IMac 24" Aluminum screen dims like notebook

So this is kinda weird. For some reason if I do not do anything for a minute (move mouse, touch keyboard) the screen dims like on the notebooks when they try to save power. Something tells me this isn't right... Anyone have any ideas or experiencing the something?

Google: [10.4.12 ?|http://www.google.com/custom?q=10.4.12+?&sa=Search&client=pub-626330033301395 7&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT:%23008000;GL:1;DIV:%23336699;VLC: 663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000F F;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;&hl=en]

Similar Messages

Any news on imac G5 20" screen dimming?

I have been living with the top half of my screen dimming intermittently for the past 4 months or so. The bottom half stays bright. I have to sleep the computer to bring it back and it's a pain. I brought it to the Apple store a couple months ago (my machine falls into the recall serial #s) and the genius said the capacitors are fine and that it was due to bad memory. I pulled my aftermarket memory - and it still does it. I saw a lot of people asking about this months ago but never saw any definitive answer. Thanks - 1st post
imac G5 20" Mac OS X (10.4.5)
imac G5 20" Mac OS X (10.4.5)

gdan7:
I had this problem when Apple replaced my screen for the "white banding" on the lower half of the screen. Take a look at these instructions for replacing the inverter. If your comfortable with working around the internals of the machine this may help.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/imacG5_20inchInverter.pdf
When you open the document it will show you the internals of the G5. If you go to page 11 it shows a little connector inside a little grey box. If that connector is not seated properly you'll get the half-screen dimming. All I did was reseat the connector and made sure all the twists were out of the cable to make sure there was no stress on the connector. It worked fine after that.
Good luck.
Dan Reilly
Sarasota, FL

Is there a way to have an external monitor dim like the main screen on an iMac?

i have an apple 24 inch external monitor attached to a 27 inch imac. the main screen dims according to the energy saver settings but the external monitor stays bright. there seem to be no settings in the energy saver pane in system settings to control the dim function, any suggestions?

could you not just connect it with the vga adapter and then turn the brightness of your screen all the way down so there is no light? i had to do that for my ibook g4 when i cracked the lcd, but thankfully i have my macbook now.

IMac screen dims itself automatically; all attempted fixes fail; how can normal brightness be restored?

