If you’ve somehow convinced yourself that Apple is some paragon of quality in the computer world you should stop reading now. Back in 2006, I converted to the Apple camp by purchasing a 15″ Core2Duo Macbook Pro. Shortly thereafter, I took that same laptop with me to Iraq. In the event one or more of my soldiers found themselves needing a laptop to borrow, I also brought my trusty old Fujitsu Lifebook P5020D.

Somewhere around two months into that tour, I started noticing hardware problems with the MacBook Pro. The screen was incredibly dark in the middle. This was especially true at startup. My FW800 drive would randomly disconnect. More often than not, the SuperDrive proved it was not so super after all. It lived a sheltered life, given the conditions. My P5020D was subjected to very harsh treatment, just as it had in many training exercises and even my first tour. The MacBook Pro got worse, the Fujitsu kept on ticking.

Apple was kind enough, when I got home, to replace the logic board, the super drive, and the screen. A few months later they got to do it all again. A few months after that I spilled a beer in the machine and finally killed it for good. Truth be told, I was more upset about losing a third-pint of a very excellent Texas-brewed springtime seasonal ale than I was the problem MacBook Pro.

Unfortunately, I had recently photographed a wedding and still needed to process those photos. Given the circumstances, I needed a new machine immediately. Since my Creative Suite 4 license was for Mac, and I had backed my MacBook Pro up a few hours before I killed it, another Mac was the clear choice. A few short days later I took delivery of a shiny new 24″ Core2Duo iMac. I was very impressed with its speed, and the screen.

My love affair with the screen ended after maybe six months. It took several more months for the burn-in problem to get to the point I could no longer tolerate it at any level. Even doing homework was becoming a chore when anything left on the screen longer than two minutes would stay around as an outline even after the window was closed. Thank goodness for AppleCare.

The kind people at the Genius Bar were skeptical of my claim of an LCD with image burn-in. That’s just not supposed to happen. My demonstration took about five minutes, and they agreed I needed a new screen. Fast forward a few days. My screen problems have been replaced with a new problem. Something did not get put back together correctly, as it now sounds like my computer is trying to take flight off my desk. It’s louder now than it was before with all fans at top speed because of heavy use. The noise is there immediately. I am not amused.

Before anyone jumps in with “well PCs fail more often” I’ll remind you of a few things: #1 Macs are PCs. #2 I worked for an AASP, and we had just as many Mac machines dropped off for repairs (hardware) or reconfiguration (software) as we did anything else.

Update: I had the “about to take flight” noises fixed. The Geniuses determined a sensor had broken during the screen replacement. That happened maybe three weeks ago. Burn-in is back in town now. That was a short life for this screen. What’s most annoying about these problems is that I need the screen real-estate for both my studies and my photography. Having downtime is not only killing my ability to effectively get my schoolwork done, it cuts into my ability to process any photoshoots (which happen to be my only source of non-VA income).

Click the above to load the Flickr page, see the notes describing the burn-in patterns – and get a link to the full resolution file. There’s one spot of dust on the sensor for my 5D and the screen’s surface is spotless. Those lines/marks are all inside the panel.