Apple Initiates Graphic Card Replacement Program for Mid-2011 27-inch iMac

[jackzone]

Hi guys, my first post here

I have an iMac from 2011 and the serial number matches too (DHJQ). I've no problems with graphics, but:

About two weeks ago my iMac went suddenly off (I wanted to change an address in the contacts app) and it didn't come back. I had to let it off for about 12 hours, after that I was able to turn it on again. I could work for about 4 hours then the iMac went off again (while browsing internet using Safari) and again I had to wait for a longer time before I could turn it on. The problem happened several times.

I ran the disk utility and got a few errors (volume and permission errors). These errors could be repaired and didn't come back. Since then the shut off problem has gone away.

So, is it possible that some volume or permission errors can switch off the iMac (like pulling out the plug) or is this a hint for an upcoming faulty graphics card? Or even something else like logic board or power supply? No ACPP

 

[BiggAW]

my 2011 imac just started getting the green lines of video card death a month ago, thankfully got it working again long enough to get a 3TB backup on there and move everything over. crapped out for the last time yesterday.

went on apple and bought a new 3,400 imac - which pretty much sucks as i only got 2 years out of the last one. and cause the upgraded one will probably drop in the next few months.

then i see the replacement notification.

call apple and yes my machine is one of the lucky ones with the crap card. however i live overseas - will take me 5hrs (round trip) to get to the nearest apple AD and cost me $75. they won't do ANYTHING for free here (no matter what apple says) so i'm sure i'll pay for it on top of that and get to wait weeks for the parts etc.

plus there's no way i'm sending off my iMac with hard drive intact. all my writing, financial data and photos are on there. you have to take the screen off to get to the machine and apple is telling me that some AD won't work on the machine if i remove the HD... excuse me? can't wipe the drive as it no longer boots. meh..

so i'm keeping my order in for the new iMac. will probably try to sell this one locally if it gets repaired or keep it as a backup. i own 8 mac devices and am pretty disappointed with this - but guess **** happens sometimes.

Double backup, and anything you really want private (passwords file, etc) should be encrypted anyways...

 

[Dopeyman]

my 2011 imac just started getting the green lines of video card death a month ago, thankfully got it working again long enough to get a 3TB backup on there and move everything over. crapped out for the last time yesterday.

went on apple and bought a new 3,400 imac - which pretty much sucks as i only got 2 years out of the last one. and cause the upgraded one will probably drop in the next few months.

then i see the replacement notification.

call apple and yes my machine is one of the lucky ones with the crap card. however i live overseas - will take me 5hrs (round trip) to get to the nearest apple AD and cost me $75. they won't do ANYTHING for free here (no matter what apple says) so i'm sure i'll pay for it on top of that and get to wait weeks for the parts etc.

plus there's no way i'm sending off my iMac with hard drive intact. all my writing, financial data and photos are on there. you have to take the screen off to get to the machine and apple is telling me that some AD won't work on the machine if i remove the HD... excuse me? can't wipe the drive as it no longer boots. meh..

so i'm keeping my order in for the new iMac. will probably try to sell this one locally if it gets repaired or keep it as a backup. i own 8 mac devices and am pretty disappointed with this - but guess **** happens sometimes.

What's Apple AD??

So if I read this correctly, you've already backed up your data from the "broken" iMac and don't wanna send it with that data still intact... Right?

Well, just open it up, remove the HD, format it with another computer, and stick it back in there. There's no need for an active boot-up.. They have their own there for them to test it out with.

Done...

 

[repete]

GraphicCard....24inch

People who brought 24 inch iMac in the past also had graphic card issue. What the ******? Even thu warranty had expired, there's discussion about the issue. Apple did nothing about it. I am a bit disappoint with this.

I had 1 week on my applecare and brought my 24 in to see what they would do about a graphic card issue. After they had it for 10 days and couldn't fix it, they gave me a new 27 inch. This one is on the list also. Other than the inconvenience it got me a 3 year upgrade and a new appreciation for all things Apple.

