulrich

(no to mention the ghost image problem not yet solved too ...)

I'm also experiencing the same issue.

It looks like mine is a samsung screen like many others in this thread.

Color LCD

LS*****001

This is a MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012). I have an older Macbook Pro (15-inch Early 2008) with absolutely no screen issues. This seems to be a problem that is isolated to the MacBook Pro Retina Display.

<Personal Information Edited by Host>

Alex, for the missing feet there, try using Sugru, https://sugru.com/ It's a mouldable clay that sets into hard rubber in 24 hrs. A lot of people are having success with it.

I'm going to use it for the frayed ends of my power adaptor (another common problem with macbooks). Have a look here, their packaging even shows the fix on Apple power adaptors as an example of what you can do with it:

A bit off topic, but I also have a very rough edge from wearing a watch and it tapping constantly against the right front edge (which is normal when typing on the keyboard), but i hadn't noticed it for a while. I feel the roughness all the time now and have removed my watch when using my macbook. This is also a common problem and people are advised to remove metal bangles and watches when using a macbook.

Apple make such beautiful and wonderful products, but it's like Apple don't test their products in the real world. Makes me wonder, a lot, if the Apple employees (including Jony Ive and Tim Cook) suffer from these same problems. They MUST also have these issues.

Do they wash their hands before using it, and wipe the keyboard clean before closing it (to prevent grease interacting with the AR coating)?

Do they have power adaptors at home and in the office toso as not to move the cord (to prevent the cord fraying)?

And do they remove their Apple Watches (with metal bands) to prevent it damaging the edge of the wrist rest?

But none of this is normal 'expected' behaviour.

There should be FRAGILE stickers on the device.

Macbooks are wonderfully designed and engineered, but it's like they have to be used in a sealed glass box, not in normal everday use.

Back to the topic, I'm going to the Apple store when I go back to London, I'm still in the EU 2 year warranty, and I'll show them this thread. I'm usually quite good at reasoning, and this AR coating deteriotation under reasonable use should be covered by the EU warranty (a defect that was there from the time of purchase - which is badly applied AR coating that deteriorates to a point of making it unsuitable for its' intended use (i use it for graphics design).

I'll report back the results.

I have the same problem 😟

I never saw anything like this before and is my third Macbook Pro. However, this is my first Retina Display one. I'm very disapointed. The screen was supposed to be the strong part of the laptop and it became the worst.

Using my laptop as anybody else.

MacBook Pro Retina Mid 2012.

Slowly but visibly dying already since a year.

This was a 2500 euro device and such problems must be made official to Apple. Absolutely not allowed for such a device.

APPLE, REACT TO THIS!

I've very small ones on my 15" rMBP (mid 2014), but still very frustrating for a 7 month old notebook. I hope they aren't getting bigger, but seeing all your images I've a bad feeling about that... 😟

Hey acki00 - I am in Belgium too. And concerning the 2 year EU - warranty - I went last year to the Swich shop in Antwerp (Official Apple Reseller) were I bought my mac almost 2 years before that.

They said

1) They never saw something like this.

2) My 2 year EU warranty is not valid because I bought the MBP with a VAT number as a freelancer, and in this case the warranty drops to 1 year.

The only thing I could do is pay 60 euro so that they can send my MAC to the repair center so that they establish how much it will cost me to replace the screen.

I didn't do it because I will not pay for the replacement.

What I didn't check last year was if it was true that my warranty is 1 year only. The stain was much much smaller back than. But today it turned to this and it will go down.

<Edited By Host>

Early 2013 MBP Retina 2.7ghz Core I7 16gb ram and 500ssd Intel HD graphics 4000

I was cleaning my screen with a lint free cloth a few weeks ago and had this same thing happen to my display. I noticed a few specks that seemed like an oily substance so I spent a little more time on the area and it seemed to get worse. After a bit of rubbing I realized a coating of some sort was coming off because the specks got larger. I thought now way there was that much oily substance smearing around into an area this large. When I finally stopped my few specs turned into a large area with the coating off. I am so disappointed and it pains me to look at my screen on the right side. At the genius bar they said it would be in the $700 range to replace it. I wish it was like the older ones that the glass could just be replaced.

This is my 6th Macbook to own in 14 years beginning with the Titanium Macbook Pro in 2001 and this is the first problem I have ever had with a laptop. Good and bad...

I hope Apple stands behind this product.

Hi! I have the same issue on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013). I was carefully cleaning my screen when I saw these ugly spots around display and I couldn't believe my eyes when it happened to me. This is unacceptable!!!

Really happy I found this thread. I have the exact same problem. MacBook Pro 15" (Retina, Mid 2012 / 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 / 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3) bought in early 2013.

This problem appeared for the first time just a few months ago, before that the display has been pristine. I was really bummed out since I have always been extra careful to use only approved screen wipes. I called around back then and was told that I would need to replace the entire screen assembly at my own cost. Hopefully this thread will show it's a common defect. It looks pretty much identical to everyone else here, here's a picture :

I always thought this was some kind of hard-to-remove dirt, but I never dared to give it a firmer rub with a cloth, nor use alcohol or anything. I *am* taking good care of all my hardware, even carrying them in a protective sleeve/bag.

As AAPL suggests, I used a slightly damp microfiber cloth (normally used for glasses) to remove any loose dust and fingerprints from the screen - this worked without any problems. This is a first generation MBP Retina from Mid 2012.

Looking at all those photos in this thread I'm getting a feeling that the coating somehow reacts with bodily fluids because:

1) In my case most of those spots are around the top of the display, which would somehow indicate that it has to do something with sweat from your fingers, which might react with the coating.

2) Saliva? Other photos show random spots all over the screen, which might happen if you talk while physically close to the display.

Just my two cents, I'm staying tuned on how Apple will react to this.

--

BK9

Hovercraft,

the reason why people shine a lot of light on the screen when taking sample images is because it is difficult to catch the effect with a camera. But I will attach an image from my screen taken in my office with all windows covered by blinds and lights off. I also adjusted the screen brightness to 100%.

You can still clearly see stains at the bottom right of the image. In my case the stains are actually the leftovers of the anti-clare coating (this as a tried removing the coating and succeeded only to 90%).

Whilst the image looks as if the problem is not as severe, my eyes (or my brain respectively) tell me otherwise.

Started to happen to me on my MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012). started out very small and recently spread and grew very fast!! went to my local reseller, cause there are no official apple stores in egypt, was told to pay 6000 egyptian pounds which is around $800 U.S.