Imac '09-'10 : the most unreliable Imacs so far?

[Squall Strife]

I'll go straight to the point: since the new line of Imacs has been released in Ocotber 2009, a lot of Apple user have been through a lot problems; here are some of the most discussed issues of the last year:

1. Monitor flickering (Appeared only in the very first models, but solved with a firmware update in February 2010)
2. Yellow tinge problems (still present in the mid 2010 refresh)
3. Backlight bleed in the corners (still present in the mid 2010 refresh)
4. Black spots on the screen caused "probably" by heating (still present in mid 2010 refresh)
5. Imac hard drive noise (still present in the mid 2010 refresh)
6. Noise due to faulty power supplies (it comes out when you try to adjust the brightness of the screen; still present in some mid 2010 models)
7. Imac can't wake up from sleep (it seems the problem is still present in some models)

So the question is: why Apple is not doing anything to fix all these issues? I mean it's normal that Imacs are not perfect, especially for the very first models released, BUT in this case we are talking about issues never fixed from Ocotber 2009!!!! . Ok, you'll probably tell me that Apple care covers almost everything and in case you experience one of the issues above you just have to contact them and they will provide to fix the problem. That's true but...do you think is fair for a person that is going to spend 2000$ to have the possibility to buy an Imac that has the same issue of a 2009 Imac???
Let's take the Yellow tinge issue, this problem is welll known from October 2009 and Apple never did anything to solve it. Ok, not all macs are affected by yellow tinge but damn it...yesterday I've been in an Apple Store and 3 Imac 27" on 5 had the yellow tinge, and they were proud to exhibit those machine too!!!
And what about the black dots problem? It seems this problem affected also the previous generation (Imac 24"), that's unacceptable!

The problem is that Apple can't just "hide each time" behind the Apple Care, they've got to learn to fix the hardware issues because they've got to understand that there are lot of Apple users out there that don't want to spare their time sending back brand new machines losing days and days of work.
So, what do you think about that? Do you still consider the Imacs reliable machine? Actually I do not and that's the reason why I'll definitely skip this gen of Imac hoping that 2011 Imacs will be better.


**Sorry for all the mistakes but English it's not my first language**

 

[iDutchman]

Nonsense. That's what forums are for. People complain on forums. They rarely open threads expressing their happiness.

Why would you open such a thread? There's already been a lot of discussion about these problems. Besides, the '10 line up of iMacs rarely sees problems.

Stop whining, jeez. I can be so fed up with people always looking for the problems. You won't ever be satisfied if you always think that way.

 

[Squall Strife]

Nonsense. That's what forums are for. People complain on forums. They rarely open threads expressing their happiness.

Why would you open such a thread? There's already been a lot of discussion about these problems. Besides, the '10 line up of iMacs rarely sees problems.

Stop whining, jeez. I can be so fed up with people always looking for the problems. You won't ever be satisfied if you always think that way.

Dutchman, honestly you are just acting as an apple-fanboy who can't face the truth; if Apple quality control has dropped down in the last few years, it's because of this kind of behaviours.
Jesus you say that the '10 line of Imacs rarely sees problems...did you just read page 1 of this forum? It's full of people complaining about issues on their mid 2010 Imacs, and we are talking about the same problems which affected the very first machine sold in 2009 ...do you think it's normal? To me it's not acceptable because it means that Apple is not doing anything to fix the problems, and that's also because it's full of people like you out there ready to say that everything is fine and that there's only a small percentage of faulty machine.

 

[WilliamG]

The angry minority will be the most vocal. I got my 2009 iMac in January and it's been nothing but a joy. Upgraded to SSD and now 16GB, it flies.

 

[hcho3]

First of all, if people have issues, they don't say anything.
This forum is for asking help and finding advice. People are not going to talk about much of their happiness.

Its your decision to make, but this thread is not necessary.

 

[Nishi100]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I dont know about the new 2010 iMacs; however, I was going to buy the 2009 iMacs. I had heard about the yellow tinge problems, so I went to the apple store. I asked them to open up the iMac and check to see if it had the yellow tinge issue.