 

[designaholic]

"Apple....it just works"

"Technological components, all completely infallible". /s

 

[nostromo77]

First of all, you should really relax. Second, Jobs hates Sony? Sony was Jobs favorite company and he said that multiple times. Third, as standard for Apple in the last 8 years, USB support came when Intel natively added it to their motherboard. Fourth, the one who takes things personally I would say it's you. Fifth, do you have data supporting your statement? Do you have proof you worked for Apple? Sixth, Apple has the money to do what? To test any machine they build for a couple years before shipping to see if problems arise? If you knew a bit about these things you'd know that most of the times (and that is true for any company and hardware component) these issues are not instantaneous and often happens one or two year in the life o a computer…

Ugh... you just don't get it do you...

where do you have the Apple Logo tattooed on your body?

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

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?

Interesting... Two tangential points here: Politicians are being led to the point of giving blanket tort reform for pharmaceutical companies to protect them from lawsuits when they release bad drugs. Like in your example of a bad batch of Xanax. Say it kills thousands of people. Tort reform would either make it so there was zero chance of getting class action status, or would make the hurdle that an attorney would have to clear would make it nearly impossible to file a suit.

In your Avandia example, there is a long list of drugs that really helped people but were over prescribed and people ended up dying. And there are the practically limitless numbers of attorneys that are trying everything they can to stay in business (and BMW's and Benz's) and as a result are suing anyone for anything. Those commercials that are on teevee urging you to call them if you took x medicine because you could get 'CASH!!!' are causing the extremely high costs in American medicine. Their latest is if someone has had liver damage taking Tylenol or Acetaminophen because you could get 'CASH!!!' because it's a 'bad drug'. What they don't tell you is that ALL analgesics cause some degree of side effects and if you take more Tylenol then you should, you WILL get liver damage, but the amount that you would have to take is pretty high. Heck Alieve will cause stomach ulcers. All NSAID's do. Should you be able to sue and get 'CASH!!!' because you don't follow the label directions and end up with a bleeding ulcer?

BTW: Did you know that politicians (who are usually lawyers) have forced a limit on the number of people that can be graduated by medical schools? Did you know that there are limits to the number of people that can be accepted into a medical residency? Did you also know that there are NO limits on the number of attorneys that the nations law schools can graduate per year? THAT explains why this country is such a 'litigious society', and it's likely to get a lot worse. There are far more lawyers in my town than doctors. They are hungry and will sue anyone to get 'CASH!!!'.

Check out the work of a group called ALEC for an idea on how bad it can get...

 

[kenetic]

I had 1 week on my applecare and brought my 24 in to see what they would do about a graphic card issue. After they had it for 10 days and couldn't fix it, they gave me a new 27 inch. This one is on the list also. Other than the inconvenience it got me a 3 year upgrade and a new appreciation for all things Apple.

Good for you and enjoy!!!

My machine did not have any issue. It's after the 3 warranty and it started having issue. Just my luck...

 

[835153]

As an update to my situation, I went into the Apple Store and told them about my issue and that my serial matched the batch that has issues. The guy ran some tests but my GPU passed (twice) he said though as you've brought it in, its serial is valid and you have some sort of issue but not specifically related to the recall he would allow it to be sent in under the recall.

I also pointed out that I had slight light bleed along the bottom of the screen. It didnt bother me as such but as the screen was now coming off for the GPU could he replace the screen too. He never batted an eyelid and said 'yeh sure'. So I'm getting a new GPU and screen with no hassle apart from having to walk through a busy shopping centre with a 27" imac under my arm (which takes a bit of doing without the box).

 

[liquorice]

As an update to my situation, I went into the Apple Store and told them about my issue and that my serial matched the batch that has issues. The guy ran some tests but my GPU passed (twice) he said though as you've brought it in, its serial is valid and you have some sort of issue but not specifically related to the recall he would allow it to be sent in under the recall.

I also pointed out that I had slight light bleed along the bottom of the screen. It didnt bother me as such but as the screen was now coming off for the GPU could he replace the screen too. He never batted an eyelid and said 'yeh sure'. So I'm getting a new GPU and screen with no hassle apart from having to walk through a busy shopping centre with a 27" imac under my arm (which takes a bit of doing without the box).

