Apple Releases Firmware Update to Address Screen Flickering on 27-Inch iMacs

[Editor-]

Let's find out and test it on my friends' brand new mac 27". He has it for 1 day and indeed the screen is flickering.

What I (as a windows user who is waiting for his 27" mac) do NOT understand is how this community seems so forgiving to Apple. To be honest, these pieces of machinery cost alot of money and in my opinion when you pay that much things should be PERFECT.

Really, am seriously astonished to read on these forums that people have that flickering iMac standing on their desk in hope that some crazy patch/update will fix the problem.

There is only 1 way to show Apple that things aren't going as they should and that is by sending your machine back. A €2000 computer with a flickering screen? You gotta be kidding me! If the Mac which I can expect in the next couple of days flickers once, or produces a noise that is slightly louder than normal it will head back to the Apple Store in 1 minute, 1 minute!

 

[MorphingDragon]

Let's find out and test it on my friends' brand new mac 27". He has it for 1 day and indeed the screen is flickering.

What I (as a windows user who is waiting for his 27" mac) do NOT understand is how this community seems so forgiving to Apple. To be honest, these pieces of machinery cost alot of money and in my opinion when you pay that much things should be PERFECT.

Really, am seriously astonished to read on these forums that people have that flickering iMac standing on their desk in hope that some crazy patch/update will fix the problem.

There is only 1 way to show Apple that things aren't going as they should and that is by sending your machine back. A €2000 computer with a flickering screen? You gotta be kidding me! If the Mac which I can expect in the next couple of days flickers once, or produces a noise that is slightly louder than normal it will head back to the Apple Store in 1 minute, 1 minute!

The Vocal Minority is not the Many.

If the so called GPU Firmware is fixed it must be a screen problem.

 

[newdeal]

...

I'm sorry but the people who have a yellowish tinge have you calibrated the colour on your display? When I got my macbook pro it looked fine but then I calibrated the display and noticed that indeed it was also a little bit yellow before, it was just not apparent until I could switch between calibrated and uncalibrated to see it

 

[jimmyjoemccrow]

The Vocal Minority is not the Many.

If the so called GPU Firmware is fixed it must be a screen problem.

Sounds like you're describing Mac owners there.

 

[ratGT]

Here's an interesting question...

I have a buddy that bought a 27" imac and wiped it clean and installed Windows 7 on it. I'm guessing that firmware updates will only come through for OSX users...

So... what is the best solution? Maybe set up an external USB drive with OSX installed on it and just boot to that drive occasionally to get the firmware updates?

-Brian

"Hello doctor. This is NOT about me, it's about a buddy of mine, that has a problem with his penile erection towards the opposite sex, what can it be? AND, like I said, this is NOT about me.."

... What a classic!!!

 

[HyperX13]

ATI video cards remind me of Audis. Great technology, looks slick. Start using it and it ends up in the shop more than I like.

Seriously, my first gen mac pro had an ati card. It worked great but whoever engineered the exhaust fan and port failed. Dust collected causing all kinds of freezes.

 

[stijnerd]

update doesn't work for me

My imac 27" i7 arrived yesterday with the flicker,
I updated the graphics firmware 10 min ago and now it looks even worse.
i am in a storm filled with grey stripes and total blackness

 

[nunzio23]

My imac 27" i7 arrived yesterday with the flicker,
I updated the graphics firmware 10 min ago and now it looks even worse.
i am in a storm filled with grey stripes and total blackness

What week is it?

 

[alent1234]

why is it that this problem has never been documented in an apple store? could be a monitor issue for those who turn it off rather than leave it on 24x7. maybe the LED lights need to be "warmed up" or something like that

 

[hachre]

I have a hard time believing apples fix would be to lower performance or increase fan speed. Is there any source on this or just "this is what I think"?

