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

Hi, do you know if a dead pixel on the iSight is a valid reason to send back the IMAC to Apple?
Can they refuse to get it back if this is the only problem you have?

I'm really getting worried about all these issues people have found out after getting their iMac.

Regards.

Hi guys,

I'm in the same boat as you all.
Got the flickering screen (only saw it on one occasion of 4 flickerings and the top of the screen shifting down from the top).

Still, I called support about this.Did all the usual stuff,PRAM HW tests, etc.
Have not seen the problem back for the last 2 weeks.

BUT!
The support lady I spoke to told me that if I get Apple Care, I could ask for *ON SITE service* If I want to.
A technician would actually come to my house to do the repairs needed (once they know how to fix this!)

As any of you used this option of on site service?
It seems to be a good option to lugging the beast to an Apple Service Center.
If the problem returns on my machine, I will probably do that.
I was thinking of buying Apple Care anyway.

Thanks.

With or without these current 27 inch iMac issues, AppleCare is always a good idea and well worth the money!

I agree with you Michael.



And I mention this option so that people who can't easily take their machines to service can have service come to them.



Of course, there is a distance limit to this option.



"Onsite service is available for many desktop computers if the location of the Covered Equipment is within 50 miles/80 kilometers radius of an Apple authorized onsite service provider located in the United States or Canada"



Still a good option

Macchianera wrote:
Hi, do you know if a dead pixel on the iSight is a valid reason to send back the IMAC to Apple?
Can they refuse to get it back if this is the only problem you have?

I'm really getting worried about all these issues people have found out after getting their iMac.

Regards.

Same feelings here. Anyway, I don't think just one dead pixel could be a valid reason for a replacement or a free repair/change.
If I well remember there's a minimum value: with more than X dead pixels the equipment could be considered faulty and could be replaced.

Ciao

Tom1631 wrote:
So, he said that he could set-up a Genius Bar appointment and get the iMac i7 fixed there. I asked him if Apple had found out what was causing this problem and he said they had a hardware fix for it and could order the parts needed to fix it.

So Apple says the is a HARDWARE FIX for this?? AND they have the parts?? WHOA!

I've received my replacement for my original week 43 imac. This one's a week 50 and seems to be fine.

I have a student friend who just spent several weeks deciding whether to switch and buy a new, 27-inch iMac or a Windows 7 PC. With my guidance, she did due diligence, and initially decided on the iMac — with great enthusiasm. However, before she pulled the trigger, I had her read this thread and related info on other Web sites.

After delving into this issue, she's choosing to get another PC.

That's too bad. Apple lost a convert and may lose a number of Christmas sales due to this unfortunate and untimely issue, which I'm sure will be resolved after the holidays. But my friend needs to make that new computer purchase this week, to get it ready for next semester, which begins on Jan 6.

I hope Apple announces a fix for this sooner rather than later, but these things take time.

well, It has been a solid week since I've seen any flickering or momentary black screens at all. This is strange. The flickering first started about 2 weeks after I received my imac. It then continued for a couple of weeks, sporadically. Now, for a week, I've not seen anything wrong. I'm hoping it stays this way but something tells me it will start up again sometime in the future.

Message was edited by: loofah

Strange indeed. I'm having (or thought I was having) the same experience as loofah. After 11 days without problems my i5 (wk47 with 8gb) started to flicker occasionally and black out. I fixed it for a while by sleeping/waking the display but it would return after a few hours. This went on for a few days than it stopped and for a week or so I've had no problems at all BUT as I started to type this the screen blacked out for about a second (probably less). Judging by other posts on this thread, the occurrence of the problem appears to be totally random - not heat or load related, possibly power supply related. Who knows? (Apple, I hope).

mmmm yup, it's back. Not as severe as it was before but I was watching a movie in fullscreen and it flickered a few times. Has apple made any announcement about this problem at all? If I take it in to the apple store will they know what I'm talking about when I tell them what's wrong? They should be well aware of it by now...

Just checked back on this thread after a break of a couple of weeks and we are still finding the affliction of display problems affecting the 27 inch iMac.

The problem is so intermittent and random that, really, 2 or 3 weeks could go by before random, unpredictable factors aligned themselves to produce the infrequent sneeze of a problem, such as flickering, horizontal tearing, progressing to the distressful screen blackouts . If your timing is as such, you could have a fairly new machine and not even know that your display is affected until weeks to come. Pronouncements of perfectly working displays from new posters certainly has to be qualified until, if, or when a problem occurs.

What are we up to now? Week 51 machines? So far, a graphic driver problem has not been fully ruled out. Past history has shown the driver versions to be problem contenders. So, everyone is waiting for the next firmware revision, 10.6.3, to see if these drivers are revised, and if this solves the niggling display problem for the vast majority of those affected.

We will see in January.

Michael Lind1 wrote:
The problem is so intermittent and random that, really, 2 or 3 weeks could go by before random, unpredictable factors aligned themselves to produce the infrequent sneeze of a problem, such as flickering, horizontal tearing, progressing to the distressful screen blackouts . If your timing is as such, you could have a fairly new machine and not even know that your display is affected until weeks to come. Pronouncements of perfectly working displays from new posters certainly has to be qualified until, if, or when a problem occurs.

Keep in mind that it's not as intermittent for everyone. Mine started doing it shortly after purchase, and kept on doing it repeatedly afterwards until I returned it. And whenever it struck, it struck hard. Lots of different degrees of severity out there, it seems.

Still waiting for some sort of feeling of confidence that it's pretty much fixed before I order again. Sad to see that imac.squeaked.com is now listing a Week 51 iMac with flickering problems.

"What triggers the graphic card to this unsettled state, I don't know. It could be a high sensitivity to power line surge, other interferences, or a software issue (at the OS level) or at the firmware level (EFI, graphic card ROM) etc … "

The comment about the power line surge caught my eye. It might be interesting to see if there is any correlation between the flickering and the type of UPS, (or lack there of), as a cause. I have a week 46 27" i7 system and have it on a server grade 1500VA UPS that does true AVR. So far I have had it just over a month and, (knock on wood), there has been no sign of flickering. Any comments from those of you with the problem on this?

Also, I was running distributed processing for part of the time and kept an eye on the temps. I was seeing CPU and PS temps mostly in the mid 150º F range when running it. I did see the PS spike into the 170º F range when running the processing and using the system with graphics intense programs at the same time. This would seem to indicate that it is not caused by temperatures but it is no guarantee.

Invest in a high quality UPS for your computer. It will be money well spent.