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

Most of you should consider yourself Lucky since you live close to an Apple Store. I use to live in NY & now moved to the Panhandle of Florida. No Apple Store for almost 300 Miles. There is an Authorized Apple Dealer, but It's a one man operation & I'm not very confident as to them fixing it.

S0lar, I hate to tell you this but Mine had the Yellow at first & I was this close from just dealing with it because all else seemed perfect. On the 5th day of Use, I got the Screen Flickers. I hope yours does not but I feel if it has the Yellow something is still very wrong. I run Onyx every third day when Screen Flicker comes back & Onyx (believe it or not) keeps it away for a few days. The putting the Screen to Sleep Method Posted on here has not worked for ME. Good Luck!

Dino, yeah, I did the same thing with my first machine. When it flickers I sleep and wake it and it's gone for a day or few hours. The yellow tinge isn't visible as of yet, but I'm bracing for the worst in the days to come. I'll leave it till the weekend.

So I understand you're keeping yours for awhile? So, if Apple comes up with a solution - big IF, seeing that no one's saying a single word on their side you'll have it replaced?

Just curious since the refund/replacement period is 15 days after purchase (30 when online purchased).

I for one am going to bring it to the Apple Store and waste some more of my time - instead of working - and have it looked at.

S0lar, Here's my deal. I have until Jan. 18th to exchange with B&H, the store I bought if from. So I may just do an exchange with them. Then if I get another bad iMac, I will contact Apple & I don't really care if they repair or replace it at that point. I just want a working, perfect screen iMac, like the ones in the commercial. From what I'm seeing on here, you have a better chance solving your issues, by getting it repaired rather then exchanging it, in the new iMac Lottery.

ok.....received my replacement i7 on Dec 14th.....still running strong no issues yet.....just wanted to keep on the thread because it seems people who end up with working machines just stop posting. Have been watching this thread though...am still nervous about it happening but so far so good.

Thank uou. We appreciate it! What week is yours, again?

week 50

So there are definitely some good ones in the end of year 2009 Weeks. Great!

The Apple store is now listing the 27" dual 3.06 available as a refurb.

That is a good sign, since earlier models were much quicker to appear as refurbs. They must be more confident that the issue is resolved.

Apple may very well be using us as "guinea pigs".......it may be the only practical way to weed out the problem.

Since there is currently no method of testing for the flickering issue, other than consumer type usage, there may not be any other way to determine which units are bad, and which are not.

Apple could pay someone to sit in front of the unit for days, or weeks at a time until the flickering appeared, even if someone could effectively watch several units and expect to catch the random, and brief flickers, imagine the added cost, and shipping delays it would cause.

In the quarter prior to the release of the 27" models, Apple sold 3.5 million machines. With the next quarter being the Christmas shopping season, analysts were expecting a 20% increase in sales. That brings the number to 4.2 million. The new models would again boost sales at least that much again, probably more, so we are talking about easily 5 million, maybe 5.5 million machines. The bulk of the new purchases would certainly be the 27" models.

So far, on this and other forums, only about a thousand reported as showing the flickering issue. Certainly there are more, that haven't posted, but still that represents a very insignificant percentage with the defect.

Pay a whole new batch of employees to stare at the screens for hours, weeks, months, at a time, add the cost, plus the cost of the facilities to do the staring, and just pass that along to the consumer, or just pay the shipping, and let the consumer do the testing for free.

Sounds like Apple took the more practical approach, and saved us all a few bucks on the machines, which are still incredible, even with the flickering.

As for my little universe, Murphys Law will always reign supreme, if there is a bad machine to be had, I will get it. Will be shipping back by second flickering i7 on the 18th.

I think your post is excellent. You are 100% correct! You made me see the numbers & do the math. I feel the same as you. I was worried even before I bought my iMac, about Screen Issues. Just because this is my first All In One. And I know how many different issues, that could go wrong with an All In One. Especially The Screen being in such close proximity to all the other Hardware.

On a good note! I absolutely love this iMac! It is the best computer I have ever used. I did a PRAM Reset & now it boots up in 35 Seconds total. Rendering in iMovie is a lot faster than my Mac Mini & I love the Keyboard & Magic Mouse. SuperDrive & iSight work work perfect. Like I said, if it never started to Flicker, I may have even dealt with the slight Yellow Tinge issue & kept it.

So yes we are Guinea Pigs for Apple. As long as we get good iMacs in the end, we will all be happy & maybe even Laugh about this one day. Well maybe we won't laugh!

I received a new iMac last week and have had the issue of the band, screen going blank and have noticed the yellowing on the lower half of the screen. Is it wise to wait in the hopes that they get a fix for it? To bring it to an apple store and have it repaired? Or to have apple send out a new one?

Dino, I agree, I'll just bring it in at this point -- nothing really serious so far. So if anything happens, this is the first place I'll hit up!

cheerio,
s0l

And just to add. It would be one thing, if these were all shipped DOA, but most are not. So we are able to use them & get sucked into their beauty & ease of use. Jeez, I'm starting to sound like a real Apple Fanboy now! Yuk!

I have a Question: Does anyone have ANY idea why running Onyx in Automation mode (All Checked), stops the Screen from Flickering for 2-3 days? I guess I could check the List One At a Time, each time the screen flicker starts again, to know which item temporarily stops the Flicker. Any ideas ? BTW, It's no longer just a coincidence. And it's not just because I'm restarting my iMac. I've tested this.