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

Would it financially ruin Apple to have, "Handle With Care" and, "This Side Up", with a few arrows indicating what side should be up, stamped on their shipping boxes?

To the guys who handle these things it's just another box, to be handled with the same level of casual disrespect as any other.

i agree 3 strikes and your out! same for me too!

even in the apple store their not overly careful with the boxes, if i worked there id be treating these things with a bit of respect!

but they should definately have something on their boxes.

ennuikiller wrote:
Well after 2 days of error free operation, just 5 minutes ago my new replacement imac 27' i5 received on January 7th just exhibited the ******* split screen issue!!! Just out of nowhere the dock appeared at the top with an ugly gray/white stripped thick bar just below and then the rest of the screen below that!

Argh! Another one bites the dust. What week was your replacement unit made?

My replacement unit has been in the "prepared for shipment" phase for nearly two days. Is it normal for it to sit in that phase for that long? My first unit didn't take anywhere near that long. I would guess they were testing the replacement unit, but too many other folks are getting bad #2 and #3 replacements for that to be the case. I can't wait to see if my new one flickers also.

I'm sorry but this sounds like a Nightmare! There seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. I could say MAYBE getting to lemons in a row. But 3-5? That just proves to me, that this is not a small amount in the big picture. I would have to say that there are a substantial amount of defective iMacs. Apple NEEDS to make an announcement of some sort, at this point in time. This product hit the market in October. It's now January. Surely this could be fixed by now.

totally agree dino!!

apple are going to lose out over this!!!

if the macpros were cheaper id go get one tomorrow, but this is the best i can afford unfortunately!!

saying that they have 1 chance left if no luck then who knows.......

The fact of the matter from my point of view: My iMac 27", week 47, continues to flicker/blackout/weird menu as from the start.

I arranged the swap with the Apple Store online and negotiated that my iMac remains with me until the new one will have arrived. Then I will do the transition of applications, documents etc. and then return the faulty machine to Apple. Meanwhile, they sent me a 100 Euro compensation (about 70 US Dollars).
So far, I find this fair. Provided the new one will work as expected.

It will be sent on the 14th of January, then let's see.

I am very grateful to every single one of you here on the forum because you all provided valuable information without asking for a reward. That helps those people like me who are not professionally working with a Mac and not even native English speakers but still value the product and the community around it.

I hope I will be able to contribute.

/ Just a few remarks on topic: Temperature does not seem to be of significance. The fault is random.
/The cable-and-LCD-solution makes the most sense to me.
/ Sleep, and restart soon after, cures the problem for a few hours. That's all I know so far.

I know Apple is a Corporation just like any other. For some strange reason I thought Apple would be a lot different than other companies & would at least talk to their Loyal Community, just to tell us what is going on & what their Plan is. I might expect this from HP or Gateway, but for some (again) strange reason, it does not sit right with me, that Apple is avoiding it's Community. Maybe they are just another Corporation but I would hate to see Apple go downhill in it's Quality Control. I'm only a Mac User for 3 years but In a short time, I have purchased several Apple Products, that have always worked beyond my expectations. This is the first time I've seen something like this. I hope it's the last. I thought Apple would be different! Just my little Opinion.

tallturtle wrote:

Meanwhile, they sent me a 100 Euro compensation (about 70 US Dollars).

So far, I find this fair.

A 100 EURO is around *$144 US*, not $70.
That's a better deal than getting a free ipod shuffel!

tailturtle, is this going to be your first exchange?

I am a Windows Convert and switching to a Mac as I am starting a job soon for a company who use Macs. I had been following this forum for a little while before buying my first Imac last week. I went for the 21.5 inch model (1TB one) as I had read so much about the 27" model problems. I had seen the 27" one in the Apple store and it looked great but I wanted to be safe rather than sorry.
Bought the 21.5 one Dec 31st at John Lewis. Last Tuesday I noticed a yellow tinge at the bottom of the screen. I went to the forums to see what that was all about and wow great even the frikkin' 21.5" model has problems (I was unaware of this at first). I decided to return it to John Lewis. The girl in the store started up the computer to see if I was right and she could see the yellow tinge straight away during start up. Usually it was more noticeable with separate windows and the grey bar tests around the net to me but she confirmed the issue straight away. She said a lot of Apple computers (even the I-phones) have had this problem in the past and that Apple NEVER acknowledge hardware faults (great!). I felt quite frustrated with this all as John Lewis hadn't done anything wrong and was treated quite well by them but I thought I'd rather deal with Apple direct in future.

Got my refund straight away from John Lewis and I decided to head down to the Apple Store and confront the guys with this. Denial all the way of major issues of course. I decided to go for the i5 model with apple care hoping it would be alright or at least get hardware fixed if I got the yellow tinge again. I started the thing up last night and I do think there is a hint of a yellow tint but it is not as noticeable or annoying as on the 21.5". If it stays like this then fine.

At this stage I am fully prepared for things to get worse and flickering to start as some people only seem to get problems after a few days. Indeed I don't even know if the 21.5" one actually had the yellow tinge in the first few days. I would go for one other replacement after this one and after that something different. But if either this one or its possible replacement ONLY has a minor yellow tint I would probably would put up with it for a few months as I really need the Mac at the moment and hope Apple have a proper hardware fix for it.

I know some people say that this problem is only affecting a minor part of all Imacs and that Apple has sold millions already of the new model. My opinion based on digging around on the net about this since Tuesday is that I think that latter figure is a bit high and this is probably affecting more like 30-50% of all models at least.

OSX Snow Leopard works like a dream though I must say.

,,hope I don't have to return this one...

i was hoping to get mine from john lewis originally for the free 2 year warranty!

but now with the troubles im having im glad they had none in stock to be honest at least i can just walk into the apple store and back out with another

Yes Sparkie, the free 2 years warranty with John Lewis and the fact they have not yet upted their VAT prices is very attractive and if there were no major faults with any of the ranges it would certainly be the thing I would go for but under the circumstances I think dealing with Apple direct is the best way.

I have to agree with your 30-50% guess. I've been saying it's more than just a few, ever since I saw 3-5 exchanges in a row that were all reported defective, & from all around the globe. But there are still people on here who think it's a miniscule amount of defects compared to how many that were made. I don't see how anyone can say that at this point in time. All you have to do is the Math on this Apple Discussions Forum. Then there are Macrumors Forum members as well. Good Luck!

Jon Abbott wrote:

ennuikiller wrote:
Well after 2 days of error free operation, just 5 minutes ago my new replacement imac 27' i5 received on January 7th just exhibited the ******* split screen issue!!! Just out of nowhere the dock appeared at the top with an ugly gray/white stripped thick bar just below and then the rest of the screen below that!

Argh! Another one bites the dust. What week was your replacement unit made?

week 51, same week as my original purchase.....

never knew the vat was still 15%!!!

i bought my macbook pro from there as it was also £50 cheaper!