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

Elroyofderovers wrote:

Do you guys not have something like the sale of goods act in the US?

The reason I ask is that the 14 day period etc that people are talking about is totally irrelevant, even if it is Apple T&C's. It isn't enforceable by UK Law. They are just trying their luck as 99% of people won't challenge it. Just wondering if it isn't the same in the US.

Not that I'm aware of.

Well, as you know I've been having the same problems since my i7 arrived on Friday.

Called apple support today and they told me that I was going to need to take it in to an Apple store and that what ever needed to be done would have to be done through the store. They make an appointment for me for 4pm today.

Do I need to erase all of my "personal stuff" from the computer before bringing it in??

Thanks,

Bill

Bill P. wrote:
Well, as you know I've been having the same problems since my i7 arrived on Friday.

Called apple support today and they told me that I was going to need to take it in to an Apple store and that what ever needed to be done would have to be done through the store. They make an appointment for me for 4pm today.

Do I need to erase all of my "personal stuff" from the computer before bringing it in??

Thanks,

Bill

Why the heck would they have you take your computer in to a store? That doesn't make any sense to me considering that it was a BTO computer. You bought it from the website, so you should be able to do the returns without having to go to a physical store.

As to your question, I wouldn't remove any of your personal stuff just yet. If you need to wind up returning the computer, they can wipe the hard drive for you at the store.

Message was edited by: Schwa72

By stopping distribution they admit the problem and announce it to the world.

Apple always figures it can wing it and lean on their customers predilection to thinking Apple will not deliberately wrong them.

Apple is not the messiah, it is just another naughty company.

P.

I got the new iMac 27" (dual core) about two weeks ago and have experienced the flickering screen to a lesser extent than many on here but still enough to worry.

I just did the PRAM reset and it seems to have worked (so far)...

As a general note, the only way we're going to get this fixed once and for all is if everyone with the problem calls Apple to report it. According to them, it's "not a widespread" issue at this point -- although it seems pretty widespread to me based on the sheer number of posts of people with the 27" model who've had the problem. The only reason I can see why'd they'd think it's not widespread is because people aren't calling them to complain about it.

I did call them to enquire as to whether they thought it was a hardware, software or firmware issue but they couldn't/wouldn't commit either way.

Well, my i7 iMac was shipped back today, FedEx already is showing it on its way. Apple says they will "release" my order to be built as soon as they have tracking so hopefully that means right now. I expect the new i7 to still take a while though, the apple site lists the ship date of the new i7 replacement as Dec 2 but I think that is because the deadline to ship my old i7 back was Dec 1, hopefully it will now move up but the Apple site shows new orders as being 7-10 business days delayed. I'll keep you up to date.

PS: It is clear that Apple's support staff is becoming very aware of this issue at this point, but you will never hear one of them say it is widespread etc. because they are trained not to say such things as people will inevitable repost such comments and cost Apple sales. Don't expect much as to answers from Apple support staff until such time as Apple formally addresses the issue. Here is hoping my next mac works properly or a software solution is available by then.

Schwa72 wrote:

Bill P. wrote:
Well, as you know I've been having the same problems since my i7 arrived on Friday.

Called apple support today and they told me that I was going to need to take it in to an Apple store and that what ever needed to be done would have to be done through the store. They make an appointment for me for 4pm today.

Do I need to erase all of my "personal stuff" from the computer before bringing it in??

Thanks,

Bill

Why the heck would they have you take your computer in to a store? That doesn't make any sense to me considering that it was a BTO computer. You bought it from the website, so you should be able to do the returns without having to go to a physical store.

As to your question, I wouldn't remove any of your personal stuff just yet. If you need to wind up returning the computer, they can wipe the hard drive for you at the store.

Message was edited by: Schwa72

Thanks Schwa72! Good point regarding the BTO!!! I called Apple again and they now are going to email me a shipping label in order that I can get the i7 sent back and replaced with a new one. She had not heard of the problem and while I appreciate the great service, I hope I don't get another like the ones discussed here!

Best,

Bill

Could this be something as simple as a power issue? The new iMacs must take more electricity, especially with its new fancy super bright and lit up screen.

I haven't been able to replicate this on my iMAC 27 and thankfully its been gone for a while. I did decide to plug it in to a different outlet tho...any chance that could have helped?

canyonblue wrote:
Well, my i7 iMac was shipped back today, FedEx already is showing it on its way. Apple says they will "release" my order to be built as soon as they have tracking so hopefully that means right now. I expect the new i7 to still take a while though, the apple site lists the ship date of the new i7 replacement as Dec 2 but I think that is because the deadline to ship my old i7 back was Dec 1, hopefully it will now move up but the Apple site shows new orders as being 7-10 business days delayed. I'll keep you up to date.

Please make sure you keep us updated as to when your replacement ships. Mine is boxed up and ready to go back (it took three hours just to zero the hard drive and reload the OS -- day wasted!) so I'll drop it off tomorrow. My order status also says that my replacement ships by December 2 but I'm sure that's because the "bad" computer has to be back to Apple by December 1.

Led screen use less electricity not more.

bluebermuda wrote:
Led screen use less electricity not more.

True, but the 27" iMac has the biggest power supply installed that any iMac's ever had. That implies that these new iMacs have the potential to use more energy than ever before. On the other hand, AppleInsider says that the PSU will draw a maximum of 310 watts, which compared to my gaming PC (1450 watts max, not including monitor, speakers, etc) is nothing.

I can't imagine that power problems are causing the issues we're seeing, but you might be on to something, since the PSU is more-than-likely a component that's common among the different 27" iMac configurations.

Message was edited by: Schwa72

Recap of my past event: Received my iMac core i7 Monday the 16th. It started up and had display problems right off the bat. Called up Apple they had me RMA it for a replacement. I had it at 9:17am and back at Fedex by noon.

I open my order status online and see a ship date of dec. 4th. I was told that it would be ~3 days to build and possibly a week turnaround for a new machine.

I called up apple, I got a great guy Shawn in customer service. I asked why my ship date was so far off, he told me that Apple did halt production of the new 27" iMacs due to a graphics card issue for a few weeks. He assured me apple started production of the machines again. He said I probably received a computer in the first batch that had problems.

I was told my order is in the front of the line because it is a replacement and not a new order. So my computer should actually ship sooner than posted, and the system should update itself.

I didn't get any kind of technical information besides he was informed it was a problem with the graphics card in the computers, and to advise customers that that is was the problem.

Well if that is true then I wish that Apple would just be upfront and admit the problem.

I have been waiting to see if there were problems with the new iMac and had been planning to place an order on Black Friday for an i7 Quad. Now I am very hesitate to place an order.

Apple should adopt a transparent full disclosure policy and stop playing games with customers. Admit that they have a problem with the first batch and that it is fixed (if it is indeed fixed).