“Apple Support has locked a discussion thread about newly purchased iMacs exhibiting symptoms of problematic displays in what Tom’s Hardware is calling an act of censorship,” MacNN reports.
“The topic, titled ‘Bought new iMac 20″ Faded Screen,’ began on August 7th — the first day the new iMacs went on sale — and quickly became the primary place for new iMac owners to discuss their troubles of 20-inch and some 24-inch iMacs,” MacNN reports. “The discussion saw a slew of traffic in its early stages, which later soared to an average of 429 hits per day until Apple locked the topic to prevent further posts, according to the report.”
“From August 7th to November 18th the thread accrued more than 15,000 hits for an average of roughly 158 hits per day. That number rocketed up to 9,000 hits in just 21 days before Apple closed the thread,” MacNN reports. “What’s more, new posts about the gradient color issue in new iMacs are disappearing, with error messages taking their place in the forums. Apple has yet to reply to any of the posts regarding the issue in its Intel-based iMac Display support forum, and has not acknowledged the existence of any issue.”
Links included in MacNN’s article here.
I wonder who the supplier is for these LCDs. Could it be a problem getting decent quality monitors or just trying to maximize the profit margin? That is, if this really is as big an issue as it’s being made out to be. I know if I were having this problem I sure wouldn’t be happy. I agree that Apple needs to jump on these things as fast as possible to show they give a darn. At least acknowledge it.
ZOMFGWTFBBQ THE SKY IS FALLING APPLE SUXXORS.
I have a 24″ and my dad has a 20″ neither exhibit any problems as stated in this discussion. I think Apple was right in closing the thread because it just creates fear in making a purchase of an excellent computer. If you have a hardware problem call apple support! Don’t moan about it on the forums.
As for the glassy displays….I love them and they are a huge improvement over the DELL style dull matte displays of the past. I do believe all this whining over glossy displays is over blown. I hope they never go back to the dull faded colors of matte finish LCDs. Most of your new LCD and Plasma TV’s are glossy yet I dont here the same whining about them even though they are 2x -4x the size of an iMac. I guess these people are fine with the glare and eyestrain watching TV but have to complain to no end about a little computer monitor! Apple was right in switching to glass. I hope they continue this across their whole line of displays just like the LCD TV’s.
I am using a Core Duo 20″ Mac and have not noticed any problem. Actually, I am quite pleased with the quality of the screen. It’s the model prior to the glossy one that some seem to hate.
shove it up your @ss liar!
You’ve never been inside an Apple store and you didn’t buy any iPods. Admit it, you’re just a hater.
24″ glossy iMac for the holidays, it’s got issues with the LCD and the glossy screen totally sucks. I can’t see half the screen sometimes and can’t do anything because my apartment is small.
It’s going back for a Mini and a mid size Apple monitor. Apple’s matte screens are great compared to Dells or anyones. So comparing the two is dumb, especially a crappy matte vs a glossy.
My TV store has all matte screens, Sony has all matte TV screens in their stores. The Bravia is matte.
I have cheap tube like tv with glass, it sucks to watch because of the reflections.
Reflections suck, it hurts the eyes. but makes nice eye candy for idiots.
One important fact is that these Macs have at the very least 6 more months of warranty. So what is the big deal. If you have the problem, have Apple fix it. I have had to send a couple of Mac items back for service under warranty, every time I have gotten back a good working item. Every time, sometimes fixing it, others replacing it.
@Matrix3
Same here. I bought my 24″ iMac about the same time you did (around October). When I first turned it on I had spots covering about a third of the screen which looked to me like condensation behind the glass. I left it on to dry it out and the spots quickly went away never to return again. This is one of the best Macs I have ever owned (I also have a Mac Pro, a MacBook Pro, and a Titanium PowerBook and have had about eight previous Macs dating way back). When I bought the iMac I wasn’t sure whether I would like the glossy screen but I love it now, better than all the other Macs and it’s much easier on my eyes. I work in a reasonable well-lit room and have had no problem with glare. It also presents a much sharper image. I’m a very happy Apple customer.
what!?
apple doesn’t like negative publicity?
nevAr…
sounds like something microsuck would pull. maybe apple really is getting too big for its britches.
i bet they wouldn’t have pulled the plug on a thread praising the displays. intolerable.
Please stop complaining about your Mac screens. Any true fanboy knows that we must continue to pretend that all new Apple hardware doesn’t have serious problems for the first six months or so until Apple sorts them out. Again, understand you must not trash Apple products in this forum. You must pretend that your Mac is fine.
Maybe I’m just not allowing for the extra screen size but everything looks kind of squished and stretched on my new 20 inch 2.4Ghz iMac. I’ve set the the computer on the highest screen setting and it doesn’t make any difference.
I phoned Apple tech support and the tech. guy I spoke to said the the geometry may be out.
