Vertical Lines on LCD screen! Pls help!

[cuteimac]

Dear all,

Sad to say that my 1.5yrs old iMac G5 had 2 vertical lines on its screen lately! One is a very thin green line. The other one is a Light Blue thicker line than the 1st one. Had anyone experience this before? Please advise... and sad to say, i dont have any AppleCare. Can I buy another CRT or LCD monitor to link up with my iMac? How? So sad... heartpain..  Thank you.

[acidz]

Is yours related to and falls within the affected range at http://www.asia.apple.com/support/imac/repairextensionprogram/ ?

[cuteimac]

Hi Acidz,

Thank you for dropping this link. But no.. im iMac does not qualify.. Mine is the 3rd Gen.. Sad.

Is yours related to and falls within the affected range at http://www.asia.apple.com/support/imac/repairextensionprogram/ ?

[le petit prince]

my imac is also 3rd gen and had same issue, but i have applecare.

i think we got a bad batch with regard to LCd quality control.

[Koolz]

Yeah, having this problem too, mine's an intel imac first gen. It started out with one line, and now there's three of them! 

[cuteimac]

Hi Koolz,

Do u have warranty? Mine out of warranty liao. So sad. But wondering whether can buy a new monitor (Samsung) to connect to my mac or not. Coz apple centre says repairing the LCD will cost at least $600!! Faint.

Yeah, having this problem too, mine's an intel imac first gen. It started out with one line, and now there's three of them! 

[le petit prince]

yes, you can connect external LCD to your imac. your manual says so, and i have done it before too. it works.

[cuteimac]

Hi le petit prince,

Must i get any adaptor? Is there any types of LCD monitor i must get? Like wat screen resolution etc? Thanks thanks.

yes, you can connect external LCD to your imac. your manual says so, and i have done it before too. it works.

[le petit prince]

hi cuteimac, yes you need the video adapter.

please look up your manual - it sure is alot faster and easier than waiting for people to tell you here.

any CRT or LCD screen will work. macs work with standard equipment and components -  no need any special stuff.

cheers!

[Koolz]

Hi Koolz,

Do u have warranty? Mine out of warranty liao. So sad. But wondering whether can buy a new monitor (Samsung) to connect to my mac or not. Coz apple centre says repairing the LCD will cost at least $600!! Faint.

Yeah, having this problem too, mine's an intel imac first gen. It started out with one line, and now there's three of them! 

Mine's out of warranty too, and it's only a little more than a year old. Currently using my secondary display as my main display. I guess this is a design fault with iMacs?

[jazzman]

apparently this is a common issue among iMac G5 owners.  See disscusions.apple.com and look for display issues on the iMac G5.  It appears the problem might involve iMacs built at the W8 factory in Shanghai, China.  I would also suggest reporting the issue to Apple.  If there are enough of us reporting the issue, who knows maybe Apple will take responsibility.  I unfortunately did not purchase Applecare so will be interested to see how widespread this issue is.

[longgy]

Just noticed a yellow vertical line appear on mine.  Bought my iMac(i-sight) sometime around November 2005...good thing it came with APP as a package.  I do agree that this is somewhat of a fault on iMac and it somehow happens when the warranty just expired.  I called apple care and they told me that this is a hardware issue.  Micro 2000 will be picking up my machine tomorrow, I'm really glad they provide this free pickup and return service.

[Koolz]

Anyone's screen getting worst? Mine has got more than 30 lines now.  Gee..

[le petit prince]

If you don't have applecare, then plug in 2nd LCD.

I had only 2 lines and it drove me crazy. (repaired under applecare already.)

send in for repair without applecare will cost a bomb.. a few hundreds at least, i think.

[telok kurau]

Anyone's screen getting worst? Mine has got more than 30 lines now.  Gee..

I cured the problem by buying a mini VGA to VGA connector from Apple Store for my iMac G5 iSight - which was bought only in Oct 2005.  Incredibly the problem surfaced only a few months after the warranty expiry;-(  The solution worked and I connected it to a 19" widescreen LCD monitor and there was not a single line to be seen on the external monitor, but on the iMac, the lines kept multiplying until one section became a vertical unbroken bar of about 10 cm wide that was totally white!  Anyhow last week, the iMac mysteriously absolutely died (logic board problem, I was told by Micro2000, whom I sent the iMac to remove the hard disk and Superdrive).  This cable can't be used for the Intel iMacs, which use mini-DVI.  I made the mistake of ordering the latter from the Apple Store and had to pay a restocking fee when I found out my mistake. So, I have a fairly new mini VGA cable which I have no more use for.  Any offers?  I paid $35 for it, and will let it go for $25.

[le petit prince]

Eh, do post your sale of the video connector in the Buy n Sell sub-forum.

And sigh, with the horror stories and my own experience (of how applecare saved my iMac), now I've to add $300 for Applecare for any new iMac I buy in future..

[telok kurau]

I definitely will pay for Applecare for my next Mac (which will be my 6th Mac in 14 years).

[mactrek]

Just found a red vertical line on my Imac G5 isight. Sometime disappears. Is it possible to replace the lcd ourselves? or how much does it cost to get someone to replace it for me? Its about 2 years old. Apple quality getting bad, my 5 year old imac G4 is still running well. Will resetting the SMU help?

[telok kurau]

You can't replace the LCD;  the repair (a new LCD) will cost about $1,200.  I recommend you forget about repairing it.  I worked around the problem by buying the Applie mini-VGA to VGA cable which enables you to fix an external VGA monitor.  The lines won't appear on the external monitor, although the downside is that you have 2 monitors on at the same time.  You can't shut down the display on the iMac.  Please back up your hadrdisk immediately, because once the hard disk fails, it is very difficult to open up the G5 iSight to take out the hard disk to retrieve the data.  The earlier iMac G5s were easier to open (even Apple had manuals showing how users could do it themselves).  The G5 isgiht, in contrast, is virtually impossible to open up.

P.S.  If you want to buy the mini VGA cable, I will sell it for $25.

[mactrek]

Hi

I'm using the vga cable now and connecting it with a 19" samsung monitor. Using spanning doctor to span across both monitors and much more screen workspace.

You can't replace the LCD;  the repair (a new LCD) will cost about $1,200.  I recommend you forget about repairing it.  I worked around the problem by buying the Applie mini-VGA to VGA cable which enables you to fix an external VGA monitor.  The lines won't appear on the external monitor, although the downside is that you have 2 monitors on at the same time.  You can't shut down the display on the iMac.  Please back up your hadrdisk immediately, because once the hard disk fails, it is very difficult to open up the G5 iSight to take out the hard disk to retrieve the data.  The earlier iMac G5s were easier to open (even Apple had manuals showing how users could do it themselves).  The G5 isgiht, in contrast, is virtually impossible to open up.

P.S.  If you want to buy the mini VGA cable, I will sell it for $25.