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27-Inch iMac Firmware Updates Address High Processor Usage, Display Backlight, and Target Display Mode Issues

Weird firmware update behavior

I just installed this firmware update and had some interesting things happen. Just before the iMac shutdown there was this loud tone that came out of the speakers for a few seconds. Then it rebooted to the usual gray firmware update screen/status bar. Restarted and checked Software Update. The firmware update was still listed. So I reinstalled and my fans kicked into overdrive for about 15 seconds, blowing dust everywhere. I thought I stayed on top of the dust but I guess there is only so much you can do when it gets sucked inside. Ten seconds of turbo-fan and it was as if my iMac sneezed it all out.
 
cjboffoli97 said:
I just installed this firmware update and had some interesting things happen. Just before the iMac shutdown there was this loud tone that came out of the speakers for a few seconds. Then it rebooted to the usual gray firmware update screen/status bar. Restarted and checked Software Update. The firmware update was still listed. So I reinstalled and my fans kicked into overdrive for about 15 seconds, blowing dust everywhere. I thought I stayed on top of the dust but I guess there is only so much you can do when it gets sucked inside. Ten seconds of turbo-fan and it was as if my iMac sneezed it all out.
Click to expand...

You just described the sound the EFI firmware updates make. Then you described the SMC firmware update.

All is fine with your system.:)
 
spcdust said:
Would agree with William G there. You're basically saying "My iMac is alright so Apple has obviously sorted everything out" - a somewhat presumptuous and arrogant analysis of these ongoing issues.
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Apple released a statement saying that they had addressed the problem, but of course some people will have a bad computer. That is why they have AppleCare.
 
WilliamG said:
Yes, your experience is representative of everyone, of course. :rolleyes:

The yellow tint will never be resolved, but less people will complain as time goes by.
Click to expand...

Of course you are right that my experience will not indicate that another person will have the same luck or problem free computer. My point was that Apple stated that they had addressed many of these problems, the flickering screens and yellow tinge. Of course there is always a chance that you or someone else will get a bad computer, but that is why they have AppleCare. My advice to the poster is that apple has worked to address the problem and that he should not be afraid to buy an iMac based on those problems that only affected a small percentage on iMacs to begin with.
 
Minimoose 360 said:
Oh man, serious? lol poor cat.
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No, it didn't do that. Every software update usually brings tales of woe about various problems being caused by the update. In 9 years I've never been unlucky enough to encounter one of those problems. So, occasionally I just completely make up a tale of update woe.
 
Oh, man... weird update... my iMac is by the window and just when it rebooted it caused a kid riding his bike outside to crash into a pole. An old guy tried to help him and threw his back out, now he can't work so he's defaulted the house next door and it's falling apart so my house is going down in value. Damn you Steve Jobs! :p
 
The EFI update wasn't offered up in Software Update for my Core i7, so downloaded it. When I tried to install my iMac reported "This Software is not supported on this system". This iMac (a replacement) is a couple weeks fresh off the Production line so guess the recent iMacs already had this firmware update pre-installed?
 
danielwsmithee said:
I got hit by the processor utilization with headphones in the headphone jack. It only happened in boot camp under windows not OS X. I had a work around by using a $10 USB Audio card to plug in my headphone when I boot into Windows. I'm glad this problem is fixed.

Hopefully next they will fix the color banding issue with the 4850 video card drivers under Windows 7.

I love my i7 iMac.
Click to expand...

I was able to fix the banding by rolling back the display driver to the one installed by bootcamp 3.0 (the one installed by bootcamp 3.1 was the one that caused the banding for me). Sorry, I don't have a link, but you search on it.
 
WilliamG said:
Yes, your experience is representative of everyone, of course. :rolleyes:

The yellow tint will never be resolved, but less people will complain as time goes by.
Click to expand...

"Never" is the wrong word. It was resolved (on the forth try) for me. I wouldn't exactly recommend an iMac wholeheartedly but you can get ones without the yellow tinge.

Also, the only reason less people will complain is if less yellow tinged iMacs are being sold.
 
I wonder if this firmware update lets you input 1080p video into the iMac.

