Multiple iMac display failures

Hi there, my late 2009 27" iMac has had two display failures since I purchased it. The most recent replacement was done by Apple in Nov 2012 while still under Apple Care. It is currently in need of a third display (the replacement one has failed after 23 months), is this normal for this product that will be five years old next month? Or do I have something else that is the issue or perhaps a lemon product?

That a UPS unit would have prevented your logic board failures. Properly designed power supplies do not need a UPS unit in this country. In some third world countries where the power is unreliable on a daily basis with large power swings, they are a must have.
In my opinion, the G5 iMac's were a poor design with inadequate heat dissipation, weak power supplies and logic boards. Most of them ran for years, but an inordinate number of them had multiple failures. The new aluminum models are a much better design with most of the high heat components located at the top of the machine.
I had no hardware problems with my eight year old Dell...but I'm still sticking with Apple because of their superior software performance.
Good luck with what ever you decide...virg

Similar Messages

Multiple iMac LogicBoard failures

So 3 years ago I took the plunged and converted the house to Macs. Nice experience generally. Yet in the last 2 months I have had two logicboard failures on two iMacs. The cost to fix these was quoted at over $1,000 each computer. Obviously given the age of the machines, this is not a viable fix.
I am now considering moving back to PC's (my 3 year old Mac laptop is also playing up).
After logicboard failure #1, I reluctantly forked out $2K for a new machine. I racked this up as a "bad" and unusual unit. #2 comes along and fails and it makes me mad. Worse, no sympathy from the guys in the Apple Store. I ask "Surely for a machine of this age, noone would possibly pay for a $1K logicboard? Isn't this priced to basically make you buy a new machine?" All I got back was smiles (they really didn't care it seems).
Question:
- Are Mac's prone to hardware failures?
- If they do get hardware failures are you basically just in trouble given the absurd component prices to fix ($700 for the logicboard part alone)? How can Apple justify $700 for a logicboard part?
- Does Apple offer any discounts to people who have had these multiple bad experiences? (I'm partly kidding here, but also hoping)
My Mac laptop is playing up so I may be two Mac's down. I am considering going back to the darkside now and buying PC's again.
Anyone got any comments?
Thanks

That a UPS unit would have prevented your logic board failures. Properly designed power supplies do not need a UPS unit in this country. In some third world countries where the power is unreliable on a daily basis with large power swings, they are a must have.
In my opinion, the G5 iMac's were a poor design with inadequate heat dissipation, weak power supplies and logic boards. Most of them ran for years, but an inordinate number of them had multiple failures. The new aluminum models are a much better design with most of the high heat components located at the top of the machine.
I had no hardware problems with my eight year old Dell...but I'm still sticking with Apple because of their superior software performance.
Good luck with what ever you decide...virg

2008 iMac display failure, dvi out to another display?

Computer seems to be running fine, but display was intermittent and now blank. Can I bypass
Imac screen by using dvi out to another display device?
thx

Dave,
    Thanks, too late now but I wonder why the Apple Genius didn't mention TDM when I asked about backing up my data? He said data would be safe unless Apple Store roof caved in.
    All indications are that the video card is bad and Apple Care expired 9 mos. ago.
Good news is that replacement card w/labor is only $170.
     Just hope that is the only work needed.
   Genius thought my son's constantly playing Minecraft may have stressed the video card's limits .
Thanks again.

Multiple PC's to iMac Display

I have 2 PC's connected to one display using a KVM switch. I would like to get a iMac and still be able to switch between 2 inputs (the iMac and 1 PC) utilizing the iMac display. Is this possible somehow with the new Thunderbolt port or some other way? I would love to get rid of one of the PC's and start using a iMac.

Razzy,
Yes, you can do that. In fact the "Consolidate" step is not necessary.
Rip the CD on any available computer. When the rip is complete, locate the files and copy them to a USB flash drive. Insert the USB flash drive into your main computer, and drag the song files to the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder, which is found in the iTunes Media folder.
That will add them to your main iTunes library.

