perculiar situation i found with my new i5 imac

[sparkie1984]

morning guys, first post here, just thought id see your views on the following

i picked up an i5 imac a few nights ago from an apple store. checked the screen while i was there for any cracks, seemed fine!

got it home then had a nagging feeling i should power it up and check it. (its an xmas pressie) so i fired it up screen seemed ok on the white background then it just stuck with a flashing folder.

after some research i inserted the snow leopard boot disk and then i was instructed that my hard disk didnt have an os on it! it was a blank hdd!! i was told i had to enable journaling and i also noticed the disk was called diagnostics.

does anyone know if they run diagnostics on it first? then maybe mines just slipped the net. bit concerned that it was able to leave their factory with no os installed on it whatsoever!

its installed now anyway and it boots to the welcome screen now as a new mac should. hopefully itll be ok, seems to have a very very slight yellow tinge, no apparent dead pixels so far and runs quiet so id rather not return it if i dont have to.

any views why it would be like this?

[cjmillsnun]

Sounds like yours was checked at the factory but afterwards they forgot to image it.

[sparkie1984]

thanks for the reply, so maybe its a good thing then if it means its been checked out?

[scottness]

Very strange. I think you're ok if you don't mind the yellow. Never heard of a mac shipping without an OS. Strange.

[J&JPolangin]

...it should be properly setup as its a new machine, take it back and let Apple figure out what happened to it...

[sparkie1984]

I'm just concerned that I'm going to get something worse than I have already. I'll wait until it's in use and see how it is I think. If all else is ok I'll leave it, if it's yellow I'll wait until apple fix it correctly

I'm worried I may end up with something far worse

[sparkie1984]

just to update:

well its been in use for a few days now and so far no flickering!!! dead pixels or noisy hard disk!

time will tell i suppose

[dborja]

just to update:

well its been in use for a few days now and so far no flickering!!! dead pixels or noisy hard disk!

time will tell i suppose

That's good to hear! Strange though, that the OS was not installed...

[sparkie1984]

yes, worried me somewhat! but as i said further up maybe its good and means that mine was actually checked by apple!!! or maybe not :eek:

[TennisandMusic]

Ok well...here would be a "sinister" thought...is there any chance Apple is selling returns/refurbs as new? There have been a glut of returns, we know that much, and not many on the refurb website for sale at all.

Also, when I returned mine I totally wiped the disk, and didn't reinstall the OS...sounds like the kinda thing he got, no?

[sparkie1984]

maybe...... i must say i broke the tape etc when i got it, although i understand it could of been re-taped i suppose!

is there any way of ever telling? the imac was in totally mint condition, everything was in its little plastic homes all seals unbroken etc....

but saying that they could of just put new mice etc in....... also batteries were at 100% not say 65% as if used. although batteries were in the mouse and keyboard... maybe thats normal

really hope it wasnt returned plus im sure thats illegal according to uk law at least

[fhall1]

Ok well...here would be a "sinister" thought...is there any chance Apple is selling returns/refurbs as new? There have been a glut of returns, we know that much, and not many on the refurb website for sale at all.

Also, when I returned mine I totally wiped the disk, and didn't reinstall the OS...sounds like the kinda thing he got, no?

Apple refurbs come with an OS installed.

[Kebabselector]

but saying that they could of just put new mice etc in....... also batteries were at 100% not say 65% as if used. although batteries were in the mouse and keyboard... maybe thats normal

The batteries were in my keyboard and mouse. It reduces the packaging. Sounds lie you might have had one messed up at the imaging stage at the factory. Annoying, but I sometimes think it's a good thing to use your own image.

[sparkie1984]

what do you mean with imaging mate? sorry im not too up on it all!

[DesignerOnMac]

Apple refurbs come with an OS installed.

And refurbs come in a brown plain box, (or they used to), and not the retail box.

[sparkie1984]

mine came in a proper box mate with all the seals in place too

[Kebabselector]

what do you mean with imaging mate? sorry im not too up on it all!

The hard drives are prepared using a master image.

[sparkie1984]

does that mean that they pre-load all the hdd's before they get installed into the imac? (like do a load of them in bulk? as surely they wont sit there at each imac for 40 mins)

like i said im not very up on it all :o

[crut]

does that mean that they pre-load all the hdd's before they get installed into the imac? (like do a load of them in bulk? as surely they wont sit there at each imac for 40 mins)

like i said im not very up on it all :o

Correct, they will pre "install" from a master image onto the hard disks before they go into the machines, if yours turned up without an OS install then it is likely it slipped through the imaging stage.

[sparkie1984]

ah! how bizarre :confused:

i hope that doesnt mean that it had a problem, so they then run diagnostics on it, then just chucked it in the imac!

any ideas why it was called diagnostics? with approx 2mb used?