We are currently limited to 720p because 2560x1440 is exactly a double image of 1280x720....
 
anyone knows if the update fixed the problem of inputing video source from a 5870 via displayport?
 
WilliamG said:
Yes, your experience is representative of everyone, of course. :rolleyes:

The yellow tint will never be resolved, but less people will complain as time goes by.
Click to expand...

the 27s still have yellow tints? i was under the impression that the manufacturing slow down of iMacs a few months ago was to address and solve screen issues. is this not the case?
 
HiVolt said:
Interesting, that the update requires 10.6.3. What happens when people have to reinstall their OS, they obviously shipped with 10.6.1 or 10.6.2

I know I have issues with an old G5 at work, that I have to reinstall the original GeForce FX 5200 when I want to installa fresh copy of Leopard, otherwise the installer doesn't even boot with the Radeon 9600 Mac Edition.
Click to expand...

First, if you have to reinstall, you simply reinstall the 10.6.3 update (or whatever version is current then).

Second, it's a different issue. The GeForce issue you have is a driver update - which you would have to reinstall if you reinstalled the system software. This particular one is a firmware update - which should update the firmware once and for all. So if you have to reinstall 10.6.0 and then upgrade to 10.6.3, there would be no need to reinstall this firmware update.

Xtremehkr said:
After I installed these updates my cat walked by the back of the i7 and was electrocuted by electricity jumping out of the USB ports. Terrible update.
Click to expand...

Want to borrow my cat? :D
 
Darkroom said:
the 27s still have yellow tints? i was under the impression that the manufacturing slow down of iMacs a few months ago was to address and solve screen issues. is this not the case?
Click to expand...

That is the impression I was under as well. I was told by an apple store rep that many of those problems had been reported and fixed, and that the new batch of iMac were experiencing few if any of the same problems to the the extent that the newer iMacs were when they were released. But please understand that my experience maybe different from yours. I wouldn't want to Be presumptuous in saying that my iMac seems to work fine. Others mileage may vary.
 
Darkroom said:
the 27s still have yellow tints? i was under the impression that the manufacturing slow down of iMacs a few months ago was to address and solve screen issues. is this not the case?
Click to expand...

Somewhere along the line, people have lost perspective. A tiny percentage of iMacs suffered from display issues, it was not a generic, nor a common problem. I don't know a single real world user who experienced any issues, and I know a LOT of people with a LOT of 27" iMacs - not one of the nine in the studio, delivered on release date have experienced a single issue.
 
Sigh, yet another patch to fix even more problems on that godawful clusterf**k of a machine.

Then again, I have a well-deserved hatred of those things. They are hands down one of the worst disassemblies Apple has done in a long time. Fifty billion little cables that you have to take off the logic board, the video card heatsink is way the hell up there, which makes it difficult to do anything to the board without flexing it, the screwholes to bolt the screen in are right next to the magnets that hold the and the power supplies hold a charge long after they're unplugged, and long after Apple says they'll naturally discharge, too. The motherboard replacement requires the PSU, optical drive, and fan to be removed because they just barely obstruct the damn board. It's by far the worst logic board replacement procedure since the original iMac.

Yay for Apple's hardware engineers! May they all die horrible deaths and burn in all the hells there ever were.
 
nelmat said:
Somewhere along the line, people have lost perspective. A tiny percentage of iMacs suffered from display issues, it was not a generic, nor a common problem. I don't know a single real world user who experienced any issues, and I know a LOT of people with a LOT of 27" iMacs - not one of the nine in the studio, delivered on release date have experienced a single issue.
Click to expand...
Oh, just wait. You'll probably have at least one that just inexplicably dies and needs a new logic board before long.
 
nelmat said:
Somewhere along the line, people have lost perspective. A tiny percentage of iMacs suffered from display issues, it was not a generic, nor a common problem..
Click to expand...

It's not a matter of lost perspective. There is a significant group of Apple-haters populating these forums who jump on ANY opportunity to bash Apple - no matter how silly or rare the problem might be. I still can't figure out what drives someone to spend so many hours of their life on a forum for a product they don't like, don't own, and swear they will never own.
 
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