27' iMac (2011) Screen turns off

The repair is not an option for me either - way too much money! I can buy a whole new computer for that!!! I have tried running my screen on very low - only on 2 bars - and the screen still went black. What a silly issue. I do hope that some solution exists somewhere that is reasonable, because a $900 repair is certainly NOT reasonable. I am impressed that you are still a proud apple user. I tell you, this situation has really put me off of using apple again in the future. This was my first experience and it has not been the most positive one, that is for sure! Everyone I know swears by apple...that is the reason I gave it a go. I went big, and I feel that I have lost big. Warranty or no warranty, I think there are enough people out there experiencing this same problem that Apple should be doing something about it. What does it take for it to become an "Engineering Issue" so that they will recognize that it is a problem? Just curious if you know...

As for David NYC63, I did not do the re-image. I did the system reinstall and that did nothing to help the issue at all. I am at a loss, and am seriuosly considering buying a PC laptop. I have not had much luck with apple...and it is very expensive!! Maybe one day a solution that works (and is reasonable) will come up.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions!

Hello Lewaseven,

I'm sorry for your predicament and first-time experience with Apple products. I can only say this: in over 28 years of using Macs this is my first big "uh oh". Up until my last two purchases (my current 27" iMac and my current MacBook Pro 15") I have religiously purchased the AppleCare extended warranty.

Now to be honest, I have ended up using the Applecare on a majority of my purchases, but for what I considered the normal failures: Optical drives and hard drives. It seemed that close to the end of the third year I'd always have an optical drive go bad or more rarely, a hard drive quit on me. As I said, those are really common failures that any computer will experience. They are both mechanical devices subjected to a lot of wear and tear/usage and so I've not been "surprised" to see them go south. I worked at one time in a very LARGE corporate environment in their computer deployments and we constantly were replacing hard drives and other mechanical parts... on Dells and HPs. So, that I consider just part of owning the equipment.

But this video-goes-dark issue is a genuine exception for me. I blame myself for the predicament since I forgot to purchase my extended warranty. Now, I, like you, feel that since others (we don't know how many) are having this issue that it is more than a random part failure. It seems like an Engineering Issue to me.

I suspect the only way to get this KNOWN to Apple is to start rattling the cages at the Genius bars in the Apple Stores. Unfortunately I'm 100 miles from the nearest Apple Store and can't at this time afford to make the trip. I did call the Apple Store in Tulsa, OK (my closest) and the manager was not aware of this technical issue. I as not allowed to speak to a "Genius" or any repair personnel. I also called Apple's Applecare number, but since I have not purchased AppleCare I was deadended there as well. They could only recommend I take the machine to an Apple Store for diagnosis.

As for Apple services in the past, I've been more than pleased. If you are under warranty your issue gets resolved... period! And since I'm so far from an Apple Store, the AppleCare service actually sends a technician to my home/business!

So, the bottom line is that you and I are probably stuck with a design flaw that again probably won't get classifed as an Engineering issue.

All I can say is, "I will buy AppleCare from now on." It's good protection for gerneral very good devices and it gives you leverage with the Company when you do happen to get a lemon.

Best regards,

Mark

Ponca City, OK

Hi Guys,

It's starting to sound like a broken record, but I am having the same problem. I have the iMac 27" and I bought it last July so I am just out of warranty. My screen goes black just like you are describing. I then ran a hardware test on it and it told me there was a problem with the hard drive which immediatly went out on me and I had to take it into an Apple service provider. They replaced the hard drive which was recalled by Apple. They claim mine is not part of the recall even though it is the same manufacturer and bought in the same time frame as the recalled drives. THey never could duplicate the screen issue. I though that maybe replacing the hard drive would take care of the screen issue, but two days after getting it home, I have the same screen issue.

I have always had a Mac and grew up on a Mac since they first came out in '84. I have an old Mac G4 that is close to ten years old and it still runs fine. So you can sense my dissapointment in Apple that when I finally upgraded my computer I got a little over 1 year out of it and now all these problems. My brother is a long time Apple user and he has noticed a decline in reliability with their software programs. I hope that Apple isn't becoming another Microsoft - put out the products and let the customers find the problems for them.

I will be contacting Apple tomorrow to report this issue. I feel that there are too many of us having this problem. It's an engineering issue that should be fixed by Apple whether it's in warranty or not. Even a PC lasts longer than a year.

Hello Charles: Thank you for your post. I would love for someone to push this issue with Apple and perhaps convince them of the truth, that being, it IS an engineering issue. There are many affected. Because of my physical location (100 miles from the nearest Apple Store) I cannot perform that role. I don't have the time or the $ for gasoline to make that push right now.

My 27" is still experiencing the video blackout issue if I run the brightness any higher than about 5 'clicks' above minimum. This is still adequate for dim room lighting but not for full daylight. Usually, when the video blacks out, I can get it to come back after a few command-option-eject keystroke combinations. It usually takes several. Sometimes the video goes out again almost immediately, but after trying and trying I can usually get it back long enough to restart the machine.