We opened three; the Apple person put a sticker on the ones we opened:

The first one had a terrible tinge and backlight bleeding.

So did the second one.

The third one had a slight yellow tinge, but it had backlight bleeding.

I'll go to the apple store next weekend and see if these iMacs have the yellow tinge. But I don't know if they'll do that again: I don't think they liked me "wasting" three iMacs and shouting out that "THIS IMAC HAS A YELLOW TINGE, CAN YOU SEE IT...JUST THERE...YOU SEE; I'm not paying £2000..."

 

[Btom]

Nonsense. That's what forums are for. People complain on forums. They rarely open threads expressing their happiness.

Why would you open such a thread? There's already been a lot of discussion about these problems. Besides, the '10 line up of iMacs rarely sees problems.

Stop whining, jeez. I can be so fed up with people always looking for the problems. You won't ever be satisfied if you always think that way.

To receive a faulty computer 3-5-6 times a row (as many people reported, even here) is a highly irregular and worrisome thing. I am not sure why Apple allows this to fester for so long, but surely ignoring the "whiners" doesn't solve the problems and erodes the brand.

Tom B.

 

[SaSaSushi]

The angry minority will be the most vocal. I got my 2009 iMac in January and it's been nothing but a joy. Upgraded to SSD and now 16GB, it flies.

+1, Late 2009 27" i7 iMac here that just passed it's first birthday in November and has been perfectly flawless for me.

I took a long vacation from the whinging and complaining FUD-fest threads in these forums and my life improved considerably as a result.

 

[PurrBall]

Just makes me love my Early 2009 iMac even more.

 

[Icaras]

Ok....just got an i5 about a month ago...no problems whatsoever....and I think all these criticisms are overblown....so do I now get the label as "fanboy" for voicing my honest opinion?

 

[MacHamster68]

the 09/10 iMac's have various "problems" but overall i would say only small niggles instead of real problems
and all iMac form the early G5 iMac over the intel core duo's to the core2duo's had problems too , all have a tendency to have graphics card problems, all have display problem , tendency to get stripes on the display, all can get logicboard problems , ebay is a good indicator about problems to expect , why else would so many offer logicboard repairs throughout the iMac g5 to intel core 2 duo line up ....
iMac's are now mass produced in china , so they are cheap build so dont expect high quality for such a little price you pay for them

just think about it you can pick up a iMac in apple store for just over $1000 thats cheap as chips if you think about my TAM (still working flawless with not a single part replaced but G3 upgrade card )initially sold for near 10000 dollar when introduced in 1997 and back then the $ had a higher value then today's low value monopoly money called US $

but not all is lost ,you got a good warranty with apple care ,apple is even replacing today displays if the iMac came out of certain chinese factory long after apple care or warranty expired (there is another post about it somewhere

so if you like the unibody design get one and dont think about "what if's "

if not get a mini they are more reliable , but having said that , more and more 1.5 intel core solo and 1.66 intel core duo turn up with logicboard problems now too on ebay , but they are 4 years old so no surprise there

thats why apple offers warranty 1 year + apple care 2years , makes 3 years together where you are getting faulty parts replaced at no cost ... buying one without apple care is a big gamble
the only reason for taking the risk is the latest OSX ,at least for me, as i trust my eMac G4 1.42's running Tiger more then my intel core duo iMac despite the iMac had all mayor parts apart from some screws and wires replaced within the last year of apple care (was shipped in early 2007 so just ran out early this year ) just because its a chinese made pc with a apple logo on

 

[Theclamshell]

I agree with MacHamster68. I am actually thinking about buying a broken iMac G5 (they say it freezes up) for $50. If it is freezing up because of bad capacitors i may just buy it, replace them and sell it again.

