Dead/Stuck pixels HELP!

So theres a little story when it comes to my post. About two weeks ago i brought my powerbook g4 into a local apple store to have the screen replaced because i had a cluster of dead(white) pixels. They were very nice about it and sent it out and replaced the screen. I got the machine back and last night i was using it and noticed a flickering pixel so i brought it to a closer apple store, the genius saw it and also identified another deal pixel as well and they were able to replace the screen within an hour. So.. i recieved the laptop with another new screen and when i got to my car i turned it on to inspect it and right off the bat i saw 2 dead pixels. I went into the store and they said that the dead pixels were withing normal defects with the moniters and nothing they could do. Apon further inspection i noticed that on the screen, there are about 40 stuck blue pixels, 6 red stuck pixels and about 5 dead(white) pixels. i brought it back and talked to a manager who could only see one dead pixel and nothing else.(im assuming he was blind) He told me they could do a courtasy fix and try to remove the dead pixel. Also stating a replacement warrents 10 dead pixels(which is odd for the replacement of the other times) Now having this screen replaced twice before in the past 2 weeks this would be a third major repair and i feel like in fear of the no lemon policy he was hesitant to help me. i need advice on what to do. the laptop is about 3 years old and is still covered under applecare.

powerbook g4

Posted on Jan 27, 2007 12:57 AM

Reply
18 replies

Jan 27, 2007 5:23 AM in response to tobcore

Welcome to the Apple discussions.

If after the 3rd replacement there are still dead pixel issues, you can ask Apple customer service for a like replacement of your system with something that will not have dead pixels. There's no guarantee that they will do that, but you can ask for it.

There are some general industry definitions for what constitutes a bad screen based on pixels - not one consistent one, however. Typically the definitions would cover your original issue, a cluster of dead pixels. Replacing a screen with one dead pixel was definitely a courtesy to you, because they could have told you, as you were told on your second replacement, that one dead pixel was within tolerance for a working screen.

Jan 27, 2007 6:25 AM in response to BGreg

Thank you so much for your quick response. I understand and apreciate your advice. I wish i knew in the beginning that i would be getting a worse screen i wouldnt have minded the one pixel, haha. But who would have known. Im going to take a ride over and explain the problem again and see what they say.

Thank you very much!

Feb 1, 2007 1:58 PM in response to tobias Eichner

well i went to the store and after several tries to convince the genius that the pixels were in fact there, after bringing it to the back for darker situations he easily saw the issue. he sent it out, heres the fun part. i sent it out last saturday. on the 30th after checking the status i found the status said on hold need information. i called them and asked about this and after about an hour on the phone they got back to me saying they were having problems replicating the problem(blows my mind) i explain and th gentleman made notes and said it should be on its way to be fixed. check status today still says needs information as of right now i am on the phone with applecare for the 3rd time today after getting hung up on/disconnected and being run in circles. i would really like some answers bc i am a student in graphic design and well i need my laptop in order to do work. i dont understand why this is taking so long to fix and why its so hard to get these people to see the problem on the screen, in all honesty it is very visable with a black background and low light situations which i told them. i am not the only one to see the problem, many people have confirmed it. so thats all for right now. i was waiting to get a resoution before i posted back but i figured why not give an update. thank you everyone for the interest.

Feb 1, 2007 3:53 PM in response to tobcore

I had a similar issue with my screen discoloring and the guys at the repair depot could not see the problem and shipped it back. Below is what I sent to Apple. This is still a pending issue. I know this doesn't really help you out, but i thought I would share.

Email #1
I got an email asking to contact Apple Care because they needed more information on my Powerbook that is being looked at. Apparently they were not able to see what the problem was. I thought I would send this as well in case it helped describe the issues I am having. The screen has a green and sometimes pink hue in the upper left corner (about the size of a baseball) when using any other color calibrated profile other than the standard default Color LCD profile. The color gets worse when I try to use a color calibrated profile, which I MUST do since the machine is used for photo retouch and photosimulations for my business. This has started happening in the past month or so and is getting worse. I brought it in to the Apple store where the Mac Genius looked at it and right off the bat said "This needs to go in for repairs". He also noticed that in the same location of the screen by the menu bar there is some distortion and explained to me that there have been some issues like this one with the Hi-Res Powerbooks. I really need to get this taken care of, so please let me know if you need any further information from me that will assist you.

