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

I have a pixel check program on my old and still faithful 2003 Powerbook, called PiXel Check V1.2 from 2003. It puts a black screen on then a red, green, and blue screen so you can check for dead pixels in all colors. Try a google search for it, seems like I got it from MAc Tracker or something like that.

I'm not an analyst, but I did come across this article that would put a little candle in a dark place.

The article states that

"Last quarter, Apple sold 3.05 million computers"

Although it isn't clear, I would assume that this was the quarter ending September 09, prior to the release of the 27" models.

The article also states"

"sales of Mac computers for the the two months(October and November) are running roughly 21% over the same period last year.

This includes all computers, laptops, Mac mini's and power Macs as well as the iMac.

Even if you only give the iMacs an equal share of those sales, it represents not thousands, but hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million or more iMac sales since the new models were announced.

A few hundred, even a thousand bad units would represent a microscopic portion of total sales.

The entire article is posted here....

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/12/14/no-requieum-for-the-desktop-apples-design s-help-revive-the-fad/

After just speaking with Apple Tech Support and then After Sales Support (Australia) they confirmed that I do not have to order the DOA replacement right away but actually have until January 9th, 2010 to do so. As the iMac is still usable I'll be waiting until then to give Apple enough time to sort out the faults.

Rick Lang wrote:
Pors: "It's a shame: sitting in front of this really beautiful machine and not being able to be happy about it, but instead waiting..."

We know what you mean but I'm pushing on customizing the new iMac and enjoying the new screen that's not flickered once. Remember, we're all going to die, but few of us let that deter us from enjoying our brief lives while we can. "Don't worry, be happy." Apple still has a big safety net to catch your computer if it fails so enjoy it now.

Thanks for your nice words. Right you are. And in fact I feel like relaxing a bit more every minute I am sitting in front of this beast. It is a cool machine, indeed.

My 27" 2.8GHz i7 iMac perfromed perfectly for 12 days and I was very happy with it. On the 13th it developed a flicker and occasional screen blackout in the way that is very familiar to most of the people here.

I've also been experiencing the audible equivalent of this screen flashing effect. My speakers have been quietly popping and cracking in the same random way as the screen flashes.

Putting the computer to sleep and immediately waking it up will make the problem go away and indeed the vast majority of the time it's behaving itself. However, considering how much I paid for the machine I'm definitely not willing to live with a fault like this, so I've asked for a replacement.

I've been told the lead time I'm looking at is "two weeks" but I'm just a little bit skeptical about that.

My first 27" iMac had a mis-coloured pixel near the middle of the screen, and the replacement (received yesterday) had the flickering/banding problem, as well as the "yellow tinge in the bottom half of the screen" problem.

Unacceptable. I'm getting a refund.

If they sort out what is clearly a manufacturing issue, I may buy a new machine in a few months. It seems obvious that it's not worth getting it replaced right now, as I was told by Apple that the replacement I have just received was assembled to order to make sure it didn't come from the same batch as the original (I don't know whether that's true or not, of course).

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/12/15/how-the-imac-missed-chris tmas/?utmsource=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utmcampaign=Feed:fortuneapple20(FORTUNE:Apple2.0)

Allright I have been experiencing exact the same issues as described in this forum. Called the Dutch Apple Store. They send a company to pickup my iMac 27" and repair it. According to the help desk the problem was a hardware problem related to the video card. They are going to replace the video card. The help desk employee also said that it was a very common problem.

Just got confirmation that my replacement i5 was shipped last night. Should see it on Thursday. SN w8950. Hopefully this one isn't defective like the last. I will keep you all posted.

Thanks,
Tony.

ALL:
please, update the info into tracking website http://imac.squeaked.com/index.php
Useful to easily understand the trend and query the data fetched

Interestingly the Apple employee I spoke to on the helpline yesterday had not heard of this issue before. They were, however, very helpful and with any luck I'll be seeing a replacement soon.

Hi...Got my iMac 27" this sunday 12th dec. i have only seen the flickering one time.

I tried to VLC stream from my Dreambox, then the screen started flickering. I did a shutdown.
When coming up again, i installed the VLC player from videolan.org.
I tried to stream again, and it worked without problems. I have not seen any flickering since.
And i hope i don't....

AAHK wrote:
http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/12/15/how-the-imac-missed-chris tmas/?utmsource=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utmcampaign=Feed:fortuneapple20(FORTUNE:Apple2.0)

So for Apple is only a problem with high rate of requests. Sure... every user must get two or three iMac to have a working one. What Apple said is correct
Come on Apple be serious!

Same issue as everyone else. Have had the computer for about 2 weeks and had very light use until last night when I went to edit some websites. Was running the computer for about 2 hours and the screen started to have flickers about 3" wide.

Everything had been fine with the machine until I connected a new Apple remote to it and ran FrontRow. I am sure it was a coincidence, but yea...same boat as everyone else.

Guess I'll bring it back?