They clocked down the gfx card in a similar "fix" for the MBP1,1, they reved up the idle fan speed on MBP2,1, they reved up the idle speed and maybe clocked down the MBP3,1 and they changed the accelration curves on the MBP4,1 and 5,1. Similar stuff on the MB and don't even get me started on the MB Air.

Unless there is a bug in the firmware in the first place there is only so much you can do to fix overheating issues.

Other than that there is no "proof" as someone wanted me to provide, it's just what I'm quite sure they did once again now with the iMac.

All I'm saying is that stuff like that should be fixed during development since increasing fan speeds and clocking down GPUs are emergency solutions, not something proper.

Since this has happened a lot in the past and it continues to happen with almost every model they put out I have to say, yes the quailty of the hardware is in decline. The quality in software is also, but that's a whole other topic.

 

[dXTC]

Here's how: http://tinyurl.com/y8rgsq8

LOL, FTW, +1 Internet, what have you.

I'm going to have to remember this one for use elsewhere...

 

[Mr. McMac]

This is why I wait few months before purchasing any new model from Apple. Always seems to be issues on the first run.

 

[iMacKeung]

got my Core i7 updated and it seems fine now...at least no flicker after playing games or watching HD movies

let's hope it stays that way

 

[pondosinatra]

Apple's quality control has been abysmal the past few years - about the same time they started sourcing products from China.

I'll stick with my non-glare iMac that I've had zero issues with thank you very much.

 

[Bakafish]

My i7 is fine

And so are the majority of 27" iMac's. I find it funny that a bunch of guys who cant even afford to buy them are bleating like wounded sheep over the fact that a very small minority are having issues. Show me one person who Apple hasn't addressed. They will exchange units until you are satisfied, it's not like anyone is getting stuck with anything.

Haters, complaining about stuff you don't own is like complaining that Angelina Jolie is fat. If you aren't doing her, your opinion isn't all that interesting.

 

[TheAshMan]

My experience has been no issues with 27" Core i7 at work

Just got it a week ago. I haven't had any problems with this machine. For a small test under heavy load running virtual machines, installing MS Office and running a flash video simultaneously I had no problems of any kind. Screen and performance is great. Sorry for those that have had issues, that is not good, but we haven't seen any with a few 27"'s that we have here. Will install the FW update today.

 

[MH01]

They clocked down the gfx card in a similar "fix" for the MBP1,1, they reved up the idle fan speed on MBP2,1, they reved up the idle speed and maybe clocked down the MBP3,1 and they changed the accelration curves on the MBP4,1 and 5,1. Similar stuff on the MB and don't even get me started on the MB Air.

Unless there is a bug in the firmware in the first place there is only so much you can do to fix overheating issues.

Other than that there is no "proof" as someone wanted me to provide, it's just what I'm quite sure they did once again now with the iMac.

All I'm saying is that stuff like that should be fixed during development since increasing fan speeds and clocking down GPUs are emergency solutions, not something proper.

Since this has happened a lot in the past and it continues to happen with almost every model they put out I have to say, yes the quailty of the hardware is in decline. The quality in software is also, but that's a whole other topic.

I am with hachre on this one. You would have to be very naive to think that only some cards came with faulty firmware. My opinion is that all the ATI cards shipped with the same firmware, where the conditions change is 1. assembly (some cards will have the GPU and hearsink attached better) or 2. The manner in which the owner users the computer (gaming is much more stressing on the GPU). There a lots of people that say they do not suffer the flickering, though there is a good chance that these people do not push the GPU so never expose the issue. Releasing a firmware to clock down the GPU is very logical, by default apple GPUs run clocked down compared PC counterparts cause that way apple gets better reliability.

If you wondering if the firmware clocks the GPU down. We need someone who runs both os x and windows on an imac to jump into windows install something like this http://www.evga.com/precision/ that will show you your default setting for the GPU. Just record the default settings that come up. Then go into OS X and update the firmware of the card and go back into windows and see if the numbers are the same. This would be nice to know for people who are not suffering the flickering as it would suck to apply the firwmware and loose some performance

I am not sure if a utility such as this exists for os x.