User Contributed Tips in Intel-based iMac Your Intel-based iMac Display

*The following User Contributed Tips are located in the Intel-based iMac > Your Intel-based iMac Display forum:*
a brody - Using a second Mac as a display for a first
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1587927
Publish date: July 7, 2008
*The following related tips are located in other areas of Apple Discussions:*
See also User Tips Library

My 20" 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo had become almost useless due to freezes and crashes- with NO crash reports in the logs.
They were often preceeded by video glitches, so I assumed it was a bad video card- unfortunately soldered to mother board.
Apparently, from forum postings, this is not an uncommon problem. The computer would run longer if the day was cooler, but rarely more than 10 minutes, so I suspected it was aggravated by heat.
Then I found this post from Bodomann on an Apple Support forum:
"Following up on my previous posting regarding my son's late model 2006 iMac that required a $900 logic board replacement:
Turns out the problem is apparently related to a bad CPU temp sensor. I installed 'iMac Fan Control' (Google it) which reported the CPU temp always at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (obviously incorrect). The same software allowed me to adjust the CPU fan manually. After multiple trials I set the CPU speed to 2800RPM after which the system would run forever - never freezing with the dreaded grey box 'reboot me' screen. I tried several times reverting the software to default speeds and the system would always crash within 10 minutes. "
I downloaded free Fan Control 1.2 for Imac from Derman Enterprises (they have an Intel iMac and a Mac Book/Pro version). It installs as a system preferences control panel. I cranked up all three fan speeds. The fans sped up noticeably. Horizontal lines have gone from screen (so far), no color artifacts and no crashes yet. I may have a real computer back! Hope Apple checks this out-
The control panel also gives the temps sensors are reporting at the CPU, hard drive and DVD drive. The CPU sensor reports the CPU temp as 32 degrees F- which is clearly wrong, unless Apple has been installing little refrigerators inside.
So thanks to Bodomann for posting- Hats off and three cheers to Derman and Cristoph for source code.
http://www.derman.com/iMac-Fan-Control
http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/index.html

IMac Screen Failure

Hey,
I was just wondering if any of you are experiencing screen failures as noted in the link below? If so, is it the aluminum iMacs, or is it the white ones?
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/11/30/imac.screen.failure/
Thanks!!

Hi autiger
Which iMac do you have and are you having any display issues?
I don't believe it can be jinxed, so I'll do a little bragging here. My 17" Early Core Duo w/Apple Care purchased Jan. 21 2006 is great and has no gradient light/dark, no dead pixels and only a very very small backlight bleed. The sRGB and Adobe RGB (1998) profiles were OK, but the display seamed a little washed out. After more than a few tries, and some good advice from Barbara B and others here I was able to set a new profile that is much richer than any of the factory supplied profiles.
All display manufactures and computer system will have there share of issues, some more that others. I have had more than a few Apple's over the last 20+ years without a single hardware problem. I do have to admit though, that with the all-in-one Intel I bought Apple Care for the first time ever???
Dennis

2010 27in imac screen failure

my 2010 27 in imac screen has failed, right half of screen grey shadow, dark, i note that this has been a problem in the past, seems that apple ireland are not concerned? any opinions or suggestions? seems that there are major reliability issues with imac
extremely disappointed with product and apple support.

Your are missing the point. Yes, there will be the occasional Mac that has a display failure.. Yes, there will be a number of LCD displays that fail out of the millions of Macs that are assembled with LCD displays. And yes, techs will be seeing those occasional display failures over the wide array of Mac models upon which they work. But there are a number of companies that make LCD displays for Apple with the various Mac models that exist. And sometimes there are different companies making the displays for the same Mac model. These are the random, occasional display failures that can be expected with every computer manufacturer who assembles massive numbers of computers; Apple, Toshiba, Dell, Sony and on and on.
But the point is that the link that I gave you points to a consistent mass failure of displays on the same iMac model, assembled in the same factory, over the same time period with displays from the same manufacturer. That doesn't exist for your iMac. If it did we would see folks posting about it here in large numbers, just as we did back in 2006 and 2007, which we are not.

RECALL on 27" iMac Display due to Dimming?

