Imac 7,1 Screen failure! Pricing! Family Drama!

[Danny O.]

Hey all,

I have a fun story to share for my first post. My dad told me that he had an Imac for sale from his office and we agreed on a price. $400 dollars for a 24 inch Imac 7, 1 2.8 ghz C2D 500 gig hard drive 4 gig ram loaded with software I need..

After picking it up and taking it home I turn it on and holy crap this screen. It has dark triangles coming in from the edges as well as a dark border. Essentially it looks kind of like a backgammon game board with just the brightness.


So now I have a dilemma, the screen is a problem, but before I ask for money back from my dad and potentially cause any family issues, I was hoping a few of you good folk could answer some questions,

1. The Problem: I know its hard to diagnose with no pictures, I'll provide some this afternoon but from what I've gathered this is likely an issue with the CCFL backlight, either the flex cables or the inverter. Has anybody had experience with this issue to shed light on where the problem might be?

2. The Cost: Has anybody tried to have this issue repaired and have an idea of how much it would cost? My local stores either have a $100 dollar diagnosis charge or are closed for this week. I know prices vary greatly.

3. Most importantly, is this an issue that will get worse and fail? The biggest issue is I got this to mainly do photography graphic work, so even though 400 isn't that much, I can't afford 400 dollars for something that will fail within a year and a half. My margins are too tight.

My plan is to figure out the cost of repair and approach him with a reduction in price or a return. Before it gets asked, I do trust my dad, he was't trying to scam me I think he was just unaware of the issue, so I'm not concerned about approaching him I just want to have my numbers as close to right as possible

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[khedden]

I don't know what kind of relationship you and your dad have, but I would call him up and say that you were expecting a machine in good working order, not one with the screen flaking out for $400.

If you start spending time and effort to solve the issue, then you're still getting shafted even if you do end up with it working in good order.

As for the issue itself, if its geometric patterns, then its likely a component issue as you suspect.

This thread is the closest I could find to your issue (triangles on screen): https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1926046?start=0&tstart=0

The only resolution I saw there was a logic board swap.

 

[rkaufmann87]

Hey all,

I have a fun story to share for my first post. My dad told me that he had an Imac for sale from his office and we agreed on a price. $400 dollars for a 24 inch Imac 7, 1 2.8 ghz C2D 500 gig hard drive 4 gig ram loaded with software I need..

After picking it up and taking it home I turn it on and holy crap this screen. It has dark triangles coming in from the edges as well as a dark border. Essentially it looks kind of like a backgammon game board with just the brightness.


So now I have a dilemma, the screen is a problem, but before I ask for money back from my dad and potentially cause any family issues, I was hoping a few of you good folk could answer some questions,

1. The Problem: I know its hard to diagnose with no pictures, I'll provide some this afternoon but from what I've gathered this is likely an issue with the CCFL backlight, either the flex cables or the inverter. Has anybody had experience with this issue to shed light on where the problem might be?

2. The Cost: Has anybody tried to have this issue repaired and have an idea of how much it would cost? My local stores either have a $100 dollar diagnosis charge or are closed for this week. I know prices vary greatly.

3. Most importantly, is this an issue that will get worse and fail? The biggest issue is I got this to mainly do photography graphic work, so even though 400 isn't that much, I can't afford 400 dollars for something that will fail within a year and a half. My margins are too tight.

My plan is to figure out the cost of repair and approach him with a reduction in price or a return. Before it gets asked, I do trust my dad, he was't trying to scam me I think he was just unaware of the issue, so I'm not concerned about approaching him I just want to have my numbers as close to right as possible

Thanks in advance guys!

I have to agree with the previous poster, if your expectation was a machine in good working order then you need to contact your Dad and talk about returning it or getting his company to pay for repairs. $400 for a nearly 7 year old iMacs isn't a terrific price, for that much I 'd expect one that was 100% operational.