Week 50 or later Imacs

[ABG]

It's a shame that you have let your enjoyment of the delivery of your new iMac be ruined by a forum.

A strangely pejorative way of phrasing it. Actually, I lay the blame with Apple for shipping a proportion of their products with ongoing faults. And having bought a MBP which came pre-dented I have first-hand knowledge of disappointing Apple deliveries.

Remember, user forums are a great resource but do not necessarily reflect a true representative proportion of customer experience. Believe it or not there is probably a vast majority of happy customers whose iMacs are not inflicted with "real, well documented" problems (some would actually refer to it as anecdotal evidence). I also don't think they are so ignorant that they wouldn't spot real issues.

Yes the real and well documented issues are from largely anecdotal sources - the two terms are not mutually exclusive.

Obviously there are always going to be some issues but us forum members tend to be far more vocal on the negative and relatively silent on the positive. We often repeatedly post "updates" in the "relevant" threads and jump on anything as gospel if it supports our claims - an issue can soon appear more prevalent than perhaps it really is. Combine this with Apples very effective marketing which sets unrealistic expectations and mix that with Apple aficionados slightly anal tendencies then it's quite a firestorm that gets created. I know these things as I can be as guilty as the next person.

One final point, I love Apple products but I'm a realist - in the immortal words of Public Enemy "Don't Believe The Hype" - it is all about the bottom line. You're not paying a premium price for some amazingly super high specced components system, far from it (just look at the GPU) - you're paying for marketing, lifestyle, image and aesthetic design. The actual components Apple use are not any better than many mid range PC manufacturers which you would be charged far less for.

I know. I'm not a Apple fundamentalist (hence my ability to criticise Apple) - I like the stuff Apple makes and I also think Microsoft do an impressive job having an operating system that works (mostly) with billions of components. I have plenty of quad core PC's around the house - I want the iMac for its honking big hi-res screen, which IFAIK is a USP.

Not sure what your point was at the end there? I'd have thought you'd want to address the guys on the forum wearing foil on their heads, talking about all the people spreading lies about perfectly made iMacs.

 

[Sir Cecil]

I'm dreading my impending i7 delivery because of real well documented reasons. Will it be DOA, is it worth spending hours setting it up just to have to return it? I hope I'll be lucky as I REALLY don't want the hassle of a substandard computer.

Someone posted recently that they had the 16,000th+ iMac built in week number 48.
There's a website that tracks such info via a machine's serial number.
Anyway, TENS OF THOUSANDS are being built and sold every single week. Not one thousand, or five thousand, but TENS of thousands. One can only guess at the vast number – tens and tens of thousands – of the latest iMacs that have already been sold and distributed in recent weeks.
Contrast that with the number of people you've seen reporting problems and that might alleviate your concerns slightly.

 

[spcdust]

A strangely pejorative way of phrasing it.

I was light heartedly pulling your chain when you used the words "dreading" and "Impending" - thought it was a tad melodramatic.

 

[TennisandMusic]

Someone posted recently that they had the 16,000th+ iMac built in week number 48.
There's a website that tracks such info via a machine's serial number.
Anyway, TENS OF THOUSANDS are being built and sold every single week. Not one thousand, or five thousand, but TENS of thousands. One can only guess at the vast number – tens and tens of thousands – of the latest iMacs that have already been sold and distributed in recent weeks.
Contrast that with the number of people you've seen reporting problems and that might alleviate your concerns slightly.

I'd take the opposite view. They have only sold 16,000 to the general public, and there are hundreds of complaints on sites that are certainly not visited by the general public at large? That is a ridiculous stat, one that points to the majority of the machines having a problem.

 

[Kronie]

Also I'm sure there are a vast number of users that are just living with the "loud hard drive", Yellow Tinge", and "screen flicker". And probably just deal with it or think apple will fix it in an update or the future.

 

[Sir Cecil]

I'd take the opposite view. They have only sold 16,000 to the general public, and there are hundreds of complaints on sites that are certainly not visited by the general public at large? That is a ridiculous stat, one that points to the majority of the machines having a problem.

Number 16,000+ for THAT week!
And that was a figure in progress for THAT WEEK ALONE, not the total for that week.

 

[TennisandMusic]

Number 16,000+ for THAT week!
And that was a figure in progress for THAT WEEK ALONE, not the total for that week.

Gotcha, my mistake. I would still stand by the idea that most of these machines are faulty in some way, as based on simple statistics, most of our "samples" point to that outcome.

