GaBeech

Q: Late 2006 iMac, Lines, Kernel Panic, Freeze, Reboot, Restart, Serial W8 ?

Hello,

Let me start by explaining the method I am initially going to adopt in my search for answers;

•All of the keywords and more that would not fit in the title space, relate to my problem.
•I think the *iMac Serial* holds the key to mine and possibly a lot of other peoples search for answers.
•My second post will explain what I know about the Serial and the information it provides.
•I have a strong feeling that a lot of people who have the same or similar problems to me will have a Serial that begins with at least W8.
•I believe that a lot of affected machines will of been produced between 2006 & 2008, yet not confined to that window in time.
•So, to round up, I am looking for people who have had/are having the same/similar problems to the ones listed below.

•Small graphical glitches; Thin lines in random areas on the desktop, growing in number and intensity over time.
•Graphical glitches on, in and around Finder windows. Again, growing in number and intensity over time.
•Horizontal lines across entire screen. Again, growing in number and intensity over time.
•The odd Software Crash/System Freeze. (Which does not happen very often on the iMac we've grown to love)
•More frequent Software Crashes/System Freeze's. (Maybe it's all that freeware and plugins I've been playing with)
•Kernel Panic's, never had one before... it was a new one on me.
•Frequent Kernel Panics.
•System Freeze, recovering after being put to sleep and then woken.
•System Freeze, unrecoverable. Hard reset required.
•Exactly the same behavior after a full reinstall of OSX.
•Exactly the same behavior after wiping system drive with zero's, then a full reinstall of OSX.
•Exactly the same behavior after wiping system drive with zero's, then a full reinstall with a previous version of OSX.
•System Freeze requiring hard reset on nearly every occasion Time Machine was accessed.
•Shut iMac down completely, never to respond to Power Button being pressed again, even after trying to reset the SMC.


The above is a simplified list of key events on a relatively short journey from Perfect Machine to, 'will not power up'.


If you or anyone you know has gone through anything similar, I would love you to join this topic.

Yours,
GaBeech

iMac (20-inch Late 2006) 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ~ x1600 Graphics, Mac OS X (10.6.3), Serial Number: W87070ACVUV (Check My Biography To See What A Serial Means)

Posted on May 26, 2010 8:36 PM

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Q: Late 2006 iMac, Lines, Kernel Panic, Freeze, Reboot, Restart, Serial W8 ?

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  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Jul 14, 2010 5:31 AM in response to elice82@
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Jul 14, 2010 5:31 AM in response to elice82@
    elice82@ wrote:
    @R C-R
    If many fail in the same way, you can expect there is a failure in the design or a manufacturing processes. Because it simply not possible that all the people having the same problem that is releated to something different everytime.


    Not true. For instance, some people might be using bad fuel, an improper type of engine oil or coolant mixture, or in an extreme environment it was never intended for. The car maker is not responsible for the failures these things cause.

    Beyond that, cars are not designed to last forever. After some period of use, you expect the failure rate to climb, even if the car was correctly designed & manufactured to the standards expected for its type.

    I don't want to know what causing it. I want to get solved!


    That is like saying you don't care what is causing an illness, you just want it cured. But effective cures don't treat symptoms, they treat causes.

    Apple should have been looking at what's causing it. But they don't want to look at it!
    It will cost them a lot of money! That is what this whole issue is about.


    If Apple were to fix every problem regardless of cause, & routinely do so far beyond the warranty period, ultimately all users would pay for it in higher purchase prices. That is really what this is about. If you want a Mac that is guaranteed to last far beyond the warranty period & free support for that period, you & every other buyer would have to pay a lot more for it. There is no free lunch & most certainly not a perpetually available one. One way or another we pay for it, collectively or individually.

    In the long view, as a buyer I'm willing to pay in the purchase price my share of the costs related to providing fixes for problems in design or manufacturing. I am not willing to pay a share of the costs for fixing everything else. So I do want to know what is causing the problem; otherwise I have no way of knowing if I'm paying for something I never agreed to pay for.
  • by elice82@,

    elice82@ elice82@ Jul 14, 2010 6:29 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jul 14, 2010 6:29 AM in response to R C-R
    R C-R wrote:
    Not true. For instance, some people might be using bad fuel, an improper type of engine oil or coolant mixture, or in an extreme environment it was never intended for. The car maker is not responsible for the failures these things cause.