Picking mine up tomorrow, they put me down for a possible screen change as well I still have my box, but could do with some wheels

 

[Dopeyman]

Picking mine up tomorrow, they put me down for a possible screen change as well I still have my box, but could do with some wheels

When did you take yours in?

I took mine in on Sunday over here in Los Angeles, at The Grove. They said they had my 2GB card in stock. I haven't heard from them yet.

 

[liquorice]

When did you take yours in?

I took mine in on Sunday over here in Los Angeles, at The Grove. They said they had my 2GB card in stock. I haven't heard from them yet.

Took mine in on thursday and they had to order the card, so good turnaround uk

 

[kognos]

An update - received my replacement on Saturday morning and no issues to date.

All in all, first repair of my iMac and completely seamless -- except for the pain of carrying the thing into the store.

 

[coolspot18]

Took my Mac in, all they do is run a diagnostic util to determine if you need a replacement.

Unfortunately my graphics glitches are random and therefore I had to lug my iMac back with no replacement.

 

[AidenShaw]

Took my Mac in, all they do is run a diagnostic util to determine if you need a replacement.

Unfortunately my graphics glitches are random and therefore I had to lug my iMac back with no replacement.

That's really lame - many computer problems are intermittent. Apple is offering rotten customer service if they find excuses not to address a problem because of some poor test program. Keep a camera beside your Apple, and take a picture of a glitch. Then, take the Apple and the picture back and demand a fix.

It will get interesting if the special graphics cards in the Mac Mini Pro (the "Trashcan") have to be recalled because of problems like this. The "Pros" will raise quite a stink.

 

[Dopeyman]

Took my Mac in, all they do is run a diagnostic util to determine if you need a replacement.

Unfortunately my graphics glitches are random and therefore I had to lug my iMac back with no replacement.

That's f'ed up... I would take it to another apple store. Or ask to speak to a supervisor where you took it the first time.

According to the recall, as long as you're experiencing those symptoms, you're eligible for a replacement. There's nothing about "random" in there. That's BS..

----------

An update - received my replacement on Saturday morning and no issues to date.

All in all, first repair of my iMac and completely seamless -- except for the pain of carrying the thing into the store.

When and where did you take yours?

 

[DianeK]

Took my Mac in, all they do is run a diagnostic util to determine if you need a replacement.

Unfortunately my graphics glitches are random and therefore I had to lug my iMac back with no replacement.

Apple doesn't seem to be handling your case very well. As stated by another poster, most computer problems are intermittent. Luckily I had documented my issue with screenshots. The issue of intermittency never came up with my advisor. I am scheduled for an on-site (I have AppleCare) card replacement next week.
Diane

 

[AidenShaw]

screen captures or photographs ?

Apple doesn't seem to be handling your case very well. As stated by another poster, most computer problems are intermittent. Luckily I had documented my issue with screenshots. The issue of intermittency never came up with my advisor. I am scheduled for an on-site (I have AppleCare) card replacement next week.
Diane

Did screen captures from OSX show the problem, or did you take photographs of the screen? (Depending on where the problem is, a screen capture might see the corruption, or it might be OK.)

It might be useful for others to know how you got the proof....

 

[liquorice]

Well picked up my iMac this midday and it was working on the Genius bench, unfortunately 30 after switching on at home it was back in wont boot mode with white screen.
After a call back from apple support, putting the imac in to disc recovery >permissions repair, everything seems to be working okay

 

[DianeK]

Did screen captures from OSX show the problem, or did you take photographs of the screen? (Depending on where the problem is, a screen capture might see the corruption, or it might be OK.)

It might be useful for others to know how you got the proof....

