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

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

Glad to hear that.

angelswings wrote:
Just because someone posts here that the fix did or didn't work doesn't mean it's "confirmed".

I can confirm that the first patch did not work. After applying it, there were no symptoms for about a week, then they reappeared. The symptoms are intermittent. Many times when I turn on the Mac, there are no symptoms. Other times there will be a flicker or blackout, after which a stream of others will follow.

As for the second patch, I have not applied it yet. If it doesn't work, we MAY find that out quickly; blackouts are rather hard to confuse with correct operating behavior. If it does work, we will not really know that until our machines have been running for weeks without incident. After all, given that the problem is intermittent, how would you know whether a trouble-free stretch of a week or two was the result of a fix that worked? Someone whose machine was still buggy might also have several days of trouble-free operation (before the next incident) out of sheer dumb luck.

So we can confirm the "FIX"...
It works for 99% users.
Problem is FIXED, can we close this topic now, PLEASE!

The patch has been out for a little over a day - I'd hardly say it's worth closing this thread 'just' yet. Let's get a more representative cross section of people who have applied it, and ran their iMacs for a few days first.

atlatnesiti wrote:
So we can confirm the "FIX"...
It works for 99% users.
Problem is FIXED, can we close this topic now, PLEASE!

Because a system that has the problem might be "symptom-free" for a number of days before its next round of flickering and screen blackouts, we cannot quickly make a determination that the patch fixes the problem. We have to wait and watch until it's been so long that problems would have resurfaced if they still existed. Then we can conclude that the patch (probably) worked.

I would agree that at this point, anyone posting status reports to this thread should indicate the patch level (none, first patch, both patches) of their Mac. Mixing up data from Macs that are at different patch levels would make this thread of less use to any Apple engineers or software quality assurance people who might happen to be silently monitoring it.

My own Mac now has both patches, but too little time running the second patch to make any conclusions about it yet.

I'm wondering, why someone here have so much hurry to close this significant thread? WHY?

Ettore dn wrote:
I'm wondering, why someone here have so much hurry to close this significant thread? WHY?

I agree. Really. What's the rush?

If some of you are so confident about this latest attempt at fixing the flickering issue, great, more power to you! I truly hope that it is indeed fixed.

However, if you simply want to close this thread because you are sick and tired of reading it, or because you don't like some of the comments that have been posted here, then the solution for you is simple: Just stop reading it. Nobody is bending your arm behind your back and forcing you to read it.

Again, as a number of us have now stated, it is way too early to fully declare victory regarding the flickering issue, and this thread should remain open until such time when sufficient evidence has been presented, so that everyone is fully convinced.

Besides, Apple controls this thread, not us; and when Apple is absolutely certain that a solution has been found, they will undoubtedly close this thread of their own accord.

I applied the 1st update Jan 1 with no change.

Last week, Apple scheduled a display and cable replacement with my local hardware shop, but I have not rec'd a call that the parts are in yet.

Yesterday, Apple called to inform me of the latest patch. I asked about the status of the display replacement, but the woman said she didn't know anything about that and that I should apply this latest update and let them know if it works.

I applied the new update last night. So far, I have not seen any flickering.

The machine rebooted twice after the update - took a long time. My wife and I each have accounts and use the sleep/switch-user function. When signing in to her account, the display had stopped the neat "spin" thing it does. Signing into my account - it was still there. I'm not sure where that is controlled.

I'll see how things look in a week or so before declaring victory.

Applied the new patch last night, and after a few hours, flickering started happening again. It's just enough to be annoying, but not enough to want to interrupt work at this point to take the machine in.

Hello Stephen,

sorry to hear that! However you join at the forth position in the "flickering not resolved" list:

1. the artiste ( http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11004329#11004329 )
2. dxgriffiths ( http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11003937#11003937 )
3. Shawn W Brown ( http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11010259#11010259 )
4. Stephen Stark ( http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11012543#11012543 )

Please correct me the list is wrong.

Hey atlatnesiti, where's your 99%?

Message was edited by: Ettore dn

I agree that it's way too early to close this thread.
It is almost the only source of info we have on this problem since apple is not saying a thing.
We need this thread to confirm if the fix does or does not work.
At least a week or two before we can say for certain.

Thats bad news

I bought a 27" iMac back in November and have never had the screen fickering problem. But, now after I installed the second firmware update, the grey areas of the screen are flickering. It is worse when I first turn on the computer but still noticeable after a few minutes. I am hoping for third firmware update to fix this problem. How annoying.

PLEASE don't tell me that even this patch doesn't work!
I don't believe it...

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