New iMac 27inch screen flickering/tearing/shutoff

Hello everyone! I bought my Dad the 27" Quad-core i5. Received it Jan. 3 2010. Serial Number W89526xxxxx. I helped him set it up and left his house to let him play with his new toy running iTunes and three hours later it shut down. He said it was VERY HOT at the top of the case.
There is a thread in the Mac Pro forums pertaining to Nehalem's overheating while working in iTunes, and shutting down when reaching thermal maximums. It is a large thread also.
I have scanned this thread by nine page jumps and have not seen anyone doing temp. monitoring/ power consumption while in iTunes.
The focus has been on the screen here, has anyone done temp. readings, while in various audio programs?
Apple is just now admitting to the Mac Pro heating problems, and the i5 is a Nehalem based processor.
Is the flickering screen a subset problem to this Nehalem heating problem, which shut down my Dad's 27' i5?

Hello HayDude,

I occasionally monitor my temperatures using iStat Menus. I like it much better than iStat Pro, because it doesn't clutter up the desktop.

At any rate, as I've mentioned before, in the 19 days that I have had this machine, I have rarely ever seen the temperature sensors peak above 150 degrees Fahrenheit. They usually hover in the 140's, or lower.

Normally, I don't use iTunes, as I find it a bit too bulky for my taste. I much prefer the light feel of Vox 0.2.7b1, which sits in the lower right corner of my screen. Even when I play music for hours in Vox, my i7 Quad Core iMac does not overheat. It remains in the temperature range noted above.

On the other hand, I do have the yellow tinge, as well as some dead pixels, but no flickering or blackouts in the 19 days that I've owned this machine. I never installed the display update.

Now that things have apparently settled down with the 27" iMacs, I'm ready to order one. However, I was surprised to see this statement on Apple's Refund policy page: "You have up to 14 calendar days from the time you receive your item(s) to initiate a return. A 10% restocking fee will be assessed for opened items."

It doesn't even say a fee "may" be assessed. It says it "will" be assessed. However I don't recall any of the many people on this thread who returned their iMacs indicating they paid a restocking fee. I'd like to know if anyone did get charged this fee from Apple when they returned their iMacs.

Howard, No we did not pay Restocking Fees for Exchanging Our Defective iMacs. But I have some Advice! WAIT! There are still iMacs being made just last week that have the Yellow Tinge Screen Defect. If I were you, I'd wait to order at least until March & buy from Apple Online. As stores may still have older defective stock. Just my advice & opinion. If you read the last 5 Pages of this Thread, you will see people are still getting Yellow Screens.

I understand you advice, Dino, as I've been closely following this thread. Unfortunately, I've been hobbling along on my G5, which is now precipitously circling the drain. If I didn't need a replacement immediately, I'd wait until March to see what the expected refresh of the iMac line would bring, but my current computer is about to bite the dust and I can't afford to wait any longer.

It looks like the flicker problem is under control, and while the yellow tint problem still is showing up, it seems the frequency is being reduced. So, based on that, I will take a chance and hope for the best. I have an Apple store within 10 minutes of me so I can get quick support if I need it.

My order is showing a ship date of Feb 23rd. and I did order from the Apple online store.

Howard Bornstein wrote:
Now that things have apparently settled down with the 27" iMacs, I'm ready to order one. However, I was surprised to see this statement on Apple's Refund policy page: "You have up to 14 calendar days from the time you receive your item(s) to initiate a return. A 10% restocking fee will be assessed for opened items."

It doesn't even say a fee "may" be assessed. It says it "will" be assessed. However I don't recall any of the many people on this thread who returned their iMacs indicating they paid a restocking fee. I'd like to know if anyone did get charged this fee from Apple when they returned their iMacs.

Settled down? I would agree with Dino . . . not exactly settled down just yet.

*So say we all!* (Yeah, I'm a big BSG fan!)

According to all of the posts that we have been reading in this and other threads, Apple's actual actions with owners of defective iMacs has been quite different from what is stated in their return policy, which is as it most definitely should be.

In other words, in my view, it would be highly immoral for Apple to charge ANY defective iMac owner a restocking fee. After all, THEY sent us the defective iMacs.

On the other hand, if someone wishes to return an iMac -- or any Macintosh for that matter -- for any other reason than an obvious factory defect, then I suppose that, like most other businesses, they have the right to charge a restocking fee . . . although considering how much we pay for these machines, 10% is outrageously high in my view.

Howard Bornstein wrote:
. . . and while the yellow tint problem still is showing up, it seems the frequency is being reduced. So, based on that, I will take a chance and hope for the best. I have an Apple store within 10 minutes of me so I can get quick support if I need it.

Reading these various threads, I haven't noticed any reduction in the yellow tinge problem; or maybe it's . . . "just my imagina-a-tion, running away with me." -- The Temptations, 1971.

