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Dead 2019 iMac i9

topgunn

topgunn

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 5, 2004
1,569
2,090
Houston
I have a 1 day old iMac with the i9 processor that refuses to boot; no display, does not appear on the network, does not phone home to the MDM, cannot remote into it. The fans come on and warm air is blown out. That is the only sign of life.

I unboxed my new i9 iMac yesterday and proceeded to get everything set up. I spent 3 hours setting up my email accounts, getting Parallels running, installing Office and Creative Cloud, downloading iCloud photos, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc. It's a lot of data and it typically takes hours to get everything on to the machine. So I left it running at about 3pm and it last reported in to the MDM at 5:15pm.

When I came in this morning, it was on but it was non-responsive. Tried to remote in but got no response. Held down the power button until the fans stopped and tried to boot up. Nothing. Tried resetting SMC and PRAM. Nothing. Tried safe boot and recovery mode. Nothing.

One time, I was able to get the Apple logo to appear but no loading bar ever came up. It stayed like that for 15 minutes before I tried to reboot it again. It's very odd. I called Apple Support and they had me do most of the things I had already done. Nothing. They suggested I take it to the Apple Store but I let the agent know I would rather just return it and reorder.

I am sending the machine back since it is well within the 14 day return period and I will order the same configuration as a replacement (i9, 8GB, 1TB, Vega). I just wanted to document my experience here in case any others see something similar.
 
topgunn said:
I have a 1 day old iMac with the i9 processor that refuses to boot; no display, does not appear on the network, does not phone home to the MDM, cannot remote into it. The fans come on and warm air is blown out. That is the only sign of life.

I unboxed my new i9 iMac yesterday and proceeded to get everything set up. I spent 3 hours setting up my email accounts, getting Parallels running, installing Office and Creative Cloud, downloading iCloud photos, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc. It's a lot of data and it typically takes hours to get everything on to the machine. So I left it running at about 3pm and it last reported in to the MDM at 5:15pm.

When I came in this morning, it was on but it was non-responsive. Tried to remote in but got no response. Held down the power button until the fans stopped and tried to boot up. Nothing. Tried resetting SMC and PRAM. Nothing. Tried safe boot and recovery mode. Nothing.

One time, I was able to get the Apple logo to appear but no loading bar ever came up. It stayed like that for 15 minutes before I tried to reboot it again. It's very odd. I called Apple Support and they had me do most of the things I had already done. Nothing. They suggested I take it to the Apple Store but I let the agent know I would rather just return it and reorder.

I am sending the machine back since it is well within the 14 day return period and I will order the same configuration as a replacement (i9, 8GB, 1TB, Vega). I just wanted to document my experience here in case any others see something similar.
Click to expand...

What were the sleep settings of the IMac? Did you have the prevent sleep when display is off enabled?
 
Benz63amg said:
What were the sleep settings of the IMac? Did you have the prevent sleep when display is off enabled?
Click to expand...
I set the display to go off after 30 minutes and I checked the box to prevent the computer from sleeping while the display was off.
 
topgunn said:
I set the display to go off after 30 minutes and I checked the box to prevent the computer from sleeping while the display was off.
Click to expand...
And were these your intended sleep settings or did you only switch to that 30 minute setting with the prevent sleep when display is off for the purpose of migrating all your data? Did you have the put hard disks to sleep when possible setting enabled?
 
I prefer my primary machine to not sleep so these settings were intended for long term use. Yes, I also unchecked allow hard disks to sleep when possible.

I've never had any trouble with these settings in the past and the machine was only on for 2 hours before it stopped phoning home every 15 minutes. Have you found these sleep settings to be a source of trouble?
 
topgunn said:
I prefer my primary machine to not sleep so these settings were intended for long term use. Yes, I also unchecked allow hard disks to sleep when possible.