Following is a copy of a message I sent to Apple about my iMac. I am very frustrated about this issue and I seriously think it warrants investigation, I have found many cases of this online, anyone else have this problem here?
I have had an issue with my 27" iMac display for quite some time, because I thought it was a software issue with the "auto dim" I did not notify anyone about it. however, I brought it into the Apple Store in the Domain in Austin Texas at the end of January to have the hard drive replaced under the recall. While there I mentioned to the young lady at the Genius Bar that my display would dim just slightly, and I thought it was a setting issue, she said they would look at it, but most likely it would be resolved with the replacement of the Hard drive. Ok, new hard drive, new OS, makes sense. When I returned to pick up my computer, the rep said they ran diagnostics on it and could find no problems, however when I got home, it was still happening, I took it back to the Apple store on Feb 16 and was told there was a problem with the displays and it needed to be replaced for approximately $520.00, because it was out of warranty by 134 days. Upon further research I have found that this is not a random occurrence, and there are MANY MANY cases of this exact problem scattered throughout the forums, and Ironically they all seem to be on the left side of the screen. I find it hard to believe that a computer that costs almost $2000.00 can have a display go out in a little more than a year. I think that you should look seriously at the issues these displays are having, this should be a recall, at the very least voluntary. There is no reason that a display should fail in this amount of time. I want you to understand, I am an Apple guy, I was born and raised on windows, but became a die hard Apple guy after I received my first MBP as a hand me down from a friend. I have owned every single iPhone there is, Have two Mac Book Pros, iPad, six iPhones, and this 27"iMac. I am a pro photographer and this is seriously a problem. PLEASE look at this issue, I will not buy another Apple product until this is resolved. There are way too many failures out there for this to not be a defect.

I understand your frustration; however, these forums are user to user only - no Apple employees here. If you wish to contact Apple, either use any of the contacts on this page:
http://www.apple.com/contact/
or use the feedback method:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Multiple virtual displays like linux - possible?

Hi, I'm a Linux user and I use/rely on multiple virtual displays to do my work; can't imagine living without this capabiltiy. Just curious if OSX's window manager allows this or not? I've looked around on the imac my daughter uses and in the Mountain Lion manual but can't find any info on it.
Thanks!

Gottcha! I finally found it in the book. That's what I'm talkin' 'bout. Thanks a bunch...I figured since OSX is Unix it should have it somewheres...LOL.
Kim
PS: Just clicked up 3 or 4 in Mission Control. That should do it. (I can't get used to the Apple Lingo and frankly silly names. Just say virtual display (what "spaces" really is) and i'm good with that. Sigh...)
If anyone in development cares, frankly this is a bit clutsy. You have to go to "mission control" to get to your other displays?

Imac display input suggestion

It would be nice to see some input's on the imac display.
I would like to hook my game consoles into the display and play them if I wanted. Even if it was an option at purchase time I think it would be great.
Right now I have to decide ..new tv? or new imac.... Yes it would be splendid if I was able to afford both but the reality is that I can't afford both.
How many other people would find this a useful option?

Yes, I'd like such an option. In particular, I'd like a DVI input so that I could use the iMac display as a monitor for another computer.
I used to have my iMac at the office, and my G5 with a Dell 2405 at home, but I decided I'd rather have the bigger screen at work, so swapped the two systems. That worked great--until the first time I remembered that I have a Windows PC under my desk for gaming at home. The Dell has multiple inputs, so it was no problem, but with the iMac at home, if I want to game on the Windows box, I've got to go borrow the monitor from my server in the other room. Ugh!
PowerMac G5 1.8 GHz single CPU, iMac 20" Intel, PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz 17" Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Putting iMac display to sleep, when using TV as a screen.

I have just connected my iMac to my 42" Panasonic 1080p TV, the connection was easy and is working fine. My questions relates to putting the iMac display to sleep when using the TV as a monitor, if I am watching You Tube, Sky Player or a DVD, I intend to use my TV as the monitor. Is it possible for the iMac to puts its display to sleep, whilst leaving the TV on. I played around with this today, however was unable to manage this.
Regards Craig

Hi Craig
There is no way to independently sleep either the iMac's Display or an attached Display/TV. However if in the Display Arrangement Preferences you set the attached Display or TV to be the Main Display and turn Mirroring Off, then FrontRow and the Full Screen Mode app's like, DVD player, QuickTimePlayer, etc. will black out the unused iMac display.
Dennis

