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

Paul_31 wrote:
I think there's five or six of us that have the screen and cable replaced and so far and as I can see on this forum we're all happy that it's fixed the problem. I'm still nervous that it might come back, but so far so good.

I'm among those who had the screen and cable replaced and it did not fix the problem. It was December 13th that the repair was done.

dr.forbin wrote:

Paul_31 wrote:
I think there's five or six of us that have the screen and cable replaced and so far and as I can see on this forum we're all happy that it's fixed the problem. I'm still nervous that it might come back, but so far so good.

I'm among those who had the screen and cable replaced and it did not fix the problem. It was December 13th that the repair was done.

Yikes! Did it work initially or not at all?

paul, I did not know. So I guess we're back to the drawing board? Did you have them replace or did you replace it yourself?

You have a Week 53 iMac.

You are right Paul, nobody on this forum wants to hear about someone else's perfect iMac.
It's a good thing that people who don't have a problem, just don't have any reason to post here.

In all fairness, this forum isn't totally useless, although it's been a while, there has been some good information posted here.

Atlatnesiti is correct......there be trolls here......but they are few in number, and generally pretty obvious.

This is the dominant forum on the net on this subject. There are a few other blogs that have threads on this subject, but they are very small, with only a few posters, and most died by mid december. This thread is really the only place where any information is being discussed.

The media doesn't care, since it's such a small problem. The Washington Post did do a brief article, but it was only on one of their techie subjects, and just mentioned the firmware update, nothing significant in it.

There are a few good points that this thread has pointed out.

So far, everyone who has had the display/cable replaced, has corrected the problem, with no one reporting issues after that replacement other than Sonic, who did those repairs himself and also posted that he was not sure that the replacement parts he used were any better than those he replaced, it was too early in the process.

The cable/display replacement does seem to work, and anyone who takes theirs in for service should insist on this. If they want to replace the video card as well, let them, but insist on the cable/display as well.

If you have the flickering issue, simply putting your display to sleep briefly does alleviate the problem for hours, sometimes even days, and is every bit as effective on most machines as zapping PRAM or rebooting. Reinstalling the OS, and other solutions do not work.

This is not temperature related.

This is not software related.

This is purely a hardware issue.

That being said, temperature, and software can possibly exacerbate the problem in some very, very, very rare cases, and in some cases, as with the firmware update, software can alleviate some hardware problems, and the firmware update did cure the problem for many users but not all.

The overwhelming majority of all who posted here in the first month or so, are no longer posting, most seem to have received good machines with their first replacement, and unfortunately, no longer have a reason to post again.

Thanks to all of those who have returned to this thread, and posted your positive results, I wish more of you would do that.

pazuita, Paul had his Screen & Cable replaced & it did not fix the issue as well. Look above at Paul's post.

Hi Dino
I had mine replaced at an Apple Service Centre in Pau, France - still no flickers after nearly three days and the service centre ran it on their bench for 2 days after swapping the parts and assured me they saw no problems and passed whatever tests they did. Of course, I only have their word for it.
Still a bit worrying that it didn't work for dr.forbin.

ooops I'm Sorry.It was dr.forbin!

If you check the stats on imac.spueaked.com, you'll notice a dramatic drop in issues reported after week 50, and yet this thread just keeps surging along. Bit of a discrepancy there. Seems to have taken on a life of it's own. I'm thinking, once we hit the magical page 200 things will quiet down here.

At this point it seems to be less about issues with the computers as it is about issues with the posters.

That being said, I'm still waiting for my i5 replacement. Supposed to ship on Jan 19th.

Yes Dino....

That makes him only the second one to make such a claim.

The Dr seems to have had this replacement done very early in the process, prior to Dec 29th, so, like Sonic, there may have still been defective parts in circulation that went into his machine.

Everyone who has had the cable/Display replaced in recent weeks, and most prior to that date, have reported the issue has been resolved for them.

It still appears to be the solution.