 

[MacHamster68]

fun173 ,if you can replace them , means able to solder proper , you could make some cash for christmas , as the capacitors are cheap and the buyer gets a reliable iMac again and will be happy too

 

[archipellago]

I think the most worrying thing if you were in the market for an iMac is the number of faults compared to the number of machines sold.

apple sold 14mill macs last FY of which 70-75% were notebooks.

so there is only c. 4 million machines left split between iMac, mini and MP.

so its feasible that Apple could have all these problems on as few as 1.5 mill machines.

...shocking.

 

[iDutchman]

Ok....just got an i5 about a month ago...no problems whatsoever....and I think all these criticisms are overblown....so do I now get the label as "fanboy" for voicing my honest opinion?

Exactly. It's just all overblown. Just for giving my opinion and honestly saying this thread is unnecessary I get the label 'fanboy'. It sounds more like hate towards fanboys from his side. Therefore, he needs everything which comes even a little to close to be marked as fanboyism.

To receive a faulty computer 3-5-6 times a row (as many people reported, even here) is a highly irregular and worrisome thing. I am not sure why Apple allows this to fester for so long, but surely ignoring the "whiners" doesn't solve the problems and erodes the brand.

Tom B.

I couldn't agree with you more. It is highly worrisome. Although there still is a very very large crowd with received perfectly fine working iMacs (including me). Of course I feel sorry for the people who did not, but these people will logically report their experiences on forums. Therefore a few common issues that people experience will be posted. Now, I got to admit that just ***** and such flaws should not happen.

But here's the thing, every iMac had it's problems. In fact, every product does. Search a forum for a particular windows laptop or whatever and you'll find the same thing. But to call this the most unreliable iMacs ever is just nonsense.

Many many people have their 2009 iMacs working until this day without any problems.

Dutchman, honestly you are just acting as an apple-fanboy who can't face the truth; if Apple quality control has dropped down in the last few years, it's because of this kind of behaviours.
Jesus you say that the '10 line of Imacs rarely sees problems...did you just read page 1 of this forum? It's full of people complaining about issues on their mid 2010 Imacs, and we are talking about the same problems which affected the very first machine sold in 2009 ...do you think it's normal? To me it's not acceptable because it means that Apple is not doing anything to fix the problems, and that's also because it's full of people like you out there ready to say that everything is fine and that there's only a small percentage of faulty machine.

You, Sir, need to learn a few things. You're probably full of hate towards fanboyism. And you would probably like to identify everything which sounds like fanboyism (in your ears) with it. BUT, I just give my honest opinion about this situation. Surely there are problems. But like I said. This is called a forum. In forums people discuss problems with others. I will never start a thread saying that I absolutely adore my iMac. Why? Because that's the whole goal of the purchase. It does not need any extra attention. Every product has it problems and there will always be a minority of people experiencing them.

Have you seen the thread "iMac 27 i7 owners thread'. It's full of people saying they are happy. But that's rare. So stop the hating and get real.

Don't call people fanboys just because you just think you can take knowledge of that in just a few sentences.

 

[peskaa]

Revision A (ie: first release) Apple products are always problematic, and the 2009 27" iMacs were no exception. Yes, there were a whole bunch of dodgy machines, firmware that needed fixing etc.

Fast forward to 2010 and the situation is a lot better. You may still get a slightly yellow screen, but the numbers of people ranting about that on these forums has dropped significantly, indicating that it is much less of an issue - same with backlight problems.

Disk noise is simply down to the HD maker - some drives are just naturally noisy. Hardly Apple's fault. Even the LCD issue is one for LG.

Yes, you still may get a lemon, but that has always been the case. The amount of complaints on here has dropped a lot since 2009, indicating that Apple have in fact done something about it all.

