This was happening to me pretty much out of the box when I bought my 27" iMac with 2gb video card in 2011. I called apple several times and sent several screenshots. Noone knew what was happening and i had the logic board replaced but it didnt fix the problem. I was trying to get apple to just give me another computer but they refused and said repairs were their policy. I dont see that problem happen much anymore somehow but I am definetly calling in for a replacement. Also my iMac had a faulty harddrive that they fixed for free aswell. haha. what the hell apple. figure it out.
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Apple Initiates Graphic Card Replacement Program for Mid-2011 27-inch iMac
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I have one of the affected iMacs, ending in DMW8. I've had experienced previously green vertical stripes upon boot up, and graphical glitches while playing games.
Do I need to provide graphical proof of my experiences, or can I simply book an appointment with Genius and bring it in for an exchange?
Do I need to provide graphical proof of my experiences, or can I simply book an appointment with Genius and bring it in for an exchange?
The post he quoted is over dramatic telling people to shut up rudely. And why do you think Apple made the recall? It's their fault and it's their responsibility is why.
If a doctor mistakenly prescribe you an overdosed Xanax and you died because of it. Who takes the blame? The doctor, or the drug company?
That's right .. Simple logic and not so over dramatic after all, no?
Yes, either they run a stress test and see its fine or they replace an old part (which has a ticking tock on it) with a newer more stable one.
Wait, what? Is that the right analogy? Or did the Dr prescribe you a normal dose of Xanax and it turned out to be a bad batch? Yeah. Thats right. So who's at fault?
Those late night TV ads - do they say "DID YOU GET A PRESCRIPTION FROM DR JOHNSON ON MAIN STREET???" or is it "DID YOU TAKE AVANDIA AND SUFFER A STROKE?"
If you're going to make an analogy, don't make it a terrible one, OK?
Oh, well that sucks. If you have AppleCare, your original serial number should be accessible here: https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetAgreements.do. Otherwise, I'm sure Apple could look it up for you based on the previous support information they have on file.
Oh I'm sorry you were dead because I gave you a bad batch of drug. What a terrible thing, I'm really sorry but nothing I can do.
Hey shoot happens, but I got my commission off the company and that's what matters anyway.
Make a claim on your life insurance, and move on. Next.
Regards,
Your friendly neighborhood doctor
It's more like the brakes failing on a new car. There is some reasonable expectation that the car manufacturer should have tested the brakes out prior to makes millions of cars equipped with said brakes. There is some degree of culpability, whether you would like to admit it or not.
Again, where is apple to fix all the busted 2008 iMacs? Not a peep. And it's not even a hardware issue, since you can downgrade the OS to get it back to a usable state - except you are. Is stuck without the App Store, nor any other meaningful updates.
Well this makes a fittingly hilarious end to my Apple saga...
Bought a refurb 27' iMac in feb 2012 with one of the listed serial numbers. I ended up putting in a 512 vertex SSD myself. About 2 months later the gpu failed. Took it to my local apple shop (not reseller). Told them I put an SSD in which didn't bother them. Finally when it came time to leave it with them, as I had applecare anyway, the manager decided they were not going to fix it after all and pretty well told me to get out of the store and take my computer with me.
I was not able to do this, in fact I refused to do it. His problem was that he decided to become an instant lawyer and told me I'd voided the warranty.
In the end after much arguing higher up, they decided they would repair it. Then the shop changed their mind again, told me that I had in fact wrecked it by putting the ssd in, they had three of their top experts concur that I had caused 'board flex' because they couldn't find anything else wrong.
They then told me that it would be a $900 charge to replace the motherboard and I needed to OK the repair. They then told me I should just buy a new computer because it really wouldn't be worth fixing. By this stage I'd had enough and said I'll let consumer affairs decide if I had voided the warranty as it's open to interpretation.
Next day they changed their minds again and decided that lo and behold, it was just the GPU which they replaced under warranty, it had a part value of $56. Even though they replaced my 2GB card with a 1GB card I did not bother.
Then two weeks later the new card stopped working. I took it to an apple reseller this time and Apple customer relations got involved then because I asked that they may as well replace it with a 2 GB card as it originally had and this needed to be approved.
I ended up selling it anyway a few months later.
My original dealings with the apple shop were much more nasty than I have indicated. Although customer care were brilliant.
Now I see this article and I feel vindicated.
Bought a refurb 27' iMac in feb 2012 with one of the listed serial numbers. I ended up putting in a 512 vertex SSD myself. About 2 months later the gpu failed. Took it to my local apple shop (not reseller). Told them I put an SSD in which didn't bother them. Finally when it came time to leave it with them, as I had applecare anyway, the manager decided they were not going to fix it after all and pretty well told me to get out of the store and take my computer with me.
I was not able to do this, in fact I refused to do it. His problem was that he decided to become an instant lawyer and told me I'd voided the warranty.
In the end after much arguing higher up, they decided they would repair it. Then the shop changed their mind again, told me that I had in fact wrecked it by putting the ssd in, they had three of their top experts concur that I had caused 'board flex' because they couldn't find anything else wrong.
They then told me that it would be a $900 charge to replace the motherboard and I needed to OK the repair. They then told me I should just buy a new computer because it really wouldn't be worth fixing. By this stage I'd had enough and said I'll let consumer affairs decide if I had voided the warranty as it's open to interpretation.
