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

As a visually impaired person, I had great hopes for the new 27" iMac with the multi-touch Magic Mouse, the high resolution screen, the zoom features, and if I ever need it, the Voice Over features. So, on November 20, 2009 I ordered one, used the migration assistant to set it up in 7 hours, and tweaked all the setting just so. Tragically, within two days I had to return it because of the flickering and momentary screen blackout that occurred every 60 seconds. While I still had time, I did a complete erasure of the hard drive and a fresh install per the new Snow Leopard method. I worked with several levels of techs at Apple by phone and was given a DOA status on a case number and a senior product specialist told me it looked like there was a problem with an incompatibility between the logic board and the mother board, and/or so soldering issues. The senior product specialist in Portland, Oregon connected me with the local Apple store manager so that I was able to right into the store and get a replacement machine with the minimum of hassle, even get a $136 back due to the Black Friday sale prices. So, I go home, do another 7 hours of migration assistant, tweak the settings, reinstall license codes, etc. and am feeling pretty good because there is no flickering and all is working well for a full 14 days until 3:52 AM of the 15th day when I am writing an email, this second iMac just suddenly shuts off and cannot be revived. I stayed awake for a full 24 hours trying to fix it on my own and with Apple's help, but to no avail. All I could do was take it back to the local Apple store and the additional tragedy in addition to lost time and lost sleep and the general hassle, was that I lost all the new data I had entered into the second machine in the previous two weeks. The Apple store manager did not think they could recover my data from the hard drive on a dead machine. He said, however, when the machine was "captured" and sent to the Apple engineers for teardown and inspection, that the machine would go through a large magnet which should at least obliterate all my data including confidential information so that it would not fall into the wrong hands. Not much consolation, but what could I do? Now I had to decide if I would risk getting another of the 27" iMacs given the failures of the first two I bought. The engineers on the phone wouldn't tell me if they had isolated and fixed the problem(s), but when I asked the Apple store manager for some guidance on this, he told me on 12/12/09 that the online store was advising there would be a two week delay in orders which meant one of two things, he said: 1. That a new model was being released 2. Or that an existing model was being corrected to solve the reported problems. This gave me some hope but not enough. As a 20-year Mac evangelist, I was both disillusioned, angry, and exhausted as the result of such a shoddy, defective Apple product being released before receiving thorough performance testing. So, low vision or not, I decided to trade the iMac for a 13" MacBook Pro. Maybe the new version of the iMac that may be coming out in two weeks will be okay, but for now I have lost faith in Apple's quality control. If you own one of the 13" MacBook Pro laptops, please let me know that it is working well with no problems over time. I'm glad Steve is back and can focus his constructive perfectionism to correct the new iMac's problems.

There are a lot of variances in models and issues.
See here : http://imac.squeaked.com/results.php

In many cases the 27" i7 is perfect or *'almost' perfect.*

My case : only 3 flickers+blackouts in 30 days.
I documented the case on another thread including a video.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2238424&start=15&tstart=0

All I can add is that I discovered that when it flickers, putting the machine to sleep and waking it up immediately will solve the problem (at least on my system) *for a very long time*.

The log shows each time 'SleepWakeCallback will power on'

com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.powermanagement.wake

I now reboot it every day and do a "sleep/wake" routine if needed.

Otherwise, system ok (with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, iMovie etc ...).
Don't have any explanation ; it just works, though a single 'blackout' is not a normal situation..

Regards.

Hello Macotter,

I am really sorry to hear of your frustrating experiences with the new iMacs. Although probably not quite as bad as yours, I also suffer from some vision problems, so I can understand how the added factor of your vision makes this even more frustrating for you.

I've been following this -- and similar threads -- for weeks now, and it seems that with each new user report, we receive a little bit more information regarding what may be wrong with the new iMacs. Of course, I say "may", because until Apple decides to publicly disclose something -- which will hopefully happen soon due to all of the pressure that is now on them -- we really don't know.

But, if we go by these third person accounts via actual iMac users, Apple Store personnel, Apple resellers and news and blog sites, thus far, we have heard the following possible causes for these current problems:

1. Overheating
2. Bad graphics card
3. Bad LCD screen and cable
4. Incompatibility between logic board and motherboard
5. Software incompatibilities
6. Bad install of Snow Leopard
7. Sleep malfunctions

My gosh...Have I forgotten anything?

