Refurbished iMac i7 strong smell, loud hard drive, back light bleed

[mrt209]

Finally decided to upgrade from my 20in iMac and bought a refurbished 27in iMac i7 last week from the Apple store. Got it yesterday, and noticed some things.

The first thing that I noticed after sitting in front of the iMac was a strong smell, the usual new Mac smell but 10x stronger, actually you could compare it to a strong cheese smell. It gave me a headache, but it's better today, so seems like its slowly decreasing. Does the smell occur often in refurbished iMacs and might the smell suggest that something is wrong with the iMac?

Another thing that I noticed is that the hard drive is making a grumbling noise every 10-30 seconds or so, like it's constantly reading/writing. The noise is considerably louder than my 2007 20in iMac, which is almost completely silent (easy to compare since standing next to each other). The grumbling makes it a bit hard to concentrate, but since other people have reported the same thing, I'm not sure if it's normal... According to System Profiler my hd is a SAMSUNG HD103SJ (1TB).

The last thing I noticed is backlight bleed in the lower right corner (and a bit in the left corner as well). It's not as bad as others have on their iMac... but it does make my black wall paper look grayish in the corner.

So... based on all this, should I return the iMac or is the hassle of returning it, waiting for the new iMac, and then re-installing everything not worth it? One of the reasons I bought the refurbished iMac is because Apple certifies it so thought it would be spotless... I did spend a lot of money on this comp (I'm a student so it's def a lot for me) and want it to be perfect, but on the flip-side I'm not sure if I would potentially end up with an iMac with even worse backlight bleed or dead pixels...

Thanks for your help!

 

[John T]

Really, you are the only one who can answer your questions. As far as the "smell" is concerned, obviously, all components that get warm during use are initially going to do that. In time this wears off. Have you noticed any reduction?

With regard to the HD noise, have you set it to sleep when not in use? The motors in hard drives will inevitably make some noise. Only you can determine if it is objectionable. The same applies to the alleged backlight bleed. Like the "yellow screen phenomena" there are many who don't notice these "defects" and there are others who who ignore them and then there are the minority who become phobic.

In the final analysis, it's your machine, you have to use and live with it and consequently it's your decision as to what, if anything, you do about it.

 

[AlexisV]

Try running a disk repair from the DVD and see if anything occurs.

 

[mrt209]

The smell is almost gone so not really a problem anymore. As for the disk I'll try to repair it and if I still have the same problem I'll contact Apple.

I read that the 2TB disk is quieter, so maybe I should upgrade... Can anyone confirm this?

I think I'm going to wait 2,3 days and see if the backlight bleed and HD are distracting me while working, if it does then I'll return it.

Thanks for the help

 

[John T]

As for the disk I'll try to repair it and if I still have the same problem I'll contact Apple.

1) How are you going to repair it?!
2) Don't forget that playing about with the internal components of your iMac will most likely invalidate your warranty.

 

[mrt209]

1) How are you going to repair it?!
2) Don't forget that playing about with the internal components of your iMac will most likely invalidate your warranty.

Meant repairing it through disk utility, not comfortable opening the iMac up.

 

[mrt209]

Meant repairing it through disk utility, not comfortable opening the iMac up.

Didn't fix it and read other complaints about the hard drive being loud so gonna take it in to the apple store at monday and see what they say.

 

[mrt209]

Well after calling apple care last night they recommended that I just return it instead of trying to get it fixed. They also said that the loud hard drive noise should be fixed in iMacs after August 29th, so recommended I get a new one.

So returned the refurbished one today and bought a new one. Was really surprised how friendly and helpful everyone was... yesterday they were all grumpy

I got a western digital caviar black hard drive in my new one and its still a little noisy but much better. Have less backlight bleed and no cheese smell!!!

So was definitely a good decision to return it.