Machine and OS:
2007 white plastic iMac with 20" screen and 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, running OSX 10.6.8.
The problem:
The screen dims itself for no known reason. It is especially noticeable when waking from sleep: for the first second or two after waking up, the screen is at normal brightness -- but then after a second the computer seems to "remember" some setting or command, and the screen unquestionably dims itself to be about 20% or 25% darker.
Because the screen for a brief moment after waking is at full brightness, that proves to me that there is nothing physically "broken" about the display that prevents it from illuminating fully; it could be at full brightness if it "wanted to," but some kind of software or firmware glitch is telling it to be dimmer.
The fixes I have attempted so far -- ALL of which have FAILED (so please don't recommend them again):
- Reset the NVRAM or PRAM by holding down Command-option-P-R upon startup. For some reason this technique doesn't cause the second chime, so it doesn't appear to be zapping the NVRAM or PRAM or whatever, and consequently has no effect on the dimness, which persists unchanged after restarting.
- Reset the NVRAM using the terminal command ' sudo nvram boot-args=”-p -r” ', as recommended on this page: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2172681?start=0&tstart=0. I can't tell if this really did reset the NVRAM (it doesn't cause a second chime upon restart), so I'll just have to assume that it "worked" -- but except for one instance, it had no effect on the screen dimness. (That one instance went like this: after issuing the Terminal command and restarting, the screen did go back to full brightness -- but only until the first sleep. After waking from that sleep, the screen once again dimmed itself as before. And no, I have not been able to repeat this momentary "success"; on all subsequent attempts following the exact same steps, no brightness has ever returned at all since.)
- Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) as recommended on this page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964 . Basically this just entailed shutting down the computer waiting a few seconds, then unplugging it, waiting a few more seconds, then plugging it back in, then waiting a few more seconds, and then finally starting it up again. Result? No change: screen still dims itself.
- Pressed the "brighter" and "dimmer" keys on the keyboard; those do make the brightness go up and down, but the top brightness setting is much dimmer than it should be (and used to be). All the way to brightest setting = still noticeably dimmer than normal.
- Used the "brightness" slider in the System Preferences > Displays > Display window. That also does indeed adjust the brightness up and down, but as with the keyboard brightness keys, the highest setting is still too dim.
- Readjusted the "Calibration" in the System Preferences > Displays, which had no noticeable effect; even when going into Expert mode and adjusting every little aspect of the screen display's default settings. Those all seem to be about color balance anyway, not about brightness. I now have three different new calibration settings, and clicking back and forth between them and the default setting makes no real significant difference. Whatever setting I choose, it is still dimmer than it should be, even though in all my attempts at calibration I tried to make it brighter.
- Tried going to System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing and adjusting the "Enhance Contrast" slider and trying out "Black on White" vs. "use Greyscale"; none of that helped, and did not seem to be relevant to the problem.
- Tried going to System Preferences > Energy Saver, and clicking the "Automatically reduce the brightness of the display before display sleep" check box on (and then closing the preference pane) and then off again (following the advice at http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2309?viewlocale=en_US) -- but it had absolutely no effect whatsoever on the brightness level.
Final note: The keyboard and mouse are both Apple products and work perfectly, and the machine has no other performance issues. Just the dimming, which started a few weeks ago inexplicably and without warning.
I can't imagine what is causing this problem, and I've absolutely run out of ideas about how to fix it. One thought I had was that maybe the screen is dimming itself due to detected ambient illumination, but I'm not sure 2007 iMacs even have that feature, and also the screen remains dim whether the room is dark or bright. Maybe there is an ambient light detector somewhere that is malfunctioning?
Help! How can I solve this? The screen is not so dim as to be unusable, but it's annoying enough that I'll have to get a replacement machine if this is not fixed eventually.

Does an external display also act in a similar manner as the internal one?
Some earlier Intel-based iMacs had graphic processor card issues; not sure what
the symptoms of the majority of them were, but some had odd patterns, others
went black, and some would range from OK to totally unusable. Among others.
So there is a chance the graphic processor may be going out; or just the circuitry
that controls the backlight. An inverter may be weak or other circuit to the display
could be wearing out.
http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/
If you have access to an Apple Store with Genius bar, they can perform some kinds
of diagnostic tests there even though the computer is out-of-warranty; that may be
of help to narrow down the cause of the symptoms you've noticed. They may not be
able to repair it, however, at an Apple Store; as it is rather old by today's standard.
An Apple Authorized Service Provider could do repairs and testing on older models
the Apple Store's Genius and other may not be set up to handle due to vintage.
Find an Apple Authorized Service Provider
Visit an Apple Retail Store
There is a country locator page to help find either of the above in regions outside
of the US & Canada, not sure how the above links would work; and it appears my
bookmarks to the country locator page may not be accessible now to post here.
You may be able to get an idea about what kinds of parts support the display
function by name by looking into an iFixit.com repair guide for your iMac series.
Hopefully the parts supporting the display are the reason it is dimming down, as
a graphic processor failure likely would exhibit other behaviors than just dimming.
PS: I see you've added content to your thread after I'd started working on this
& the answer likely is a hardware repair; professional testing is worth the time
and you seem to have at least one other thread on the same topic....
Good luck & happy computing!
edited 2x

Hi, I need help for my notebook Macbook Pro - I turned on the notebook and the screen look like start but did not start nothing, the screen froze and continuing load, load and never stop.

