Level 1

34 points

High Sierra screen artifacts

I'm seeing residual screen artifacts on my desktop and also in application windows that were previously active, but which have been hidden or closed. These artifacts are very faint, and I think over a suitable period of time, the initial set of artifacts "fade"... but they're replaced by artifacts from other open then hidden/closed windows.

Also, if I change the desktop to any solid color, I cannot see these artifacts. And they are visible only with certain background images. (I think if the background image being used is very bright or very dark then you cannot see these artifacts.

NOTE - the artifacts are VERY faint - I've attempted to create some screen shots, which as I look at the screen are relatively easy to see, but when I look at the actual screen shots, they are almost impossible to detect.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), macOS High Sierra (10.13), Display issues - 27" iMac mid 2012

Posted on Sep 29, 2017 10:06 PM

Top-ranking reply

Mawiamess

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Jan 25, 2018 7:18 AM

> First I tried to install High Sierra again, I thought it might have bugged on the last install. Nope.
> Then I backed up everything manually to an external hard drive and installed High Sierra from the scratch like I would be selling my mac, meaning I would have to install all my apps, fonts, and so on again. Did not help.

> After that I googled a lot how to do "downgrade" to the older version which Apple seems to made hard if you don't have experience with terminal or don't know about formatting but when I Followed multiple tutorials I managed to it quite easily but took a long time.

I did this last night and I can't promise I remember all the steps right way but shortly this is what I did I downloaded old os, made a USB stick installer and wiped everything in my computer. Found some good instructions here:https://www.macworld.com/article/2981585/operating-systems/how-to-make-a-bootabl e-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-installer-drive.…

1. Backup everything

2. Double check you backed up

3. Download the el capitan from App Store

4. Format, rename and partition 8-16gb USB stick the proper way (link up there tells everything^)
5. Move the installer to the formatted stick
6. Restart the computer with special command, erase everything from the hard drive (the link I posted did not mention this part so when I Rebooted with command + r and used disk utility to erase my hard drive (it will pop up macOS recovery with this command: About macOS Recovery - Apple Support)

7. Rebooted again with command + option to Install El capitan from the stick (the stick wont show with command +r )

8. Hope, pray and sacrifice your soul then wait that the installation goes all the way to the end and for me this took ages, it looked really worrying once in a while with looong stops only white screen showing or text saying " about a second left" meaning 20-30 minutes but IT WORKED.

No screen problems, ghosting or "burns", no lagging, no pinwheel of death at the moment.

View in context

62 replies

Aug 2, 2018 3:31 AM in response to Christian Leigh

I have set my desktop colour to black.. That seems to help a bit, I guess because its not working the pixels as hard. Medium grey seems like the worst colour to use. Again, I'm sorry about raising hopes with the driver thing. It seems the only choice is some paliative course of action.. choosing colours etc. Its a bit crappy that the screen is doing this, as I said I don't remember this when the machine was new.

Aug 2, 2018 9:11 AM in response to Winemonkey

Well its been absolutely perfect since about 1pm, that 4 hrs continuous work... back and forth across multiple spaces and various apps staying static on screen for extended periods. The lock screen now does NOT show any information bleeding through. its basically perfect. That tells me undoubtedly that this is NOT " a thing that these panels do". It is some kind of intermittent software issue. Therefore the ball is back in Apples court. What the heck is going on here?

I did fiddle with the Nvidia pull down menu on the menu bar. I selected default Mac OS Graphics driver, and then I switched back again... to basically see if that would have any effect.. maybe it caused something to engage when it wasn't previously... I dunno. I hate intermittent problems like this.. they're an absolute arse to solve.

Aug 2, 2018 6:38 AM in response to Christian Leigh

This is most odd.. since rebooting and doing exactly as I was before using the machine for considerable lengths of time and the problem has gone away... no more artefacts. This is bizarre.

Aug 3, 2018 5:01 PM in response to Old Toad

It's been verified in previous posts that it's a software/driver issue. It was demonstrated to be a defect in a virtual macOS machine as well.

LuxViz Author

Level 1

34 points

Oct 1, 2017 12:38 AM in response to leroydouglas

I have done a restart and that didn't change anything. This is not that big a deal for me to go through a reinstall. I'm only trying to report what I see as a problem on my iMac in case others are having the same problem, and also in case Apple engineering is not currently aware of this problem. I will also try to file a bug report as I'm already an Apple Developer.