Issues with posters.......absolutely.

How about another look at the numbers.......

On any given day, there are generally only about a dozen different posters. Some days, particularly the last few, there have been a few new posters, but they are not always on topic, like yours, and mine.

On any given day, between 25%, and 30% of all posts are by one poster.

In any given week, more than 75% of all posts are made by less than ten posters.

The overwhelming majority of posters on this forum have had their issues resolved, and no longer post here.

The two who post the most (Dino the most often, and myself the longest, probably occupying more space than Dino's frequency) have both stated that they have intentionally delayed replacing their machines, yet continue to post thereby only adding to the life of this thread.

Odds are that if we had both gone ahead and had our machines replaced weeks ago, the issue would have been resolved, and this thread would be history.

I see nothing wrong with talking together on a forum. I mean, come on, there are still some guys out there with faulty Imacs and I feel for them.

I have been watching this forum for some time now and I must admit that I got some second thoughts when I first heard of this problem, but as has been said not everyone is experiencing these problems. I feel we lucky ones with good Imacs need to let everyone know that this is not a universal problem and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Don't give up guys, this comp is to good to be true. Be persistent until you get your perfect Imac.

Cheers.

P.S. I'm an Icelander.

Great... i'm at my 3rd imac and it was perfect for 1 month and 1 week.

Today..it started flickering & blackout. I'm not going for a 4th imac, i'm sick of dealing with all the fuss of exchanging the imacs. i'll go for a full refund.

Thank you APPLE, THANKS A LOT !!!

pazuita, you may be correct but I feel my situation is unique. I waited thinking surely Apple would fix the problem in 2-3 weeks. I was wrong. The other thing is, I have no Apple Store near me. 300 Miles away. I am also not very confident in the authorized Apple repair center in my area. I bought my iMac online from B&H, a store in NY. I bought it Black Friday. So I got a $160. Discount. So although it does not seem so, I was just being practical in my confidence of Apple fixing the problem sooner & getting my iMac picked from a newer stock pile of perfect iMacs. I admit my confidence in the issues being resolved by Apple quickly was naive of me. I'm only an Mac user for 3 years, so I don't know their history of getting things solved. Had I had an Apple Store 20 Miles from me I would have been there the day after Christmas. That is my situation.

Thanks IvarKr.

I, for one, would like to see more posts like yours.

There are quite a few watching this thread that are trying to decide whether or not to buy one of these machines, and since this kind of forum only invites negativity, it is good to see posts that help to balance it out a little.

The truth of the matter is that the flickering is really a minor issue, and has little affect on most users.

There is no data corruption, and on most units the flickering is just not that bad.

Yes, it is frustrating, and yes, we deserve to have perfect machines for the money we pay, and yes, at some point, Apple will resolve all issues, they always have in the past, and I have no reason to believe that this will be any different.

The truth is that even if Apple issued a statement tomorrow, and said that they could not resolve this issue, or repair the defective units, I would still keep this one. It is light years beyond any Mac or PC that I have ever owned or used.

Most of my work is in graphics, Audio, and Video production, and promotion. On my last machine, a 24" dual 3.06, which was a beast, I spent about 60 hrs per week in video rendering. This machine does the same work in about 40 hrs. On top of that, I can now work on other projects at the same time, without slowing down the render times. It has easily saved me 30 to forty hours a week, probably more.

The flickering is an irritation, so when it does occur, I move my mouse to the lower left hand corner of the screen, put the display to sleep for two seconds, move the mouse again and it wakes up, with no more flickering, sometimes for the whole day.

On a bad day, it might happen three or four times, so it does cost me about ten to fifteen seconds.

I will gladly give up that ten to fifteen seconds in order to save thirty to forty hours.

When I do receive a replacement, I set the new machine up next to the old one, hook them together with the firewire 800, crank up super duper, and clone the hd from the old to the new, and in an hour, I'm already rendering again.

A little flickering is just not that big a deal, all things considered.