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

Short update on my replacement week 53 i7 27'' (yes pazuita, 2009 had 53 weeks, week 53 from Dec. 28th to Jan. 3rd). It still runs smoothly no defects so far.

What's really interesting: My prior week 52 iMac could hardly be touched on the back after 1 to 2 hours of operating, it did get this hot. This one is way much cooler on the back. If temperature is indeed an issue (there are posts on this subjects), I wonder how things are getting in summertime? Anyone down-under had issues on a hot day?

For me the main issue is that my experience of Apple has slowly (in combination with other non-iMac issues) gone from 100% confidence, to basically no confidence. Instead of buying products, we're effectively just buying "the chance to own" products... should we be lucky enough to get one that matches the picture. And hey, if not, then just keep playing the DOA game by sacrificing hours of phone time answering the same questions over and over, and weeks of downtime waiting for shipments back and forth across the globe.

I mean, three times I've had to call up and ask to switch the so-called Auto Enrol AppleCare to these replacement iMacs, and every time the operator comes back and says the warranty was never even applied to the original one!

To sum it up, the staff are either clueless or cagey or worse, nobody can guarantee that anything will be sorted out unless you yourself keep pushing, and of course the company offers zero acknowledgement or apology or anything.

I've been actively promoting and converting my whole extended family and workmates to Apple for ten years, and now what? No more free advertising from me, that's for **** sure.

I had my screen and cable replaced and (so far) have no yellowing, dead pixels, flickering or any other screen problems. My original flickering screen had a VERY slight yellow tint in the bottom right corner whereas this one hasn't so my take on it is that any yellowing is a symptom of a faulty screen rather than some other glitch. Just my opinion.

paul, apart from the slight yellow tinge and the flickering, have you noticed any high frequency noise coming from the screen when adjusting the brighntess? was this fixed?

I'm one happy camper now - no high pitched noise or any other anomalies. The day I got the iMac my wife said she could hear a high pitched whistle but I couldn't hear a thing. After a day or so she noticed that it had gone and she can't hear any noises now. So when I had the screen/cable changed it wasn't making any high frequency sounds. It's all as quiet as the proverbial church mouse.

thnx for your answers, this is my second machine with flickering, noise etc and although frustrated i am glad to hear that at least there is a solution to all this. this whole mess up should be nothing but a lesson for apple.

Another imac to the statistics. W52 27" c2d model that started flickering within 24 hours. On top of it the screen sometimes looks "yellowish" from the bottom right corner and a bit out. Grrr....

Great! I will definitely note if there is a difference.

Caprico, that is what is happening to most of us who are awaiting an exchange. Let's hope for the best (and prepare for the worst). My delivery was only postponed from Jan 20 to about a week later.

At least I can keep my present iMac 27" until after the delivery of the new one. But that is also something I had to argue out of them.

We should, however, in any case come back here and report how it went in order to give all the others some information.

You are right. I wouldn't tolerate it. It's like a sore spot except it is no use scratching.

Well, this says it all. I think we should abandon the "week xy" discussions. It can happen to anyone anytime - and the only solution seems to be the exchange of LCD and cable. I am quite sure now that Apple will continue shipping these iMacs as they were an rather replace these parts than change anything in their production line - until the parts being used as OEM will have been sold out. Then the problem will slowly but securely go away.

I think that only long after that point in time we will notice that something has changed fundamentally. Meaning: Some time in the summer of 2010 people will notice that there are no faulty deliveries anymore.

Hello,

I purchased a 27" i5 at the local Apple Store back on December 5, a week 49 machine. The second day I had it I experienced the flickering/blackouts with the screen misalignment sometimes happening. I went looking for others who had this same issue and found this forum, which I have been reading since then.

For me this issue would occur within an hour or two of wakeup/startup, would go away after putting the display to sleep and would recur within another hour or two. I had no yellowing or other issues with the system.

Since I didn't see that there was an obvious solution at that point I tried the same things others did: wipe/reinstall without transferring settings from another Mac, PRAM/NVRAM/SMC resets, etc. The firmware update did nothing for me.

Once I saw that some folks were starting to have success with replacements of the display cable/panel, I called AppleCare on 12/31. The engineer I spoke to indicated he had a few other cases like mine and set up a repair at the local Apple Store, recommending they replace the LCD panel and cable. I brought it in a few days later and just got it back last night. So far, there have been no issues with it. I will report back if there are issues, or in a couple of weeks if it's still working properly.

Joe daLuz

Think you're right - I expect that it's easier just to let the duff parts work their way through the system and as you say the faulty units should diminish - this seems to be happening already. Some people will get iffy machines that can be fixed with the updated firmware (if it's not applied already), some people will quite likely live with it and those that make a noise and speak to AppleCare asking for the screen and cable fix should be able to get the machines sorted.

The problem is, Apple is not saying anything & acting like their is one in a million that is defective. Then every rep tells you something different, which means they don't have a real long lasting fix. I can't believe with all Apples brilliant Engineers that they couldn't fine the problems. They are still telling people on the Phone, that it is the Video Card, which is not the case. So that tells me they don't really know what the problem is. This is a full 3 months of guessing. When 200 people get more than one machine in a row that is defective, there is something very wrong. They needed to do a recall IMO. But that would hurt their reputation. I worked for a Public Relations company for 27 years. I know how important good PR is for companies. Never admit you were wrong or you made a mistake. It's sad that Apple has such a Loyal Community & we are the people to suffer. Also as people have said, there are a lot of first time Mac users that don't even notice their Yellow Screen or blame the Flicker on the Electricity in their home. I must admit, defects & all it was hard to part with my first iMac for an exchange. It sucked me into once again, having a relationship with my Mac. I know that it sounds very Fanboy of me to say that. But that is the truth, at least in my case. Now I wait hoping to be lucky enough to get a perfect iMac from a stock pile of defective ones. I hope that warehouse guy picks me a winner.

Since others have had problems with Apple's response, I thought I should note that my experience was excellent. The engineer I spoke to indicated right away that this was a known issue, and he noted the case in such a way that when I went to the Apple Store they also indicated there would be no problem doing the panel/cable replacement.

Neither the engineer nor the Geniuses I spoke to tried to mislead me about the problem. Everyone seemed to be on the same page about a repair being more likely to resolve the issue until the bad units have worked their way out of the supply chain. One of the Geniuses mentioned that it's usually about 6 months after a unit comes out that they get reliable data on percentages of issues/returns.

In short, while I'm not happy that my brand new system from a manufacturer with a reputation for quality had to be repaired right away, the support/repair experience itself lived up to Apple's legendary customer support reputation.

Joe daLuz