 

[Sir Cecil]

Gotcha, my mistake. I would still stand by the idea that most of these machines are faulty in some way, as based on simple statistics, most of our "samples" point to that outcome.

I suggest folks drop this for a few days – hundreds of people will be opening their iMac Christmas presents very soon, and it must be disheartening for them to read people saying over and over and over again they have no chance of finding a perfect iMac under their wrapping paper.

I'm disappearing from this debate as I have nothing to add. I hope something as simple as a software update fixes the problems some are having.
Merry Christmas.

 

[iDocism]

I suggest folks drop this for a few days – hundreds of people will be opening their iMac Christmas presents very soon, and it must be disheartening for them to read people saying over and over and over again they have no chance of finding a perfect iMac under their wrapping paper.

I'm disappearing from this debate as I have nothing to add. I hope something as simple as a software update fixes the problems some are having.
Merry Christmas.

Wouldn't that would be awesome, happy holidays Cecil.

 

[09iMac=Fail]

I suggest folks drop this for a few days – hundreds of people will be opening their iMac Christmas presents very soon, and it must be disheartening for them to read people saying over and over and over again they have no chance of finding a perfect iMac under their wrapping paper

Maybe it will only take them 3 tries like you. Sounds about average.

Does anybody know what dates week 50 correlates to? Is it simply based on the calendar year? (week 50 = Dec. 13th - 19th?)

 

[iDocism]

Maybe it will only take them 3 tries like you. Sounds about average.

Does anybody know what dates week 50 correlates to? Is it simply based on the calendar year? (week 50 = Dec. 13th - 19th?)

Check it here - LINK and here LINK.

 

[JayQC]

I am getting an iMac 21.5" very soon and I've been doing some thinking about the yellow tinge issue according to what I read on the forums. While I do not imply that the new iMacs are free of problems, I am starting to wonder about some people's concerns (some others' obviously have defective screens).

I tend to think that it's the usability that is the most important thing here and that if the yellow tinge is never noticeable unless testing for it and if it doesn't worsen over time, that maybe it is not such a concern after all.

I noticed when moving a dark blue title bar from the top of my 22" Samsung SyncMaster 2232GW (glossy TN panel) to the bottom of it, the color shifts to a lighter hue, even if I am sitting approximately one meter from the screen. However, the color shifts back to it's darker hue if I crouch so my eyes are leveled with the title bar. Apart from backlight bleed, the monitor looks great and I never noticed the shift in color before testing for it.

Also, let's assume hypothetically 16 000 iMacs are sold per week, from week 39 to week 51, = 12 weeks = 192 000 iMacs. At the time of writing, the website imac.squeaked.com reports 1197 of which 885 are defective. Of course it isn't the total number of defective units, but it represents only 0,005% of all units. Not to mention that the people who reported having problems on this website are probably the same people as those who posts on Internet forums. Now there's the pessimistic and the optimistic way to see it, people who did not report any problem have indeed the problem but live with it, or people who did not report any problem have indeed perfect machines.

While the problem exists, let's remember that the internet is prone to influences, especially in a small community like these forums, one person may well say she sees the yellow tinge just because someone else did. I'm (sort of) dramatizing here, but there's no denying the issues appear more widespread than they really are, if only due to mutual influence, people reinforcing each other's opinions into one big consensus. Ok sorry that's my degree speaking

Factor in all the unknown variables for people who say they have the yellow tinge, like the lighting conditions in the room, the angle of the picture taken, how they looked at the screen to determine if they had the issue, etc, etc. and I'm pretty sure there's a bit of social paranoia going on (still dramatizing).

Although, I must admit there remains one curious fact, that is that some people here changed their iMacs a few times, which seems to be mostly true for the 27", so maybe the 21.5" has a much higher percentage of perfect machines. Either way, part of my post remains plausible.

My 2 cents, don't take it too personal

 

[YuriVoorhak]

I tend to think that it's the usability that is the most important thing here and that if the yellow tinge is never noticeable unless testing for it and if it doesn't worsen over time, that maybe it is not such a concern after all.

I have to agree. I'm getting a new iMac in January, and have been scanning these threads for useful information (which gets more difficult by the day). After hearing people go on and on about Yellow Tinge, I decided to run the test today on my late 08 MBP. Sure enough, the bottom rectangle looked slightly warmer.

Have these threads brainwashed me? Is the test accurate? Has this yellow screen conspiracy gone down the rabbit hole?