Email #2
My concern was that I gave a detailed scenario on what the issue is and even called Apple Care explaining exactly step by step and what color profiles to use so the technicians can see exactly what my Powerbbook is doing. Once I gave the information, the technician sent the information to the repair depot and not more than an hour later I saw that the status of my repair said the repair WAS MADE and the powerbook was being shipped back to me. I received the powerbook and noticed on the work order that it states that the problem, could not be re-produced so they didn't do anything and shipped it back to me. The problem with the color of the screen is still clearly there and is an issue with my line of work. I spend $2500 on a top of the line laptop that I have had for less than a year and the issue that I am having isnt taken care of when I send it in for repair. My warranty is about to expire and I was going to purchase the extended Apple Care warranty, but why would I spend $350 on an extended warranty when the warranty that came with the Powerbook when I bought the machine clearly should of covered this issue, which shouldn't be happening to begin with on such a new machine.

15-Inch Powerbook G4, 1.67Ghz, 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

15-Inch Powerbook G4, 1.67Ghz, 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Feb 1, 2007 4:42 PM in response to Craig Upton

well got off the phone with the gentleman who was helpfulnd really seemed to care about an unhappy costumer and just now i check the status for the **** of it and it still says on hold but this time instead of info needed says part on order, so looks like they will replace whatever is causing the problem. he also said in notes made today and the service center that more dead subpixels were found. so im glad they dont think im crazy and seeing things anymore, haha

and thank you for sharing your story with me im glad im not the only one who had/has to fight for what is wrong and they dont see. its unbelievable that we can spend so much money and they cant see the biggest of things wrong with a laptop. im just glad that hopefull..soon? ill be getting my laptop back

Feb 2, 2007 1:53 AM in response to Craig Upton

My warranty is about to expire and...


Since you have contacted Apple about the screen problem, it doesn't matter if your warranty expired in the meantime. You still have the legal right to get it repaired. (At least I can state so for German law, but the US one is even more customer-friendly in most cases)

I would simply go to the Apple Store again and demand a repair. As you already stated, you bought an expensive notebook computer that should be of a high quality level (for this reason we are all spending more money for Apple products, right 🙂

Feb 8, 2007 7:11 PM in response to Craig Upton

ok so i got it back and all seemed well no dead pixels at all which was a huge sigh of relief, but there is something that is plagueing me. on an angle there seems to be a 2 white strips that go vertically down the screen, i dont know if this is normal or if it is suposed to be there, any help would be greatly apreciated. here are 2 links with pictures of the problem the second line is not so visable but the first one def. is.

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/5572/screen1kh5.jpg

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8840/screen2do7.jpg

thanks again guys.

powerbook g4

Feb 9, 2007 6:16 AM in response to tobias Eichner

im not sure if we are speaking of the same white line, but i hope we are. although it is more difficult to see in the photo's since the camera doesnt quite capture it, in person it is more apparent. here are the 2 pictures with the strip marked.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/1684/screen1copynr2.jpg

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6578/screen2copynl4.jpg


and also thought it was kind of funny while looking over my screen last night, i also found 3 dead pixels i was ammused by this again.

Feb 9, 2007 6:22 AM in response to tobias Eichner

im not sure if we are speaking of the same white line, but i hope we are. although it is more difficult to see in the photo's since the camera doesnt quite capture it, in person it is more apparent. in person it seems as though there is a 5 inch boc with a white strip on each side and it fades from left to right. i didnt even think twice about it last week when i noticed it but last night a friend of mine noticed it and mentioned that it didnt look normal at all.
here are the 2 pictures with the strip marked.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/1684/screen1copynr2.jpg

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/6578/screen2copynl4.jpg


and also thought it was kind of funny while looking over my screen last night, i also found 3 dead pixels i was ammused by this again.

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Dead/Stuck pixels HELP!

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