Q: New iMac 27inch screen flickering/tearing/shutoff

I'm particularly amazed about the growing numbers in Pronych's site, they seem to increase faster everyday and recent weeks production are not an exception. I wonder whether loads of people with apparently "good" machines are finding out they got the problem too. Also, if the problem is caused by incompatibility with the graphic card or another hardware, what's gonna happen with all iMacs produced till the issue is really sorted out? ... The tip of the iceberg!.

And yes!, amazing job done by Pronych. He should set up a Control Quality business for all products out there!

Cheers!
fa

fa_design wrote:
I wonder whether loads of people with apparently "good" machines are finding out >they got the problem too.

Yeah tell me about it, I'm squinting close every time I wake my machine from sleep to check if it's got a jaundice-yellow tint lol. I guess the initial flickering wasn't enough.

Dang this thread is making me think stuff, which I guess is almost like self diagnosing an illness with google haha .

cheers,
s0l

Message was edited by: s0lar

which I guess is almost like self diagnosing and illness through google hahaha.

Quite so. I doubt I would have noticed the very faint yellow on this excellent i7 but for topics here. It is there but not a serious issue. Otherwise now on day 18 of this impressive machine. Perhaps it is time I started using it, rather than playing with it and looking for faults.

ScotMij wrote:

which I guess is almost like self diagnosing and illness through google hahaha.

Otherwise now on day 18 of this impressive machine. Perhaps it is time I started using it, rather than playing with it and looking for faults.

Yes I fully agree, I also need to get down to do some serious work with it, especially now that I have after waiting for it to arrive.

My digital hypochondria (and I hope it will just stay at the imaginary problem stage) is not going to get me anywhere work wise ...

Cheers,
s0l

ComputerWorld has an article too

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142199/Graphicsissues_force_Apple_to_delay_iMac_orders_resellersreport

Nothing new, just a sign that there's more attention.

If I don't hear anything from Apple I'll try to return my machine for one manufactured more recently. I bought my machine from an academic store (UMN) two days ago, but by serial number it's been sitting there for a while. Unfortunately, it's not an Apple store, so return policies differ. (I wouldn't buy there again, I'd go for Amazon.)

LCD and display cable fix report - 73.5 hours now and no signs of any of the symptoms.

At this point seems like it might be safe to assume it is fixed, but without a negative it is hard to assume a positive since it is so random and hard to reproduce with some people not having it happen until days out.

As of right now, everything is good.

Some folks are going weeks without an occurrence, I think it would be hard to guess when it's fixed without Apple telling us definitively what the cause was. Of course, in your case, having effectively replaced the entire video subsystem at this point, it seems likely you've gotten it unless they're shipping out defective parts.

Thanks for the report, Sonic.

For my replacement iMac (that most probably will be delivered tomorrow) this means that I won't let it replace once again in case it should flicker, too. If it is perfect otherwise (dead pixels, chassis, iSight) I will wait for to get the display and cable being replaced in full hope that this puts this whole story to an end.

But maybe I am lucky and will just receive a completely error free iMac.

Yes, and I wish I could say that apple wasn't known to do that. What scares me more than anything is apple hasn't even added any info about this to their official support site.

Normally they would post an update up their for certified apple techs as soon as possible so that when people bring machines in with these symptoms they can offer the best customer support and be able to identify what is wrong without Apple losing a ton of money on guesswork from the techs perspective, and the consumer being upset because of the inefficiency.

Apple hasn't even done that yet, I would have expected that long before any kind of PR about this issue (which if Apple would at least let the techs know how to fix it, may never be needed).

As a company it is in their best interest to do two things:
1. Stop new imacs from shipping with the same problem
2. Make a solution known, at least internally and to certified techs to get the problems fixed on any macs that shipped prior.

Sure, if techs know the fix eventually consumers will too, but it will at least change the press they are getting to something more positive like "Apple has a fix for it, it is this, just take it down and you can get the parts replaced for a perfect imac" instead of "what the heck are they doing, it has been weeks now and they haven't said anything" and people just randomly exchanging imacs back and forth hoping to get a new one and at the same time increasing the number of refurbished imacs and ultimately effecting profits dramatically.


