Help me keep our Apple Cinema displays out of the landfill.
November 24, 2013 2:33 PM Subscribe
We have five aluminum 30" Apple Cinema displays at the office. They are slowly going dim. I don't want to trash them. How can they be fixed?
We love the Cinema's because they are big, non-glossy and well-built. But they are getting on in years. They are slowly going dim in some areas as the back-lights get older. They are a bit spotty on start-up but usually unplugging and re-plugging the power cord from the brick gets them going.
I'm looking for a way to rehabilitate these great displays. It seems like a crime to just dump them as they go dim. Can anyone tell me if/how and for how much money the backlights could be replaced? I hope it can be done for less than $600 a piece as that is what replacing them with new Dell's would cost, aproximately.
We do a lot of work in CAD with black background that absolutely will not work with a glossy screen, unless you really get a kick out of looking up your own nostrils in reflection, so new Apple displays are not an option.
We love the Cinema's because they are big, non-glossy and well-built. But they are getting on in years. They are slowly going dim in some areas as the back-lights get older. They are a bit spotty on start-up but usually unplugging and re-plugging the power cord from the brick gets them going.
I'm looking for a way to rehabilitate these great displays. It seems like a crime to just dump them as they go dim. Can anyone tell me if/how and for how much money the backlights could be replaced? I hope it can be done for less than $600 a piece as that is what replacing them with new Dell's would cost, aproximately.
We do a lot of work in CAD with black background that absolutely will not work with a glossy screen, unless you really get a kick out of looking up your own nostrils in reflection, so new Apple displays are not an option.
What did Apple say when you called them?
posted by oceanjesse at 2:51 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by oceanjesse at 2:51 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
What did Apple say when you called them?
Apple will say they are vintage and obsolete and won't offer service.
posted by bonaldi at 2:54 PM on November 24, 2013
Apple will say they are vintage and obsolete and won't offer service.
posted by bonaldi at 2:54 PM on November 24, 2013
Response by poster: Actually, Apple did say they could service them (at least for the one SN I gave them), but could not say what it would cost other than it would be a $700 minimum each just to look at them. I'd like to know if I can do the service myself.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 2:59 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 2:59 PM on November 24, 2013
A lot of local PC repair shops do Apple authorized repairs as well. A place like that should be able to give you a real estimate.
posted by feloniousmonk at 3:10 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by feloniousmonk at 3:10 PM on November 24, 2013
Could you just use them in the dark? Or at least, as far as keeping them out of the landfill, at least freecycle them to someone willing to us them in the dark.
posted by XMLicious at 4:29 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by XMLicious at 4:29 PM on November 24, 2013
See if you can get your hands on the service manuals for these displays. You want the ones that the Apple geniuses use but how you get them....I couldn't tell you. Then maybe you can do the repairs yourself.
The other suggestion I have is to see if an Apple genius would be interested is doing some side work, i.e. fixing your monitors.
posted by eatcake at 4:46 PM on November 24, 2013
The other suggestion I have is to see if an Apple genius would be interested is doing some side work, i.e. fixing your monitors.
posted by eatcake at 4:46 PM on November 24, 2013
There are zillions of places that fix Apple devices. Google "apple repair Milwaukee" or wherever you live, and call them up. Should be a lot cheaper than the official store.
posted by Slinga at 7:05 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by Slinga at 7:05 PM on November 24, 2013
Best answer: Could you just use them in the dark? Or at least, as far as keeping them out of the landfill, at least freecycle them to someone willing to us them in the dark.
Doesn't really work that way. Even in a dim environment a dim monitor will cause more eye strain and have crappy contrast.
this place was suggested as a great place to take them. I'm almost positive i've heard of that shop before, and of people mailing things in from out of state just to get them serviced by that place. Many LCDs use the same backlights, even between different sizes and panels just laid out in different patterns. I would call them first and discuss this issue with them, and wouldn't be surprised at all if they just went "oh yea we see quite a few of those, they take 7 blabla xyz123 CCFL units and an ABC inverter, swapping and resoldering that stuff is $375 and shipping"
Personally, i'd go to an AASP and not the genius bar. It seems that even apple was only charging around $300-500 for this job a few years ago. And it's widely stated that the panels used in these 30in apple monitors were NOT used by any other manufacturer, even those who sold a monitor at the same size with the same resolution.
