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

You are quite right about keeping this thread focused. Thanks for the reality check. I also think you are right in that for many including myself flickering begins within an hour of start up - sleep. Imho this is not a heat issue at all for the majority.

Utsava,

some have gotten machines which did not make any trouble anymore. There has not been any announcement what is actually causing the problem. Some have reported that they are getting their Display cables replaced by Apple support, others have stated that also their LCD was swapped. Then there was the firmware update by Apple which patched the graphics card (with limited success as I see it). Some people also think that it might be the power supply in the iMac. All of which I think are still valid candidates.

I cannot find the link anymore, but somebody has created a website where people can report their defective iMac, the defect itself and whether it was fixed by the firmware update, etc. The link must be somewhere in here...

Rudy

Rudy Norff wrote:
This is getting ridiculous now. Guys, this is not a thread for CPU or GPU fan speeds this is about the flickering problems on the new iMacs. If any of you who are heaving a 4 page conversation of fan speeds now had read at least a bit of this thread then you would know that a large percentage of the people also get the flickering right after startup/wakeup. So it is very unlikely that this is a heat issue for most of the people affected.

With your talks about fans you are dragging this thread off topic and pushing it out of focus. A lot of people have worked to get some media attention on this.

So please, if you have not done so, read the posts or if you want to continue, just open up another thread with "How to tune your new iMac CPU fan" so that the others who have problems can continue to post them.

Thanks for the comment, Rudy. I'm not sure why I went off on the fan tangent anyway -- I never really thought I was having a fan issue and am convinced my fans are acting fine. I guess it was just an interesting diversion, but I'll stop posting fan stuff.

FWIW, I have absolutely read every post from the beginning of this thread (I had one of the first i7s that had the flicker) and am also convinced that the flicker issue doesn't have much to do with heat.

Utsava wrote:
Has anyone who has gotten a replacement gotten one that didn't exhibit this problem? I've heard of many who have gotten one or more replacements that all exhibited the problem, but in my review of this thread, I haven't found any that have gotten a non-flickering replacement. If this is true, it seems to indicate that the large majority, if not all of them, have this problem. Is getting a replacement really worth it if the odds are that the new one will have the same problem?

Utsava, I'm on my third 27" Core i7 iMac. The first one flickered twice right when I first powered it up and I got the flickers/blackouts/screen shift again four days later at which point I called Apple to get a replacement. My first replacement (a week 48 model) never flickered once in the three weeks that I had it, but it suffered from a bad case of the yellow tinge, so it got replaced with my current week 51 iMac. This machine also suffers from a slight case of the yellows (but much better than #2) and hasn't flickered since I plugged it in on 12/23. I'm not totally convinced I'm out of the woods yet (a full month with no flickers would probably convince me), but, knock on wood, so far things are looking good.

Message was edited by: Schwa72

Hi Rudy
Here's the link: http://imac.squeaked.com/index.php

Yes, I have a flickering/blackout i7 that when it starts flickering, it happens in both Mac OS and Windows 7 (running under Parallels). I have also seen other entries on this thread that state they have gotten the flickering when running Win 7 on boot camp as well, so it does not appear to be an OS issue. I'm getting ready to send my iMac back to get a replacement (fingers and everything else crossed!). Since I bought mine from an Apple-authorized reseller, I have to send it back to them, but they assure me I will receive a brand new (not refurbished) iMac from Shanghai. . .

Hello everyone,
I live in Greece, so I ordered an iMac 27" i7 from an official Apple Reseller (through the official Apple Importer) since there isn't any Apple Store/Representative or something in Greece.
I preordered on November 13th and I knew that it would take longer to have the machine, than you, living in other Countries, but this was OK for me.
Then I found out about this problem and thought that maybe I was lucky. The later I would get it, the more possible the issue would have been fixed.
As I know, there haven't been any deliveries in Greece, but they are going to start soon. And since the issue hasn't been fixed yet, and Apple is silent like a fish (this is a Greek saying), I canceled my order and took back my 2089 Euros (yes, it is more expensive than other E.U. Countries) and my peace of mind.
Keeping this silence, Apple is loosing customers.
And we want AppleGreece!