Here is my screen issue:
Intermittently, when my display would wake from sleep all I would have is a white screen with the Apple menu strip up top or sometimes not even a menu strip.
So I thought I would get a screenshot of this via cmd+shift+4 and drag from upper left to lower right corner. But lo and behold, by doing this action, the dragging actually brought my display back to normal. So of course my screenshot looked like a normal display - rather useless as proof of a problem.
So the next time it happened I did cmd+shift+3 (instead of 4) which takes the screenshot without dragging, so that documented what the screen actually looked like.
As an aside, cmd+shift+3 would bring back a few tiny patches of my regular display and a second cmd+shift+3 would bring back a few more patches. But the only way I could fully restore the normal display was cmd+shift+4+drag the entire screen surface, or if my menu bar was visible, a reboot would restore the display.
Diane

 

[Dopeyman]

Here is my screen issue:
Intermittently, when my display would wake from sleep all I would have is a white screen with the Apple menu strip up top or sometimes not even a menu strip.
So I thought I would get a screenshot of this via cmd+shift+4 and drag from upper left to lower right corner. But lo and behold, by doing this action, the dragging actually brought my display back to normal. So of course my screenshot looked like a normal display - rather useless as proof of a problem.
So the next time it happened I did cmd+shift+3 (instead of 4) which takes the screenshot without dragging, so that documented what the screen actually looked like.
As an aside, cmd+shift+3 would bring back a few tiny patches of my regular display and a second cmd+shift+3 would bring back a few more patches. But the only way I could fully restore the normal display was cmd+shift+4+drag the entire screen surface, or if my menu bar was visible, a reboot would restore the display.
Diane

Next time try it with an actual camera.. not the snap shots from within the mac... or a video...

 

[kidding]

this graphic card problem has been killing me for half a year now...

... so can't believe I still live to see this day of recall!

Just went to the Apple Store, for the fourth time in 6 months, carrying this heavy baby... Thanks to the randomness of this issue, when the screen flickering/grey or blue screen/boot failure problems first occurred, the Apple Store staff simply wiped out my hard drive and said issue resolved. They didn't charge me but left me with enough headaches and a still problematic machine.

I called Apple Support and they directed me to an Apple authorized repair shop which offered pick-up service (because I said I didn't want to carry this heavy stuff to Apple Store again). The repair shop basically said and did the same thing: they said the machine passed all hardware tests and they reinstalled the OS and it went back to normal (and by the way charged me $200 for all these)... I hoped for the best but the problem reoccurred soon again. And then I lived in a state of desperation for a few months, only surviving by keeping rebooting my machine until it came back to life whenever the problem occurred.

Last week it finally died completely with green vertical lines on every reboot attempt, and the Apple Store staff finally agreed it was a graphic card problem so they charged me $399 to have the card replaced. Just when I thought I finally could have a nice sleep after the repair, the machine... flickered and refused to boot, again... Talk about Apple quality!

Glad that God must have been enough pain, Apple suddenly has this new recall program, though obviously only a few Apple Support staff know about it. They refunded me the $399 and diagnosed that they replaced the same type of faulty graphic card last week because they were not aware of the recall at that time, and this time they would order a new card from the 'quality program'. I am happy that they refunded me the repair money but really hope this time they get things right.

Using your iMac while worrying about every moment it might fail is such a torturing experience - and I was not even running graphic intensive programs/games! I'm even too exhausted to mention or argue with them about the first 'false' repair of $200. As long as Apple finds the root cause and resolves this issue once and for all, I will be happy enough.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Just got my iMac back, 5 days after taking it in

Haven't gotten around to setting it up and testing it yet.

 

[Dopeyman]

Just got my iMac back, 5 days after taking it in

Haven't gotten around to setting it up and testing it yet.

5 days? Wowzers... Today's my 4th day of waiting... And the day is pretty much already gone.. 5th day, here we come....

But I'm beginning to worry why it's taking this long... The dude said he had my 2GB card in stock...

UPDATE: YES!!! I just got the email to go pick up my iMac tomorrow...

UPDATE: Well... I just got a chance to connect it all up again, it's running like a champ!! Thank you Apple for saving me $380...

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Set up my repaired iMac... MUCH better now. Didn't cost me anything to get it fixed! Thank you, Apple