What exactly to ask your eye doctor?

brvideo

I've a separate post about how I am Mac guy, been using hundreds of Mac computers, iphones, tablets for years. I'm a technology trainer so it's not inaccurate to say I've been intensely scrutinizing every type of computer and video display for years with no issues. When I upgraded from my 2009 iMac to a 2017 iMac Pro, I instantly got eye strain and headaches from the moment it booted up. Not after working on it for a while…instantly. I never figured out exactly what caused it but after trying one solution after another and rebooting, eventually it clicked into a mode where the problem was entirely gone. And no problems with it for literally years. Then a few weeks back I went into the display settings, hit a button to see the exact resolution, and the problem instantly returned immediately like a brick.

And I can't get it to go away again. I also have a 2019 MacBook Pro that never gave me any problems that is now also causing eye strain and headaches, although not as intense as the 2017 iMac Pro. I have both the iMac and MBP connected to HD non-retina external monitors to try and eliminate the retina screen itself as an issue, but that hasn't helped.

I saw my eye doctor about two months ago and everything is good. But because this eye stain problem is severe, I'm going to ask him to take another look at the end of this week. But before I did that, i thought I should check and see what happens when I'm looking at a Windows machine, and not a Mac. I picked up a relatively inexpensive Windows Laptop….and no problem at all. I've also hooked it up to the external monitors. I find myself squinting a little, but no eye strain or lingering headaches like the two macs. So it has something to do with the way the Macs are now generating the image. Even though I know it's technically possible to do something to the Macs to eliminate the issue, I don't remember what it is.

I know my eye doctor will have no clue about Mac vs. Window computers displays. The best I can ascertain is that in some mode on Macs, my eyes must be sensitive to something. I don't know what to ask him exactly to look for. Between the iMac Pro and the MacBook Pro I've got in the area of $10,000 invested and they're still great, powerful machines…except some switch got flipped that I can't turn off. While I know they are devalued from the time I purchased them, they are still a great deal more powerful than most Windows machines. I can't envision leaving the mac environment. Just working in Windows for a few days is really frustrating. Everything is more complicated and problematic. I do work exclusively with Windows machines at my full time job in the office, so I'm not a Mac snob, but I do prefer Mac.

For me, the pain is more surrounding the eyes (i.e. areas around the eyes….above eyebrows, sides of head, and headaches) and less the eyes themselves, although that too. And nearly instant. Not after a few minutes of working.

Any ideas on what I ask the eye doctor to look for exactly? Thanks.

ryans

brvideo You should visit a COVD optometrist. Ask them if they use a Maddox Rod to test for binocular vision dysfunction. I would tell the doctor your symptoms and just say it is "on the computer" -- that should be enough for them.

AGI

brvideo Any ideas on what I ask the eye doctor to look for exactly?

As others have said, I would not go to an eye doctor if you never wore glasses and you can see fine besides that issue with the Mac. I have met a plethora of specialists in the past 2-3 years when I decided to go all in to try to solve my eyestrain problems. This includes neuro-ophthalmologists, neuro-optometrists, behavioral optometrists, orthoptists, brain rehab specialists, personal trainers to fix my posture, jaw specialists, osteopaths, chiropractors, physiotherapists, naturopaths, ENT doctors. I probably forgot some specialization, and I put the "s" because I have seen more than one specialist of each type. I would not mind if you were laughing at this point because it is indeed ridiculous. Unfortunately, I have not made much progress. However, my experience is that optometrists are more keen on prescribing glasses than orthoptists. Since my experience with glasses has been horrific - two pairs in the last month, with completely different specs (prims and no prisms), that have not helped at all and instead caused pain - I suggest seeing an orthoptist who will most likely attempt to cure your condition by prescribing exercises, assuming you are diagnosed with some degree of heterophoria. Wrong exercises can create some harm too, but to me they represent a smaller threat than wrong glass prescriptions.

brvideo I can't envision leaving the mac environment.

You should not leave the Mac environment in my humble opinion. The fact that you have found a Windows-based device that works does not guarantee that it will always be this way. An update of the OS or the graphics card or the BIOS can change the situation. In the past five years I have used circa 20+ Mac and Windows devices due to the nature of my work. I cannot tell you what is better. Either Mac or Windows can be good or horrible. Recently I was given a 4-5 years old Mac Mini. I wiped the disk and reinstalled the OS from scratch. It was great. It turned out that LabVIEW was not working properly, though, and I was asked to upgrade the OS to the latest version. Instantaneous eye and neck pain. I installed Windows with Bootcamp and I have not had any issue since. If I switch to Mac OS it is unusable. It is the same bloody device and screen, right?

I have even developed eyestrain on a Windows PC when the HDMI cable was replaced with a fancier one. I did not investigate the differences between the cables but I repeatedly tested a cheap cable and the new one, and the new one reproducibly caused me instant pain.

Sorry if I sound little optimistic. I have always been in favor of treating my condition rather than searching the perfect device, but now I do not have an opinion anymore. I wish you luck.

anon123

any eye doctor will be clueless, try to install bootcamp-windows on your intel Macs and see how it goes.

if windows doesn't bother you, well it's how the macOS hardware acceleration works, the only way to disable it is to boot in safe mode, try this too.

I installed windows on my iMac that I got from work who causes me headache, dizziness and nausea in 2 minutes with macOS but it's ok with windows 11

brvideo

I do have a Windows Boot drive on both the iMac Pro and MacBook Pro and the eye strain is there when looking at Windows 10 on those boot drives on those Macs, but not on the actual PC laptop I just picked up with Windows 11. And I hate Windows 11.

And I have also booted the Mac’s in safe mode…didn’t help.

But I suspect you may be correct in that this is somehow related to hardware acceleration. I just can’t prove it or affect it.

brvideo

I think that you may very well be right in terms of it being a Mac operating system issue. I did upgrade the operating system on both Macs. While the problem with the eye strain did not kick in immediately after updating, I think it’s possible that when I went into the display settings to look at the resolution on the iMac Pro I clicked something that made it discard the settings that It held over from the old OS and instantly kicked in the those that are now built into the new OS. I might try going back to an older OS and see if that has any effect, but that’s not a long term solution since you have to eventually upgrade to the most current operating system or you lose the ability to run some of your programs and newest security patches over time.