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

Nighthawk00 wrote:
I haven't heard of a single iMac user who hasn't had this problem after one week of usage.

I believe it's the majority who do not bother reading the forums and are totally happy with their perfectly working iMacs. The handful of people having the issues are obviously here and in other forums and the idea that all iMacs are faulty should not be based on the forums.

Anyway-i called apple again and they arranged my iMac to be collected and will send me the new one. I explained that it's the end of term at uni and I would not be happy sitting in the computer lab so they will collect this iMac after i get the new one.
Seriously- apple customer care- superb!!!

Got my i5 imac about a week ago. Flickering and blackouts started about three hours in. I zapped PRAM and it went away for a couple days. Then it was back. Then it was gone. Then it was back again. This, over the course of a few days.

This morning it was flickering, blacking out, and I thought, what if I just put it to sleep again, then wake it up, see what happens. So I put it to sleep, woke it up immediately and not a flicker since.

I've had issues in the past with PCs and sleep mode. I'm thinking it's definitely a power issue. And I'm guessing a firmware upgrade will fix it at some point.

I'll be taking the unit back to the Apple store in the next few days. Such a pain to pack it all up again. Sigh.

I'm experiencing the same issues stated by many of the members in this thread. On the phone with Apple now getting a replacement. Asked if they can ensure this problem will not be an issue on the replacement but they are not sure, as they do not know which serial numbers are affected yet. I shot some video for others to compare their issues to and to hopefully help determine the cause.

Link to video: http://www.vimeo.com/7851576

I've returned and exchanged a week 45 iMac for flickering only to have it replaced with week 46 machine that had a small annoying scratch on the inside of the screen. I recently went into the Apple store to see what we could do about the scratch and they agreed to replacing the machine once again. So instead of taking a new machine home before opening the box we opened a week 47 machine in store only to find a strange discoloration of pixels near the trash icon as well as a series of dead pixels in this same area, to me this was unacceptable to me due to the fact if the other iMac's didn't have any dead pixels and now I would be getting one that did. They once again offered to let me try another machine from week 47 but I was told I would have to start paying the restocking fee for any more returns. In my opinion they should have to open as many box's as it takes to get a customer satisfactory machine. I declined the next machine and accepted a refund. We are all so worried about this screen flickering issue that I feel smaller issues are now slipping through the cracks. I really want to buy another one, especially today with the Black Friday discount would be great to upgrade to the i7. So my question is how are the week 47 iMac's holding up? I noticed one user still had the flicker but that seemed to be the only one. Also if you guys don't mind can you check for dead pixels or any kind of screen issue and post your serial week. I found the best way is to set your wallpaper to %100 white, you will be able to see scratch dust and dead pixels. Also if I ordered an i7 online would I be getting a week 48-49 machine? That might give me a little more confidence as weeks 45-47 for me have all had issues.

Trice06, i have a "W8947" model for nearly 8 days. No flickering, no dead pixel, no screendust... hope it stays that way !

Good luck with your new model.

Just received my iMac Core i5 this morning and have been running it all day checking and monitoring for any signs of flickering or any other problem. So far I haven't seen any issues at all, including perfect Youtube flash performance. Let's hope it stays this way.

i7 received 14 days ago today here, week 46 unit, though unfortunately I was out of town traveling for 7 of the days since it arrived.

So far I've had one flicker/corruption followed by a blackout/blink and one blackout/blink in isolation, and have used the Mac for many hours a day for the 7 days I've been using it.

Does this problem tend to get worse for the people who have it?

Also, what makes some think it's a power/UPS problem? (I'm running mine on a surge suppressor though not a UPS right now, and it's not showing any sign of low/intermittent power though I'm sure it's not as clean as a UPS.)

I'm kinda freaked out that today is the limit on my 14 days but I've spent a lot of time setting this up and don't want to return it unless there's a reason to believe this is a HW problem. Then again, the fact that Apple is replacing them suggests to me that they think that's what it is...

Mine also has the yellow tinge on the bottom third of the screen - is this pervasive/normal or are some people really getting units without it? (This alone is not enough to make me return it, but the fear of the blinking getting worse is.)

Add another one here.
W8947 C2d
Flickered a couple of times the first night-11/24
No problems-11/25
Went ballistic with flickering and blackouts-11/26
Fine today-11/27
Its going back, I will give an i5 a shot this time.