I've never had any trouble with these settings in the past and the machine was only on for 2 hours before it stopped phoning home every 15 minutes. Have you found these sleep settings to be a source of trouble?
Click to expand...

I wanted to make sure you had the allow hard disk to sleep unchecked as I experienced several crashes due to that setting on my previous iMac. It’s unfortunate your new machine is experiencing issues. By the way, did you upgrade the ram by yourself? Perhaps incompatible or failed ram could be the cause as well.

Are you able to boot into recovery to reinstall mojave?
 
Benz63amg said:
I wanted to make sure you had the allow hard disk to sleep unchecked as I experienced several crashes due to that setting on my previous iMac. It’s unfortunate your new machine is experiencing the problem. Are you able to boot into recovery to reinstall
Mojave?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, no. I have tried booting off of an external cloned drive, recovery mode, target disk mode, safe mode. All the modes.
 
adamk77 said:
Sounds like you got a dud. If it was going to happen, I'm glad it happened in the 14 day return period.

I don't normally buy extended warranty, including AppleCare. So I'm curious -- did you have AppleCare? And if you return it, what happens to AppleCare that was tied to this machine? Does it get transferred to the new machine and the date is reset?
Click to expand...
We buy enough machines that I don't buy AppleCare. For AppleCare to pay for itself, you need to have a failure in more than 1 in 6 devices. We see a failure rate of less than 1 in 20 during the 3 year period that AppleCare covers.

In this case, if I return a machine I bought AppleCare on, Apple would refund the price of the computer and the AppleCare which means I would just buy new AppleCare on the newly ordered iMac thus giving me the full three years.

It has been a while, but the last time I used AppleCare to get a repair on a two year old iMac, I got a new model iMac with 3 more years of AppleCare. I can't say if that is typical or not, however.
 
adamk77 said:
Sounds like you got a dud. If it was going to happen, I'm glad it happened in the 14 days return period.

I don't normally buy extended warranty, including AppleCare. So I'm curious -- did you have AppleCare? And if you return it, what happens to AppleCare that was tied to this machine? Does it get transferred to the new machine and the date is reset?
Click to expand...
adamk77 said:
Thanks for that information. I don't buy AppleCare, but I'm wondering if the $99 would be worth it for the Mac Mini I just purchased if I sell it in the future for whatever reason.

Yes, I agree that it's not worth it. I think you pay a premium on AppleCare just like on a lot of Apple products. I recall reading something from an actuary who said that for the cost Apple charges for AppleCare on the MBP, it would be enough coverage for accidental damage for all the electronics you have in your house and whoever sold you the warranty would still be giddy about how much money he/she made off of you.
Click to expand...

Either way every Mac is covered by at least a one year Apple Care warranty (sometimes more in other countries like the EU). It doesn't cover accidental damage (like if you broke your display from knocking your iMac to your floor) but if you have a hardware failure in the first year it's always covered. Sometimes they'll even cover it if you're a little past your coverage date. Apple is pretty chill about that, mostly because they make so much freaking money off people buying three year Apple Care plans. From my experience if something doesn't have a hardware failure in the first year then it probably won't in the next two as long as you continue to not abuse it. Especially a desktop that will probably sit in the same spot for many years.
 
My new 2019 iMac i9 vega 48 has also died today (after 14 days). It started to do strange things like random rebooting and finally died. I have 2 years of warranty in my country. So I contacted the authorised reseller and Apple to find a solution for this problem. I will send the computer for repair or replacement depending on the problem. The reseller does not accept returns of BTO Apple products.
 
topgunn said:
In this case, if I return a machine I bought AppleCare on, Apple would refund the price of the computer andIt has been a while, but the last time I used AppleCare to get a repair on a two year old iMac, I got a new model iMac with 3 more years of AppleCare. I can't say if that is typical or not, however.
Click to expand...

Yes you are correct when they replaced my 2 and half year old iMac they gave me a new machine but I had to buy the 3 years of apple care for it separately.
 
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