Posted on 07/16/2015 12:58:27 PM PDT by dennisw
Thousands of MacBook owners have grouped together to vent their frustrations over screen damage affecting Apple's displays.
MacBook users outraged over 'Staingate' display damage
"We are a group of Apple customers that paid more than 2000 USD/EUR for a Macbook that is showing horrific stains in the screen," writes the group on its website, Staingate.org.
"The stains can start as early as 7 months after the purchase. There is no clear pattern as to how it starts: some experience it in small spots around the edge, on other screens it appears in the middle as large patches."
Apple claims that this is "cosmetic damage" and as such it is not covered by the warranty, leaving owners facing repair costs that can total up to $800.
The worst affected MacBooks appear to be those sold in 2013 but it seems that the problem dates back to 2009.
The group says it has been contacted by more than 3,000 people so far, and US law firm Whitfield Bryson & Mason has contacted the organization's Facebook group offering to help. The law firm has already begun collecting data.
On the face of it the damage appears to be afflicting the antireflective coating applied to the display. Something - and that something could range from user abuse to a manufacturing defect - seems to have caused the coating to decay, leaving behind what appears to be an ugly stain. Retirement Lessons: Saving More Today Leads To More Certainty Later Find out why. Watch as Glenn O'Brien, Head of Distribution of Pension Risk Transfer at Prudential Retirement, explains. Sponsored by Prudential
In all my experience of using, abusing, damaging, and repairing devices, I've never seen a screen suffer that sort of damage. If you've come across this problem, let me know in the comments section below.
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Yeah I had that same problem with my older, first generation, MacBook Pro. I spilled an entire glass of wine all over the MacBook Pro. I was terrified that I ruined it...but after turning it upside and letting the keyboard dry I found it worked fine without skipping a beat. But a little wine had infiltrated the screen in the lower left and to this day it still has that stain.
I bought my first Mac in 1985 or 86?? (Fat Mac 512K)....it still works.
So does every other Mac I’ve purchased since then. They just move down the line.
I've seen something similar on older laptops when the screen is pressed or hit hard. Perhaps when someone cleans the screen they press down to hard on it. It doesn't take too much pressure to disturb the layers in an LCD or similar type screen.
Yea! That’s it! Get a class action lawsuit going! The lawyers need new homes! You people with the bad screens will get a voucher for a discount on your next Macbook purchase!
The question was not directed at you, so kindly step aside.
The premise is that Dennis trolls Apple threads with an irrational hatred.
The question to Dennis stands:
Will you post the story when Apple replaces all of the affected machines (or repairs the screens)?
"The question was not directed at you, so kindly step aside." Seriously? Bite me.
"The premise is that Dennis trolls Apple threads with an irrational hatred." Just YOUR OPINION.
"The question to Dennis stands:
Will you post the story when Apple replaces all of the affected machines (or repairs the screens)?" It's still moronic, maroon, because it requires him to concede an unproven premise in order to answer it.
I reiterate: Bite me.
User uses laptop and gets acidic finger secretions on the keys and the track pad. User closes the laptop, bringing the screen in contact with the contaminated keys and track pad. Then the acid slowly eats away the screen's anti-reflective coating, resulting in the unsightly problem.
Apparently, some users are more finger-acid challenged than others.
More here (search for PlotinusVeritas's comments).
Then I'd expect the problem to be exacerbated if it spends any amount of time closed and stored on a surface that's subject to vibration.
Even a small amount of vibration could microscopically bounce those keys against the screen surface, pounding those contaminants into the screen coating.
Wow, that’s weird.
A glass of wine? That was your problem right there. When posting on the interwebs wine should be consumed straight from the bottle preferably still in the brown paper sack.
it looks for all the world like the tried to polish those screens with SPAM.....
IF they had lots of people registering their complaints, I would expect all of them to send in photos of their compromised, damaged MacBooks. . . not just a few examples. I know that I would have page after page of members' computers with problems, not just 21 photos of various views of the same three computers. Their FaceBook page suffers from the same issue. . . lots of posts, but almost all the photos come from the same 21 photos. . . or show obvious scrapes on the poster's screens. . . and some show obvious bubbles, which mean they have a screen film on them. Something smells to high heaven here.
Far down in the Facebook listings is a fellow who took his MacBook into a Genius bar which similar stains and they were able to CLEAN these stains off!
They basically degreased it. . . amazing. I wonder if these people use them in houses with heavy fry cooking?
Others worked on theirs with alcohol, also a degreaser, and got similar results. I think that may be the definitive answer. . .
Oh, and DennisW? Apple is handling this . . . according to the people on FaceBook.
And I still find it strange that i find going through the Facebook page for Staingate.org, that almost every single complaint comes from foreign users, not US users. Is there some product being sold in Europe. Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK that affects MacBook screens that is not used over here????
Nah, they'll get a voucher for three free months of Apple Streaming Music. . .
That's an interesting theory. . . but more likely the screen gets closed on a keyboard that's just been cleaned with something more caustic, acidic, or made of a prohibited material. I strongly suspect looking at this one a cleanser with Ammonia in it such as Windex. There is an over-spray pattern toward the track-pad. Look at where the damage on the screen is imprinted on the screen. . . it's not where the fingers hit the keys. . . but where they do not. This particular screen pattern is not typical of the damage. Some of them show distinctive scratch patterns of over cleaning.
Another possibility is the ubiquity for some people to use disinfecting sprays or gels. That might be a better fit for the pattern we see on this screen. User wipes some disinfectant gel on the keyboard, types on it which removes some from the keys where the fingers hit. . . and the closes the laptop, imprinting the screen with excess gel on the screen, which dries on or degrades the screen.
Do you have irrational hatred, too?
Yes, he does. Check his postings in other Apple threads.
In the old Soviet Union (and now in Venezuela) you couldn’t buy toilet paper. Here in the U.S., the gay Communists produce defective Mac screens. See a pattern?
Yes, from people who don't use Macs and Apple products. . . who don't know what they are talking about, like you. The percentage of claimed defective MacBook screens is 0.00000075%! Most computer makers would kill to have that level of failures.
Meanwhile there are some posters who suffer from MAPS. Here is the diagnostic code for that:
Swordmaker's and Kathy's proposed diagnosis for the new IDC-10 addenda:
90210 iOS Munchausen's Apple-Plexy Syndrome (MAPS), The overwhelming compulsion to post negative, judgmental, aggressive, and false commentary on any website thread related to Apple products wherever found, including phobic reaction to projected Apple user euphoria. First and subsequent encounters.
Pretty weak trolling.
86'ed.
Will you post the story when Apple replaces all of the affected machines (or repairs the screens)?
Maybe your mouth is full– of irrational hatred?
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