Going by the latest posts, I'd say that you are still taking a big chance; but it is YOUR money, and thus YOUR call. 🙂

Warren,
I'm glad the Apple Tech that I sent the Picture of my Yellow screen to, didn't Sing Me that Song to me after he got my Picture! 🙂 L.O.L.
Dino

Reading these various threads, I haven't noticed any reduction in the yellow tinge problem;

According to imac.squeaked.com, the reports for yellow screens are down from 17 in week 4 to 3 in week 5. Admittedly, it may be too soon for accurate reports from week 5, but I simply cannot wait anylonger to replace my G5.

Howard Bornstein wrote:

Reading these various threads, I haven't noticed any reduction in the yellow tinge problem;

According to imac.squeaked.com, the reports for yellow screens are down from 17 in week 4 to 3 in week 5. Admittedly, it may be too soon for accurate reports from week 5, but I simply cannot wait anylonger to replace my G5.

The problem with relying upon imac.squeaked.com, or any related statistics sites, or even the posts that are found in these threads, is that they offer such a small sampling of the total number of people that actually experience these problems, that none of us can really accurately determine the actual scope of these problems.

As has been pointed out before, many people with defective iMacs are not even aware of imac.squeaked.com, or of these threads. Thus, unless every single person who has been affected by these problems posts here, or submits their details to imac.squeaked.com, we have a distorted view of what is going on.

In my view, it is foolhardy to extrapolate, based on the limited data that we have.

The only thing that remains certain, is that some of these problems clearly continue to exist, and that new people continue to find these threads all the time.

What is also certain, is that Apple is the only one who knows the real statistics, and they aren't talking.

Warren Beasley wrote:

Howard Bornstein wrote:

Reading these various threads, I haven't noticed any reduction in the yellow tinge problem;

According to imac.squeaked.com, the reports for yellow screens are down from 17 in week 4 to 3 in week 5. Admittedly, it may be too soon for accurate reports from week 5, but I simply cannot wait anylonger to replace my G5.

The problem with relying upon imac.squeaked.com, or any related statistics sites, or even the posts that are found in these threads, is that they offer such a small sampling of the total number of people that actually experience these problems, that none of us can really accurately determine the actual scope of these problems.

As has been pointed out before, many people with defective iMacs are not even aware of imac.squeaked.com, or of these threads. Thus, unless every single person who has been affected by these problems posts here, or submits their details to imac.squeaked.com, we have a distorted view of what is going on.

In my view, it is foolhardy to extrapolate, based on the limited data that we have.

The only thing that remains certain, is that some of these problems clearly continue to exist, and that new people continue to find these threads all the time.

What is also certain, is that Apple is the only one who knows the real statistics, and they aren't talking.

I agree, and conversely the are antagonists that double and triple etc posts to these forums to try to inflate the issue even further for their own amusement. Only Apple knows for sure. Heck, there might be a bunch of PC fanboys out there just posting problems for fun.

Any of us who have been reading this thread for the last couple of months & exchanging 3 iMacs in a row with problems, would have to say that this is a much bigger percentage of defective iMacs than we had thought at first. How people from all over the Globe can get 3-5 iMacs in a row that are defective in one way or another & then people turn around & say that it is very low percentage is beyond me. I think about the people who have their iMacs & don't even know they have Yellow tinge. On some iMacs, it's not that obvious. We can't all be that unlucky.

Hadn't experienced any flickering up until last Friday.

OSX is perfectly fine - never seen one flicker. However on Windows there's a slight flicker, not as severe as some of the videos I've seen, but it's every few minutes or so.

I'm thinking perhaps the graphics driver update in December fixed any issues on OSX, seeing as I've never seen it flicker while using it. However on Windows 7 I'm using the default ATI driver, due to the colour banding with the Boot Camp drivers. Could it be just a case of waiting for the next Boot Camp release to fix this? Or is it a problem worth escalating to get a replacement?

Recieved my i7 imac today 2 days early and it is incredible. There is not dead pixels on the screen or the isight camera. The disc drive works as it should and the system is whisper quiet. There may be the slightest hint of yellowing on the screen but I HAVE to have the grey bars on to see it and even then I have to look for it. Im not stressing over it in the least bit. I have been throwing everything I have at this computer all day long and I cant seem to slow it down in the least bit. Very happy with my purchase and the wait was well worth it.

I thought I had noticed this just after the update. Mine is a week 46 and has been fine since purchase and to be honest is fine now.

One thing I have noticed - I opened Automator and watched the quicktime video which, by the way was terrible to listen too. However, the colour a light grey background when watched flickers very gradually(bottom right of the window) - this might be my eyes? but I have found the screen to be less responsive.

Can someone try the video and let me know if they see the same?

You might want to turn the volume down 🙂