Frankly, I don't care. I didn't use the MBP for "real work" often, but have done maybe 40 commercial illustrations on this thing, and it wasn't bad enough to throw my work off (or even notice until today). I somehow suspect my next iMac won't ruin my career or cause the world to end.

 

[JayQC]

Have these threads brainwashed me? Is the test accurate? Has this yellow screen conspiracy gone down the rabbit hole?

I think there is a much smaller sample of new iMacs owners here, than there is out there and the people who receive perfect units tend not to come on forums and say "Hey, I just bought a new iMac, I'm so happy. Well I'll just go back to enjoying it. Farewell"

Problems will always be more prevalent on forums than happy stories.

I think psychological experiments about the yellow tinge issue would yield interesting results in terms of social influence and brainwashing Again, not saying that the issue doesn't exist though.

Besides, this thread over at Apple forums is a lot more positive than the threads here and a quick look at the forums in general don't show many threads related to iMacs problems. Here's the encouraging thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2248689&start=0&tstart=60

 

[gospel9]

Those of you arguing about statistics, please explain why all 16 of the iMacs me and an Apple genius confirmed that they had the yellowing problem.

Also explain why the week 41 models do not exhibit this issue (apparently, there's a lot of them) and why a lot of Apple stores use week 40 and week 41 on display.

Finally, someone please explain why the previous gen iMacs, Cinema displays, macbooks all are free of this issue in the same store?


I knew something was wrong the moment I turned my i5 on at home. My dock icons look really ugly in a way I couldn't explain. I don't do photography but I could see the problem on the first day.

Yeah maybe the store had a bad batch sure. Except I am not the only person who's reported the same thing.

I got a week 47 21.5" iMac through MacMall and returned it due to the yellow tinge. Then I got a week 49 replacement and returned it for the same problem. Then I got a week 50 one from the Apple store and ... you guessed it! When I'd gone back to the Apple store, they saw the yellow tinge (there was also dead pixels and the brightness-noise problem with this week 50 model), and replaced the computer with a week 47 model. I tested the iMac -- my fourth iMac in this saga now -- in the store and it also showed the yellow tinge. However, I noticed the display models in the store, all from about weeks 40 and 41, had perfect displays. In fact, we put my computer next to one of the store iMacs and the difference was obvious and striking. Given that the store had no other iMacs left from those early weeks and no options manufactured outside of W8 (Shanghai), I simply got my money back.

However, I was told that Apple is DEFINITELY aware of the yellow tinge problem, as it is fairly widespread. They will not acknowledge it officially (can you imagine all the returned computers!?), but they are working to fix it. So I hope it will be resolved, as I really love this computer in all other aspects. I'll go back in about two months to try and again, and, of course, I will test the iMac there. If no good, I'll wait longer. This is too much money to pay for a computer that looks like it was peed on. Good luck everyone and hold out hope -- because Apple is aware!

Quote from the yellow tinge thread. The fact that the same person can get 4 defective iMacs in a row ... explain what the probability of that is.

Go the Apple Discussions and go to the iMac Display section. Flickering and Yellow threads are screaming with evidence that there's a widespread problem.

I can understand why nobody wants to be feared... And that's a mistake. I should have read these forums before I made my purchase. I'll make sure I do that next time.

 

[Sir Cecil]

this thread over at Apple forums is a lot more positive than the threads here and a quick look at the forums in general don't show many threads related to iMacs problems. Here's the encouraging thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2248689&start=0&tstart=60

EXCELLENT post. This should lift the spirits of people who have ordered iMacs for Christmas and have been sitting in fear of their computer' arrival due to the fear-mongering going on here. It's nice to see dozens of happy iMac buyers praising their machines glowingly and confirming what some of us have been saying here – that there are PLENTY of non-faulty iMacs out there.
Merry Christmas to all once again, and good luck to those who have unfortunately experienced lesser fortune in finding a problem-free unit. Don't give up!

 

[avihappy]

Week 50, for me personally, when I change the desktop background to a solid color, especially either of the grays, I can see the yellow at the bottom of the screen much more apparently than using "the test".

EDIT: Lots of dead pixels.
EDIT: Screen flickering apparent.

Obviously this is a bad news for consumers but what a nightmare this is going to be for Apple. I would still like to see just 1 new iMac that doesn't have this problem.