I'm adding camera-generated screen shots as the normal screen shots do not help in showing the 'artifacts' - which I now can tell are pixels from other windows which are "bleeding" through and into the top-most window, and which I can now tell are hidden app windows which are somehow still bleeding into the desktop image.

I'm including some more screen shots, this time taken with a camera (though hand-held and not corrected for lens distortion). But with literal screen shots, I think you are not actually able to see the extraneous pixel details that you can see with your eyes. The camera was able to capture the pixel artifacts.

The 2 vertical images show the artifacts visible in my Finder/Desktop image, and also the hidden window for Transmission which is doing some file downloads for movies. If you look at the image of the Transmission window, you can clearly match up the bleeding content in the Finder when the app window has been hidden. I've also included an image of bleeding coming into a Photoshop window, this time with the Transmission window in the background and not hidden.

Jan 9, 2018 6:07 AM in response to LuxViz

I have the exact same issue with my mid-2012, 27" iMac. It's been occurring for about the past 6 months and I've tried to ignore it, but it's getting worse. I contacted support through Twitter and they had me do all the standards things that others have done (and that I've done on my own)...but nothing has been resolved. These seems like it may be more of a hardware degrading problem. It's extremely problematic for doing any photography work b/c of the constant artifacts and bleeding.

I seriously doubt Apple would provide replacements/fixes for ~6 year old machines without significant cost. The idea of having to buy a new machine is not something I'm hoping to do.

Jan 25, 2018 6:36 AM in response to sdpz

My thoughts exactly!

Since I'm not going to spend another 3k for a new computer " just because" and I had perfectly working machine.
I had to go through a lot of trouble and installed El Capitan again. Everything works now. Not a single sign of ghosting. I really, really hope they will fix this sooner than later of ever. I really wish they would at least give an official comment about this.

Jobs would turn on his grave if he saw what kind of OS they pushed out, huge problems with a big variety of macs from old to new and let's not forget the security problems, audio button thing nor the automatically appearing random user account... So frustrating.

Feb 2, 2018 4:40 AM in response to spydrlink

For me, the screensaver would not work, since only leaving for example. Facebook open for ~4 minutes was enough to leave a "burn" to the screen. Meanwhile I edit images, I might need to search for stock images for example from the websites and even that lead to the burn.

It did remove the burn once in a while but not for long enough. I have sent my feedback but I'm quite sure Apple will not respond in any way or if it does the answer will be something like " Buy a new computer " 🙄

Feb 27, 2018 6:37 AM in response to JosefR_Auckland

"have switched back to the mac driver instead of the nvidia driver for now but havent fully tested it

might be a nvidia driver issue not an os issue"

I would call that an OS problem if it is not supporting the components inside the device that basically forces you to install the OS.

Jun 3, 2018 9:01 PM in response to LuxViz

Same issue here. Upgraded To High Sierra today from Sierra, immediately noticed the ghosting / retention. I waited months to update and still, still(!) we have issues? 😟

Will second the other comments in this thread related to it only being an issue on the iMac display. My external displays do not show any signs of ghosting.

Per MJ

Level 1

4 points

Jun 27, 2018 3:56 PM in response to LuxViz

Also having the exact same issue 😠

And when I boot from an external drive with 10.9.5 the problem's gone...

High Sierra: 10.13.4

Mac (27-inch, Late 2012)

3.4 GHz Intel Core i7

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2 GB

Jul 12, 2018 11:11 AM in response to Stephen Fuchs

I have the same issue, and its also the exact same spec machine.

Only difference is the OS. I am on 10.13.4

Its very obviously not screen burn because its only visible on the mission control screens left and right of the main desktop. (for example in the Dashboard if it has its own space). Looks like a bug in how the Graphics Card is being used.

Come on Apple.. don't let your loyal users down.

High Sierra 10.13.4

3.4 GHz Intel Core i7

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048MB

Aug 2, 2018 11:19 AM in response to Christian Leigh

I have virtualized OS X on a PC. The same issue is there too, which means it's not a graphic card issue, it is strictly software. I've checked around the net and Apple is aware of this but has given absolutely no response to it. I miss Steve!!!

DuncanMM

Level 1

4 points

Feb 1, 2018 10:56 AM in response to nik014

I would like to second this point. If everyone could submit a bug report here: Feedback - iMac - Apple

Then maybe they will listen to us!

Aug 3, 2018 5:03 PM in response to Old Toad

@Old Toad - If this was directed at me, I have a Late 2013 27-inch. The problem was duplicated on a PC with a virtualized OS X, so it has to be a software thing.

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High Sierra screen artifacts