I have heard though JiminSF of some people going weeks. Mine was fairly consistent at two or three times a day every other day though. When I exchanged the graphics card, it came up and did it just hours after.

But again, you are right, that doesn't mean anything. These new parts could be just as bad and maybe it will show itself with them weeks out. For right now, I will hold my breath that it is fixed and keep checking Apple's internal support site for any updates there.

06awd wrote:
Replacement 27" Quad-core 2.8GHz iMac is being delivered this morning. First iMac had all the screen issues described in this thread. Will report back when the new one is opened up and tested for a few hours.

On the plus side, my replacement machine shipped from China, Dec 10 at 10:34 am, and is being delivered here in New Jersey today (Dec 11) by 10:30 am. Maybe only the good thing about this disaster is the quick shipping.
06awd wrote:
Replacement 27" Quad-core 2.8GHz iMac is being delivered this morning. First iMac had all the screen issues described in this thread. Will report back when the new one is opened up and tested for a few hours.

On the plus side, my replacement machine shipped from China, Dec 10 at 10:34 am, and is being delivered here in New Jersey today (Dec 11) by 10:30 am. Maybe only the good thing about this disaster is the quick shipping.
06awd wrote:
Replacement 27" Quad-core 2.8GHz iMac is being delivered this morning. First iMac had all the screen issues described in this thread. Will report back when the new one is opened up and tested for a few hours.

On the plus side, my replacement machine shipped from China, Dec 10 at 10:34 am, and is being delivered here in New Jersey today (Dec 11) by 10:30 am. Maybe only the good thing about this disaster is the quick shipping.
06awd wrote:
Replacement 27" Quad-core 2.8GHz iMac is being delivered this morning. First iMac had all the screen issues described in this thread. Will report back when the new one is opened up and tested for a few hours.

On the plus side, my replacement machine shipped from China, Dec 10 at 10:34 am, and is being delivered here in New Jersey today (Dec 11) by 10:30 am. Maybe only the good thing about this disaster is the quick shipping.

UPDATE TO MY PREVIOUS POST::

*Replacement iMac arrived and unpacked.*
*2.8GHz Quad core i7, 4GB Ram, 1TB HD*
*Week 50 Serial #: W8950*

Was delivered to mu office where it was turned on and run for 8ish hours. I copied some 1080p video I had created over to it and played it for several hours to heat up the machine. I don't want to jinx myself, but so far I have noticed ZERO flickering, color distortion or black outs. It looks as if this machine is 100%.

Day 3 now and all is still well. It has been put to sleep numerous time and has woken up with no issues.

Great! Me too another great investment. I love technology

Did a PRAM reset (optioncmd R, P) earlier today, and so far no issues. Won't want to jinx it.

If it is software related then I hope that fixed it. And if it hasn't I just hope it would show me some indications of problems within the 15 days I can send it...

Anyways glad to hear that the replacement works out for some

Sonics99:

How did you exchange the video card on your 27" iMac? These things are not consumer friendly to self-repair. See your 5th paragraph and last sentence. Did Apple exchange your original computer?

Well said, and my own point exactly.

+Where is Apple's response? The silence is deafening.+

I've been reading this thread with interest and despair. I'm having the same problems as everyone else. *The silence from Apple is unconscionable.*

As of this writing there are some 84 pages of this discussion. I want to thank everyone for posting comments. I know now that I'm not alone. But +all of us together+ are so far +alone and on our own+ as far as Apple is concerned.

Where is Apple? How many more comments must pour in before Apple responds and addresses these issues? While writing this comment, I've lost count of the number of blackouts and screen flickers I'm experiencing.

Apple customers are the greatest. Is Apple earning our patronage?

I really appreciate everyone who is posting here about this issue. I cancelled my order two weeks ago and am really anxious to re-order once they have fixed the problem. I check this board quite a bit.

That being said...I doubt very seriously if there will be anything official from Apple until after Christmas for the simple reason that making any official announcements is very likely to negatively impact purchases over the next 2-3 weeks. I hope I am wrong but on the other hand if it was my business and only some of the machines were having problems that is how I would do it.

In the end Apple is going to make good on these machines and address this problem. They are "good people".