My imac's built-in display has a pink vertical line running down the center of the screen from top to bottom. It's there all the time, at start up, shut down, and every time in between. I can see it on this page right now in Safari.
I'm worried that this is something big, something bad that I can't fix.
Your imac is a flatpanel and its lcd has a defect. The LCD panel almost always has to be replaced to fix the issue. The external display port should not be affected.
It's not going to be something the hardware test can detect.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
I spoke to Apple twice. I made it up a couple levels one time but the woman was adamant that Apple would not repair my imac because it is out of warranty. The three year warranty wouldn't have helped either because the problem occurred just after the 3 year point of purchase.
A local repair shop quoted a screen replacement cost of $700-800. Frankly, I'm at a loss as to what to do. I'm really steamed at the whole thing. I've always been one to sing Apple's praises. I've been using Apples since 1980. But this is too much. I paid $1200 three years ago and now I have a defective computer that Apple refuses to fix.
If you google "imac vertical lines" you'll see the number of people who have had the same problem appear, usually out of warranty.