I am also wondering if the issue is heat related. I don't have enough good emperical data on this but it "seems" to be more touchy when the ambient temps are highter and the processor is getting a workout (more heat being generated inside the machine).

Sadly, without AppleCare warranty there is no good recourse to approach Apple with such an issue. I too am a charter Mac user. This was the first machine purchased without AppleCare (I let it slip and forgot). But that won't happen again! :>)

I would appreciate hearing from others on this thread if they have gotten anything resolved with Apple on this issue.

Thank you,

Mark Byard

Hey All, I think I have found the problem,

I took the comptuer to teh geneius bar and he asked me if I had the encryption setting turned on. He said that this causes the problem. I have jsut spent 8 hours reinstalling the oeprating system becaue it got o bad I was not able to get back in. Will see if I get the problem, but curious to knwo if others have tunred on the encrytion.

David

Hey Mark,

Sorry to hear your problem contineus, its winter up here now, so who knows.....if it happens aain, ill repost, and let you knwo if I get a solution. As with all things techical, its worth calling in again to see if you get somebody different who might knwo about it. Good luck

David

Hello to all who are having the video blackout problems with 27" iMacs. My problem continues and with much emperical experience now I am confident to report that the issue is heat-correlated/heat-related/heat-exacerbated. As long as my office stays cold I can run the brightness about 5 or 6 clicks above minimum and never experience the blackouts. But let the ambient temp creep up into the 60s and 70s (as it has this week in N. Oklahoma) and the problem becomes limiting. At normal room temps I must run a fan across the top of the iMac to help dissapate heat and even then video blackouts will occur. I've had to darken the room and run the video about 4 clicks above minimum to keep the screen "alive".

However, I have found one work around from reading other's posts that will at least bring the video back ON without having to perform a hard reset! When the video goes out, perform the following keystroke combination:

Cmd+Opt+MediaEject

According to Apple's own keystroke combo support page this combination will evoke SLEEP in late model Macbooks and iMacs. After the machine is asleep, wait about 10 seconds or more and perform the SAME keystroke combination again. This wakes UP the machine and the video will come back on! This usually gives me time to turn the brightness down a bit. Sometimes the video will almost immediately blackout again and I have to perform this trick several times to keep the video long enough to invoke normal sleep and let the thing cool off a bit.

In response to David and some others, I've never used file encryption and so I really don't think that has anything to do with it. The problem started with me after the machine was a bit over 1 year old and I upgraded to Mt. Lion. I ran the machine with Lion for many months with no issues.

I will continue to appreciate comments and data from users who are impacted by this issue.

Here is the keystroke combo support page from Apple

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

If you scroll down to the second table (SLeep and Shut Down shortcuts) you'll see the Cmb-Opt-MediaEject command.

Mark Byard

Ponca City, OK

mebyard@mac.com

I've been having the same problems over the last 3 days. I also believe that it is a heat related issue. It's been getting close to 40 degrees Celsius outside(not too much cooler inside), and I've been using Autodesk Maya, which really puts the processor through it's paces.

Some additional information; I think it might be a hardware issue. When I access my iMac using Logmein from my iPad, the computer is still fully functioning, and it displays the screen. I'll wait to see if the problem stops, if not, I'll call Apple and ask about this problem.

Hello levitatingbin. Yes, I believe the problem is an engineering issue. Some owners had the issue start when upgrading to Lion. My issue started after my upgrade to Mt. Lion. It could be an outright engineering weakness (bad trace on a circuit board, sensitive component on a board, weak component on a board, poor electrical design) or it could be a combination of a weak component and new software stressing it even further.

Regardless, a fan does help my situation. I keep a fan blowing across the top of the machine from side to side to help remove heat from the vent slot. Also, I can recover the video (at least temporarily) by invoking the Cmd-Opt-MediaEject keystroke combo... twice. Once to put the machine to sleep... waiting 10 seconds or so.... and then invoking the keystroke again. This wakes the machine and, in my case, the video always comes back. It gives me time to turn screen brightness down even more and if needed, to reboot.

Bottomline, I find that when the issue gets really bad, I have to just let the machine cool down. My issue is also made worse by intensive processor usage (more heat generated). When I use Photoshop or Aperture it seems to happen more frequently.

Thank you for your post and regards,

Mark Byard

Ponca City, OK

<Email Edited By Host>

Hi Mark,

I have had no issues since reinstalling lion 5 times over teh course of the weekend about 1 month ago. Thanks for your post. Ill let you know if I get it again.

David

I bought a 27 inch imac from mid 2011 as well. I am now having this issue of the screen going black whenever it feels like it.

there is no heating issues, as my office is at room temeperature all the time, i am re installing lion as we speak..

should i get mountain lion? will it be any different than a re install of lion?

i dont have warranty anymore obviously, and do not have applecare.. so i dont know what my next steps are..

Hello petardjacic:

Sorry to hear you have become a member of our "club". There is obviously an engineering issue with many of this model of 27" iMac. I'm not sure how to make Apple aware of it other than camping at a Genius bar at the closest Apple Store.

