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

Yes, I'd get it replaced if I were you, hurley999jb. You never know, it might get worse with time.

Although, my replacement machine had the fault, which is why I've gone for a refund. I'll only buy another one if/when I'm confident Apple have solved the problem once and for all.

This has got to be a manufacturing issue. Perhaps a new process or plant has not yet got up to the required standard. Or perhaps they are letting QA standards slip to keep up with high demand? Either way, I don't find it acceptable.

Apple charge a premium for their hardware, so they should justify it.

Hi,

The last, and only other time I posted here, was to ask why we were experiencing such horrendous delays on the QC's shipping.

Unreal that 3 week's after receiving the machine bought on *29th of October* I'm posting in exactly the kind of thread I'd hoped never to see as I made the leap into the legendary paradise of Mac.

What concerns me is that earlier posts are describing incredibly detailed troubleshooting steps. My troubleshooting consisted of:

"My screen has intermittent banding and display dropouts"
+"Are you running all the updates?"+
"Yes"
+"I'm going to go ahead and replace that for you"+

Now don't get me wrong, that's excellent service. It just struck me as quite a defeated Apple which answered my call, suggesting an official "Known Issue" may be announced soon.

I am getting the same thing with my new 27", screen flickers and the dock bar moves to three quarters of the way up the screen. Phone tec support yesterday and they said it was not something that had been reported before ! told me to remove power lead and wait 15 seconds before reconnecting and starting up. Was fine for the rest of the evening but tonight it is all over the place

wattsr, I'd contact them again and ask for a replacement or refund, if I were you. If they say they've not heard of the flicker/banding issue, just point them at this thread - it is on the Apple site, after all!

Do you also have the yellow tinge problem?

Hello Everyone,

same old here, had it for roughly 3 weeks, had three separated flickering episodes and today I started the replacement process.. I strongly hope the new machine istn faulty otherwise I will follow the refund road till better components are used/the problem is sorted.

Mine was a w8947

Hi will try that tomorrow, not had any yellow tinge issues tho. The machine is only 2 days old

Hi,

So far I have seen the problem only once on my 27" imac.
About a week after I got it it black out 3 or 4 times for just a second each time.
Then I got the finder's menu bar that dropped from the top to about 1/5th of the screen and what is usually the bottom of the screen was above it at the top.
It was fixed after restarting the computer.

Placed a call to Apple and was asked to do the routine stuff.
Unplug every external devices, zap PRAM, do hardware test...
No problems found. I was told to run it for a few days and call back it problem returned.
I have not seen the problem since, but I am not sitting infront of it all day so I can't say if it did flicker again.

Will post again if it returns.

Eric

I got my iMac yesterday on the 14th of December, after starting it up for the first time I directly watched some youtube HD video's full screen. After I watched the video's the flickering began, and it wouldn't stop until I turned my computer off and left it off for like 30 minutes, and restart it. Before I turned it off the back of the computer was very hot, but it looked like the biggest heat came from the left of the imac, just next to the apple logo. When I started the iMac again there was no flickering until I watched youtube video's again, the iMac became very hot on the same place again, next to the apple logo on the back. Today the same thing happened, the iMac gets very hot next to the Apple logo on the left, and then the flickering starts.
There's no flickering, when the spot on the left of the Apple logo feels normal.
I contacted Apple in The Netherlands, and they said it was a very known problem. They said that the graphics card in the iMac is the problem. So I will get a replacement, they also said that the replacements will be tested before shipping, so they will not have this problem. It could take two weeks according to Apple.
But my iMac was made in week 50, so I do not understand why they shipped this iMac to me, when they knew of the problem.

Quick update on my situation.

After reporting a flickering screen to Apple on my week 46 27" iMac, I received my replacement (week 48) yesterday. I switched in on and immediately noticed a small clump of dead pixels. Groan.

Fingers crossed for the next replacement (although Apple could not tell me when this would arrive).

I am fed up!

I recently purchased a 27 inch iMac i7, and have/had this flickering issue. I did not see this on the initial startup and usage of my iMac, however after a Time Machine restore, I did see this flickering.

At the time I was restoring my iTunes library to my new iMac, I just simply let it alone, and would worry about it later. I came back to it about 2 to 3 hours later and the flickering had ceased.

So two questions for you all at this point, has anyone else left their iMac alone for a couple of hours when it started flickering, and were your results the same as mine?

I'm still a bit skeptical of this as an actual solution, and I am keeping and keeping a running count of occurences.