Intel imac display glitch and involuntary restart

Just want to know if anyone else has experienced this specific problem, there are plenty of complaints about intel imac displays but I can't be bothered to sift through them all trying to find a match for my problem.
A couple of months ago I was watching a video in quicktime and noticed that my screen was glitching and flashing fragmented diagonal lines - like a commodore 64 loading type thing. Then the spinning-ball came up and a force quit didn't do anything so I had to force shut down. I started up and it occured again. Then the screen went blank/black, but still lit up, and restarted without me doing anything. It also got stuck during start up the second time this occured. I panicked and ran out to buy a 500GB external drive, backed up all of my work and then re-installed mac osx from disk, archive and install job. This seemed to sort it and for the following two months it seemed OK. No sign of any problems.
Since then I have updated from 10.4.7 to 10.4.10 (which I have suspicion that it screwed the firmware in my motu 828 firewire audio interface, costing me a £130 repair - but that's another painful story).
It happened again tonight (the screen thing, not the motu). And the ball came up and I couldn't do anything. Force shut down, restart - screen glitching again. Then I had 2 unexpected restarts, one getting stuck in startup. Then a successful startup but accompanied by the glitchy graphics, mainly red/pink pixellated diagonal lines flickering in and out. I ran a disk first aid - no problems. Did a disk permission repair. Shut down and ran a hardware test, the first few minutes of the test the screen was still at it but then stopped glitching, hardware test found no errors (it was an extended test too). Now I'm back on it and it's all OK.
Any suggestions/similar stories?
When it occured 2 months ago I had the original ram that came with the imac. Now I have 2x1GB sticks of crucial ram.

That's it! Well, that's what I have. Unfortunately, I don't know about the cause, but I don't ever recall having it prior to an update going back about a year ago. I recall an update, and that update being immediately followed by some sort of Apple Graphics something-or-other. I feel pretty certain that's when I first noticed this. I just had my LCD replaced for another reason, but I think you'll agree, it's not an LCD issue. In my case, browser activity, scrolling up or down in a page, seems to be the most common trigger. I've also seen "pieces" of the torn page, on the screen when minimizing the browser to the dock (usually Firefox, but I think I've seen it with Opera and Safari too). Is there a way to find update packages installed somewhere? I'd know it if I saw it, and I'd definitely try removing that suspect package/update.
Message was edited by: geekboy2000 - corrected OS

Can you use the same Apple ID with multiple iMac's?

I am a teacher and I have multiple iMac's in my room and I need to be able to purchase apps one time and have them on all my computers. Is this possible? I know that I can do it with multiple iPad's but can I do with iMac's?

Yes logon to each computers itunes and away you go.
To redownload on each itunes got to the itunes store, select Purhased from the quick links section and navigate to what you want to redownload.
If you want to do it for apps that run on the Macs not on the iPad you need to login to the Mac AppStore and login with the same apple id and download apps that work on macs

When streaming a movie from an imac to apple tv, is there a way of putting the imac display off? I find it a waste having the screen on in another room. Any advice?

When streaming a movie from an imac to apple tv, is there a way of putting the imac display off? I find it a waste having the screen on in another room. Any advice?

No problem.
This is a user forum so you are not addressing Apple. There's nothing to fix, that's how home-sharing works. There would be no way for the ATV to recognize your library and display content if the computer is in sleep mode.
You can always airplay from an IOS device or use icloud if you don't wish to keep the computer on.

IMac - Display doesn´t work after restart

My iMac 21 Display doesn´t work after restart. If I turn it off and 1 hour later I want use it again the iMac shows the white screen with the mac logo and then the display goes off. I connected an external display to check if the iMac was ON and with the external display I can login and do everything but the iMac Display doesn´t work .
If I turn it off and wait 3 or 4 hours and then turn it back on the display works OK.
This is very strange behavior I have spent hours and hours trying to fine the solution or a similar issue but nothing so I am looking help here at apple.com
BTW When I bougth the iMac 21 there were some spots over the display so the display was replaced by the provider. The warranty has expired by now.

To tell you the truth, I don't know if they have to repalce the LCD panel or what they do for a bad backlight. In this reality of block or assembly replacement it probably involves repalcing the panel and not the backlight component. Don't know what it would cost. You'd have to ask that of a service center.

Multiple iMac display failures

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