    But a car isn't a computer. Basically if you sit in front of a computer doing what you are able to do on a computer. You not doing anything wrong. People are using computers that is what they are made for. They aren't standing to be beautiful! Or Apple has got to say: 'Buy an iMac for standing beautiful. Don't use it, it can be broken!'.

    Beyond that, cars are not designed to last forever. After some period of use, you expect the failure rate to climb, even if the car was correctly designed & manufactured to the standards expected for its type.


    Some things are made to last a certain of time. I bought an iMac to last more then 2 years. So did other people think. If it was correctly designed & manufractured then wouldn't have had the same problems.
    Failure we be more spread out and diverse.

    That is like saying you don't care what is causing an illness, you just want it cured. But effective cures don't treat symptoms, they treat causes.


    I'm not a technician, I have bought a computer else i've build it myself.

    If Apple were to fix every problem regardless of cause, & routinely do so far beyond the warranty period, ultimately all users would pay for it in higher purchase prices.
    That is really what this is about. If you want a Mac that is guaranteed to last far beyond the warranty period & free support for that period, you & every other buyer would have to pay a lot more for it. There is no free lunch & most certainly not a perpetually available one. One way or another we pay for it, collectively or individually.


    They are infact are asking a higher price. Only giving a one year limited warrenty.
    In our legal system (The Netherlands) it said if you paid high price on a product you can expect that it will last longer. It need to last a certain of time. Differents between A-brands and B-brands. Like a computer of €600,- (B-Brand) isn't the same as a computer of €2000,- (A-Brand).

    In the long view, as a buyer I'm willing to pay in the purchase price my share of the costs related to providing fixes for problems in design or manufacturing.


    That a risk for the company, not us. They also should have included this in the price. I think Apple did. But Apple will not solve it because it will cost a lot of (extra) money that they have made into proffit.

    I am not willing to pay a share of the costs for fixing everything else. So I do want to know what is causing the problem; otherwise I have no way of knowing if I'm paying for something I never agreed to pay for.


    I understand that you don't want to pay for everybody else. But Apple is asking for outrageous repairing prices for fixing things. Then we better could share the cost to keep it for everybody affordable.
    I think everybody should be albe to buy a Mac.

    And I think that not every Mac should be thrown away because it just broken. We throw away a lot. They should design iMacs (Macs) on way that you still can repair it and for an exceptional price.

    Message was edited by: elice82@
  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Jul 14, 2010 8:58 AM in response to elice82@
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Jul 14, 2010 8:58 AM in response to elice82@
    elice82@ wrote:
    But a car isn't a computer. Basically if you sit in front of a computer doing what you are able to do on a computer. You not doing anything wrong.


    You can do a lot of "wrong" things sitting at your computer, including modifying the OS or even replacing it completely. Around thirty years ago, there used to be a truism that you could not do anything from the keyboard to damage a computer. That hasn't been true for a long time. By accident or intent, users can add kernel extensions & other items that destabilize the OS, run the CPU cores at 100% of their capacity continuously, or access HD's constantly. You can even replace hardware drivers with not fully tested beta versions or hack them to do unusual & potentially stressful things to the hardware.

    Beyond that, you can subject them to environments they were not designed to handle, including placing them in the path of hot air generated by other equipment or simply in a location that exceeds their temperature or humidity specs. You can plug them into power outlets wired incorrectly or plug equipment with electrical problems into them. They can be hit with power surges or brownouts. They can be dropped or shaken or splashed with water. They can be cleaned with harsh chemicals that seep into them & damage internal parts.

    The list goes on, but the point is car or computer, the "mileage" (or "milage" if you prefer) they have on them doesn't tell the whole story. Either device can be used as intended or not.

    Failure we be more spread out and diverse.


    How do you know that they aren't? There were a lot of these iMacs sold, probably hundreds of thousands of them. How many are still running perfectly? If you don't know that, or how the ones that have failed did so, how can you do more than guess about this? Forums like this one always attract many more users with problems than those without them. There seems to be 50 or less unique reports of this set of symptoms (more or less) in this thread. Say there are twenty times that if you include other threads. That still represents around a thousand of what may be one or more hundreds of thousands of this vintage of iMacs. Is a 1% or less failure rate of four year old iMacs a sure sign of a defect Apple is or should be responsible for?

    I understand that you don't want to pay for everybody else. But Apple is asking for outrageous repairing prices for fixing things. Then we better could share the cost to keep it for everybody affordable.


    Everybody is asking for this kind of repair price for similar items. What keeps them affordable in the first place is the same thing that makes them expensive to repair. If they were constructed using dozens of inexpensive & easy to replace items, their selling price would be outrageous instead of their repair price. Is that what you want?