 

[MacHamster68]

every product has flaws , ok some more some less but there is not one without any ,

the only difference is that handling of the flawed products ,
apple for example is nice to exchange or refund the purchaser of the flawed product ,
rolls royce on the other end does rectify flaws before the product gets to the customer in first place

ok some might now cry out and say you cant compare a rolls royce with a iMac
i ask in return why not , both claimed to have superior high quality products in the past ,
but apple needs high numbers to sell now because they do want to make profits but at lowered prices compare to the past , that didn't work if they would not produce mainly in china , a country not known for making high quality , more some sort of acceptable quality at low cost , and that is reflected in price , ok some like me still think its expensive , but in fact a iMac is quiet cheap if you compare it with similar all in one computers from dell and sony ....
and like those it will have flaws and instead of going to apple in first place to get the flaw rectified people come into forums and ask first
"i see yellow tint is that normal? i have loud harddrives is that normal ? my iMacs fans are spinning is that normal ?."....list goes on just read the appropriate posts
so all you ever read as topics or initial posts are about flawed iMac's
and some people just read forums to get some review of the product they want to buy or have bought with a slight flaw , and all they will see are hundreds of other people posting about their flawed iMac ,
and people still think apple is a high quality product manufacturer and its impossible that apple could ever sell a flawed product , but as the price reflects it cannot be a high quality product if it sells for just above $1000or just below £1000 for the base model , and dont start that the iMacs always did cost about the same , that is only partly true as 10 years ago the dollar and the pound had a far higher value then today

so the conclusion is apple is just a manufacturer of computers with questionable good design (i like the old white Mac's design more but thats my taste and doesn't have to be yours ) that may have one or the other flaw due to high volumes sold(rolls royce cars sold reach not even a couple percent of iMac sales ) and a superior operating system (we can all agree with that)
so if you want a superior operating system and a superior high quality computer then you need buy oOSX and build a all in one computer with all parts made entirely to your specification !!!
otherwise accept the quality apple offers you with their products and get the flaws if you got some rectified by apple as thats why apple offers warranty and apple care

 

[bossxii]

Not here defending Apple as I had the displeasure of purchasing a 09 27" iMac with a serious case of the "Yellow tint". However after swapping it out with another machine the issue seemed to be gone. I think some of the people swaping out 5 or 6 times have a wee bit of OCD to say the least. Their brain see's yellow if it's actually there or not. The posts of some people clearly show this effect, they become obsessed with the issue and will never be happy.

I think the real thing to focus on is what other company would swap out an open box computer for a new one over and over? Try that with Dell, HP, Acer etc... then let me know how that went. You will find a very different process for dealing with issues.

I also think people get a bit lost in forums such as MR, Engadget etc...and think these forums are representing the general population and huge share of the overall machines sold. They are the exact opposite, these forums are a few percent of the overall customer base (as mentioned, the angry few). Top that fact off with MR being full of anything but your "average" user, as most here are more technically savvy and know what IPS stands for vs say TN or any other tech spec that 99% of the people walking into an Apple store (or Apple employees) even know about.

Again, I don't deny they had some issues, but QC is not going to catch everything, and I would bet money that less than 10% of all 09 iMac's were returned and actually had issues. This of course a guess with no facts to back it up, but I'm open to seeing any actual facts to the contrary. Speculation on forums about a "wide spread" problem never worry me as I know the few thousand, or even few hundred posts complaining about a product that sells several million is simply to small to consider it a widespread issue.

People goto forums to read about issues, thousands of happy users never bother even looking up a forums.

 

[Fiddler70]

I think the question is quite legitimate, especially now greay stains are starting to show up for people.

I myself have had 6 iMacs 27". Combination of DOA, Grey bars, Yellow tint, dead pixels in iSight, and all severe enough for the the Apple Store employees to instantly exchange the iMac for me at every occasion. No OCD there. They were appalled.

Now I thought I had a perfect one, the screen is slowly becoming blotchy with grey stains. Have had this one for 4 months, it's becoming worse. Not a smoker, clean environment.

So what are we supposed to say? I think it's a QC disaster. The time I have spent going in and out of the shop... The people there have been nice, and have even given me a discount for my trouble, but it still validates the point the OP is making. How can this happen?

Don't get me wrong, I love Apple stuff, iPhone, iPad all great. But man did I have repairs done on my MacBook pro. All under AppleCare, but still.