Let me clarify the "heating issue". My problem is exacerbated by heating. I'm not sure it is a "heating issue", i.e., an issue that is CAUSED by heat. I can reduce the frequency of blackouts by using a fan and taking advantage of our winter weather (my office isn't heated directly, so I don't have as much problem when it's cool/cold outside). Having said that, I suspect that YOUR issue is also exacerbated by normal machine heating. I would be willing to bet that if you ran a fan across the top vent and reduced the temperature in your office significantly, and kept careful notes, that you, like me, would notice less "blackouts".

But that aside, I know that my problem did not start until AFTER I installed Mt. Lion. It ran for a year on Snow Leopard and then Lion with no issues. One might wonder then, if video drivers in the new OS might exacerbate the problem? Or, if the engineering weakness just took that long to finally reveal itself in a failure. So, to answer your question I don't know if going back to Lion will help in the long run. Mr. "DavidNY63" has reinstalled Lion and has run for a month with no blackouts. That would tend to say that the issue is exacerbated by Mt. Lion. But that is only one data point.

If anyone having this problem is close enough to an Apple Store to frequently complain, and keep the issue on the front burner, so to speak, it may be the only way to get Apple's attention. I am 100 miles from my nearest Apple store, so I can't spend the time/money/miles to accomplish that.

Any ideas from the affected community?

Best regards,

Mark Byard

Ponca City, OK

mebyard@mac.com

It may be that this issue is made worse with heat, and may not happen as frequnetly with a fan blowing on it, i am not sure. What I do know is that my house is kept at 17 degrees celcius (that is about 64 ferinheit) and the screen was going black almost immediately when I first turn the computer on after a week or more off.

I don't think that this issue is at all related to Lion or Mountain Lion either. It was happening before I upgraded, continued hoappening after the upgrade to Lion, and continues still. It turns out that it is an engineering issue - a problem with the video card or something in the screen. I have a good friend who is amazing with computers and he used to work at a computer store that sells (and fixes) apple products and he told me this is the issue, and it will cost about $800-$900 to fix. When I called in to apple to see what I need to do they said they would charge me $400 to look at the computer to see if that really is the issue, then I would be given a price quote on fixing it. If my friend is right, that means it would cost about $1200-$1300 to get this issue resolved.

I have called into apple SEVERAL times as the nearest apple store to me is over 2.5 hours drive one way, and I did make a special trip twice to try to resolve the issue. Neither attempts were successful. I rekon if enough people bugged apple consistently they would recognize that there is a problem, and might possibly do something about it. I told them that there are heaps of people having the same issue - just look at all of the discussion streams where people are talking about this same issue. Their response was that they don't monitor these sites so they don't know what is happening out there. I suggested that maybe they should. In any case, I still think that if they received enough calls (or visits) about this issue something might get done.??

Hey all, I've just spent the last hour reading all these posts. I've had the 27 inch iMac for about 1 year 6 months. I have not done the software update to Lion, still rocking snow leopard. I remember some friends having issues with Lion so I never went there. My screen has been wonky for a few days now, it's cool as a cucumber in my office. I think I first started thinking something was up a few months ago when I was having time to time flashes on the screen. Now I just get the random blackouts. I'm trying to decide what to do. I do not have AppleCare either. Can u not purchase AppleCare after the first year is up? This is my first apple purchase, and I have yet to be wowed . People always talk about apple being infallible... Obviously not the case. While I love the look of it, sleek as ****, um for 2100 dollars, it should work. I'm a full time photographer, if I can't see, well that's no good. It does seem when I'm running only one program at a time it's much better. When I'm online, in Lightroom , emailing and have my calendar open its happening more. Again trying to make a move, wishing apple would acknowledge this issue .

I think the majority of you posting here are having heat related issues. The 27" iMacs are notorious for "outgassing" which causes a fogginess on the LCD panel but that is also a heat related issue. The dust problem can be mitigated this way:

As old as your iMac is, have you cleaned out the dust? Dust buildup can lead to over heating issues. Remove any and all things plugged into it including the power cord, Remove the RAM access grille. Vacuum all openings starting with the RAM access area (air intake). Vacuum all ports and plugs, DVD slot and the opening across the top of the rear of the body. Blow compressed air through all your openings and vacuum again to remove any dust you loosend. Reinstall the RAM grille. Plug in the keyboard and mouse if not blue tooth. Insert power cord...

You are now in a perfect position to do a

SMC RESET

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

• Shut down the computer.
• Unplug the computer's power cord and ALL peripherals.
• Wait 15 seconds.
• Attach the computers power cable.
• Wait another 5 seconds and press the power button to turn on the computer.

It is the 5 second timing that initiates the reset.

Here is a link to a Widget to monitor your temps and other operations:

http://islayer.com/apps/istatpro/

http://www.intelmactemp.com/list

As far as getting additional cooling into the system try SMC fan control and bump up your fan speeds about 500 RPM from the factory defaults. ie. if at 80˚C your fans show 2500RPM set them to 3000RPM