[lionsland]

Even though Apple is receiving many complaints about dancing pixels on its 30-inch display, there is no evidence they are doing anything about it or even acknowledging the problem. (See their discussion group) In my case they did replace my logic board, one of the processors, my video card and even provided me a new display, all to no avail. I have a G5 PowerMac with dual 2.5 gig processors delivered to me last Feb. This doesnt come cheap so expecting it to work properly doesnt seem unreasonable..
My last contact with tech support recommended either I send my display to their facility in Kentucky where they will study it for some unknown period of time the problem doesnt occur everyday and they need to witness it leaving me computer-less OR live with it OR take it up with Apple HQ. I elected the latter and am using a small claims court action to implement that election. Trial is scheduled for Sept.16.

[Nobody]

I have had similar results with Apple support regarding the fans in a G5. As frustrating as the experience has been, I believe that Apple and their techs have done and are doing all I could reasonably expect them to do. From my outsiders perspective, that appears to be the case with your problem, as well.
I will be hiking in the Rockies later this month and will leave my computer at the local store for observation and repair.
Is there a time in the next few months you could afford to not have your monitor for a week or so?

[mdawson]

Unfortunately, this is sometimes an engineering reality. I am currently in the middle of a major research project and in many cases we write our own software for data acquisition (LabView) or for data analysis (VBA Excel). It is very easy to have something work in the lab then have unexplained complications in the field. We have had days when almost nothing seemed to work right despite thorough testing if the software we write before going in the field with it. Granted, many of the problems that we have may simply be due to the fact that all of our machines run Windows. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Apple is not perfect, but they do have better quality control than most PC OEMs. The 30-inch Cinema Displays are pretty much the first of their kind. Yes other companies, like Gateway, introduced large screen computer displays before Apple, but these displays were more often than not low resolution relative to their screen size; that is they typically had native resolutions that were on par with a typical 17/19-inch LCD at worst or the 23-inch Cinema Display at best. That being said, there are bound to be issues with this relatively new technology. As an engineer, I would have to say that there are times where the only means to diagnose a problem with a piece of hardware is to have the technician live with it until they can 1) detect the problem, particularly for those problems that are intermittent, and 2) then attempt to diagnose the problem once they detect it.
Irregular problems are more problematic than persistent or blatant issues and you stated that the dancing pixel problem does not occur all of the time. This is similar to a problem we have been having with an accelerometer that we have been using in our research. From time-to-time the base voltage would drift meaning that we would have to find a new base voltage for every trial that we conducted. The problem was often mild and inconsequential, but occasionally the voltage shift was too dramatic and irregular for the accelerometer to be useful. After two months of diagnosis and hit or miss usage we discovered that the problem was that the power conditioner had not been calibrated in over 10 years which was not an issue until we started using the unit substantially more than it had been used in the past. Originally the unit was only used for a lab in an instrumentation class once a year whereas we were using the unit several days a week for hours at a time. We are engineers and it took us two months to detect the underlying problem with a device that we regularly use, so you kind of have to cut Apple, or any OEM, some slack on this type of issue as long as they are willing to address the issue.

[SSGoku]

A few years ago, I had an intermittant problem with my car. I took it to my mechanic and told him about the problem. The mechanic ended up keeping it over night. He test drove the car first thing in the morining. He found the problem and fixed it and I got the car that afternoon. It was inconvienent for me, but it was necessary. I'm no mechanic, and I wanted my car fixed.
My point;
- cars are not cheap (just like computers)
- cars are complex machines (just like computers)
- Sometimes when you first get the car there are problems (just like computers)
- when there are problems, you have to give the dealer an opportunity to fix the problem (just like computers)
My advice and opinion;
- Drop the lawsuit and send the LCD to Kentucky. You're going to lose your lawsuit if you go through it.
- Courts should should be used as a last resort only. You actully had a viable option; like sending the LCD to Kentucky. Apple can't fix a LCD that it doesn't have. Just like cars. My mechanic can't fix my car if I don't give him my car.
So Apple wasted your time replacing a few parts in your PowerMac. They had too. They had to rule it out as a cause of the problem.
You not alone with this kind of issue. Everyone at one time has had issues with their computer, car or house. It's reasonable that they work when you buy them, but not everything is perfect.

[ChrisF79]

I'm guessing you can't return the item? If you could just return the 30" display, you could just reorder another one through amazon.com or someone else and hope for the best with the new one.