    And I think that not every Mac should be thrown away because it just broken. We throw away a lot. They should design iMacs (Macs) on way that you still can repair it and for an exceptional price.


    That is a nice idea but it isn't practical. Computer technology changes too rapidly for that many people to want to keep older computers in service indefinitely. It took me +two years+ to find anyone actually willing to take my older Macs (that I offered free for the asking) to use them. Most just wanted the HD or something similar.

    Apple was not always good about this, but at least now it makes a concerted effort to make Macs recyclable. That too adds to the purchase price, but I don't mind paying for it.
  • by knorven,

    knorven knorven Jul 14, 2010 5:21 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 14, 2010 5:21 PM in response to R C-R
    R C-R wrote:
    You can do a lot of "wrong" things sitting at your computer, including modifying the OS or even replacing it completely… add kernel extensions & other items… replace hardware drivers… hack them to do unusual & potentially stressful things… they can be dropped or shaken or splashed with water… cleaned with harsh chemicals


    Of course! All these people experiencing the exact same "symptoms" with their 2006 Macs must all be… hackers! It all makes sense now! I was using mine in the bath tub and occasionally wiped it down with drain cleaner!

    Bottom line: These failure scenarios are too consistent to just be the usual problems you expect everyday from any computer. The compact build of a MacBook or iMac requires a very effective heat dissipation design, especially since the GPU and CPU are so close together. I think the VRAM is jammed in with those other two big heat generators as well. Bear in mind as well that also some PC configurations using the ATI X1600 GPU have had graphic anomalies (Google it). No amount of ranting about people's possible careless handling of their Macs is going to change the fact that these computers, be they Macs or PCs, have hardware issues. Fyi, my 2006 24" iMac did very little graphic-intensive work and still has a failing logic board. When first serviced for the issue the amount of dust inside the computer was surprisingly sparse. It has been very well looked after and not 'hacked' in any way. Yet, three months out of warranty the lines and freezes started. We can reinstall various releases of Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard, we can install smcFan Control, we can drill holes and replace thermal paste, all until the cows come home. The only solution to a heat-damaged logic board is to replace it but even this is fruitless since the replacement board will eventually suffer the same fate. As for many 2006 iMacs still working fine, well most Toyotas never had their accelerators get stuck either (to go back to the car parallels) but that didn't change the fact that they had a design flaw which could be terminal for both the car and the driver. I don't know who you work for R C-R, but I'm sure Apple are thrilled with your posts here and I doubt they'll ever be deleted… unlike mine.
  • by GaBeech,

    GaBeech GaBeech Jul 14, 2010 6:31 PM in response to knorven
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 14, 2010 6:31 PM in response to knorven
    knorven wrote:
    ...I don't know who you work for R C-R, but I'm sure Apple are thrilled with your posts here and I doubt they'll ever be deleted… unlike mine.


    Here, here...

    or is it;

    Hear, Hear...

    ...either will do for me, a man with no qualifications in English nor Sampling Bias for that matter.

    What I do have is an iMac, which will not function after 3 years of normal use.
    It seems others are in the same boat.
  • by Westy,

    Westy Westy Jul 14, 2010 6:34 PM in response to GaBeech
    Level 4 (1,715 points)
    Jul 14, 2010 6:34 PM in response to GaBeech
    Thought I heard that there is a known GPU problem with this model and that it might still be covered by an Apple recall of some sort. I had an issue where my iMac (same model) would not boot up, and an apple tech told me that since I was out of warranty, it might still be covered under a couple of known issues; Power supply, and GPU.
  • by dbax,

    dbax dbax Jul 14, 2010 9:31 PM in response to Westy
    Level 1 (74 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 14, 2010 9:31 PM in response to Westy
    Westy wrote:
    I had an issue where my iMac (same model) would not boot up, and an apple tech told me that since I was out of warranty, it might still be covered under a couple of known issues; Power supply, and GPU.


    Westy,

    A teeny, clearly insignificant minority of several thousand iMac owners are all ears. Please elaborate. What vintage is your iMac, and when did the Apple tech mention this to you?
  • by knorven,

    knorven knorven Jul 14, 2010 11:05 PM in response to dbax
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 14, 2010 11:05 PM in response to dbax
    dbax wrote:
    Westy wrote:
    I had an issue where my iMac (same model) would not boot up, and an apple tech told me that since I was out of warranty, it might still be covered under a couple of known issues; Power supply, and GPU.