PS. I don't buy the "Forums" theory. I think loads of people deal with problems without posting them here. Statistically what are the odds for me to get 6 iMacs with problems over the space of 7 months? The reaction of people working in the Apple Store made it clear to me that they are very used to people coming in with the 27" machines. Sometimes even telling me to come back later because some swaps had been unsatisfactory.

Happy New Year btw ;-)

Revision A (ie: first release) Apple products are always problematic, and the 2009 27" iMacs were no exception. Yes, there were a whole bunch of dodgy machines, firmware that needed fixing etc.

Fast forward to 2010 and the situation is a lot better. You may still get a slightly yellow screen, but the numbers of people ranting about that on these forums has dropped significantly, indicating that it is much less of an issue - same with backlight problems.

Have you seen the grey spots and stripes people are getting on their screens? This is on 2010 iMacs. It's just starting, I bet you it's going to affect lots of people. I already have it and it's getting worse.

 

[josh1231]

I'll go straight to the point: since the new line of Imacs has been released in Ocotber 2009, a lot of Apple user have been through a lot problems; here are some of the most discussed issues of the last year:

1. Monitor flickering (Appeared only in the very first models, but solved with a firmware update in February 2010)
2. Yellow tinge problems (still present in the mid 2010 refresh)
3. Backlight bleed in the corners (still present in the mid 2010 refresh)
4. Black spots on the screen caused "probably" by heating (still present in mid 2010 refresh)
5. Imac hard drive noise (still present in the mid 2010 refresh)
6. Noise due to faulty power supplies (it comes out when you try to adjust the brightness of the screen; still present in some mid 2010 models)
7. Imac can't wake up from sleep (it seems the problem is still present in some models)

So the question is: why Apple is not doing anything to fix all these issues? I mean it's normal that Imacs are not perfect, especially for the very first models released, BUT in this case we are talking about issues never fixed from Ocotber 2009!!!! . Ok, you'll probably tell me that Apple care covers almost everything and in case you experience one of the issues above you just have to contact them and they will provide to fix the problem. That's true but...do you think is fair for a person that is going to spend 2000$ to have the possibility to buy an Imac that has the same issue of a 2009 Imac???
Let's take the Yellow tinge issue, this problem is welll known from October 2009 and Apple never did anything to solve it. Ok, not all macs are affected by yellow tinge but damn it...yesterday I've been in an Apple Store and 3 Imac 27" on 5 had the yellow tinge, and they were proud to exhibit those machine too!!!
And what about the black dots problem? It seems this problem affected also the previous generation (Imac 24"), that's unacceptable!

The problem is that Apple can't just "hide each time" behind the Apple Care, they've got to learn to fix the hardware issues because they've got to understand that there are lot of Apple users out there that don't want to spare their time sending back brand new machines losing days and days of work.
So, what do you think about that? Do you still consider the Imacs reliable machine? Actually I do not and that's the reason why I'll definitely skip this gen of Imac hoping that 2011 Imacs will be better.


**Sorry for all the mistakes but English it's not my first language**

I don't think its just limited to Imacs. Nearly every product apple has released in the last 2 years has had serious flaws.

The Imacs had the Graphics card and yellow tint issues. The Iphone 4 had the proximity sensor and antenna issues. Ipad's had the wifi problem. Macbook Pros and Airs both had a mass problem upon release recently, though I don't remember what they were, battery and video, I believe. Apple TV has the Netflix error.

I don't mind buying a computer with old technology if its more stable, as has been the case in the past, but to get old technology that also doesn't work well, that's just bad.

They're now seelling expensive products that "just don't work", which has made me put off any purchases on upgrades that I generally do once a year.

Mixed with Apple's corporate strategy of denial, this makes purchasing a Mac a risky proposition right now.

Have you seen the grey spots and stripes people are getting on their screens? This is on 2010 iMacs. It's just starting, I bet you it's going to affect lots of people. I already have it and it's getting worse.

Maybe the gray bars will turn the yellow tint I have on my Imac white .

