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

got the full refund today... i have enough until apple tells us what the $%/&$ is going on!

Downtown, I think you got the same apple rep as I did (on my second of three calls). This type of attitude from Apple is really doing them a HUGE disservice and makes me feel angry. The yellow tinge a perception problem? Yeah, if you are LOOKING at it. With eyes closed, I guess you would not perceive it.

As for this forum causing people NOT to buy imacs, I really don't agree. I, and probably most others, only FOUND this forum in a vain attempt to find information on the problems we are having with our PURCHASED imacs. Yes, if I had heard about the problem before I bought, I might have given a second thought and waited. However, I was lulled into a false sense of security as I have never run into any issues buying anything Apple for the past 20+ years, so I probably would have purchased anyway. I will definitely be putting off any future purchase for as long as possible and doing a lot of careful research next time.

We actually invited Apple Techs to come on here at a specific time, but no Apple Tech showed. This Form Thread would have been only 20 Pages, had they addressed the issue in the first place. So they are looking at all our posts on here but not commenting. That's Nice!

She did mention that between the forums and other sites that it is making people not purchase the iMac. And if I chose to have it repaired, someone from apple would call in me 3 weeks to set up an appointment to have the LCD replaced. Why 3 weeks? Makes me wonder...

Hello,
I have a 27" i7, week 47, Italy suffering from both yellow tinge and flickering.
The tinge is slight in my case, but have not heard of any working solution.

As for the flickering, something that I read here that appears to temporarily work at least for my unit: right after the flicker put the imac to sleep and wake it back on immediately. the flicker is gone, for some time (2 weeks this time). no clue.
Other non scientific evidence on my unit: the cooler it stays the less prone to flicker. So I set quite high on smc fan control and try to keep GPU KPIs below 40 celsius.

I'm amazed. Not only Apple has not found viable solutions, but also no geek has managed to understand the root of this issues...maybe it's a windows type of approach...

Can't quite decide what to do...ordered an iMac 27", i7, 8GB, 1TB on Jan 9th direct from Apple Store UK. Due to be shipped today (Jan 25), but shipping date delayed until Feb 25. With so many issues still being reported I'm wondering whether I should just cancel my order and wait until the problems have been sorted out.

What would you do/advise?

Yellow tinge is not simply a perception problem. It can be measured by using a colorimeter. A yellow color tinge could be easily detected using this device. It is not a matter of perception. When the color is off as in a yellow tinge it negatively affects the gray scale. When the gray scale is off, colors cannot be accurately reproduced. It is entirely possible for LCD panels to be flawed in this manner and the flaw can be measured.

Well not according to Apple.

I doubt if the comments from Apple are from an authoritative source. If you mention "colorimeter" to this source they probably would not know what you were talking about. The position that color shifts are all a matter of perception has the effect of invalidating any and all observations on the matter and closing off all discussion. It is quite simply wrong. You can measure any color tinge present using a computer, the colorimeter and software objectively and quantitatively with fairly basic equipment.

I left my computer at the apple store for drive repair for disc scratching (3.06C2D). Two days later, a tech called me and said he was about to start working on the machine and noticed it was so new and offered a replacement instead of repairing the drive. (He must've seen the report of flickering as well). I decided to accept the offer. Brought the new machine home, opened it and found a crack on the glass, lower left. The box also had a bit of damage on it. I decided to run it a bit and watch some movies and no flickering on the first night, but today I brought it back for another replacement (my 4th machine!)

I told the genius that they were replacing my 3rd machine. She talked to a manager and she offered me an upgrade to an i5 and 4850. That was very nice of her. I'm currently restoring that machine from backup. It's a W53 according to the serial number. I haven't noticed any flicker during the restore and discs come out without scratches.

Maybe I'll be in luck with this one since it was created in the extra week steve created in 2009 in order to sell more broken imacs.

Today after market closed, Apple announced its quarterly earning which was 51% higher than the last quarter. But in the details, it says in the last quarter they sold 3.33 million Macintosh computers.
Now for the past months all I read on this forum are complains about flickering or yellow screen, a total of around 1500 posts. This translates into less than 00.05% of over 3.3 million computers sold.

I've been coming to this forum a few times a week since early December. I've been wanting to buy an i7 to replace my crappy little ibookG4, and I'm anxiously waiting for this problem to be solved. I don't have a lot of money and I can't afford to purchase a $2000 that may end up being faulty. I understand that it's a small percentage of machines being affected, but I had several problems with the logic board on my ibook G4, and don't want to make the mistake of buying a first round product again.

Like most consumers, I do a lot of research before buying an expensive product. I'm sure there are many people like myself out there who are reading up on these forums and are holding off on making a purchase until the problem is solved.

I hope the people who have faulty machines have their problems resolved. After reading about all the misery a lot of you have went through, I truly sympathize with you and feel your pain!

3.33 Million Macintosh Computers. That's includes Macbooks, Macbook Pro's, Mac Pro's ,Mac Mini's & iMacs. Not just iMacs. Would that not make the percentage higher? I'm asking here! Not debating.

Status so far:
Just got a call from Apple. The delivery for my replacement iMac has been pushed back another 2 weeks. This is the 4th time they had to reschedule.

1. shipping date: january 5
2. shipping date: january 21
3. shipping date: january 28
4. shipping date: february 8

She said the reason for this 4th delay, is because of the iMacs being so popular.
I got her to promise me another compensation. I was already promised a 100 Euro discount. She suggested I'd get something from the store like "a cable or something" (her own words).
Learned from previous experience, I asked her to confirm all of this in writing, and she sent me an email. "As discussed, your gesture of €100.00 will be added with something
for you once delivered.". Something?
This time I found it hard to communicate. She spoke pretty bad english (a lot worse than mine). I got the impression that she really didnt know anything about whats going on. When she said there was going to be another delay, I asked "Why?", and she couldn't tell me. She didn't know.

The thing thats gets me the most about this is:
Its not so much the flicker/blackouts. Although it is indeed annoying, somehow I can deal with it by putting the iMac to sleep and waking it up right after, which seem to cure the problem for the rest of the day.
No, what really bothers me, is the fact that currently I am in a state of flux; I cannot make any future plans that involve serious work on my iMac. Knowing that soon (or not), the computer is going to be replaced, I'm wary of installling any major software packages on it. Example: I'm really dying to compose some new music, but so far I havent installed the whole ordeal (Logic Pro and a multitude of plugins), knowing I'd eventually have to do the install all over again with my replacement iMac.

spurv2......go ahead, install it and play with it.

You don't need to reinstall when you get a new machine, just use Super Duper, or CarbonCopy, and clone your internal to an external.

Get the new machine, clone it back, it really doesn't take that long, and it's a simple process


BTW, according to todays Apple Announcement, some delays are being caused by dwindling stocks of some essential components, primarily, 3.5 HD's, and DRAM.

Dino........3.3million Macs...........1.234 million desktops, of course that does include the MacMini, and MacPro, but the iMacs outsell them well over ten to one.

That would change sundisks percentage to roughly 1/10 of a percent, although, I would suspect the number was actually slightly higher.

The unusual thing about todays Sales figures release, lots of questions asked by the media, analysts, and techies, not one single question that I have heard of about flickering or yellowing.......

That should add a little perspective to the issue, for those who are interested.