Q: Graphical issues with 2011 iMac and Lion

Ok, I am getting sick and tired of "AppleCare" telling me I'm the only one with this problem, or that they have never heard of this problem before.

There are plenty of other people with these problems, obviously, based on the other threads about this with 75+ comments on them. ie: https://discussions.apple.com/message/16157263#16157263

About a month and a half ago I bought a 27" iMac, 256Gb SSD, 1TB hdd, 2GB graphics card, 4GB of ram (upgraded to 12GB with 3rd party ram) ** and NO the 3rd party ram is NOT THE PROBLEM ** (Lion pre-installed... gee, thanks Apple)

For the first few days I had no problems whatsoever. Then, I noticed when restarting, the iMac hangs on a grey screen before the Apple logo for anywhere from 30 seconds up to 5+ minutes. I also started noticing strange graphics artifacts appearing on the desktop along with some wierd graphics problems in the Finder, Dock, and Dashboard.

A few days later, when playing youtube videos in HD, the video goes crazy with all kinds of pink and green strangeness. This also happened when playing HD video in Plex.

After all of this I noticed most of these issues became evident when using Safari. I quit using Safari, and the video issues and graphics artifacts have mostlydisappeared.

Now, upon login, I have vertical lines running through my entire display (not external displays though, only the iMac display), but these disappear after a few minutes of use. Also, using Spotlight takes an abnormally long time, especially with a SSD, 3.4GHz processor, and 12GB of ram...

Apple has released two iMac firmware updates, one to fix the "hanging" on the grey screen on reboot, one is supposed to fix some of the "known" graphics issues. When I run system updates my computer finds neither of these firmware updates. When I manually download them and try to install them, they tell me that "my hardware is not supported for these updates".

Many people have said that "going back" to Snow Leopard fixed their problems. I am a developer, so "going back" is kind of out of the question.

Another person said that using SMCFanControl to speed up the fans about +275 rpm fixed the graphics issues for him, but this approach does not work either.

By the way, this is clearly a software/firmware problem because I can take screenshots of the graphics issues.

Other possibilities for causes of these problems: I have a beta version of iTunes and Xcode installed (but I have both of these beta programs running on my mac book pro 2008 - Lion with no problems at all.) I really doubt either of these things have anything to do with these issues, but it is possible.

I have tried removing the 3rd party ram, resetting the pram, unplugging from power for ~30 seconds, reinstalling Lion, not using Safari, only using one desktop in Mission Control, not using external monitors, increasing the fan speed, installing the firmware updates (can't), and countless other things I can't even remember. NOTHING HELPS.

I still haven't found a way to force any of these issues, but other people can force them by dragging a file to the desktop and moving it around rapidly, or quickly scrolling in a large list in the finder. You can find videos of them on youtube (if your shiny new iMac can even PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEOS). I would love to hear what other people have done to force or fix any of these issues (preferrably fix), as I am completely out of ideas.

I am a college student, and I have been using my iMac for everything so far this year. I have everything set up just the way I want it, so getting it replaced is a last ditch option. Although, I don't think a different iMac would help solve any of these problems. This is getting incredibly annoying. I've patiently waited for long enough now, and if these issues aren't resolved or at least acknowledged sometime very soon Apple may very well be losing my, and many others', $3000+ purchase. Not that they really care, apparently.

I bought this iMac because it benchmarks faster than any other consumer Mac ever made. Now it takes more than 5 minutes to restart?! Come on...

Please, everyone with ANY of these issues, CALL APPLECARE. Do it right now. If enough of us complain enough maybe they will realize that it is an actual problem. I realize that calling is a bit of a hassle, and most of these problems resolve themselves over time, and are relatively easy to ignore, but if we ignore them SO WILL APPLE. So take one for the team, call AppleCare, make a fuss, threaten to return your purchase, tie up the line for an hour or two, do whatever you can! The call takes less than half an hour usually, and it can benifit us all.

If you're too busy with your iMac just go back to Snow Leopard back up your files (make a partition).

Since I went back to Snow Leopard I don't see the problem's anymore.

Having the same sort of problem!! I have iMac 27 with 27 Cinema display, put spotify between them and took screen shot!! Doesnt look pretty!!! Gonna phone up and ask for a replace screen when the TB displays finally get to the apple stores!! =)

This was happening to me every single day.  I upgraded to the latest version of flash, and I have not had a problem in about a week.  Strange, I know.

-Bobby

I have the same problems on my 27" iMac Core i7 w/ AMD 6970M 2GB, 16GB RAM. Was this suppsed to be fixed in 10.7.1 update because I am still seeing it and it pops up mostly after veiweing flash content.

please....all of you.....call apple care maybe understand that is a REAL issue....and maybe fix it

CONTACT APPLE PLEASE.

i call all days......

Hi, I'm french.

I called today and Apple told me that they are working on since May 22.

I have to call him back every month... what a joke.

Another Joke,

I called the Dutch Apple support. They have never heard of this problem.......

Same issue here

Processor  3.4 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory  16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Graphics  AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB

Software  Mac OS X Lion 10.7.1 (11B26)

my imac is too hot to touch!!!! i not use now and the screensever run but there's an **** inside!!!!!! apple FIX ITTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!

Just to put another hand up to say i'm having the same issue

2011 iMac 27"

Processor     3.4GHz i7

Memory         16GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Graphics      AMD Radeon 6970 2048MB

Software         Lion 10.7.1

Sometimes youtube flickers (that's usually when i first notice the problems)

Then my 'alt-tab' menu becomes noisy/pixelated....

same for menu bar at the top...

hope apple fixes soon ..... .

I have the same problem..

27 in iMac Core i7 3.4 with the

  Chipset Model:          AMD Radeon HD 6970M - 1GB card

16GB RAM

everybody with the same bug..... maybe apple recall this model of imac.... the question is.....WHEN??????

It's not so much a recall more like Apple just needs to fix their driver ASAP! Because the issue didn't exist at all when I ran 10.6