    Westy,

    A teeny, clearly insignificant minority of several thousand iMac owners are all ears. Please elaborate. What vintage is your iMac, and when did the Apple tech mention this to you?


    What you are referring to may be the nVIDIA 8600 series GPUs in the MacBook Pros manufactured 2007. THIS problem Apple has acknowledged as being a design fault and afaik they extended the service program for these machines, though I believe nVIDIA ultimately accepted responsibility for the issue. The ATI X1600 machines are not covered.

    Message was edited by: knorven (speling misstake)
  • by pbcubed,

    pbcubed pbcubed Jul 15, 2010 5:10 AM in response to GaBeech
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Jul 15, 2010 5:10 AM in response to GaBeech
    Guys,

    I'd not expect R C-R to necessary respond/react to these recent reactionary posts. He & I come from two different views on issues such as these but his posts always show respect for others on this forum. And they make excellent points, backed by experience & research, having patience and clearly showing time & thought has gone into them.

    Having two iMacs with failures where design WRT heat may have been a factor, I've posted thoughts & research recently as well, e.g.

    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2501719&tstart=15

    There is no consensus on this partially because there is not sufficient data to support any theory stating that the failure rate exceeds any expected one of these designs or their components. Or that the rate exceeds any actual or expected one for this industry.

    If you were to search for R C-R's posts on this issues such as this, some threads of which I've also posted to, I think you may find that most ground & angles have been covered.

    As always, get AppleCare & make backups.
  • by Westy,

    Westy Westy Jul 15, 2010 6:18 AM in response to dbax
    Level 4 (1,715 points)
    Jul 15, 2010 6:18 AM in response to dbax
    I agree...sounded too good to be true and I even did a search for any kind of recalls or announcement on the GPU issue and could find nothing. I believe the support person I called was sharing some anecdotal stuff since I was asking about extended coverage on my iMac - 20", Intel Core Duo (2006). He probably overstated the possibility that it might be able to covered under a known issue and that the authorized Service Center where I took my iMac would know about it.

    My probelem ended up being a bad Ram Module (1 out of the 2 1gig chips). Pulled it out and everything is fine.

    I passed the comment on because I thought maybe someone else had heard something about the GPU in the 2006 models that I was not aware of.
  • by elice82@,

    elice82@ elice82@ Jul 15, 2010 8:26 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jul 15, 2010 8:26 AM in response to R C-R
    @ R C-R
    R C-R wrote:
    You can do a lot of "wrong" things sitting at your computer, including modifying the OS or even replacing it completely...


    I agree with @knorven we all are damaging or hacking the computer. Not! Most people who will buy an expensive computer will be cautious and take care of their computer. At least I did.

    elice82@ wrote:
    Failure we be more spread out and diverse.

    How do you know that they aren't? There were a lot of these iMacs sold, probably hundreds of thousands of them...


    Sure more people with problems will go to this forum but topics do get closed when we talk about it. So people will look for other forums.
    If you will, search at Google for petitionspot imac recall.
    Only 648 people have been complaining but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Lots of people don't know that this site exist or having giving up their iMac. Because Apple doesn't solve their issue.
    Also you can search at google for getsatisfaction imac graphic freeze. These people do have the same problems.
    OK. If we all did many things wrong what I don't believe because then we done the exact same things to make this computer fail in the exact same way!

    Is a 1% or less failure rate of four year old iMacs a sure sign of a defect Apple is or should be responsible for?

    My problems started in the first year because I've switched from MS Windows I didn't know that iMac shouldn't be freezing totally. After 21 months my iMac isn't caplable to use Photoshop or any heavy program. If that is normal? I wanna hear it from Apple! So yeah, they are responsible.
    In my opion you should be able to use iMac of 2000 euros ($2300,-) for at least 5 years. By law in the Netherlands you can expect that from a A-Brand.

    Everybody is asking for this kind of repair price for similar items. What keeps them affordable in the first place is the same thing that makes them expensive to repair. If they were constructed using dozens of inexpensive & easy to replace items, their selling price would be outrageous instead of their repair price. Is that what you want?


    Weird way of explaining something because it doesn't make any sense.
    First of all you don't hope it gets broken and if it gets broken they should be able to repair it. Even so, for a fair price. So you'll repair it instead of throw it away. Futher more explaining.

    That is a nice idea but it isn't practical. Computer technology changes too rapidly for that many people to want to keep older computers in service indefinitely. It took me +two years+ to find anyone actually willing to take my older Macs (that I offered free for the asking) to use them. Most just wanted the HD or something similar.


