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

Going on 6 days with mine now and all is still well with the replaced LCD and cable connector.

slickrick, Mine is Week 45. When I talked to B&H they said they only had 3 returns & only one was because of a defect. I plan on sending mine to B&H this week. By the time, all the shipping back & forth, Maybe I'll wind up with a batch Week 02 or even an 03. Or just one that freakin' works!

Yes I agree Slickrick. It's the Screens! Not the Video Cards!

I see a lot of posts about units and replacements that have been fine but then started flickering after several weeks. I would like to see everyone reporting issues to add the week of their iMac so we can all get a good idea of what might come to be. My original one was a week 43 and started flickering within 30 minutes of turning it on. No software installed and I did not have to run anything. I just got a replacement week 53 but have not really had time to check it out so when I do I will post an update.

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Message was edited by: don1958

Thanks thxdude, it's good to see someone posting on here who appears to have a fully working unit, although 6 days may be a bit premature.

I just spent about the last half hour going over the early days of this forum.

Not a single poster from the first dozen or so pages has reposted here in the last few weeks, other than Schwa72, and in his last posting, he indicated that his unit is working perfectly as well.

The overwhelming majority of the early posters who actually had a flickering issue quit posting after stating that they were either swapping for a new unit, or having the existing unit repaired.

That would seem to indicate that since they are no longer on here complaining of the issue, that it is being resolved in the majority of cases. Once they are repaired, or replaced with a working unit, they have no reason to come back here, although a lot of them did post one more time saying their units were working good so far.
Only about four or five indicated that they would probably seek, or were seeking a refund.

Although I had been following the thread much earlier, I did not post until page thirty. Schwa72 began on page 7, so he is really the old timer here.

If any of you who have posted here have had your units successfully repaired, or replaced, or do so in the near future, please come back and let the rest of us know. It will give everyone watching this forum a better indication of the scope of the problem, and make it easier for newbies to make a better informed decision on whether to repair, replace, or seek a refund.

All we seem to hear is the negative side of the issue, even though it appears the positive side is in the overwhelming majority. Most are getting successful repairs and/or replacements.

Hey pazuita, just thought I'd check back in after reading your post. Anyway, I still haven't had a flicker, and today is officially Day 18 with my latest i7 iMac. I've been running it hard over the last few days with VMware Fusion (ripping/converting Blu-ray Discs...all cores maxed for hours at a go), and nary a problem. Knock on wood.

In all honesty pazuita (and this comment isn't pointed at you), it's getting more and more difficult to tell by this thread alone how widespread the problem is. Sure, there are lots of posts in the thread, but lately it's been the same handful of people making inane posts -- many of which don't have anything to do with the problem. Oh well.

Watching this forum for weeks and waiting for refurbished to appear. If they have solved the problem it should be okay with a refurbished unit. Ordered a refurbished stock 27" iMac I5 today with the hope it will be problem free. Due to deliver by Jan 22nd.

First post ever on a non-pc/linux forum. I thought I'd get my unix with candy in a Mac. I have a 4 core i7 iMac with 8gb ram 2tb disk and with vmware I'm able to run everything I previously rand on a 4core extreme and Windows 7, and faster even. All seems well, except my beautiful display is flickering and at times it blacks out a full second or so before it comes back. It's very annoying. I've never sat in front of a screen that was so easy to work on, until it flickers when warm. I program, I spend easily 8-10 hours non-stop on it, it seems fine until 30 mins in when it gets warm and then it's flicker-city time. Going to call support tomorrow, seems with 170 pages of comments I'm not the exception to the rule but pretty norm, and I'm very much hoping that it gets fixed as I'm totally addicted to the keyboard not having all the useless crap and having unix underneath it all...

...frankie

ps wow that was a solid 3 second blackout flicker as i finished this...

Now that my Screen is Flickering more these days, I notice that when I have Brightness Full to -3, the Screen does not Flicker. But From -4 to -9 It flickers all the time. This of course is a new development since when I first got this, it did not flicker at all.

You are correct Schwa...this thread may have outlived it's usefulness.

If you take away three or four posters, you would eliminate about half of the last hundred or so pages. It's getting more and more difficult to sort out what is relevent, and what is not.

I'm concerned that with only one side of the issue being addressed, that new users may get led in the wrong direction, and may not be able to make informed decisions regarding their machines.

Glad to hear your machine is still doing ok, I will be making a deal with Apple on the 18th to swap out my week 51 i7, maybe third times the charm for me as well.

Yes at 170 Pages, this Thread is certainly exhausted. Although I still do think there is useful Information. It's just a shame that  does not take their own Forum seriously. I can just wish all the people who posted will in the end get a functional & perfect iMac.

I bought the 27 inch i7 iMac from MacMall on Dec. 28. Well, it arrived last weekend, and I've been having the issues described in this thread: random flickering, the screen goes black for 1-2 seconds, and sometimes, a split screen. Nothing seemed to help so far: the firmware update; hardware testing; PRAM and NRAM reset, etc.

Will go to an Apple store tomorrow; a bit apprehensive since I bought it from MacMall. I am a first time switcher to Mac and I love the computer...except for this issue. It just doesn't seem right that one spends a lot of $$ for a supposedly superior product, and then has to go through all this...It definitely seems that the problem is widespread.

I'll let you know what Apple store says.

if they tell you it's the Graphics Card. Tell them it's Not! They have been replacing these & it's a waste of time & money. Replacing the Screen & the Screen Cable have been the only Fix that worked, so far. It's literally almost impossible for 2 different Video Cards to have the same symptoms. ATI & NVidia.

Thanks, Dino. I hope they will agree to simply replace the screen and the cable...Very frustrating.

do you know what week your iMac was made? It the fourth & fifth character of your Serial Number that will tell you. eg. W8949SJG5PC