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Refurb 27" iMac broken out of box

W

welches409

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 5, 2014
4
0
So I just picked up my 'new' refurb iMac and it is broken out of the box.

Upon booting, it launches into a program called PhoenixCE which appears to be some diagnostic program. It runs for a few minutes and displays a large 'FAILED' across the top of the screen. Screenshot attached.

Called AppleCare and they thought I was crazy... until I shared my screen. The guy had never seen this before.

Machine is:

Refurbished 27-inch iMac 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (late 2013)
* 16GB memory
* 1TB SSD
* NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M graphics processor with 4GB of GDDR5 memory

I'll be returning it and debating whether to purchase another refurb or not. Kind of concerning when you spend $3200+ on a machine and it doesn't work out of the box. Also kind of a pain in the ass to have to lug this thing home, break down my old machine and setup the new only to have to do it all in reverse and again when the new one comes in.
 

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That is unfortunate. But as with anything electronic that you purchase things can happen. Yes you would expect it to be thoroughly checked especially being a refurb. They are awesome machines and well worth a second chance.
 
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5839068

According to the above link, PhoenixCE appears to be a factory diagnostics software which is run before installing OS X on the drive properly. You might find a DMG on the desktop to clean install OS X on the computer, although it appears that the diagnostics failed, so I would go to the apple store and get it replaced. They won't give you another refurb if it needs to be replaced.
 
Sorry to hear about your woes.

Things happen. People are human. You have the right to your feelings of anger and disappointment -if you have them- but don’t let regret rob you of your joy.

Apple will make it right. In my own experience, Apple customer service is superb; they always surprise me with little things that mean the most.

For example, I had a problem setting up my iTunes account with Paypal and I was gifted a free movie for my trouble.

In another case, a friend traded in his iPod for an iPhone. The iPod was within the RMA window and it had a film on it. Apple credited him for the film.

Believe me, Apple will make it right.
 
Last edited:
JohnPi314 said:
Things happen. People are human. You have the right to your feelings of anger and disappointment -if you have them- but don’t let regret rob you of your joy.

Apple will make it right. In my own experience, Apple customer service is superb; they always surprise me with little things that mean the most.

For example, I had a problem setting up my iTunes account with Paypal and I was gifted a free movie for my trouble.

In another case, a friend traded in his iPod for an iPhone. The iPod was within the RMA window and it had a film on it. Apple credited him for the film.

Believe me, Apple will make it right.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, Apple's customer service isn't consistent in the rest of the world.

In Malaysia, there's no Apple Stores, so Malaysians will have to make do with AASPs and APRs. And their attitudes are basically nut-up-or-shut-up types.
 
yjchua95 said:
Unfortunately, Apple's customer service isn't consistent in the rest of the world.

In Malaysia, there's no Apple Stores, so Malaysians will have to make do with AASPs and APRs. And their attitudes are basically nut-up-or-shut-up types.
Click to expand...

My experiences were with Apple Computer (now Apple Inc. ) directly.

Did you report this to Apple? Did they not fix your problem?
 
yjchua95 said:
I contacted the regional HQ (Apple Singapore), they said that they would look into it, but nothing else.
Click to expand...

I was reading one of your other posts and I see that you did not have AppleCare.

I wonder why they took that away in your country?

That sucks!
 
Reading the messages from the test program, I can see that it simply failed to execute some tests. It did not say that there has been a diagnosed hardware issue.

I assume that you could simply start recovery mode, install a fresh copy of OSX from the AppStore and be a happy customer.

To me it just looks like they did not properly remove the software to check refurbished systems.

I would try installing a clean system and than check back with your support contacts and argue about your options. Maybe they reduce the purchase price.

Right now, I cannot see any indication that you purchased a faulty unit.
Software can fail, that's no a reason to throw away the hardware.
 
welches409 said:
So I just picked up my 'new' refurb iMac and it is broken out of the box.

Upon booting, it launches into a program called PhoenixCE which appears to be some diagnostic program. It runs for a few minutes and displays a large 'FAILED' across the top of the screen. Screenshot attached.

Called AppleCare and they thought I was crazy... until I shared my screen. The guy had never seen this before.
...
I'll be returning it and debating whether to purchase another refurb or not. Kind of concerning when you spend $3200+ on a machine and it doesn't work out of the box. ...
Click to expand...

I don't see any indication that you have a bad iMac. You DID get an iMac that still has the specialized test software that would be run on refurbs (and shouldn't still be there, of course.)
The diagnostics failure MAY only mean that you don't have the same external setup that the refurb shop has, and doesn't necessarily mean that you have a bad unit.

The important point, I think, is that you DON'T know if the refurb process was completed, and the Phoenix software that is now in place may be the sole resident. From what I can discover, the Phoenix OS has a disk image loading process that is certainly one of the reasons it is used by Apple's refurb shop, and yours apparently didn't quite get to that imaging step.
Anyway, the refurb is not finished on your unit. Fiddling around on your end (other than making arrangements to return it) seem pointless to me.
 
