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Insect inside my LCD screen

A tiny insect has crawled in between the LCD panel and the backlight of my 27" iMac and died. Close inspection reveals that it is behind the LCD characters. I called Apple support, and they were sympathetic, but said I had to go to the local store. The local store told me it was not their fault I had a bug in my iMac, and in fact, this "infestation" (his words) would probably void the warranty on my 6 month old iMac.

My iMac sits on the desk in my office. My office is not "infested" with bugs. But Apple's LCD screen is not sufficiently sealed to dust and other contaminants so it will prevent a tiny insect from being attracted to the light and crawling inside of it. I am very disappointed in their response.

Does anyone know if there is any recourse to the local Apple store? The woman at MY-APPLE assumed it would be a warranty repair. It seems to me that the LCD component should be sufficiently sealed to prevent bugs from crawling into it. And I live in Southern California, not Northern Michigan.

Does anyone know if I am likely to be able to disassemble the screen and clean it myself?

See for yourself. The bug is next to 14 point Arial in TextEdit:

www.bmumford.com/tmp/Bug.jpg

Posted on Jul 24, 2014 3:30 PM

59 replies

Aug 11, 2015 11:41 PM in response to Bryan Mumford

I got my insect today... Hopefully Apple will announce some kind of recall or something...

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Aug 12, 2015 6:34 AM in response to kazkat308

kazkat308 wrote:

I got my insect today... Hopefully Apple will announce some kind of recall or something...

No, you are welcome to keep it. Apple have lots of insects already. 🙂

Aug 12, 2015 8:42 AM in response to Klaus1

A post I wrote yesterday does not appear to have made it through ..... Apple has now replaced the LCD screen in my iMac that started this thread. They had told me they would not, so I never carried the late 2013 model 27" iMac in for a determination. But a few weeks ago the screen hinge broke and it flopped forward. I had to prop it up with a stick. Then the 3 TB Fusion drive failed. I've never had so much trouble with a Macintosh, and it's only a year and a half old. The repair took 14 days. I never would have imagined I could get by without it for so long. To be accurate, the repair only took one day ... but they had it for 14. I had already drafted a negative Yelp posting for the authorized repair center, but since they got me a new screen, I'm letting it go.

But I will end with a warning. My 3 TB drive failed in a year and a half. They replaced it with a Seagate Barracuda model ST3000DM001. These drives have a failure rate of 28% as determined by the BackBlaze people who do cloud backup:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-smart-stats/

I can't understand why Apple would continue to use the worst possible drive after they've already had so much trouble with the 3 TB devices, and anticipate another hard drive failure before I am through with this machine.

Aug 12, 2015 9:03 AM in response to Bryan Mumford

Sorry, I posted the wrong link to hard drive failures:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-for-q2-2015/

Aug 12, 2015 12:36 PM in response to ZigZagLens

Hi everyone,

Just as an update to my situation, Apple gladly replaced my display. The only time it took was bringing it in (and waiting for the Genius to show everyone - they were quite impressed at the feat that little guy had accomplished.)

Best of luck!

pb100

Level 1

5 points

Oct 8, 2015 11:52 PM in response to FanOfSuperman

Get out your vacuum cleaner!!

I had the same problem with my late 2013, 27inch iMac. A small mite appeared in the bottom left corner of my screen yesterday uuugggghhhh!!!

I rang Apple and the guy there was both astounded and helpful. He'd never heard of this issue before and requested I take it to an Apple store for them to look at.

As taking it in was going to be difficult (and leaving it there for a repair would be even worse!) I decided to see what I could do myself. There is a small air gap between the glass and LCD panel to protect the LCD from people pressing on the glass. That's where the bug was.

With a good vacuum cleaner sucking through the vents at the base of the screen and some light repetitive tapping on the back and front of the screen, the tiny mite slowly fell down below the black screen surround. He's now either sucked out or hidden by the black strip, so that's good enough for me! Took about 5 minutes 🙂

Apr 1, 2016 4:59 AM in response to pb100

Tonight I found a small insect (2 mm across)inside the screen of my 27" 5k retina display iMac (2015).

Note that this is not an April fools joke.

We blocked most of the vents along the base of the screen, and placed a powerful vacuum cleaner at the remaining open vent beneath the insect.

After about 5 minutes of repeated and vigourous tapping, it gradually fell down and then out of sight.

I'm not sure that the vacuum cleaner had much effect.

Hope this helps others.

dialabrain

Level 10

122,609 points

Apr 1, 2016 5:22 AM in response to Magnuseffect

It's interesting because I wasn't aware one could see through an LCD panel. The glass and display panel are fused so it would have to be behind.

slackero

Level 1

8 points

Jul 3, 2016 8:55 PM in response to Bryan Mumford

Same here, iMac (27-inch, Late 2012). Had this several times now – all little insects went out the visual area by now but who knows…

I guess Apple won't be friendly enough to handle this. It is unbelievable that this is possible and not sealed enough.

K4t4

Level 1

4 points

Jul 22, 2016 1:51 PM in response to Bryan Mumford

I have 2 dead bugs in my screen. This is a rather disappointing issue from an establishment which pride itself with design and quality. I hope Apple will present the solution to this problems. Years has gone by and issue still remain and new model will likely to experience bug in screen.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013).

rev001

Level 1

4 points

Jan 28, 2017 6:12 PM in response to pb100

Exactly the same problem with mine and your solution worked perfectly except my bug floated to the top of the screen and out of sight

purdeigh

Level 1

4 points

Jul 26, 2017 12:46 PM in response to Bryan Mumford

I am having the same problem. A tiny spider appeared in my display yesterday. It's a 27" Retina. This morning it was not visible, this evening it returned...

Jul 26, 2017 1:55 PM in response to dialabrain

It's under the glass. Not behind the LCD. If it were behind, I wouldn't see it. It's on top of my webpages and now dead at the bottom of my screen.

Sep 15, 2017 4:22 PM in response to Bryan Mumford

Even I am facing this problem. My 27 inch iMac is just a couple of weeks old. Please suggest me a solution.

Insect inside my LCD screen