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

Nexus, This iMac I have, has no Flicker. Just Yellow. But even if it did, the Update was not designed for a 21.5" Screen. I'm glad it is helping people. That's Great. But I think because the Flicker is so Intermittent. (I know this because my first iMac developed Flicker after 5 days), it is way too soon to claim victory. it does seem this Update worked a lot better than the first. I would like this entire flicker thread to be done & all iMacs Flicker Free but, I still think it's too soon to say. I wish perfect iMacs that last more than 15 Years for all the Users having Problems. Then we can put these in our Collection Mac Computer Shelves in our homes & remember this time & how long our iMacs lasted after all this grief.

So, ahem... we have 3 confirmed NO-FIXES... as summed up by Ettore dn, and I have read at least 2 of those reports myself... am I right? We (fam) are still contemplating placing an order for one of these machines in the next week or so... so why is everybody claiming "it's fixed" ???

Nexus600 wrote:
I agree with You Dino and Warren as well but only to a point.

I mean think of the fiasco of the first update.
MINUTES after that one came out we had report of its failure.
People were screaming that it did not work or even made things worse.

One as to admit that the aftermath of this update is much better and looks much more positive.

Lets be positive for now!
Let the bells ring and the birds sing! It works! the update works!!!

I hope

Nexus, my friend, there is no such thing as half a victory. You either win, or else you lose. Leave it to Government and Big Business to spin tales of victory where there is none. Until EVERYONE here can report that their flickering has stopped, and can continue to do so weeks from now, we cannot claim victory regarding this issue.

Update:

Received my replacement 27" i7 iMac yesterday. It's a week 04, and so far doesnt seem to flicker, but I'll report back later.

However (isn't there always a 'however'?), theres at least 4 dead pixels ... or ... what seems to be dead pixels. That, or maybe it's dust behind the glass. How can you tell the difference? It's black spots, not white.

Also, I think I see som slight yellow tinge, but I'd have to further investigate to be sure. Funny (or not) thing is, if Apple had made an immaculate 27" iMac from the get-go, I think I'd be much less aware of any minor faults, such as the slight yellow tinge. But because of this iLemon disaster story, I scrutinize every new replacement iMac I get, 'just to be sure'.
What I'm saying, is that I think many of the slighter cases of yellow tinge probably would had gone unnoticed, if people had been given an otherwise faultless computer.... You agree?

So I have to decide, what would I rather keep? Flicker or dead pixels? Right now, dead pixels seems less of a nuisance, than the flickers... I am going to get a case number for this replacement iMac from Apple, for sure ....
What I'm really thinking about, is getting a refund. I don't want a 3rd replacement, not being sure if this too is also going to be another iLemon. Still no word from Apple, so noone really knows for sure. If I get a refund, I'll just wait till all problems have been solved.

It's now been at least 3 months since the i7 was introduced, and I cant help thinking that a refresh is imminent. Wouldnt you just feel stupid, finally getting a working iMac in march (3rd replacement, 4th replacement?), and 14 days later the refresh happens, and a new iMac is presented, now with blue-ray drive, and USB3, and you only had a working iMac for a fortnight, now outdated?

Question: how can you tell if the firmware updates has been installed? My 'old' iMac doesnt even seem to recognize that theres a new firmware update available when I check software update. Is the new firmware update one you have to go download from Apples website, or is it also delivered through automatic software updates?

Spurv,
You need to download from the Apple web site.
Here is the page for info on finding out if you have the first firmware installed.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3181

You need to have it installed before this new one:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL998

Message was edited by: Leisas4

Aaron Stroot wrote:
I have a week 45 27" iMac i7. Pretty much one of the first batches out.

It has had minor screen flickering since the beginning, but it never really bothered me enough to worry about exchanging it. I never saw the flickering in Windows 7 so I figured it was a software thing that could be fixed.

Anyways, here is my experience:
1) First firmware update - seemed to fix it, but flickering came back after a day.
2) Second firmware update - with about 2 hours of use last night, I didn't see a single flicker. But we'll see.