I would just take it to Apple and get a replacement, because they are awesome machines and mistakes happen. Some poor guy in bed has probably just bolted up straight because he forgot to either finish refurbishing the computer or deleting the software...

I'm just curious... how long was the computer able to run for? Because from what it looks like, it looks like you uploaded this from the iMac. Hope all goes well.
 
I have to say - these stories of Apple making things right does affirm my decision to go Mac after years and years of Dell/Windows purchases.

I also have to feel fortunate that I have 5 Apple Stores within an hour drive of where I live.
 
To me it looks like a bad install/uninstall of the diag software, no hardware issues. I'd do a clean install of the OS and see if anything is bad after that. Because it's a refurb you can't just have it swapped, unless they have another with exact same config in stock. Not very likely.
 
FWIW, I bought a refurb MBA 13", base model in March. Apple Refurb sent me a 13" base with upgraded RAM. I called to get RAM for shipping it back for what I asked for, for fear of possibly being upcharged, I didn't need the upgraded RAM, nor the cost. The customer service rep said it appeared to be a mistake on their end as he could see the transaction when it took place, he said they seemed to have plenty in stock of the base model. He then apologized for the mistake, said to keep it, that they wouldn't upcharge me, and that it was a belated birthday gift (bought two weeks after my birthday). Cant go wrong with Apple.
 
ColorWerx said:
I have to say - these stories of Apple making things right does affirm my decision to go Mac after years and years of Dell/Windows purchases.

I also have to feel fortunate that I have 5 Apple Stores within an hour drive of where I live.
Click to expand...

Wow! 5! Really? I have - count 'em - 1!

Do you know which Mac you are going to get?

Since you already have a monitor you might consider a Mini; you can always get an iMac later and sell off the PC monitor.

I convinced a friend to get a Mini; I was using it until mine got here and now we both have one.
 
For sure return it or bring it to an Apple store for replacement. That screen shows that that imac hadn't been completely refurbished. After that diagnostics is run and passes, the iMac's Serial number is usually updated, so there's no confusion with the "old" pre-refurb iMac. This S/N reset can only be done by Apple, and also occurs with a logic board replacement. (I don't think even the retail stores can reset this)

Mainly, because of this, I wouldn't accept this unit, or try to install the OS on it. Even if it did work, you may run into problems with warranty or Applecare if this important procedure hadn't been done prior to that iMac being boxed. They certainly didn't finish with the refurbish process, so you don't know what else wasn't done.
 
JohnPi314 said:
Wow! 5! Really? I have - count 'em - 1!

Do you know which Mac you are going to get?

Since you already have a monitor you might consider a Mini; you can always get an iMac later and sell off the PC monitor.

I convinced a friend to get a Mini; I was using it until mine got here and now we both have one.
Click to expand...

I've got a refurb'd 27" iMac coming Friday. Maxing it out with 32GB RAM (Crucial, from Amazon), and a 3TB Fusion drive.

I've been suffering for years working on my 2006 Dell laptop - 2.16GHz, 3.25GB RAM with a 512MB graphics card.

Pathetic, really.

:eek:
 
Glad to see you are ending your suffering.

ColorWerx said:
I've got a refurb'd 27" iMac coming Friday. Maxing it out with 32GB RAM (Crucial, from Amazon), and a 3TB Fusion drive.

I've been suffering for years working on my 2006 Dell laptop - 2.16GHz, 3.25GB RAM with a 512MB graphics card.

Pathetic, really.

:eek:
Click to expand...

i had an old Dull (sorry, Dell) Latitude laptop that refused to run Vista. It received a WEI score of 1. Not that WEI scores mean a damn thing, but it gives you an idea of what the hardware was capable of.

At the time, I couldn’t afford a used computer, much less a new one. Forced to downgrade back to XP I decided to give OpenSuSE a try.

Unfortunately, I had a terrible time hand-configuring video and sound files, just to get it everything working. I thought “computers shouldn’t be this difficult.”

Apparently, there is a computer company that agrees with me. Got a Mini not to long ago - and I’m tickled pink! :)

Enjoy your iMac, I’m sure it will give you good service for many years to come. :cool:
 
JohnPi314 said:
i had an old Dull (sorry, Dell) Latitude laptop that refused to run Vista. It received a WEI score of 1. Not that WEI scores mean a damn thing, but it gives you an idea of what the hardware was capable of.

At the time, I couldn’t afford a used computer, much less a new one. Forced to downgrade back to XP I decided to give OpenSuSE a try.

Unfortunately, I had a terrible time hand-configuring video and sound files, just to get it everything working. I thought “computers shouldn’t be this difficult.”

Apparently, there is a computer company that agrees with me. Got a Mini not to long ago - and I’m tickled pink! :)

Enjoy your iMac, I’m sure it will give you good service for many years to come. :cool:
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention - I'm still running XP on that thing...tried to upgrade it to Win7...couldn't handle it. Even after turning off Aero and other advanced graphics enhancements.

I've been living in the dark ages.
 
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