OK, that's it Apple. I was hoping that the latest batches were usable, but I thought wrong:

Maybe you can scam someone else out of $2500. I don't want to play Russian Roulette. Even if most machines won't have this issue, the fact that there is a thousands of posts on this without ANY official response (beyond deleting posts) on your own forums is unacceptable. As is the fact that some have gotten 2-3 machines all with problems points to a major issue.

 

[SilenceBe]

Very well. As can be seen from my equipment details, I do a fair amount of audio recording and editing. A drive that bumps and grumbles loudly to an extent that it can be heard on a microphone recording or through headphones when working is not acceptable. Your turn.

That the same argument somebody can use that uses his iMac for graphical work. The yellow has also an impact on that kind of work, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know this.

You think is fine to use a screen where an illustrative object at the top is red and the bottom is brownish all of sudden. It's more then a simple annoyance.

And don't start that this is only possible with > 2000 euro costing EIZO screens. The funny thing is that I have a previous iMac with the uneven screen ( seems to be a trend) and that I use a cheap (from a local discounter) TFT screen to check my projects. That screen doesn't have any problems with uneven colors, red is red where on the screen I choose to display it. And it isn't even a "superior" LED screen with a S-IPS panel that is marketed as the "ultimate display" ("with perfect color consistency from every angle...") .

Adobe RGB support, a perfect gammut,... are pro features. Color consistency is not... .

 

[archipellago]

Number 16,000+ for THAT week!
And that was a figure in progress for THAT WEEK ALONE, not the total for that week.

hmmm....

you really need to work out how many computers Apple sell per year and then work out

US vs Worldwide
Notebook vs Desktop

etc...

they don't actually make or sell that many iMacs...and certainly not i7's

 

[Sir Cecil]

You think is fine to use a screen where an illustrative object at the top is red and the bottom is brownish all of sudden. It's more then a simple annoyance.

Another one who apparently can't read. That part of the discussion was related to people who could see NO YELLOWING on their screen, except when doing the test at the start of this thread. Therefore, the case you mention of someone seeing reds turn to browns while working has nothing to do with what we were talking about.

 

[mistraldk]

another return for me..

1) Screen Flickering and blackouts - Yes
2) Yellowing - Yes

All is not well with my week 50 replacement...
It's bugging me a lot, I don't really know what to do. accept another return? Or do a refund?
I find it hard to believe that my third replacement will be a good one, also it's hugely annoying to have to stay home for a full day every time for a delivery/pick up!

 

[abar]

week 50 i7 arrived today

My 2nd i7 arrived today,

Just had a blackout, the HD is grumbling and there is a slight yellow tinge!

I ordered my first one on the 24th November, and still haven't got a satisfactory machine. I study architecture and have soooo much work to be getting on with, all these weeks without me having a computer is getting me way behind on my work!

can they send out a replacement and i can keep this one until the new one arrives?

I just cant keep sending them back and not doing any work!!!

Alex

 

[spcdust]

My 2nd i7 arrived today,

Just had a blackout, the HD is grumbling and there is a slight yellow tinge!

I ordered my first one on the 24th November, and still haven't got a satisfactory machine. I study architecture and have soooo much work to be getting on with, all these weeks without me having a computer is getting me way behind on my work!

can they send out a replacement and i can keep this one until the new one arrives?

I just cant keep sending them back and not doing any work!!!

Alex

They most certainly can. I live in the UK and although it's not standard practice here (usually they want the faulty one back in the warehouse before they order/release the replacement) they did this for me as an exception. I didn't even request this, they just did it. I'm sure if you explain your situation they'll be more than happy to oblige.

 

[JimKirk]

I had another strange call with the engineer

They definitely seem to know about the issue but are not saying much.

He said my serial number range falls within the range of affected machines so they definitely know about the issue.

They are still recommending that I get an exchange vs a repair and I think that I may go that route because I am dreading the repack / haul genius experience.

i sent them more high resolution photos because they did not want my iphone quality photos (they know the camera on that sucks as well).

So here I go on my 3rd replacement and hope it turns out well.

 

[spcdust]

They definitely seem to know about the issue but are not saying much.

He said my serial number range falls within the range of affected machines so they definitely know about the issue.

They are still recommending that I get an exchange vs a repair and I think that I may go that route because I am dreading the repack / haul genius experience.

i sent them more high resolution photos because they did not want my iphone quality photos (they know the camera on that sucks as well).

So here I go on my 3rd replacement and hope it turns out well.

Which particular issue? (sorry, reading so many threads I'm loosing the thread, so to speak). If an engineer said "that falls within the range of affected machines" that's not keeping that very quiet.