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

+"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. "+


The problem or one of the problems: if the screen flicker is caused by "bad"screens and the cable, then why are only some of the units acting up?

Paul_31, Your forgetting about us Little Guys with the 21.5"(NVidia) Screens that Flicker. Where was our Update? No attempt was EVER made to help us! Did we not pay enough for our iMac, to be worthy of an update & the 21.5 having issues was never acknowledged by Apple. I know the update did not help for most. But at least they humored you guys with an attempt & acknowledgement.

the manager at the apple store knew all about the problems!

he pre-empted all the problems i was about to list and offered to swap it out again, to which i declined.... i was tempted but explained that im sick of carrying it around and the aggro that goes with bringing it back.

im now imac less looking at my macbook screen ***** big time, ill be ordering a macpro very shortly though, and am waiting to see if customer care get back to me about the whole mess.


but at least theres no more worrying of flickering, or any other problems for now!!!

as always the staff were very kind and helpful, i kind of felt guilty taking it back, like maybe they'll kill the person who refunded me's cat as punishment lol

Sparkie,
Well at least that giant albatross of a burden has been lifted from your shoulders. A Mac Pro is a great solution. What Screen will you use? Sorry that with all your perseverance & determination, that this did not work out for you. Guess we won't be hearing from you on this thread any more.
Good Luck with everything.
Dino

i may still lurk around dino.... cant get rid of me easily!!!

im not 100% what im using yet to be honest, going to do some research over the weekend, and i work hard so guess ill spend some of my cash! cant take it with you i guess.

ill still be reading along anyway, i want to see if your machine works out ok dino, fingers crossed for you pal

ok cool. look forward to your comments. Again, how what was your record from 1st to last? Did you exchange 3?

yep, had 1 for christmas.... worked ok for a week or so then it began.......

2nd one flickered out of the box, had a seagate hard disk and was horrendous!

3rd one was the oldest of the lot and seemed ok until i came home to a dead line of vertical pixels and flickering

So now Yellow Tinge? I had the Seagate 500GB, it was as quiet as a mouse. In fact my iMac could not be heard. Completely Silent.

sorry, all 3 had tinge!! the last one was the better of the 3 i think

ive had a long day so apologies for forgetting half the problems

No problem! You have had a bad ordeal since beginning to end, for sure. Have yourself a stiff Alcoholic Drink tonight!

i would but i dont drink very often im afraid!!

xbox night instead for me

Well just do whatever you do that makes you happy then.

I, too, would seriously consider sending this imac back and getting a mac pro instead....I really hate to make a purchase and be so disappointed.

My most recent Apple Tech interaction was not near as negative as the first two I had encountered; for those who have had similar disappointing experiences, I encourage you to call back with your case # and see what they suggest, hopefully you will get a better tech or at least one who has been updated on the issue. This last guy suggested to be patient and wait for a fix or news of what to do next, and though I don't have 100% confidence that he was not just placating me, I still want to believe that my faulty purchase will be rectified eventually.

OK back to the symptoms: yesterday was flicker-free, but today AS SOON as I open up Pages, the flickering/blackout returns. I believe all my other flickering may have occurred when Pages was running (iWork 09) as well (though it does not explain some of the other behaviour such as thinking every single file of mine is an alias for a half-second, which was troublesome but thankfully disappeared after a time).

Also, I notice that my Airport picks up ADDITIONAL networks AND devices which my other macs, connected to the same Airport network, do not, even though they are also running Snow Leopard 10.6.2. *Why would this new imac pick up a Smartphone, Darknet, and an HP Device in the neighbourhood, and the other computers not?*

I am probably looking for connections that aren't there, but I am used to technical issues having an eventual CAUSE or SOLUTION, so the fact that nothing concrete is forthcoming is driving me a tad insane. If it is definitely JUST an LCD-and-cable replacement that would fix this machine, why isn't this is an offer that is being promoted, clearly and apologetically, to all of us imac owners and educating all of the authorized service centres as well. Is it because Apple thinks it might be something else? Oh, the not knowing, you know how it is....when information is clearly missing, we feel the need to fill in the blanks with something, ANYTHING, that makes sense.

Dino, that's perfectly right. Alas, being a journalist, I very often see the flaws in PR as it is today. There is more short circuit than you would imagine. And watching those guys being counterproductive really hurts.

One example: if you plan, as a company, to develop a company line that says: "We steer through this admitting nothing", then you need to inform your employees, without exception. Everyone has to have the same level of (mis)information. As we all can see on this thread, it does not even seem to near this position, we have White Noise on an unprecedented scale. No one of the Apple Geniusses knows anything and is freely talking about it.

Good PR would be able to call back a whole production line and making it look like a victory against the Evil. That's why I think they are in a state of panic. I am in close contact to the German Apple community and everyone just becomes very tight-lipped as soon as I mention the great big F-word. So, let's wait and see. What's important to me: I intend to stay here until the last one of our fellows has posted a positive review of his or her new 27". Quite an ordeal, it seems...

Mine gets worse after a few hours. I was doing general work on it earlier with no problems, but as soon as I start to transfer files etc it gets worse. As I'm typing this it's going crazy, with the flickering lines, and black screens every 30 secs or so. I'd been reading about the problem, and held off for a few months hoping they'd sorted it. Just for the record, this is my third imac (White intel, 24" Alu), and I've had countless iPods and Apple stuff, and this is the first problem i've ever had.

Message was edited by: UKOutpost