I'm not sure it's a hardware problem. I think Apple is simply replacing the units because that's the easiest way to deal with the problem until they know the cause. Then again, who knows what motivates Apple.

I don't have any yellow tinge at the bottom of the screen and never have. And the flickering problem itself has not been bad at all. But when you pay over two grand for a PC, you want it to be perfect, which is why I'm returning it this coming week. I'd advise you do the same.

JiminSF wrote:

i7 received 14 days ago today here, week 46 unit, though unfortunately I was out of town traveling for 7 of the days since it arrived.

So far I've had one flicker/corruption followed by a blackout/blink and one blackout/blink in isolation, and have used the Mac for many hours a day for the 7 days I've been using it.

Does this problem tend to get worse for the people who have it?

Also, what makes some think it's a power/UPS problem? (I'm running mine on a surge suppressor though not a UPS right now, and it's not showing any sign of low/intermittent power though I'm sure it's not as clean as a UPS.)

I'm kinda freaked out that today is the limit on my 14 days but I've spent a lot of time setting this up and don't want to return it unless there's a reason to believe this is a HW problem. Then again, the fact that Apple is replacing them suggests to me that they think that's what it is...

Mine also has the yellow tinge on the bottom third of the screen - is this pervasive/normal or are some people really getting units without it? (This alone is not enough to make me return it, but the fear of the blinking getting worse is.)

At least contact Apple and let them know what you're experiencing so it gets logged as a potential fault. Just in case things get worse, or it turns out to be HW after all, or you just decide you'd rather have the faultless machine it should've been from the start.

I do have to add that other than this sometime flickering problem, this machine is flat-out gorgeous. Beautiful picture, very responsive, love the new magic mouse -- the two grand would be WELL spent if it weren't for the display problem.

Such a shame.

{quote:title=robgb wrote:}I don't have any yellow tinge at the bottom of the screen and never have. And the flickering problem itself has not been bad at all. But when you pay over two grand for a PC, you want it to be perfect, which is why I'm returning it this coming week. I'd advise you do the same.{quote}

On hold with them now to report it and see what they say.

On the tinge thing, have you tried the grey bars test? On mine, I only really notice if I'm looking or testing for it, but in a big white window (like the Safari window entering this message), I can definitely tell the difference between the white at the top and in the middle of the screen, which looks kind of bluish, and the white at the bottom of the screen, which looks yellowish.

Thrice06 wrote:
So my question is how are the week 47 iMac's holding up? I noticed one user still had the flicker but that seemed to be the only one. Also if you guys don't mind can you check for dead pixels or any kind of screen issue and post your serial week. I found the best way is to set your wallpaper to %100 white, you will be able to see scratch dust and dead pixels.

I'm on my 5th day. Although, I've only been using it about 4-6 hours per day. Its only been restarted once - just to add Apple S/W updates (did this within the first few minutes of using it). It's been slept/woke several times per day.

I decided to really task it and boy did it heat up. I started a computer-on-computer chess game at max skill, plus all 7 Grapher 3D examples spinning at once, plus two terminal windows endlessly looping: "ls -laR /". I let it run like that for a few hours. The top got very hot.

I still have not seen any flickers or blackouts. I see no dead pixels using the white desktop background, and no scratch dust. I do have a very slight yellowing or "warming" towards the bottom of the screen, but it's evenly distributed and not noticeable enough to make me want to return the machine. I can see the "warming" best by making this bright white Safari window stretch from top to bottom.

(edit: Oh... still haven't migrated any of my stuff.)

Message was edited by: mert

Just cancelled my order and told the service rep that I was concerned about these issues.

I had ordered an i7 and will reorder within the next month if I see some improvement in this situation.

Thanks to all who have been posting about this issue. It will eventually be addressed I am sure and when I get mine I will post back.

I now have a 6:15 appt. to go in for a hardware diagnostic at the local Apple store.

The support rep I spoke with did not acknowledge any prior knowledge of these issues, and said I need to take the machine in for them to check the video, so that's what I'll do I guess.

On Black Friday, it seems like the mall is going to be a cluster-#$%^, but if I'm going to need to return this thing, better to do it today (on the last of my 14 days) I suppose. I've got the Time Capsule doing a full backup right now so I can hopefully preserve my setup, if the darned thing can finish in the next 5 hours or so...