Hi, I need help for my notebook Macbook Pro - I turned on the notebook and the screen look like start but did not start nothing, the screen froze and continuing load, load and never stop

screen look on

IMac 21.5" Screen 'flutter' when screen auto dims'

Hi, I have a brand new 21.5" i7 with 8GB Ram. I noticed the other day that when the screen dimmed the whole panel seems to flutter, I also noticed that auto dimming never dims below a certain point and remains really bright, even in a dark room, yet my friends snow leopard variant has none of these issues and dims all the way down. I didn't want to keep a machine that's just over a week old if its defective but are these lion bugs or is it hardware? I was wondering if anyone with Lion is having similar issues, My machine was not an upgrade but came with 10.7 installed.

It's out of Applecare/warranty by a couple of months and I cant afford to pay for it myself, any point in taking it to apple?

The screen dim on 24 inchs imac

The screen dim before sleep on an Intel-based Mac's built-in display, even if the Energy Saver setting "Automatically reduce the brightness of the display before display sleep" is disabled. This setting may no longer be in effect after restarting the computer.
any body has a fix for this.
see the bug description at.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304092

Yes, I do, I am hoping for a permanent fix from Apple, but in the mean time I have a script which will run each time you reboot to disable the screen dim.
I have posted this as a separate thread.

Screen dims

I have a 20" duo-core imac (white) at work and a 20" duo-core (aluminum) at home and have the same issue on both machines where the screen will dim if the computer is inactive for a brief period. Its not that the computer is going to sleep with the screen going black but more that the brightness level changes suddenly from normal to the lowest setting. If I move the mouse or use the keyboard the brightness level pops back up. The screen dimming almost seems like an energy saving feature but I cannot find any reference to it in the help section and there is no setting or control that I can find in system preferences. A friend of mine with a new MacBook reports the same problem.
Thanks

Hi Reid
DML is correct "System Preferences / Energy Saver / Options" and uncheck : Automatically reduce the brightness...... But you also need the have a look at the following Apple article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304092
Note: The issue will return each time the computer is restarted.
Dennis

Screen dimming delay . . .

I upgraded my iPhone 3G to 4.0.1 (quick and painless unlike the 4.0 release which was 9+ hours) last night and have noticed this morning that the time it takes for the screen to dim (before eventually turning off) after a period of inactivity has dramatically reduced. I can't remember the time that it took before as it was quite a lengthy delay, but now I reckon it's a period of approx 40 seconds before the screen dims. I think it used to be a couple of minutes. Has anyone else noticed this? Also is there any way to alter this timing (just like a MBP or iMac display in the Energy Saver System Pref Pane).
As always, any advice appreciated.

Neil was correct - auto-lock controls how long before the screen dims, followed shortly after by the phone locking. Passcode lock is a separate function. If you set auto-lock to never your screen won't dim. I suspect it's set to 1 minute at present =0)

Mac Pro screen dimming

My screen is dimming after 5 minutes. I've read through the forums and found a few answers, but I have my display set to never sleep, and I do not have the option of "automatically reduce brightness before display goes to sleep" like my iMac and Macbook Pro do. Please help, it's really annoying watching a movie and 5 min the screen dims.
Thanks,

Hi,
I had the same issues when I bought my macbook pro a few weeks ago.
Its a feature built in that dim and brightens the screen with an ambient light sensor.
The sensor is underneath the speakers so when your hand goes over and effects the lighting your screen will dim/lighten.
To turn this off go to System Preferences > Displays
then at the bottom it will say Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes, uncheck that.