I have a 45 machine [arrived Nov 16th 2009]......and just for what it's worth I have had absolutely no problems. Have applied both firmware updates...but just because they were on software update:-)

+It's now been at least 3 months since the i7 was introduced, and I cant help thinking that a refresh is imminent. Wouldnt you just feel stupid, finally getting a working iMac in march (3rd replacement, 4th replacement?), and 14 days later the refresh happens, and a new iMac is presented, now with blue-ray drive, and USB3, and you only had a working iMac for a fortnight, now outdated?+

Ive been an Apple customer for many many years....although the occasional surprise refresh happens.... Expect a Macbook Pro, Mac Pro , iPhone update before another iMac refresh....based on history it will probably go down like that....just my observation.

spurv2 wrote:
Question: how can you tell if the firmware updates has been installed? My 'old' iMac doesnt even seem to recognize that theres a new firmware update available when I check software update. Is the new firmware update one you have to go download from Apples website, or is it also delivered through automatic software updates?

That's odd. The new iMac display update appeared in my software update window yesterday. I don't know why you would have to go to the Apple download site in order to manually get it.

Hmmm...it could be that Apple has staggered informing machines that the new update is available, so that their servers don't become overloaded. But then again, the update is already listed on VersionTracker as well.

I could understand the second update already being pre-installed on the very latest iMacs, which would explain why they wouldn't recognize that the new update is available, but as to your "old" iMac, who knows?

Positive result after fix, have experienced flicker since receiving 27' since day 1.

1984-IWas1 wrote:
So, ahem... we have 3 confirmed NO-FIXES... as summed up by Ettore dn, and I have read at least 2 of those reports myself... am I right? We (fam) are still contemplating placing an order for one of these machines in the next week or so... so why is everybody claiming "it's fixed" ???

Why do you claim these are "confirmed no-fixes"? Just because someone posts here that the fix did or didn't work doesn't mean it's "confirmed". Sometimes people have motives that are not immediately obvious. As a tv character once said, "Trust no-one". It's what happens on YOUR iMac that counts, not what someone claimed happened on theirs.

I can also confirm that the second patch seems to have done the trick.

spurv2 wrote:
Update:

However (isn't there always a 'however'?), theres at least 4 dead pixels ... or ... what seems to be dead pixels. That, or maybe it's dust behind the glass. How can you tell the difference? It's black spots, not white.

You can tell if it is dust on the inside of the glass by looking at the screen at an angle where the spots appear. You will see a gap between the glass and the screen and should see if it is on the screen. You can also slide a window or the browser to that spot while viewing on an angle and see if the spots are on the screen or the spots float above it.

angelswings, yes, you are correct, the 3 no-fixes are far from confirmed.

I believe in reality there are only two so far, although it is possible I could have missed one. there was one poster who reported a flicker during the update, which several of us have reported, but the update worked, and at least for now, has resolved the issue.

The other two could have a number of reasons for their reporting, including those you mentioned. It is possible that they have other issues causing their problems, or it could be that the update was not properly installed.

There have been dozens who have reported that they have not experienced any flickers since the last update.

At the very least, that would be a "paratial victory" since even if the flickers do return, it is a step in the right direction, and at best, it is a total victory for all of those of us who have waited so long for a fix, if it holds up.

Assuming that Apple is able to create a firmware fix for the screen flicker and/or the yellow tinge, and assuming that this fix is some kind of post processing mechanism, considering the size of these LCD screens, do you think that the fix might have a negative effect on some of the other processes which are involved in drawing the screen? ...

Hi Warren,

you wrote this just one day before the new firmware came out. This is one of the last important points for me, because I'm very positive about the effectivity of the new firmware. I really would like to know, what the new fix is doing. We see that the flicker problem is gone, but is the performance of the machine the same?

The second important point remains of course the yellow tinge. I don't believe that a simple fix can resolve the problem. As I said before, I'm afraid that the yellow tinge is a result of a damage. In that case only a hardware replacement would help.

The third important point is, that Apple has to recognize, that there're also the 21.5 inch iMacs having the same issues.

After all I'm thankful for Apple's new firmware, because the train is going now in the right direction. Yea Apple, fix the yellow tinge and I can order!

Citrus.........

I just ran Geekbench, and iBench and the scores are virtually identical to those I received prior to the firmware update.

Whatever it was they changed, it did not affect any performance that either of these apps can check