24" iMac Display Backlight Failure

This afternoon, an issue developed on my iMac 24" (Mid-2007) where the top half of my display seemed like it flickered and burned out. What it looks like currently is a very dramatic gradient from dark to light. I haven't found any support documents or discussions that address an issue like this.
I tried restarting my computer and to no avail, the problem persists. Also tried resetting the SMC and booting from the Install CD, and this did not fix the problem either. The basic Apple Hardware Test did not identify anything wrong (I did not do the extended test).
I am suspecting that the backlight in my display is failing. I wanted to see if anyone else encountered this issue and any thoughts about what could possibly be wrong. I am afraid that my iMac might be Genius Bar bound if no solution exists. I'm scared of what the repair costs might be...
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Maikeru-san

I experienced the same issue. When I don't use the iMac 27" and it automatically powers down I hear this ticking clock noise.
Troubleshooting Questions to Apple Support:
1) Is this automatic standby the same mode like manual standby mode?
2) it's not a display pitch sound but rather a HDD heads parking sound
3) Is this a hardware defect or a software issue?
My iMac is 48hours old and I bought it brand new directly from Apple.

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I just got my first imac and I've been learing the ins and outs. One thing that bothers me though is that when I'm visiting many web pages I find that images, thumbnails, movie clips, etc. are rendered with so much detail they tend to look distorted. I've been searching for a way to dial down the sharpness overall and I can't seem to make it happen. All I've been able to find are the display settings which jump from 1440x900 (which I'm using now) to 1152x720 (which is muddy and ugly). I enjoy the sharpness and clarity of my monitor when it comes to viewing text but for film clips and jpegs I prefer a softer focus.
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Could adjusting the brightness and other settings, perhaps making a
custom profile in displays, changing contrast, etc could help.
The only other mention of displays being too bright and/or clear was
in reference to the new 24" iMac Intel® computer, and some posters
in a forum stated ideas, here: Decrease Brightness Further?
On my older iMacG4 1.25GHz 17" USB 2.0 I chose to adjust down the
brightness (keyboard buttons F14 - F15) to save the display backlight
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Experience with backlight failure?

My 5 year old 17" display is emitting a short/short/long flash which indicates a backlight failure. I went to the Apple Store and they told me it would cost 400 bucks to repair--not worth it 'cause my machine is due to be replaced soon anyways. The screen itself still works, though it is shaded on the bottom third.
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Many Apple Display owners have had this problem. There are deleted threads and archived threads on this common symptom that may have a few different causes. Some have found that unplugging, straightening the cable and replugging fixes the problem. Others seem to find that the inverter must be replaced as no amount of cable fiddling will repair the problem.
I just solved my display's flashing power button problem this way. I placed a thin cardboard spacer underneath the cable connector to keep it raised as it seems to make a better connection. Perhaps the connection is the reason for the symptom, but later, the improper connection causes the inverter to fail permanently.
I had this symptom while my 20" Cinema Display was under AppleCare back in October. I took it to the Apple Store and it worked fine for them (more reason for me to believe that it's connector-related). Now, it has started flashing again and I dreaded coming up with the cash to buy a new screen. Thankfully, the reconnect while holding the connector "up" seems to have stopped my flashing.
Good luck!

IMac - Display doesn´t work after restart

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To tell you the truth, I don't know if they have to repalce the LCD panel or what they do for a bad backlight. In this reality of block or assembly replacement it probably involves repalcing the panel and not the backlight component. Don't know what it would cost. You'd have to ask that of a service center.

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Does the new iMac have an on/off button for the display that is separate from the on/off power button for the iMac itself?
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Sleeping the entire machine is one thing. Sleeping the display is a separate issue.
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This thread shows many other people having the same problem:
http://mac.elated.com/2007/02/02/why-cant-you-turn-off-the-screen/
It seems this has been a problem for well over a year and I've not even seen Apple acknowledge the issue. IMHO, not being able to leave applications running with the backlight turned off is a critical design flaw. If I'd known this in advance, I'd have bought a Windows PC Now regretting my iMac purchase...

