I'm writing to you today about a problem which seems to be occurring in all the 20" iMac Core Duos to this day: the screen is filled with residual effects, which was supposed to have disappeared with the adoption of TFT LCDs.We would appreciate any input from owners of iMac Cor Duos that have a reaction to this story.
Here is a small example:
This photo is a still shot from a video of the screen of my iMac while I moved a window. The turquoise bands at the top of the window and the grey band at the bottom of the window are NOT effects of the video: this is what actually appears on the screen when a window is moved!
Hopefully I've piqued your curiosity. Now a little history...
I ordered my first 20" iMac Core Duo from the Apple Store at the end of January. When I received it, I was immediately struck by the very noticeable ghosting effects around certain elements in the Mac OS X interface. But another problem monopolizing my attention: a dead pixel. So I returned it to Apple, and I got another iMac from the Fnac in Annecy - I didn't want to wait for another delivery. Not happy to find two dead pixels on my new iMac, I also noted that the ghosting was still present. So I exchanged it for my third iMac, finally free of dead pixels, but still filled with extreme ghosting!
Slightly peeved, I decided to go check many other 20" iMacs before asking for another exchange. Surprisingly the other 3 iMacs which I tested were plagued with the same defect! The first that I looked at was at the Fnac in Annecy, and on this day there was an Apple representative there. He was very annoyed when I showed him the problem. The second was at Fnac in Grenoble. And the third was in a store in Grenoble which specializes in Apples. There too, the salesman made a funny face when he saw the problem.
At the same store, we could directly compare a 20" Apple cinema Display and the iMac screen. The result: no problem on the ACD but very noticeable artifacts on the iMac.
Today, after testing six 20" iMac Core Duos all with the same defect, I am convinced that ALL the 20" iMac Core Duos have this problem, which is unacceptable in my opinion for a 1800€ machine!
But enough of the blabbering. Here are some small tests which clearly show the problem:
iWeb :
- Launch iWeb
- If the model does not show, create a new site
- Move the iWeb window and observer the "Cancel" and "Choose" buttons: You should see pretty white trails around the two buttons
iTunes :
- Select the last source, on the bottom of the list
- Reduce the size of the window a little in order to be able to easily move it around the screen
- Move the window: you should see pretty turquoise trails around the selected source and also around all the text and the exterior of the Sources table
iPhoto/Finder :
- Open iPhoto
- Select an album with many photos
- Open a Finder window (preferably an empty or mostly empty one)
- Move the window over the photos in iPhoto: you should see the photos remain over the Finder window for too long a time for a 2006 screen
iMacDisplayTester :
- iMacDisplayTester is an application I made solely to highlight this problem. It can be found on my public iDisk (eric.morand) or here:
iMacDisplayTester.zip
- Launch iMacDisplayTester
- Move the blue block to the right and the left: you should see a quite visible white trail following the movement
- Return the block to the center of the window and move the window: you should see the same trails around the block and around the exterior of the window
It seems clear to me that these screens have a real problem with ghosting. It is also very obvious in First Person Shooters (Quake 1, is the only one that I have...) although it does not seem to be clearly discernible in the videos
It is however possible that the problem is not directly related to the quality of the LCD, but with the multitasking of the system and the management of the LCD.
