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

Hello Simon,

Thanks for taking the time to offer an explanation. As I noted in an earlier post, my AAR told me that they are unable to cancel custom built units, so once the order is placed, no returns or refunds are accepted. Once the news about the defective iMacs began to hit the Internet, I asked them how their stated policy is affected by damaged or defective merchandise. They have yet to respond. I'm taking it on good faith that an exchange -- or at least full store credit -- is acceptable. I've been dealing exclusively with them for about ten years now.

Warren, if your Mac arrives damaged or defective in any way, your AAR is obliged to offer you a full refund! You may choose to have it replaced, but the decision is always yours not theirs.

posted a while back, thought id add a video of my experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BogxZbRg4o

W8941, hope this might help!

Hi Simon. Thanks for your reply. It was actually a clarification, as I hadn't understood that that is what you were saying in your previous post. I should clarify too that they had told me that BEFORE we had finalized the order for the 27" i7. So again, with these latest developments, I guess I will learn soon enough where they stand.

In fact, come to think of it, I just remembered that a number of years ago -- about nine years actually -- right before we got our two G4's, we purchased one of the older model iMacs. I am referring to the all-in-ones that were of various colors and had the clear casing.

That unit ran alarmingly hot, and the DVD drive was making a noise. I immediately notified them of this, and in the end, we got the two G4's instead.

Having remembered that incident, I am relatively certain now that we shouldn't have a problem if this 27" i7 arrives damaged or defective.

BTW, from reading this thread, I've come to understand that the last two digits in the serial number represent the week in 2009 when the unit was actually built. Do you -- or does anyone -- know what the first two numbers represent?

Thanks again.

I've had my week 47 replacement iMac for a week now and have not seen any issues (knock on wood).

I bought the first one (week 43) on Oct. 31st from an Apple Authorized Retailer but they didn't have my computer in stock once Apple agreed to replace it three weeks later. So I drove the extra distance to the nearest Apple Store and exchanged for a new one.

Maybe it's because I got a newer machine and maybe it's because I got it from a different location, but my new iMac is beautiful and hasn't given me any trouble!


On another note, in addition to flickering and the menu bar shifting problem, my first iMac had trouble waking from sleep properly. The iMac woke up when I used the keyboard or mouse, but the display stayed off (sometimes). I know the iMac was awake because I could log into the computer remotely just fine. I was able to get it to respond correctly by sleeping the computer again and waking it up right after. There another thread on this issue, but I wonder if it is related to the flickering issue or not:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2214777

This new iMac has not had any problems waking from sleep so far. Have any of you flickerers had this issue?

I have a week 41 imac and since my return for refund date is this coming Tuesday I have been watching it carefully for any issues, and to date none have appeared.

I did have the problem of the computer waking up from sleep constantly so I went to bluetooth devices advanced and unchecked the box that allows those devices to wake it up and since then have had no issues with "sleep" or waking.

Sorry to learn about other posters problems, but so far nothing happening with this computer, and I hope it remains that way. This imac by the way is simply put ... fantastic.

Message was edited by: old john

Hello Brian. I am glad to hear that your replacement unit has been problem-free thus far.

I would like to think that this may be due to the fact that your unit is a month newer -- meaning that Apple has now had some time to sort out some of the problems -- but I still have some lingering reservations regarding whether or not this is truly the reason why your replacement has been working okay.

My hesitancy to fully accept this reasoning is due to the fact that other folks have also received replacements -- or even a third replacement -- and they are still having problems, and some of those machines may be even newer than yours.

It would be interesting if a list could be compiled which shows the week date, along with which machine dates are still displaying problems, and which are not. That might help us to better gauge if there is a specific point in time where Apple got a handle on the situation -- assuming that they truly have.

I must admit a bit of frustration at hearing that some folks have received their original orders, along with one or two replacements, while I am still waiting for my original order to arrive.

Oh well, in due time it will get here...maybe right before Apple releases an even newer model!

You can never win in this technology game.

Is there a way to force the computer, or stress it, to the point of flickering?

Warren Beasley wrote:
It would be interesting if a list could be compiled which shows the week date, along with which machine dates are still displaying problems, and which are not. That might help us to better gauge if there is a specific point in time where Apple got a handle on the situation -- assuming that they truly have.

So far the newest iMacs seem to be from production week 47 and also for these some errors have been reported. As I have not seen anyone reporting to have received a week 48 model I would say so far there is no production week with at least a couple of faulty iMacs.

{quote:title=John Trussell wrote:}Is there a way to force the computer, or stress it, to the point of flickering?{quote}

Mine flickered when just web surfing in a 50-something degree room. It should not have been hot or stressed - I do not think this is the issue unless the card simply runs too hot all the time. The Apple tech I spoke with speculated that all of this could be caused by faulty GPU memory, though as far as the yellow tinge goes, I lean more toward defective panels.

It is seeming more and more like this is a problem with the actual panel. In my personal experience I've always stayed away from LG products. From cell phones to TV's their product lines have always had a 'cheap' quality about them. I was actually pretty disappointed when I heard Apple had used LG panels. Their HD TV's are horrible, my father in-law has a 42" plasma and the picture is terrible compared to Samsung/Sony. Sorry to get off topic a bit.

I'm also going to pick up a new 27" iMac for around Chrimstmas time, but accidentally fell on this article and it made me think carefully before doing so and I want to share my opinion about this particular problem. I'm familiar with the ATI 4850 graphic card, since I own one which I have in my PC. When I first bought the card, it was constantly overheating from period to period, especially when playing games and it started showing artifacts ingame and rarely on the desktop, and the degrees in the ATI options were going crazy ( 80-90 degrees (Celsius) ) + it was very loud when playing heavy games which is supposed to be normal for this card... Since that happened I bought a cooler for it ( big as a brick ) and I put it on and these things stopped happening. What I'm saying, at least for the flicker/tearing/shutoff issue is, that it's definitely from the GPU.
I hope Apple are doing everything they can to fix this issue, and others related to this and the other faulty units. Or just change the GPU manufacturer on the iMacs.

I would like to buy a 27" iMac, but with this issue still open I'll wait next year... week number 3 should be fine!
I also think that a LG panel is very bad choise. Just look to the lcd TVs... Samsung TV (that produces panel by itself like LG) are well above LG's ones. LG are the cheapest panels on the market. Apple seems reduce the price and the quality as well.
I'm a happy 20" iMac user and I don't want to become a sad one...

I received my iMac 27" i7 on Nov. 18th. I experienced absolute no issues until today. I powered the machine up this morning to so some simple reading. While reading the Washington Post (nothing taxing for the video or system) the screen flickered three times. I have read a lot about the screen flickering problems and am unsure how to proceed.

I'm within my 14 day period for a return and refund. However, besides the flickering I really like using this system. Besides I don't want to pay nearly $350 for restocking. Option 2 is to call tech support and have a replacement shipped. However, I've read many occasions on this forum and others that people are experiencing the issue two or three replacements down the track.

I also can't figure out whether this is hardware or software. I have read and tend to agree that the problem is very difficult to duplicate but does seem more likely when the system is cold.

I have also read that repair disk permissions and reset the PRAM/NVRAM may help. I have tried this and so far I don't see a problem. However, this also creates a questions. If the above mentioned procedure fixes or temporarily fixes the problem then this could be hardware but may be remedied with a firmware fix. Thus, should I just keep this thing until Apple supplies a fix?

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

One more thought....

If this is indeed a problem only experienced by a small percentage of shipped units then I wonder what are the odds that some people get 2 or 3 bad units in a roll. This makes me believe that the issue is much more prevalent then some speculate.