Schwa72 wrote:

changt34x wrote:
Just to let you know Apple has not fixed the problem ENTIRELY. My friend's iMac 27" had the first flicker problem but his replacement has not had any yet

I had one of the first batch of iMac 27" i5s and it would flicker. It had the cracked screen as well. I went back to the store and I returned it with no restocking fee due to the cracked screen. Today, I picked up another at the store (bad idea). After returning from sleep, I saw the first flicker.

I will return the iMac again. I think it may be a GPU problem as it also blanks out on my secondary display but the lines only appear on the iMac's main display. The only reason I bought it so soon was because I need a new computer for college that can actually run CS4 and is future-proof (more than a 21.5" iMac). Oh well, I have an i7-920 with a HD 5770 and P6T Deluxe on order from NewEgg. I have lost faith in Rev. A products (had so many problems with my Core Duo MacBook).

What's the serial number of your second iMac? The third and fourth digits tell you the week that it was built. Since Apple has just recently started to delay shipment of the 27" iMacs so they can fix this problem, I'm sure that your replacement isn't one of the "fixed" ones.

It is a Week 50 iMac. Im not sure whether that is supposed to be fixed yet.

Those with the flickering issue might find the first reader comment on this article insightful:

http://www.internetnews.com/hardware/article.php/3853291/LargestiMacs+Plagued+With+DelaysProblems.htm

Nutshell (as I read it): Have the graphics cards in the 27" iMacs been customized to a high-performance configuration that's exposing QC issues when the config is replicated to an entire production line?

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.

An excellent sentiment. I got my new iMac on black Friday, and I don't exactly know when the flickering and blackout started. I haven't called Apple Support yet but I'm absolutely certain I will end up with a perfect machine one way or another. It's a drop dead gorgeous wonder and I am loving it more and more each day (and to think, I nearly bought the 21" model!!).

BTW, I did the simplest thing of shutting down, unplugging the power cord for a minute or two and then starting up again. Not one flicker in about 4-5 days (though I haven't been on it more than an hour or two at a time since then). I think I have the yellow screen problem, but it's so subtle that i had to ask my wife who has excellent color sense for her opinion and she saw a very slight yellow color on the grey bar test.

So, it's a hassle, but I'm not sweating it. Apple has always done right by me with my technical problems.....it's a big reason why I will only buy a Mac!

Has anyone found a date cutoff for the issue in the serial numbers? Such as those produced in the middle of October versus those made in December? Are there less/no issues reported in later production dates? I'm sitting here with a 27" in-box to be given to my father on Christmas, the serial is telling me that it's a week 49 version.. if I'm reading it right.. 3rd and 4th number tell you what production week, correct?

I'm tempted to take the thing out and see whether or not it has the prevailing issue. the article that was posted,

http://www.internetnews.com/hardware/article.php/3853291/LargestiMacs+Plagued+With+DelaysProblems.htm

really seems to hit the nail on the head as far as my limited knowledge is concerned. The pushing of the ATI gpu's rather than NVIDIA's is of great concern to me. When I ordered my MacPro I insisted on the NVIDIA card. Something just seemed weird about the use of an ATI.

I'm wondering if this will eventually just become a systemic problem for everyone, maybe it's a production or design flaw. Actually, my best friend's college room mate (I know that sounds REALLY cliche, but it's actually true) worked on the design team for these new iMacs. I'm going to see if he can get in touch with him and if he has any info.

Anyways.. here's hoping for a cure.

dpowell wrote:
Those with the flickering issue might find the first reader comment on this article insightful:

http://www.internetnews.com/hardware/article.php/3853291/LargestiMacs+Plagued+With+DelaysProblems.htm

Nutshell (as I read it): Have the graphics cards in the 27" iMacs been customized to a high-performance configuration that's exposing QC issues when the config is replicated to an entire production line?

Hello dpowell,

Thanks for the interesting link. I am not a very technologically savvy person, but I found the article informative.

Equally interesting is that in the first comment that a user left below the article in question, there is another link which leads to an article on the "Tom's Hardware" website called "Solution for screen flickers in ATI Cards (esp HD 4800 series)".

From reading that article -- and the Windows-centered comments below it -- one is given the impression that AMD is fully aware of the problems with the ATI Radeon 4800 series graphic cards, and to date, hasn't done anything concrete to resolve the issues.

You can read the article here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/273975-33-solution-screen-flickers-cards-4800- series

From reading the above -- and the comments below it -- I am given the impression that blame may lie with both AMD, as well as with Apple, IF Apple is trying to push the 4670 and 4850 cards beyond their recommended specifications through overclocking, or whatever.

Again, I am not very knowledgeable in a technological sense, but others here might find interesting -- and better understand -- the above article and comments.