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I thought a cable extender might help by moving the device cables to a fixed position, but the problem is still going to affect whatever is plugged directly into the iMac, though any failures there would be less expensive to replace than the longer device cables.
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If you secure the cables to the case rear, parallel and as close as possible to the display's rotational axis, you'd essentially be using the same technique used to route display cables in portable Macs. Unfortunately they can't exactly coincide with the axis of rotation since it's internal, but that ought to prolong their life.
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Other sources: Amazon, Staples, Wal-Mart

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Hello.
I've replaced my old late-model 2006 iMac (Core2Duo) with a new Mac mini. I'm going to be using the iMac to run Lion server (replacing an old G4 running Leopard server). Since I'm going to be placing the iMac in a server closet and managing it remote (via ARD), I don't need/want the display to be on. Aside from physically disconnecting the iMac display (which I'd rather not do), does anyone know of a way to "turn off" an iMac display?
I know I can do things like run a screen saver of a black image, etc. but that means the iMac is still using the backlight, etc. to display the black image. I know there's no official Apple-supported way to do this, but I'm hoping someone might know of a third-party hack that might work?
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Kristin.

Yea, as stated in my question — since I'll be remote managing the box, sleeping the display won't work (as when I remote in, it's considered a mouse movement and the display turns on).
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k.

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Hi,
the new iMac has a glass surface which makes it hard to calibrate with mostly every older calibration tools.
I now use the new Datacolor Spyder3Pro which works perfectly on my iMac. It has been specially designed for glossy display, LED backlight and wide gamut screens...
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Following is a copy of a message I sent to Apple about my iMac. I am very frustrated about this issue and I seriously think it warrants investigation, I have found many cases of this online, anyone else have this problem here?
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I understand your frustration; however, these forums are user to user only - no Apple employees here. If you wish to contact Apple, either use any of the contacts on this page:
http://www.apple.com/contact/
or use the feedback method:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/

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I have just connected my iMac to my 42" Panasonic 1080p TV, the connection was easy and is working fine. My questions relates to putting the iMac display to sleep when using the TV as a monitor, if I am watching You Tube, Sky Player or a DVD, I intend to use my TV as the monitor. Is it possible for the iMac to puts its display to sleep, whilst leaving the TV on. I played around with this today, however was unable to manage this.
Regards Craig

Hi Craig
There is no way to independently sleep either the iMac's Display or an attached Display/TV. However if in the Display Arrangement Preferences you set the attached Display or TV to be the Main Display and turn Mirroring Off, then FrontRow and the Full Screen Mode app's like, DVD player, QuickTimePlayer, etc. will black out the unused iMac display.
Dennis

Intel imac display glitch and involuntary restart

Just want to know if anyone else has experienced this specific problem, there are plenty of complaints about intel imac displays but I can't be bothered to sift through them all trying to find a match for my problem.
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Since then I have updated from 10.4.7 to 10.4.10 (which I have suspicion that it screwed the firmware in my motu 828 firewire audio interface, costing me a £130 repair - but that's another painful story).
It happened again tonight (the screen thing, not the motu). And the ball came up and I couldn't do anything. Force shut down, restart - screen glitching again. Then I had 2 unexpected restarts, one getting stuck in startup. Then a successful startup but accompanied by the glitchy graphics, mainly red/pink pixellated diagonal lines flickering in and out. I ran a disk first aid - no problems. Did a disk permission repair. Shut down and ran a hardware test, the first few minutes of the test the screen was still at it but then stopped glitching, hardware test found no errors (it was an extended test too). Now I'm back on it and it's all OK.
Any suggestions/similar stories?
When it occured 2 months ago I had the original ram that came with the imac. Now I have 2x1GB sticks of crucial ram.