    Sure technology change fast but if they made them easier to open and fixable.
    In the years the parts (GPU, HDD etc) drop in price, with Apple they will be more expensive. Making them imposible to repair. The throw-away-culture.
    So we need to buy a new computer, probably that is what Apple wants us to do.

    Apple was not always good about this, but at least now it makes a concerted effort to make Macs recyclable. That too adds to the purchase price, but I don't mind paying for it.


    Like I said if you make them last longer they shouldn't have to recycle at lot.
    They could better use the money form the recycling processes for making to computer fixable. Even so, recycling melting aluminium, glass, parts of plastic will also cost a lot of energy and does have some bad gases will come out of it.
  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Jul 15, 2010 10:28 AM in response to knorven
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Jul 15, 2010 10:28 AM in response to knorven
    knorven:

    If all these iMacs were in fact experiencing the exact same symptoms and they were a significant fraction of all 2006 iMacs, then it would be good grounds for making a case that there was a design or manufacturing flaw. The problems in making that case are 1) the reported symptoms are not all exactly alike & 2) we have no indication that a significant number of 2006 iMacs are failing the same way.

    Just review this topic & others like it. Some users have traced their problems to software issues; most have not. Some report heat seems to play a part; some don't. For some the problem is random; for others a particular sequence of events seems to trigger it. Some reports don't even involve 2006 iMacs or give any of the details GaBeech repeatedly asks for. And the "elephant in the room" that is very hard to ignore is the many posts throughout Apple Discussions from 2006 iMac owners that mention no symptoms remotely like the ones mentioned here.

    In short, there is a lot of speculation but very little else to go on.

    Don't get me wrong: I am not saying that a defect can be ruled out, only that it will be very hard to show that it is the cause with the very limited info we have to work with. All the speculation & venting in the world won't change this one iota. It is just a waste of time & energy, & the more it ignores the obvious the less credible & easier to dismiss it becomes.

    To get anywhere, we need hard facts, not speculation. That means more than just trying to correlate serial numbers. If nothing else, run the Apple Hardware Test & include any results, along with the first five characters (but no more) of your iMac's serial number. Don't be shy about furnishing the details of the symptoms, like do you actually get kernel panics or find any useful system log entries around the time the problems occur.
  • by elice82@,

    elice82@ elice82@ Jul 15, 2010 11:53 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jul 15, 2010 11:53 AM in response to R C-R
    R C-R wrote:
    The problems in making that case are 1) the reported symptoms are not all exactly alike & 2) we have no indication that a significant number of 2006 iMacs are failing the same way.


    So 648 people how signed a petition online (google: petitionspot imac recall) isn't a significant number who experience almost* the same symptoms and problems isn't an indication that something is really going on? *Sure not exactly, because everybody doesn't do the exact same things on a iMac.


    Just review this topic & others like it. Some users have traced their problems to software issues; most have not. Some report heat seems to play a part; some don't...


    Like I said: everybody doesn't do the exact same things on a iMac.

    In short, there is a lot of speculation but very little else to go on.


    One speculation could be that is Apple is willing to do something about it?
    Here you can go on: Failing iMacs between 1 till 3 years, Freezing, horizontal & vertical lines, glitches, dead pixels that disapear after video use etc. And no it doens't matter if you use Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard (less apearing problems but very slow iMac). Clean install, Archive and Install and new account doesn't make any difference. My iMac is ticking left top somewhere.

    Don't get me wrong: I am not saying that a defect can be ruled out, only that it will be very hard to show that it is the cause with the very limited info we have to work with. All the speculation & venting in the world won't change this one iota. It is just a waste of time & energy, & the more it ignores the obvious the less credible & easier to dismiss it becomes.


    Done there, been there, won't say it anymore.

    To get anywhere, we need hard facts, not speculation. That means more than just trying to correlate serial numbers. If nothing else, run the Apple Hardware Test & include any results, along with the first five characters (but no more) of your iMac's serial number. Don't be shy about furnishing the details of the symptoms, like do you actually get kernel panics or find any useful system log entries around the time the problems occur.


    Great the AHT, no problems appear but using you iMac on regular bases does.
    Kernel panics I had one no others apear with the freezing.
    The five charaters of the serial you don't solve anything, only if Apple was smart to register each individual parts with the date & Time and production numbers with the iMac serialnumbers. Then it shouldn't be too hard to compare those numbers? (And let someone look, who is good with numbers, he/she can see a connection).
    We can't not do that!!