 

[organerito]

LMAO

Thats like someone putting diesel in a petrol car.
Like buying a Ferrari and swapping the engine out for a 1.2 Fiat engine

You get my drift..

You can say whatever you want in your dreams and delusions. Windows 7 is working and the other OS is not even if it costs at least 2000 dollars. It is pathetic.

 

[knewsom]

I'm sorry but the people who have a yellowish tinge have you calibrated the colour on your display? When I got my macbook pro it looked fine but then I calibrated the display and noticed that indeed it was also a little bit yellow before, it was just not apparent until I could switch between calibrated and uncalibrated to see it

You should probably do some searching on this issue before making suggestions - there are a number of threads with some serious discussion on the matter. The tint is uneven across the screen, therefore calibration will do nothing to help it, since the calibration affects the screen as a WHOLE, and cannot affect only one portion.

 

[supmango]

I've got an older 24in iMac and an even older 17in MBP (both Intel), and I've noticed graphics problems ever since I started using SL. While the fix for the 27in might be drivers for the graphics cards, I think the problem lies deeper than this patch....

Do those two Macs you own contain ATI graphics cards?

 

[supmango]

Let's find out and test it on my friends' brand new mac 27". He has it for 1 day and indeed the screen is flickering.

What I (as a windows user who is waiting for his 27" mac) do NOT understand is how this community seems so forgiving to Apple. To be honest, these pieces of machinery cost alot of money and in my opinion when you pay that much things should be PERFECT.

Really, am seriously astonished to read on these forums that people have that flickering iMac standing on their desk in hope that some crazy patch/update will fix the problem.

There is only 1 way to show Apple that things aren't going as they should and that is by sending your machine back. A €2000 computer with a flickering screen? You gotta be kidding me! If the Mac which I can expect in the next couple of days flickers once, or produces a noise that is slightly louder than normal it will head back to the Apple Store in 1 minute, 1 minute!

I bet you will try the firmware update first, which will take more than 1 minute.

 

[mike1128]

Has it been ruled out that the yellowing isn't due to a defect in the glass?

I literally know nothing about how glass is made except that high temperatures are required. And that overheated glass can yellow. And really overheated glass is weaker... and does things like crack in the lower right hand corner during shipping.

Yet to see anyone talking about the glass itself. So I take it that when the glass is removed the yellowing is still there?

 

[iDocism]

Whats with all the nasty "back and forth" most of the people who purchased the new 27" iMacs would love for the patch to work. Personally it has worked for me (so far) but if I see one flicker its going back for a refund not an exchange.

If you have one of the new iMacs or have seen one then you know they are an awesome system setup and you probably want to keep it... if it isn't broken. "if" I end up keeping mine I will definitely get the AppleCare just in case.

And NOTHING has been "ruled out".

 

[nuwonda]

exchange 2 times, refund 3rd time

for the kind of money I expect perfect goods, not goods that need to be fixed by bios updates. if this is necessary then the manufacturer has failed to meet *my* quality standards and as such does not deserve my trust or money.

I bought a new macbook pro, it came with HD clonking away merrily, called Apple, exchanged within 3 days, only to get the same problem PLUS 1 dead pixel in the CENTER of the screen. Called Apple, refund.

Now 27" i7. Same game. Did not bother with exchange this time and went straight for refund. It is a slick design but I will hold off buying any 27" iMACs until they use NVIDIA. I never liked ATI and I used them a lot in building render farms in 2000 not for long though as they kept failing ever so often.

 

[MorphingDragon]

why is it that this problem has never been documented in an apple store? could be a monitor issue for those who turn it off rather than leave it on 24x7. maybe the LED lights need to be "warmed up" or something like that

LED's are solid state. Good quality ones aren't even supposed to heat up.