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

Hi guys, just adding a data point here. I got one of the first i7 iMacs shipped (arrived on the first day that the i7 iMacs arrived for anyone), and it has worked flawlessly... until today. Just started seeing video flickering. Scared the pants off me. Backing up the drive and going to see what Apple says soon.

Jeff, Sorry To Hear! Could you please Post your Week Number It's the 4th & 5th character of your Serial Number. Thanks.

It looks like this is week 45. I started the up iMac again and so far no troubles, but I've seen enough earlier not to feel secure about this issue for this machine now. I'm going to have to read up on this (very long) discussion. I've been able to ignore it until now. Sigh. Ignorance really was bliss.

Hi Dino
I hear you - shame Apple hasn't addressed the problems with the 21.5 inch. Can't help thinking that the solution is going to be the same - cable and screen.
Hopefully your next one will be all that it should be. Good luck.

Got a replacement today. after explaining to them at apple store I wanted a new LCD and cable. Their continuous only reply was, "we have a replacement for you." I looked at the build number before I left the store and told the fella I'd be back with the same problem eventually. He didn't seem to believe me. It's build week 52. The yellowing in this junk is much worse than my first one. I am upset. The dude said it arrived yesterday off the truck and is brand new. I'll go back AGAIN when the week builds get much older, for a replacement. What week build does anyone have here that seems to be yellow/ flicker free? Are there week 60 series yet? -Shawn

knitefall wrote:
Got a replacement today. after explaining to them at apple store I wanted a new LCD and cable. Their continuous only reply was, "we have a replacement for you." I looked at the build number before I left the store and told the fella I'd be back with the same problem eventually. He didn't seem to believe me. It's build week 52. The yellowing in this junk is much worse than my first one. I am upset. The dude said it arrived yesterday off the truck and is brand new. I'll go back AGAIN when the week builds get much older, for a replacement. What week build does anyone have here that seems to be yellow/ flicker free? Are there week 60 series yet? -Shawn

You won't see a week 60 model because there aren't 60 weeks in a year. They only went up to week 53 for models built in 2009, so the "equivalent" of a week 60 would be a Week 7 2010 model and we aren't there yet.

Week 02 Second week in 2010. Week 02 does Not have a lot of defective reports so far, according to this website. which is sort of keeping count. Although it's accuracy I would not rely on.

Go here!

http://imac.squeaked.com/results.php

Gothca, well said. But theoretically, I should be able to wait it out and get a new good working imac if they will not remove and replace the LCD and cable?

I noticed too that the casualty count seems to be dropping now. One thing you have to bear in mind though, is that it takes time for people to realize they got a lemon. So just because theres not a lot of flickering iMacs reported for week 02 now, doesnt mean all that much. More often than not it takes people several weeks to find out.
I reported my iMac just after new years, and this was a week 50 model.

Hi Dino and everyone else!

Check this out, On jan 12 the guy that operates the site recieved his new iMac and if you compare the old one week 48, with the new one week 51.

You can see that on the week 51 the whole screen is yellow, but not so much on the week 48. See the screenshot on the right side.
http://imac.squeaked.com/yellow_tinge.php <
The week 51 is quite A LOT worse I would say.


However, as you say the last 2 weeks the reports has gone down quite a lot but still I will wait with the purchase until Apple speaks as every one else.
And I also of course would like to know WHAT it is that is causing the flickering and blackouts. Not only that it has been fixed.

Message was edited by: J~G

I've heard horror story after horror story about the new 27" iMacs since their release, and hoped that by waiting out a few months for the bugs to be worked out on Apple's side. So I did so, just barely getting by with a sub-par netbook since my last iMac died this last fall. (non iSight iMac G5 mind you - this baby had some mileage) But anyhow long story short, instead of ordering online, I drove 7 hours to the nearest Apple retail store, (which was upsetting) to avoid the issues with broken and damaged hardware upon arrival. (DOA, broken glass, the list goes on) And the people at the store were more than happy to let me, and assist me in unpacking it there in the store after purchase to insure that there were no cosmetic issues, which I was pleased to not find a single blemish. A "perfect" machine I thought. Drove myself 7 hours back home and was stupidly happy to not have to be one of the unfortunate folks with a dud 27" iMac.

Here's where it got shifty. I power on, everything works fine, and within a bit of usage (testing the new powerhouse) I ran SecondLife, a few browsers with a few tabs each on various websites, had skype and a few other programs setting up and downloading. All of course things that I don't do all the time, but needed to get my software environment of my last computer going so there was a lot of programs running etc. -- All the while I thought to myself. "**** that's one quiet computer for doing all this." And thought nothing of the issue that may have very well been the problem.

But essentially, I know I've been rambling on too long, but down to business. I got a few random horizontal flashes across my screen at about 30 second intervals, sometimes steady sometimes it'd be gone for about five minutes and then come right back and be even worse than before. I myself thought it was a graphical glitch with the SecondLife client that was causing it, but after shutting it down, restarting the computer. It still was happening, even sometimes with a quick blackout of the screen or two. Sometimes off for about ten seconds at a time.

14 hours of driving... for a dud... or at least so I thought.

Through my building anger and near shouting at this 2300 dollar mistake, I did a software update. And since then I'd done the same exact "busy" software load, and the computer heated up as expected but this time, I noticed something - the sound of the fans. Never once I recalled the sound of a fan spooling up beforehand.

So do two things, listen for your fans, and do a software update. After about an hours worth of roughing this computer up, I've yet to have a flash/flicker.

I'll be watching it for the next week or so for even the slightest hint of a flash and give an update on this exact forum topic what happens from there.

I honestly hope the rest of you folks figure out a positive solution to your issue and hope that my nearly endless ramblings didn't drive you insane. And for the folks looking for a quick fix...

!!! --- Do a software update and listen for your fans --- !!!

Nevineele, Thanks for the story. Glad it's behaving now! I can tell you that everyone on this Thread has done all their updates & listens to their mostly quiet fans. The problem with Flickering is intermittent. Which means it happens & then it stops happening for 3 & 4 days. It seems to have nothing to do with what you are doing on your iMac. You could be surfing the net or just checking email. I hope yours remains Flicker Free, but if you read through this almost 200 Pages of this thread, unfortunately a lot of people thought their Flickers would not come back including myself. Post your Week Number. 4th & 5th character of your Serial Number. Good Luck. I hope yours stays Solid & trouble free.

My biggest worry for myself, is that since I just returned my Mac to the retailer (B&H in NY) for an exchange, is, I may wind up getting a week 51 or another week that has the highest ratio of defects. I know they still have had iMacs in Stock for the last 4 weeks & they had these since their last order arriving Dec. 20th. So the week may be between 50 & 53 which have a substantial amount of defective units. I am definitely in the heart of a Lottery for sure.

Yeah, I'm slowly churning through the pages as I'm watching my screen in hopes that it behaves. At first when I spotted the topic, I hadn't noticed the page numbers down bottom until after I'd replied.

And my 4th and 5th characters are "53".

Also - not sure if it has any relevance but it features nothing but stock parts and accessories.

If you go by that chart 53 is better than Week 50. But 01 is best. These numbers are based on numbers that people reported theirs on that site. How many people didn't report it on ANY site & just going through the exchanges or repairs. And how many people in each one of those weeks have perfect iMacs and then there's the people who don't know the difference. So all these numbers are not very scientific, but I'm afraid it's all all we have to go by, besides this thread.