    And yes this wasn't directed to me but I replied anyway.
    Thanks for reading it!

    Message was edited by: elice82@
  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R Jul 15, 2010 1:32 PM in response to elice82@
    Level 6 (17,700 points)
    Jul 15, 2010 1:32 PM in response to elice82@
    So 648 people how signed a petition online (google: petitionspot imac recall) isn't a significant number who experience almost* the same symptoms and problems isn't an indication that something is really going on?


    It is an indication that something is going on. The problem is it isn't at all clear what that something is. Anybody can sign an online petition, including people that don't even own the affected product & have some ulterior motive for doing so. In fact, the petition doesn't even request that only owners of 2006 iMacs (or for that matter Mac owners) sign the petition. Besides, almost anybody that does have this model would have a vested interest in this whether they had any problems or not, since it is in effect a request for an infinitely long warranty on at least some of the parts in it.

    Moreover, if the number of signatures alone is any indication of merit, then there are a lot of clearly frivolous if not downright stupid petitions at PetitionSpot with more merit than this one. The point, should it still be necessary to make it again, is that hard facts will decide the issue. Clicking a button at at PetitionSpot won't.

    Great the AHT, no problems appear but using you iMac on regular bases does.


    Then devise another test that has repeatable results that demonstrates the problem. If this is all due to an intrinsic flaw common to many 2006 iMacs in regular use, then that should not be too hard to do.

    The five charaters of the serial you don't solve anything, only if Apple was smart to register each individual parts with the date & Time and production numbers with the iMac serialnumbers.


    It is a little hard to understand exactly what you mean by this, but I don't know if you are aware that the five characters encode the place of manufacture (the factory) in the first two & the year & week of manufacture in the other three. The date code is well known: the first number is the year & the other two the week of the year. So for example "W8602….." means week two of 2006. From online sources the factory code can be obtained; here I believe it is one of the Chinese plants, but I can't remember which one.

    The significance is that we would expect a manufacturing defect not to occur at every factory during every week of the production run. (A design defect would affect every unit of the model produced regardless of where or when, but since it is pretty obvious not all of them are affected, this seems very unlikely.)
  • by elice82@,

    elice82@ elice82@ Jul 15, 2010 2:25 PM in response to R C-R
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jul 15, 2010 2:25 PM in response to R C-R
    R C-R wrote:
    It is an indication that something is going on. The problem is it isn't at all clear what that something is. Anybody can sign an online petition...
    Moreover, if the number of signatures alone is any indication of merit, then there are a lot of clearly frivolous if not downright stupid petitions at PetitionSpot with more merit than this one. The point, should it still be necessary to make it again, is that hard facts will decide the issue. Clicking a button at at PetitionSpot won't.


    True, why doesn't apple start a poll, it doesn't have to be open. Even than you can post your serialnumber. At least then they start to investigate.


    Then devise another test that has repeatable results that demonstrates the problem. If this is all due to an intrinsic flaw common to many 2006 iMacs in regular use, then that should not be too hard to do.


    Like using a YouTube High resolution 1080p video fullscreen (fully downloaded already) and let everybody use the same video? Put questions online like: 1. Did there apear horizontal lines in the video? 2. Did there apear vertical lines in the video? 3. Was the movie passing small part (stutter)? 4. Did you have a deadpixel(s)? 5. Did you computer freez? Repeat this test 6 times.


    It is a little hard to understand exactly what you mean by this, but I don't know if you are aware that the five characters encode the place of manufacture (the factory) in the first two & the year & week of manufacture in the other three. The date code is well known: the first number is the year & the other two the week of the year. So for example "W8602….." means week two of 2006. From online sources the factory code can be obtained; here I believe it is one of the Chinese plants, but I can't remember which one.


    Mine has got CK724. But I did some motification add more memory, they did that in Cork, Ireland. Before that it came out of maybe Japan? That is what I don't know.

    Each iMac has got a serialnummer. Is there by any change that the individual parts GPU ATY X1600, CPU Intel (with date & time & production number) are connected with the serialnumber of the iMac. So what they have been putting inside the iMac got listed somewhere? Then you can compare (nummers, date & time & productionnumbers) of the individual parts between the faulty iMacs.

    The significance is that we would expect a manufacturing defect not to occur at every factory during every week of the production run. (A design defect would affect every unit of the model produced regardless of where or when, but since it is pretty obvious not all of them are affected, this seems very unlikely.)


    As said check the parts individualy not the whole computer as a number.
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