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

questions and questions ... no answers, no official statements, no comments from Apple ... and in the meantime we can see refurbished iMacs 27 in many Apple Stores all over the world ... strange situation ... Alienware could be a solution for me too. Thank you for your good idea Billym Badass!

I ordered an iMac i7 27 by dec 15 , received on january 4th.
Factory W8 ,Shangai
production 52 Week
work just fine BUT , descrete yellow tinge on the lower right side and acceptable 4 dead pixels.

Called Apple and after a quick explanation she tells me that they are aware of this issue and she transfert to a senior advisor.... The guy was very kind explaning me that they have "found" the issue and thay're gonna send me a working unit ASAP.
I was surprised at first that he admits the problems right away!
Not so convinced about the odds to get a working unit , i tell him "your own support/forum web site " is filled with so many peoples who got 2 or even 3 computer in a row displaying the same issues.!

He tells me that he knows that but i can be confident that my new unit will be defect free.
So New iMac will arrive soon and i keep the old one in the meantime and i will test the new unit side by sime with the old one.
BTW no flickering so far (but i do not stay all day long at my computer)
Lets hope the my Apple contact tells the truth and not just some juicy BS.

Hey Marky,

If you don't have it already, go to the apple downloads site and download the iStat widget so you can monitor internal temperatures and fan speeds. If your fan speeds don't rise above preset minimums, optic drive 998, hard drive 1100, CPU 939, (approximate), as temperatures increase to scary levels (GPU 80ºc) you likely have the same problem I had. But the back does get fairly warm even when everything is working fine. It's part of the cooling system.

Mines on it's way back to Apple as I write this. Hoping, as everyone in the same position, that it's replacement works better.

Curious as to how they let you keep the old one & they send a new one without you sending the old one back first. Do they charge your Credit Card for 2 iMacs ? Did you buy your from Apple ? And third, did you buy Apple Care ? Thank you in advance! And Good Luck!

My third iMac arrived today, and I'm presently transferring applications, documents and settings from my Time Machine backup. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that this new machine is a week 2 build. What I can say for sure is that the power cord with this third iMac is different from the previous two machines I had. The cord feels a little lighter and the plug that goes into the electrical outlet is of a different design. I'm just hoping this new iMac is the iMac. More anon...

Tus Bob,

to see what week it is go to the apple menu, click on about this mac,in the window that appears, click twice under on where it says Version 10.6.2.
You will see the serial number starting with W8XXX these numbers tell you what week it is. W8001 or W8002 for week 1 or 2 I think.

Dino1956 wrote:
Curious as to how they let you keep the old one & they send a new one without you sending the old one back first. Do they charge your Credit Card for 2 iMacs ? Did you buy your from Apple ? And third, did you buy Apple Care ? Thank you in advance! And Good Luck!

Dino1956,U got that one right, i let them charge me 2 times on my credit card. I buy via 1-800-my-apple. For the AppleCare which i have (139$) they have to re-sell me i new one since the warranty is bond to a serial number of my first iMac (they gonna refund me all after they receive the "old" stuff)

Tus Bob, any Yellow Tinge or Screen Flicker so far ?
Please tell me your screen is Perfect! Week 2 is a brand new one.

Thanks. I did know how to find out the build week, but you can't access "About This Mac" until the machine reboots following the migration from Time Machine. It turns out my machine is a week 53 model. So far so good. She's booted and no display problems. But the display problems on my second iMac didn't present until about 8 days in. We shall see!

So far so good. She's booted and no display problems. But the display problems on my second iMac didn't present until about 8 days in. We shall see!

Tus Bob, You MUST be nervous, you repeated yourself L.O.L. Best of Luck!!

Just got the computer back home today, on it now. They did replace the video card and were a lot more apologetic and understanding this time, which is good. I will be using it and post how it goes.

Never mind, after 1 hour the screen shifted again and it started flickering..grrrrr. Called them back and they want to see it, I don't know how after 18 hours of stress test by them I managed to do it in an hour, had a youtube video and fusion running windows 7 in unity mode. I'm going to do that again and see if it will happen again, maybe get a pattern out of it.

So sorry to hear that spineytoad.
Your misfortune may be helping to confirm some things - yet also raises more questions.

It seems (from the posts in this thread) that the graphic card (at least on it's own) is not the culprit.

We're waiting to see whether those who've had their LCD and cable replaced stay flicker free. At this stage it looks as though that's the fix, but we need to wait a few weeks to confirm whether it's true.

However there have been quite a few reports that the flicker can't be reproduced on the apple store premises, yet when the iMac returns home, the flicker returns (without even much of a delay).

The question of environmental differences and influences refuses to go away.
Could some component be so sensitive to miniscule variances in voltage/current to cause this?
Or is it a combination of bad soldering & rough transportation?

Another question that clouds the issue is this: Why would the act of simply putting the screen to sleep for a few seconds then waking it up resolve the issue for a period of time? This flies in the face of any heat related theory as such an action has no effect on the iMac's temperature. And it raises suspicion that it may have something to do with the iMac's underlying power management.

It would be interesting to know how many iMacs still suffer from "the flickers" if their energy saver and screen saver preferences are set to never sleep.

Can anyone report on whether trying this has had any effect?

Message was edited by: DeeJay SchmeeJay

DeeJay, Some very interesting observations. As far as the Video Card goes. It's not the Video Card. It is very unlikely since the Flicker effects both the ATI & the NVidia. I think so far the Screen & Screen Cable replacement is the best guess. Maybe the Screens themselves.
As far as Interference in our homes, maybe miniscule variances in Voltage, as you said. It's a mystery, but the stock pile is growing bigger & bigger of defected iMacs.