 

[Juanto]

I don't think its just limited to Imacs. Nearly every product apple has released in the last 2 years has had serious flaws.

The Imacs had the Graphics card and yellow tint issues. The Iphone 4 had the proximity sensor and antenna issues. Ipad's had the wifi problem. Macbook Pros and Airs both had a mass problem upon release recently, though I don't remember what they were, battery and video, I believe. Apple TV has the Netflix error.

I don't mind buying a computer with old technology if its more stable, as has been the case in the past, but to get old technology that also doesn't work well, that's just bad.

They're now seelling expensive products that "just don't work", which has made me put off any purchases on upgrades that I generally do once a year.

Mixed with Apple's corporate strategy of denial, this makes purchasing a Mac a risky proposition right now.

This is all too true. I was going to drop a nice wad of cash on a 27" Quad core iMac but this thread has put me off because I don't want to spend money, have a problem and be told it's my fault. I just want something that works and works well for my uses (photo editing). I guess a hackintosh is in order.

 

[josh1231]

This is all too true. I was going to drop a nice wad of cash on a 27" Quad core iMac but this thread has put me off because I don't want to spend money, have a problem and be told it's my fault. I just want something that works and works well for my uses (photo editing). I guess a hackintosh is in order.

That is my number one problem with them. I can understand having issues with your products, as long as they be a responsible corporation, acknowledging the problem and then taking care of their customers.

They're like the little kid who claims to not have done something until enough evidence has been presented that they finally have to admit it. In the meantime individuals who have the defective products sit around and wonder if they're ever going to admit it so they can get their machine fixed.

If they would acknowledge the problem, fix it, and move on they wouldn't be developing the reputation for non-quality products that has begun to plague them, and I would be able to upgrade my Imac 27 and Macbook Pro to this years model.

 

[Juanto]

That is my number one problem with them. I can understand having issues with your products, as long as they be a responsible corporation, acknowledging the problem and then taking care of their customers.

They're like the little kid who claims to not have done something until enough evidence has been presented that they finally have to admit it. In the meantime individuals who have the defective products sit around and wonder if they're ever going to admit it so they can get their machine fixed.

If they would acknowledge the problem, fix it, and move on they wouldn't be developing the reputation for non-quality products that has begun to plague them, and I would be able to upgrade my Imac 27 and Macbook Pro to this years model.

I can understand having problems with the first couple of batches, I really can. That's why I DON'T buy band new hardware because in a month the problems will be fixed.

Just the fact that one of my friends is experiencing the same thing and has to drive 2 hours to the nearest apple store to get it sorted out has me on edge. I wish they would just say "yeah, we ****ed up but we're going to take care of the effected customers no questions asked" if they did that then I'd have a 27" imac on my doorstep by Wednesday instead of computer parts to build my own computer.

 

[techhead42]

I think Squall strife has a legitimate question/concern in his question! Even though Apple has addressed these issues, there are still examples of them repeating.
I note that there are much much fewer examples of the problem raised in the original question and it is right to say that a lot of people come to forums like this to complain rather than praise.
However, a top end BTO iMac is over A$3,000+ and a higher standard of QC should be paramount.

 

[josh1231]

I think Squall strife has a legitimate question/concern in his question! Even though Apple has addressed these issues, there are still examples of them repeating.
I note that there are much much fewer examples of the problem raised in the original question and it is right to say that a lot of people come to forums like this to complain rather than praise.
However, a top end BTO iMac is over A$3,000+ and a higher standard of QC should be paramount.

Exactly, not only should the quality be better, but when you pay this much for what is essentially older technology, when there is a problem they should fix it, instead of tyrying to get out of fixing it.

When thousands of people are complaining because half of their screen is yellow, then instead of treating them like their crazy, fix the problem.

Instead of playing the idiotic song they played before the Iphone aentenna "admission of guilt", they should be playing "I'm Sorry" then fix the problem and move on. Nobody likes buying from a company who feels their products are perfect and won't admit to a flaw.