IMac 20" 2007 display dims itself for no reason; "calibration" does not help

Using a 2007 white plastic iMac with 20" screen and 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, running OSX 10.6.8.
Has worked fine since being purchased many years ago.
Recently a user "did something" (she can't remember what) which immediately caused the screen to become a bit dimmer. Whatever action she took, it wasn't something complicated -- she just accidentally struck a single key or clicked on something in the main Finder window. She was not fooling around with System Preferences or anything like that.
Since that moment, I have not been able to successfully get the screen back to full brightness.
Obviously, I have tried pressing the "brighter" and "dimmer" keys on the keyboard, and those do make the brightness go up and down, but the top brightness setting is much dimmer than it used to be. All the way to brightest setting = still noticeably dimmer than normal.
And obviously I have tried using the "brightness" slider in the System Preferences > Displays > Display window. That also does indeed adjust the brightness up and down, but as with the keyboard brightness keys, the highest setting is still too dim.
Readjusting the "Calibration" in the System Preferences > Displays does not help, even when going into Expert mode and adjusting every little aspect of the screen display's default settings. Those all seem to be about color balance anyway, not about brightness. I now have three different new calibration settings, and clicking back and forth between them and the default setting makes no real noticeable difference. Whatever setting I choose, it is still dimmer than it should be, even though in all my attempts at calibration I tried to make it brighter.
Key detail: NEITHER THE SCREEN NOR THE BACKLIGHTING IS BROKEN OR DYSFUNCTIONAL
I know this is true because the following thing happens consistently:
When I put the computer to "sleep," and then wake it from sleep by pressing a random key or moving the mouse, the screen comes back on and momentarily it is at full brightness, but then "remembers" whatever mysterious settings it has, and then visibly dims itself.
So the screen has the physical capability of being fully bright -- it's just that some System setting is telling it to be dim.
Why? How can I change this? It is practically rendering the computer unusable. Help needed ASAP.

Did you try running the computer from a copy/clone backup of the system?
How about a testing with second Admin user account? Or, secure erase &
a complete reinstall of the system from scratch? (With full backup in archive.)
Check to see if there is a weak or dead PRAM battery on logic board?
In your other similar thread, there were issues in replying to there based on
problems with this site. A different reply was botched, and lost, so there it
is. Then a followup didn't appear. But it may still, though not what I wanted.
There still can be a hardware problem, not matter what someone else may
have done with the settings while using the computer. Several builds of the
early 20-24" Intel-based iMac had various graphic issues. Hardware failure.
So that is unfortunate that even after significant time attempting to resolve
the issue or the symptom, you haven't gained much traction. The time may
have arrived to consider my suggestion to seek Apple trained specialists
in an AASP, to look into this matter from a diagnostic standpoint. And be
sure you have complete backup (clone, plus timemachine, etc) beforehand.
Good luck & happy computing!

A magazine's app on my iPad has stopped working. When I open the Newsstand folder and click on the app, the screen dims briefly, then returns to the Newsstand folder. The other app in my Newsstand folder (Wall Street Journal) opens without any problem.

A magazine's app on my iPad has stopped working. When I open the Newsstand folder and click on the app, the screen dims briefly, then returns to the Newsstand folder. The other app in my Newsstand folder (Wall Street Journal) opens without any problem, and this magazine's app opens just fine on my wife's iPad.
I have deleted the app and reinstalled it from the Apple store and that makes no difference. I have also done a hard reboot on my iPad with no result.
Any thoughts about what might be wrong?

Hey everyone in Apple world!
I figured out how to fix the flashing yellow screen problem that I've been having on my MBP! Yessssss!!!
I found this super handy website with the golden answer: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
I followed the instructions on this page and here's what I did:
Resetting NVRAM / PRAM
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.
I went through the 6 steps above twice, just to make sure I got rid of whatever stuff was holding up my bootup process. Since I did that, my MBP boots up just like normal. No flashing yellow screen anymore!!
(Note that I arrived at this solution when I first saw this page: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570?viewlocale=en_US)
Let me know if this works for you!
Elaine

After burned to dvd the edge are cut off in my tv screen. looks like zoomed

hi
i am FCPX user. i create my project using format (resolution )as showed on the pic below
after burned to dvd the edge are cut off on my tv screen. looks like zoomed as showed in the pic below.
thanks for taking ur time to help me!!
then i export using master file as
showed on pic below
and after i burn on to dvd my edge are cut off. here pic trying to show before burn on my mac and after burned on to dvd
before burned on to dvd on my iMac screen
AFTER BURNED ON TO DVD ON MY TV SCREEN
i really need ur help thanks
after burned to dvd the edge are cut off in my tv screen. looks like zoomed