Hello abito,
I also live in Greece and I preordered my iMac 27 i7 on 26th of October. iSquare (the local official Apple Importer) told me that they are going to receive some units within the first two weeks of January. I've also ordered an AppleCare (I think I'm going to need it).
Wish me good luck.

Still morning flicker on my week 52 27 I5, it does it within an hour after being awake, flickers a couple of time, than it just does not do it the rest of the day, anyone else afflicted the same way???

Tried to shut it off at night, same thing in the morning, Tried to manually put it to sleep and let it put itself to sleep. And no matter what, I still get a couple of flickers within the first hour.

Same problem here on a week 51 27 i5. Sometimes flickers once or twice in the morning when I begin using it (not all days though). Then runs perfectly the rest of the day.

My question is should I bother replacing it? I'm afraid I'll get a replacement that experiences much worse issues. I have to believe that at some point Apple will either issue a recall or put out a tested patch.

Hey everyone. I am also experiencing this issue. I have a week 50 i7 27" iMac with 8BG of Ram installed by apple (4x2 config). In addition to this issue I also had a issue where my iMac turned off by itself and then restarted on it's own. This only happened twice and both times I was using safari.

As for the main issue, the flickering, I originallt believed it was a heat issue. My father in law has the previous generation iMac and the top of it, where the exhaust area is, does not get anywhere near as hot. It seems that on mine the top left to center of the machine is alot hotter than the right. I have learned that this could be the location for the computers bluetooth.

My computer came with the wireless keyboard and mouse. I have read that certain people have taken care of the issue by going wired. I wonder how many people with problem fee iMacs are wired v's wireless.

Another thing I noticed is that after turning my screens brightness down to approximately 1/2 I did not have the issue occur for more than a week. The exhaust temps also seemed cooler. I really opened alot of programs during this time and watched many movies including som full HD files to put the graphic card to work to no avail, no flickering was observed. The other day I put the brightness back up to the full and again started watching movies (HD and regular), running programs, etc and the flickering returned in about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

I have been following this forum since the first day I got my iMac in mid December after noticing the flickering on the 1st evening during data transfer of files from a external HD. I have done the software update which has improved the severity of the flickering on my mac, PRAM reset and all. I hope that this issue gets fixed soon. I don't know whether to hold on to my mac or return it for another knowing that they haven't found the problem as of yet and that I probably would get another with the same issue and may be worse than mine if it has this yellowing I hear of.

I have the Yellow Tinge issue but after using my new iMac for a week, I started getting Screen Flickers. I don't know why this would have helped but I ran Onyx in Auto Mode, checked every selection, and now the screen has not flickered in 24 hours. It may just be a coincidence, but it's worth a shot. I don't see how Onyx could fix this, but it definitely seems like it did so far.

{quote:title=Dino1956 wrote:}I have the Yellow Tinge issue but after using my new iMac for a week, I started getting Screen Flickers. I don't know why this would have helped but I ran Onyx in Auto Mode, checked every selection, and now the screen has not flickered in 24 hours. It may just be a coincidence, but it's worth a shot. I don't see how Onyx could fix this, but it definitely seems like it did so far.
{quote}
This is just one of a seemingly infinite number of things people did to "fix" it for a brief period - just remember, it didn't do it for a week before now, and it will almost assuredly return. Do not make a return (or other) decision based on the assumption that because it's not happening right now, it will never do it again, as there has not been a single reported case of a fix of any kind, hardware or software, actually working.

That is very sound & practical advice. I know it could or will come back, I was just sharing. Why would it fix it temporarily though? I'm just curious to know what Onyx did?

I wouldn't assume it did anything - since for many if not most people, the problem occurs at seemingly random times, it's likely that it just stopped on its own and that this is just coincidentally what you happened to be doing at the time.