The spinning ball is a kind of longer and less rounder. Jpegs are stretched to varying degrees. Any ideas? I can’t find any information on this issue. My old 17 inch G5 iMac displayed images perfectly but not this iMac. I’m really dissatisfied. For the record I saw the same problem with my sister’s G4 emac.
Have a bunch of iMacs, and all are good.
One hard drive died, OK.
Apple locks threads when they either cease to be useful or get out of hand.
From what I’ve heard, the last updates fixed issues.
If there’s a bad hardware bit, get it repaired – what’s the big deal?
I have a 24″ iMac. Screen resolution/brightness is superb. However, on occasion the machine freezes even after applying Apple’s fix.
I haven’t followed up with Apple Care (yet) as I’m not ready to go down that rabbit-hole. Waiting for SuperDuper to release its Leopard version. My plan is to bu via SuperDuper, then erase/install Leopard. If the freeze continues, then I’ll call Apple Care.
Busted!
The Shepherd is leading the blind.
Pete is the Realist. The Realist is Pete. Long live Pete.
I’m not in any way bashing Apple… but the time of unchecked customer loyalty should’ve passed long ago. This incident is only a minor blip though, bigger screw-the-customer snafus have happened. No doubt there is more to come.
Be loyal, be a fanboy… but stop being blind sheep.
@@ Pete,
Pete is not fully accurate in his assessment of Windows’ 99.9% monopoly of law practices. More than 5300 law offices subscribe to Randy Singer’s The MacAttorney Newsletter. Singer co-authored The Mac Bible, and he also wrote The Macintosh Software Guide for the Law Office.
Apple estimates that 25% of Law businesses use Macs as their computer of choice.
So if theloniousMac says he installed 35 Macs in one law firm, it’s completely feasible… i.e., probably true.
My experience with forums of any kind (motorcycle, computer, music, etc) is that if ONE single person has a problem, then many other people start claiming to have problems. Like sympathetic pregnancy. Like with the current bike I have. Two guys had their bikes fall over off the kick stand in the parking lot and cause damage to the fairings, etc. All of a sudden, Kawasaki has a defective kickstand design, stop the presses! We need to petition for a recall! Kawasaki should pay for all damages, etc. In reality, you have two bozo’s that don’t know how to park a bike properly, and don’t want to take responsibility for being stupid or careless.
All that being said, I have never seen an iMac with a screen related issue. Does this mean the problem does not exist? No, I am sure there are a few folks out there with problems. But I would like to see them before I believe it’s the huge deal everyone is making it out to be.
Perhaps the admins are locking the posts down because it’s a bunch of windows fools posting… Like they come on here and post, just as easily.
I have an Imac 24″ the new one. No screen issues here. The computer runs flawless. Great PC, great software. Its up stairs. I have a macbook running beside my XP SP2 machine, a DELL
The macbook rarely needs to be rebooted. I do agree, that it is bugger now that i have leopard, Tiger was more stable, but Tiger was a deep version. My Dell with Xp SP2 needs to be reset all the time. web pages tend to lock the machine up. PDF files give it major issues and so does the Microsoft office suite.
Well crap, I thought Super Duper was Leopard compatible already! Can’t believe I missed this. I was going to install 10.5 over the holidays. Guess I will have to wait also. No way am I going without Super Duper.
>>No one is listening. Glossy shows the colors better regardless of your uniformed opinion.
I guess that’s why Apple’s Cinema Displays (S-IPS based) are *ALL* matte, and designed for graphic professionals…
>>As for the glassy displays….I love them and they are a huge improvement over the DELL style dull matte displays of the past. I do believe all this whining over glossy displays is over blown. I hope they never go back to the dull faded colors of matte finish LCDs.
See above…
>>Most of your new LCD and Plasma TV’s are glossy yet I dont here the same whining
This 100%, absolutely, *quantifiably*, FALSE. PERIOD.
This is 100%, absolutely, *quantifiably*, FALSE. PERIOD.
Damn, we need to be able to edit posts!
Past performance is no indication of future results.
@Fanboy Frigtard
I agree totally. Don’t complain about Apple, and don’t say anything controversial on this forum or MDN blocks you. I am glad that Apple censors the stupid users who think they have problems with the perfect equipment they make. I am appreciative that MDN recognizes Apple never makes a mistake. And I am also happy the telecom industry helps the NSA monitor every single person in the U.S.
Freedom isn’t free. I love that we have arrived in 1984 and none of us are allowed to get out of line. I sure have learned my lesson
I have a 20″ core duo and a core 2 duo macBook. No screen problems at all. The graphics on the imac developed a weird lock up issue, but apple sent a tech to my house and just in case, he pretty much replaced everything except the drives. New main board, video card, power supply and ram. Damn, that’s good service. No other problems now.
Shh. Apple killed Kennedy.