Thanks Alchroma
i used this dvd burner just incase..
but i thought i might have wrong settings from begning.
do u thinik this setting is alright when creating DVD
Alchroma wrote:
That thought jumped into my head as well.
If the Safe Area settings are OK then it's well a settings issue in either the DVD player or TV or both.
Al
Alchroma wrote:
That thought jumped into my head as well.
If the Safe Area settings are OK then it's well a settings issue in either the DVD player or TV or both.
Al
thanks again

IMac 27" frozen screen

just can not identify in what situations, but when my Mac has a frozen screen, I have no other alternative but to push the off button. The most ironic thing is that, clearly the internet connection keeps. I know this because I'm usually listening to online radio. When it occurs, I can not change my dashboard and also can not switch to another application because I can not use the keyboard and the mouse click does not work.
I am currently using Mac OS X Yosemite, but the problem has persisted for several other versions of the system.
I

I have exactly the same problem with a my 27" iMac of exactly the same vintage and configuration. It freezes this way anywhere between once a day and once a week.
I also see an additional variation of this crash, where when I wake up the machine from sleep, the backlight comes on, but no image is drawn. It glows gray. In the form of the crash that Helton reports, the cursor moves with the mouse, but nothing responds to clicks. I've also seen where streaming (and I believe locally stored iTunes) continue) to play. I am not sure whether the machine remains visible on the network.
I have never used any anti-virus on this machine. In a desperate attempt to isolate the problem I have done the following:
Fresh clean install of Mavericks onto a new, external Firewire 800 drive
After the install, I only re-installed the apps I use frequently: iTunes, Aperture, Chrome, Adobe Flash and Microsoft Remote Desktop, HP printer driver, TextWrangler. That's it.
Replaced 3rd-party memory I had installed with the original factory installed 2x 2GB DIMMs
Blown out the bottom vents and the circular vent in back with canned air
Unplugged the external DVI monitor I was using
Done the usual setting resets via the startup
Ran the built-in memory checker at startup
Ran checks on the harddrives for errors, permission problems, etc...
Wiped the internal drive clean, and did a fresh install on that
The crashes still occur.
The system does not appear to be hotter than normal. I used to have a widget that monitors temps (but doesn't change fan speeds).
This system has the Seagate 1TB harddrive that was eligible for a recall, but I didn't do it. The drive has never reported any SMART errors.
Since you are still seeing crashes after updating to Yosemite, I'm not sure what to try next, myself. I've considered pulling it apart to make sure there is no dust in the fans. It doesn't seem to be overheating, but despite the sensors, there doesn't seem to be a way to record a regular temperature history to see what the temps were like at the moment of the freeze.
Of course, it's out of warranty. It's five years old, but it's plenty fast enough for me. The screen is still gorgeous. If it weren't for this, I'd use it for at least another two years. I was thinking of getting a MacMini to plug into it and use the iMac as a screen, but the new MacMinis are dual-core. It wouldn't be a nice leap in performance.

External screen dims when opening different apps?

Hi All ----
Seems my external screen dims and rectifies when opening different apps - like some kind of brightness adjustment going on... it doesnt happen on the MBP, just on the external screen --- i've checked all possible settings on Ext. Displ. / re-booted / repaired perms... cant quite figure it out.
I dont think this is energy-saver related.
Many thnx for any help in adv. ---
cheers,
J.

The problem with that is, it's hard to put it back together without assuring that you're not pinching the cable again.
Instructions can be found here.
As he says, the cable can be found at Small Dog Electronics:
http://www.smalldog.com/product/43417
If you need replacement feet, they can be found at MicroDoc.
The specific link you need on PowerBook Tech's website can be found here.
If it looks like too much for you to handle, you may want to check out DT & T Computer Services. Perhaps in a metropolitan area like Austin you can check the Yellow Pages and find a technician willing to match the price.
At one point, DominionTech in Colchester, Vermont was offering the repair for $79.90, but I'm not sure if that price is still available.
Good luck.

IMac 24" Aluminum screen dims like notebook

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for