Next day they changed their minds again and decided that lo and behold, it was just the GPU which they replaced under warranty, it had a part value of $56. Even though they replaced my 2GB card with a 1GB card I did not bother.
Then two weeks later the new card stopped working. I took it to an apple reseller this time and Apple customer relations got involved then because I asked that they may as well replace it with a 2 GB card as it originally had and this needed to be approved.
I ended up selling it anyway a few months later.
My original dealings with the apple shop were much more nasty than I have indicated. Although customer care were brilliant.
Now I see this article and I feel vindicated.
Unfortunately the fault in that is pretty clear. Apple can't know that components from its supplier are going to be bad in 0.5% of cases. It does the recall and repair, but it's not Apple's fault. It is Apple's responsibility to fix it, but only because they are the entity that has a relationship with the customer. That does not make this their fault.
Thanks for illustrating my point. Don't go through life blaming the wrong party for everything. You'll be miserable to be around.
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At least if it doesn't they recognize that they made a mistake and fix it easily for you at no cost.
Shut down your iMac, and lay it on its back - the serial # should be printed on the bottom of the stand itself.
Also should be on the box it shipped in, and on your receipt.
According to the 9to5 article, which few here seem to have read, your iMac has to demonstrate the graphical glitches to be eligible; just having the serial number is apparently not enough. That may change in the future.
I use iStat menus to ramp up the fans for the odd occasion I do anything that will send temps upward to keep the gpu temps as far below 65C as possible because I do not want to end up with the yellow screen my sister's iMac has. It also means that I have never witnessed any of the tell-tale symptoms of likely gpu failure.
I shall leave this till next year when I will probably sell the iMac. Chances are Apple's crew will either scratch the case or leave dust behind the glass panel.
The 2006 24" iMac was a crime. Mine died. A beautiful and fast machine with a great screen gone to waste because of NVIDIA's stupid faulty video card and Apple's lack of support. I'm so glad I'm not the first one here to bring this up.
Yes, it's the part-maker's fault for making bad parts, not Apple's, but it's Apple's responsibility to fix it for the users. There's a reason there's no NVIDIA or AMD store. I don't know if Apple gets compensation from the part-maker when this happens. I'm glad Apple is taking responsibility this time, unlike what they did with the 2006 iMac.
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About damn time, I was experiencing intermittent black screens, grey screens with lines over them and other graphical glitches this winter and tried explaining to apple that my GPU was defective. I got to ship it in for repairs and after a few weeks the apple partner who handled the repair contacted me and said they could not find anything wrong with my iMac more than that I used third party memories. One of which they had taken out once they returned it to me...
Don't you think the problems persisted even after getting it back, response from the repair centre? Yeah, probably my second third party stick...
I bought new RAMs and decided I'd try to use it anyway... (I got a son in March so I haven't really had the time to contact them anymore).
Problems persisted though, every other day I came down to my iMac only to find a fully powered on computer with a black screen (backlight still on though)... It whites out the entire display from time to time and the graphics generally behave erratic...
Feels like I get some retribution now... Do I need to wait for Apple to officially post this on their website or could I contact them right away?
Don't you think the problems persisted even after getting it back, response from the repair centre? Yeah, probably my second third party stick...
I bought new RAMs and decided I'd try to use it anyway... (I got a son in March so I haven't really had the time to contact them anymore).
Problems persisted though, every other day I came down to my iMac only to find a fully powered on computer with a black screen (backlight still on though)... It whites out the entire display from time to time and the graphics generally behave erratic...
Feels like I get some retribution now... Do I need to wait for Apple to officially post this on their website or could I contact them right away?
You could always try running a GPUTest benchmark and moving the window around as it runs in a hot room. I don't know about this new issue, but on the 2006 iMac, the trigger for problems was any graphics-intensive game. Running the CPU fan high to keep it cool prevented the problems usually. I had to do that whenever I played a game or used Google Earth.
Well, this would probably explain why I've had the graphics card fail in my iMac twice, the second time only after about 2 weeks. Still need to take it in to get fixed for the second one. It would be nice if they just replaced the whole thing with one of the 2012 ones. It's caused me so much trouble.
Unfortunately for me, they usually wait for three failures for that, plus the replacement program may have screwed that for me. My computer is still covered because of applecare anyways, so I'm not sure how this replacement program will change things for me.
If they are just putting the same card back in (but new), I'd be pretty worried myself that it'll just happen again (especially after the one broke after 2 weeks), so I may express my frustration with that (after asking if the cards they put back in are actually fixed, cause they don't really say anywhere).
I get worried every time I open any game, or use any of my 3D software, and it's been driving me nuts.
Unfortunately for me, they usually wait for three failures for that, plus the replacement program may have screwed that for me. My computer is still covered because of applecare anyways, so I'm not sure how this replacement program will change things for me.
If they are just putting the same card back in (but new), I'd be pretty worried myself that it'll just happen again (especially after the one broke after 2 weeks), so I may express my frustration with that (after asking if the cards they put back in are actually fixed, cause they don't really say anywhere).
I get worried every time I open any game, or use any of my 3D software, and it's been driving me nuts.