I can't really express how irritated i am with the the fact that these are being called "vintage" now, or that anything >5 years old from apple is referred to as such. It's incredibly wasteful, especially since they actually have greater resolution than the modern cinema displays.
See if you can get your hands on the service manuals for these displays. You want the ones that the Apple geniuses use but how you get them....I couldn't tell you. Then maybe you can do the repairs yourself.
This isn't a totally bad suggestion, and i bet any long-standing AASP will still have this stuff around at least as a PDF if not as a hardcopy. The thing is, every version of these displays has been a FUCKING PAIN IN THE ASS to open. I've seen more than one head to the big service center in the sky because of how annoying they were.
If you have a good amount of laptop repair experience(since it's a quite similar task), can get a manual, and buy some proper tools from ifixit that are similar to what it specifies, AND track down the parts then a DIY repair would probably be quite cheap. If any link in that chain is broken, call moniserv and talk to them.
If you really plan on dumping them at the end of all this contact me via memail. I would absolutely pay shipping costs and possibly more to have one or two of these to fool around with, and would likely post an ifixit guide and explain what parts and tools were necessary if and when i figured it out.
posted by emptythought at 7:20 PM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
Doesn't really work that way. Even in a dim environment a dim monitor will cause more eye strain and have crappy contrast.
this place was suggested as a great place to take them. I'm almost positive i've heard of that shop before, and of people mailing things in from out of state just to get them serviced by that place. Many LCDs use the same backlights, even between different sizes and panels just laid out in different patterns. I would call them first and discuss this issue with them, and wouldn't be surprised at all if they just went "oh yea we see quite a few of those, they take 7 blabla xyz123 CCFL units and an ABC inverter, swapping and resoldering that stuff is $375 and shipping"
Personally, i'd go to an AASP and not the genius bar. It seems that even apple was only charging around $300-500 for this job a few years ago. And it's widely stated that the panels used in these 30in apple monitors were NOT used by any other manufacturer, even those who sold a monitor at the same size with the same resolution.
I can't really express how irritated i am with the the fact that these are being called "vintage" now, or that anything >5 years old from apple is referred to as such. It's incredibly wasteful, especially since they actually have greater resolution than the modern cinema displays.
See if you can get your hands on the service manuals for these displays. You want the ones that the Apple geniuses use but how you get them....I couldn't tell you. Then maybe you can do the repairs yourself.
This isn't a totally bad suggestion, and i bet any long-standing AASP will still have this stuff around at least as a PDF if not as a hardcopy. The thing is, every version of these displays has been a FUCKING PAIN IN THE ASS to open. I've seen more than one head to the big service center in the sky because of how annoying they were.
If you have a good amount of laptop repair experience(since it's a quite similar task), can get a manual, and buy some proper tools from ifixit that are similar to what it specifies, AND track down the parts then a DIY repair would probably be quite cheap. If any link in that chain is broken, call moniserv and talk to them.
If you really plan on dumping them at the end of all this contact me via memail. I would absolutely pay shipping costs and possibly more to have one or two of these to fool around with, and would likely post an ifixit guide and explain what parts and tools were necessary if and when i figured it out.
posted by emptythought at 7:20 PM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: emptythought thanks for the ideas. We bought the Cinemas and Mac Pro's (even though we mainly run Win7 on them) because it seemed less wasteful to invest in good hardware that would last and that could be repaired/upgraded. It's not really working out the way I'd hoped, but I haven't given up yet. My next askMeFi will probably be about upgrading the Pro's.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:26 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:26 PM on November 24, 2013
Start by calliing moniserv and talking to a human - their website doesn't give a price on fixing the 30" displays, unlike the other sizes. I think there may be something weird like the backlight CCFL being integrated with the LCD panel, or the CCFL being hard to source.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:34 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:34 PM on November 24, 2013
These are, like all LED displays, essentially televisions without tuners. Call a local TV repair that specializes in LCD screens. Remember Apple did not manufacture these screens, most likely they are Samsung or some other major manufacturer. Replacing the lamps should be easy.
posted by Gungho at 10:02 AM on November 25, 2013
posted by Gungho at 10:02 AM on November 25, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by alexandermatheson at 2:45 PM on November 24, 2013