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

Charlie:

Like Paul, I made the leap from a G4 (1Ghz), to a dual 3.06. It is light years faster, and a huge step forward. Heckuva machine, even though mine was the first in that series with the ddr2 memory.

I also made the leap from the dual 3.06 to the i7, although it is not as huge a leap, it is substantial, the i7 does run circles around the dual 3.06.

The future of the dual core machine is more limited than the i7. More and more software will be written to take advantage of the extra processors, and hyper threading, that will make it even faster at a lot of processes.

You will pay roughly $2050.00 for a top of the line 3.33 core 2, with the ATI 4850 graphics card.

Another $140.00 gets you a 2.8Ghz Quad core i7.

If you are planning for the future, I would think the i7 will substantially outlive the core 2 simply because more and more applications, and operating systems will be written to take advantage of multiple cores, no matter how many there may be.

The core 2's are not any different than the i7's when it comes to the flickering issues, so that should not affect your decision. Apple will resolve the issue, and if you purchase AppleCare, you are covered for three years.

The Core 2's will definitely do the job you want, the i7's will just do it faster, better, and longer.

Hi Folks,

I've stopped reading this thread, but promised I'd report in weekly on my new iMac i5 (week 53).
Up and running for 1 week...
All is well - no sign of flickering thus far.
Beautiful machine.

All the best to those dealing with issues.

Wow, you scored one hot off the press! I'd be very curious to know how it performs in the next 3 days or so. Good Luck! I'm not rushing my retail Store to send a replacement, hoping they will run out & I will get a fresh batch. My gut feeling tells me the Weeks from this Year have to have fewer iLemons.

Glad it's working for you in RGB Setting. I know you mentioned Screen is just a little darker.
I'm no expert, so does anyone on here, know if your losing picture quality or resolution using the RGB setting in Calibration?

Good for you Deejay!

Thanks for the info and keep us posted.

Megallis,

Did you try returning to the normal iMac setting?
Does that start the flickering or does it still work ok?

As far as I know, you do not loose anything by using RGB.
It's just a different screen calibration setting.

My screen has only flickered a few times...and only when I'm working in Photoshop. I'm going to see if the flickering still happens with it set to Apple RGB. What a pain!

I just noticed when I changed to RGB before I exchanged my iMac, it made it made the screen look dull. I did not try compensating with Brightness adjustment.I'd be curious to know if that would stop the Flicker. I know it's not a total solution but...maybe it means a software fix could stop the Flicker. I'm just thinking to myself here. Sorry!

I would recommend the i5 or i7 with ATI 4850 graphics and 4 GB of memory initially - you could add 4 GB more later if you think you need it. I don't think the entry level will suit your needs in a few years. I know what you mean when you say you want it to last 6 years - you mean as long as possible. If you can afford the extra power of the i7, it will likely delay your next machine a couple of years. Budget for AppleCare!

My replacement i7 is also week 03; it arrived yesterday morning and is running flawlessly since.

That makes 2-Week 03 in a row that are in good shape. Mine will ship tomorrow. It's from my retailer so I doubt I will get one from the New Year.

Megallis wrote:

"WHAT! Does Apple use LG screens? Here is probably the biggest problem. LG is former Goldstar known to make C-products before becoming LG.

If I did know that, I never should have bought an iMac."

If these are LG screens, then apparently Apple has been using them for quite some time. I just checked a friends late 2006 20" core 2/2.16 Ghz, and it has the same manufacturer number 00000610) for the display as the current i7's. She's never had any issues with it.

Whoever the manufacturer is, they are capable of making good displays.

Thanks for the input. i have another question regarding the RAM in the i7: If i buy the 4GB 2x2gb..can i later upgrade with 2x4gb...resulting in 12gb total ram?

i am basically going to hope that on the 27th when apple announces new things, something will come about that can help me make a solid decision (such as a lowered price in the 27inch model..or possibly an announcement related to this faulty imac situation, even though that seems like a pipe dream).

i have been getting by with my 80gb hd paired with an external lacie 150gb HD.. so i am assuming getting the 2TB HD would be a little overkill? i like to keep archives of flac audio files and backups of RAW files but i feel like they wouldn't require over 2000GB of space. unless someone can shed light as to the future of mac technology requiring double the space it has always needed for common tasks, i don't think i need the 2TB. (i know that is a pretty ambiguous question/statement but i know i wont really be able to change the HD far down the line, so i wanted to get a second opinion)

thank you all again (as i know this is kind of off topic, this felt like the right place to ask)

Hi,

i´m new to this forum and just read a few posts. as many other guys here i´m also affected by a flickering screen and will get my third imac (c2d) hopefully next week.

the big question for me is why apple doesn´t give any statement on this after 3 month of heavy (still unsolved) problems... or have i over read something?!

for the "c2d vs. i5/i7" discussion:
without blu ray, usb3 etc. i wouldn´t call a i5/i7 "future safe" for the next couple of years so i would always prefer the c2d (except one needs a quad core processsor right now).

I have some faith in Apple but not in LG. As far as I know LG is not manufactering their own screens (but I don´t know). I thing they use Samsung in their TV-sets. Samsung is great but maybe they use the best screens themself.

It´s just a theori.