Did you or a family member get a 27 inch iMac for Christmas?  We should check it out for you.

Having experienced tremendous issues myself, I’d strongly recommend anyone who has purchased a new 27 inch iMac this holiday season to bring it into the shop so I can take a look at it for you. Here’s why: a good amount of iMacs are being shipped with some pretty major issues. It’s been covered in many places but the summary is that the new iMacs could experience issues like screen flickering, yellow tint to the screen, noisy screens (buzzing) or broken components due to poor shipping.

I actually just purchased a 27 inch iMac myself and have had to return it to the store twice for these issues.  My first one flickered randomly and my second one had a yellow tint to the bottom half of the screen.  The yellow tint is a minor issue for me… but for a professional photographer, that’s a complete deal breaker.  Honestly, who wants to pay $2000 or more for an awesome machine only to find that it’s having some pretty major issues?

I’m not saying that I can guarantee that you won’t have any issues in the future if we take a look, but it’s better to find out now instead of later.  In fact, some users are reporting that their issues developed 3 or 4 weeks after the purchase.  Within the first 14 days, Apple will swap out a machine for any issue… as long as it can be shown to the sales staff.  You’re not gonna walk in and say, “Hey, my screen’s yellow. I want a new machine.” No, you’ll probably have to pull it out and show them the difference in color.  I didn’t have any problem doing so.  I walked in, explained the flickering situation and walked out with a new machine.  Unfortunately, the new machine had the yellow tint on the bottom half of the screen, that’ll take some explaining when I get back and return this one.  Thankfully, Apple did postpone shipments of many iMac this last month in hopes to address the issues… so if you’ve received your iMac in the last day or two, it’s likely that you will be problem-free.

It’s better to take care of this now instead of later.  After the 14 day grace period, Apple stores will insist on doing a repair instead of replacing the unit.  That will cost you valuable time away from your machines.  Some stores are more generous with this exchange period than others, but it’s better to take care of the issues right away.  I strongly encourage you to question any issues that seem odd to you…  It’s really the only way to make sure you’ll be good in the future.  And do yourself a favor, purchase AppleCare: it’s cheap for an iMac — only $169. Give me a call and tell me what you see, or bring it by so I can take a look.  iMac diagnostics related to the above issues are absolutely free due to the fact that I can usually find them in a couple minutes.  If we need to look at other issues, there could be a diagnostics fee.

Update:

It appears as though these issues are still plaguing the newest production line… thank goodness for AppleCare. If you haven’t bought it for your new iMac, you should probably do that. Like now.

• Video distortion
• Video freezing (you can still connect to your system externally, the display just doesn’t change)
• Complete system lockup
• Trouble shutting down
• Trouble booting up
• Weird, unexplainable crashing with applications
• And more… basically, if your iMac G5 is acting up — check the capacitors

I have an iMac G5 capacitor replacement on the bench right now… after I replace the caps it will be in great shape! Don’t let other companies charge you for a new logic board. It’s a lot of labor, but you shouldn’t be paying to much for the repair. At RMMR, we’ll do the capacitor replacement for a flat rate of $199.  If you feel comfortable with a screwdriver, it never hurts to check the capacitors and make sure they’re okay.  Lay the iMac G5 on its front and loosen the three screws that are at the bottom of the display. Gently lift the back panel away from the display. If you see swollen or leaking capacitors like the ones pictured below, they need to be replaced. Bring your G5 in and we’ll get you taken care of right away!

We also accept mail-in capacitor repairs. You are responsible for shipping it to us, but we’ll cover shipping on the way back! Just include a note explaining your name, address, phone, email, as well as the symptoms you’ve experienced thus far.