That's it! Well, that's what I have. Unfortunately, I don't know about the cause, but I don't ever recall having it prior to an update going back about a year ago. I recall an update, and that update being immediately followed by some sort of Apple Graphics something-or-other. I feel pretty certain that's when I first noticed this. I just had my LCD replaced for another reason, but I think you'll agree, it's not an LCD issue. In my case, browser activity, scrolling up or down in a page, seems to be the most common trigger. I've also seen "pieces" of the torn page, on the screen when minimizing the browser to the dock (usually Firefox, but I think I've seen it with Opera and Safari too). Is there a way to find update packages installed somewhere? I'd know it if I saw it, and I'd definitely try removing that suspect package/update.
Message was edited by: geekboy2000 - corrected OS

User Contributed Tips in Intel-based iMac Your Intel-based iMac Display

*The following User Contributed Tips are located in the Intel-based iMac > Your Intel-based iMac Display forum:*
a brody - Using a second Mac as a display for a first
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1587927
Publish date: July 7, 2008
*The following related tips are located in other areas of Apple Discussions:*
See also User Tips Library

My 20" 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo had become almost useless due to freezes and crashes- with NO crash reports in the logs.
They were often preceeded by video glitches, so I assumed it was a bad video card- unfortunately soldered to mother board.
Apparently, from forum postings, this is not an uncommon problem. The computer would run longer if the day was cooler, but rarely more than 10 minutes, so I suspected it was aggravated by heat.
Then I found this post from Bodomann on an Apple Support forum:
"Following up on my previous posting regarding my son's late model 2006 iMac that required a $900 logic board replacement:
Turns out the problem is apparently related to a bad CPU temp sensor. I installed 'iMac Fan Control' (Google it) which reported the CPU temp always at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (obviously incorrect). The same software allowed me to adjust the CPU fan manually. After multiple trials I set the CPU speed to 2800RPM after which the system would run forever - never freezing with the dreaded grey box 'reboot me' screen. I tried several times reverting the software to default speeds and the system would always crash within 10 minutes. "
I downloaded free Fan Control 1.2 for Imac from Derman Enterprises (they have an Intel iMac and a Mac Book/Pro version). It installs as a system preferences control panel. I cranked up all three fan speeds. The fans sped up noticeably. Horizontal lines have gone from screen (so far), no color artifacts and no crashes yet. I may have a real computer back! Hope Apple checks this out-
The control panel also gives the temps sensors are reporting at the CPU, hard drive and DVD drive. The CPU sensor reports the CPU temp as 32 degrees F- which is clearly wrong, unless Apple has been installing little refrigerators inside.
So thanks to Bodomann for posting- Hats off and three cheers to Derman and Cristoph for source code.
http://www.derman.com/iMac-Fan-Control
http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/index.html

When streaming a movie from an imac to apple tv, is there a way of putting the imac display off? I find it a waste having the screen on in another room. Any advice?

When streaming a movie from an imac to apple tv, is there a way of putting the imac display off? I find it a waste having the screen on in another room. Any advice?

No problem.
This is a user forum so you are not addressing Apple. There's nothing to fix, that's how home-sharing works. There would be no way for the ATV to recognize your library and display content if the computer is in sleep mode.
You can always airplay from an IOS device or use icloud if you don't wish to keep the computer on.

Why does my iMac display go off when I am starting up or waking up my machine from sleep..

Why does my iMac display go off when I am starting up or waking up my machine from sleep..?
When my iMac goes to sleep I then later try to click the magic track pad or keyboard and it will usually then show the initial password entry login screen and then go off. The machine is still on but the display is black and will sometimes flash up the screen again if I press the magic track pad or keyboard but will then black out again..

Well, there are many different reasons why it does this. It might shut off due to power voltage problems, system overheats, or there is a System Problem. The reason it might be hard to boot up is because your power button might not work properly or your system hard drive is damaged.
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My 27" iMac displays vertical green lines when turned on and then will not boot up

Can anyone tell me why my 27" iMac displays vertical green lines when it is turned on and then will not boot up?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
The display or graphic card are damaged. The only thing you can do is to take your computer to an Apple Store or reseller to get your computer repaired.
If you use an external display with your Mac, connect it to your computer and see if these lines appear on the external display. If so, it's a graphic card problem

24" iMac Display Backlight Failure

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