Regardless of the actual cause(s), it seems that this period of frustration is not quite over yet, and may not be over for at least a few more weeks...and for longer for some of us.

Come on Mr. Jobs. We will all respect you a lot more if you demonstrate the industry leader that you are by spilling the beans, and demonstrating a little humility...and honesty. As your dedicated customers of many years, don't we all deserve this? Your Christmas sales are obviously already screwed by these iMac developments, so giving us the low down isn't going to make anything worse.

Apple may become the "Toyota" of the computer world.

zoz

Hi macotter,

I feel the same as you do, even only when my machine flickers. Fairly disappointed since I was really looking forward to working on it.

Regarding your question on 13" Macbook Pro. I've got a 2.26ghz and I use it for presentations, research, work with larger images and general usage when on the road (eventually would use it for even heavier workload down the road), I've been using mine for the last couple months and no complaints. But best check out the macbook pro forum, you might find some good hints there

If my i7 problem persists, I'll settle to send it back in and continue work with my small, old and white iMac 2.16ghz (which never let me down). Man, quality control...


cheers and good luck,
s0l

Jacques LAPORTE wrote:
There are a lot of variances in models and issues.
See here : http://imac.squeaked.com/results.php

In many cases the 27" i7 is perfect or *'almost' perfect.*

My case : only 3 flickers+blackouts in 30 days.
I documented the case on another thread including a video.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2238424&start=15&tstart=0

All I can add is that I discovered that when it flickers, putting the machine to sleep and waking it up immediately will solve the problem (at least on my system) *for a very long time*.

The log shows each time 'SleepWakeCallback will power on'

com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.powermanagement.wake

I now reboot it every day and do a "sleep/wake" routine if needed.

Otherwise, system ok (with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, iMovie etc ...).
Don't have any explanation ; it just works, though a single 'blackout' is not a normal situation..

Regards.

Whatching your video I can confirm that it's the same on my 27" i5

The official (?) statement regarding the 27" delays:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-135793-10414512-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-13-0-20

W46 replacement still running fine after 11 days. Fingers crossed.

walker3333 wrote:
The official (?) statement regarding the 27" delays:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-135793-10414512-37.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-13-0-20

Considering that it doesn't tell us why the iMacs are being delayed, or if a solution has been found yet for the various problems that exist, I'd call it a pretty empty statement...and not very official.

That's right Warren. It's funny, they seem to be playing politics...

Just set up my 27" iMac that came this Friday. I get a flash across my screen randomly. I feel like someone is taking my picture. It's so fast, I can't really see what's happening. No distortion (yet). Just random flashes. Very disconcerting.

Well, I've had the flickering and yellowing problems since my iMac Core i7 arrived.

Saw many others with problems but left it a couple of weeks before calling Apple.

They asked several questions then had me talk to a "Senior Advisor" who said that it was almost certainly a hardware problem and that I could either send it in for repair, or I could have it replaced.

So, I said I'd have it replaced - of course, I'll have to deal with the 2 week delay/backlog on a new machine but figured that a new one was better

I just bought mine on dec12/09 from best buy. Broken glass in lower left part of screen. Brought it back, got another that flickered a few times upon first use. Hasn't flickered in a few hours, but definitely has yellow stain across the bottom/center of screen.
Don't really want to set up email import photos etc. without knowing what the solution is here, will most likely exchange for the 21.5 inch, not excited about returning another one to best buy either as they probably have the worst customer service in the history of retail. Would rather apple tell us what the problem/solution is.

Well sorry to report to everyone that the symptoms returned last night. First a flicker and then the vertical screen issue.

So I have either ruled out the graphics card, display cable, lcd as possible fixes. Or there just aren't any good parts out there yet as the problem has not been fixed on Apple's end. So in that case, I have proved nothing

The only meaningful parts left are the, powersupply, logic board, and inverter.

I suppose at this point I will just wait and keep checking apple's internal support site for them to make a report as to what techs should do to fix this issue. I smell a Rev A or B of something.