imac recall question

I've seen the recall of the imac on the apple site. My imac G5 falls into the serial number category. I'm a newbie when it comes to macs, and I don't know whether my imac is affected.

They describe the problems as video/display problems/distortion.

Now my question is, what is classed as video distortion? When viewing some dvd's on my mac, I occasionally get an unclear picture. Sitting back, the picture is fine, but up close (0.25-0.5m away), it seems unclear, and as if the image is pixelly at times, instead of a perfectly still and clear image that I usually associate with DVD movies. This stops when the movie is paused.

Could somebody inform me whether this is normal for a LCD flatscreen, compared to CRT displays?

I'm tempted to send my imac back to apple to get them to have a look at it, but am unsure whether this could be classed as the "video distortion" that they talk about.

Any other imac G5 owners out there care to share their dvd viewing experiences?

Do your movies play back crystal clear? No flickering at all as described above?

Thanks guys & gals

Pete

they will fix your imac for free/give you a new one.. when there is a recall. bring your iMac back and get it fixed.. you are expeirencing distrortion the way you are decribing the way your screen is.

Thanks for the reply.

I have just spoken to an online support worker, and he has asked me many questions. I have also performed the PRAM reset as advised, but still the problem/issue is there.

After finally deciding the best course of action was to get a qualified support technician to take a look at it, he continued to say that I would have to take it there personally.

Now, this doesn't seem right to me. I am at university right now, and I am well over an hours drive away from the "bullring" in Birmingham, not taking into consideration extra time wasted due to me getting lost, and the fuel expense.

At least I have been given a case reference number to pursue an acceptable acknowledgement to this issue. I will ring and speak to a phone worker tomorrow.

PS. The recall on the imac G5's for distorted video showed symptoms of "distortion" once again (he couldn't really describe it either), not only in the movie box (screen) but everywhere on the display. Therefore, for me, this can't/shouldn't be the cause of the problem.

where does it mention an imac recall? im interested beause my gfs imace is screwy

where does it mention an imac recall? im interested beause my gfs imace is screwy

Click to expand...

This is the link to the US site's recall programme Clicky

My S# falls in that list ,I have no problems, Hmmm, what should I do?

iNAP, are you using the 1st gen imac G5?

If so, would you mind commenting on the quality of playback you get when playing a movie via superdrive or off your HD?

Is your video grainy or pixated?

I'm still continuously dealing with online tech support to resolve this issue.

Apparently if you are not experiencing the problems described on the Apple link above, there is no need to send your unit back

The one I'm usually on is IMacG5 Machine ModelowerMac8,1 the quality is fine as far as I can tell. I think I'll call Apple anyway just to have them check it out (why not right, it's free) I think I'll max out the memory while they have it.
By the way, why would you deal with tech support if Apple will do it for free? It is something you can not resolve with a few clicks, I presume. Take full advantage of the recall if you can.

Well tech support seem to think that in my case it is a software problem. I'm formatting the unit tonight to see if it improves it, but I seriously doubt it will.

I presume Apple will front the costs of retuning these products? The tech guy seemed to want me to deliver the unit to them, which isn't going to happen for me.

I have the rev A, 20" SD 1.8ghz, 1gb ram unit.

I dealt with tech support as I wanted to be clear as to what they describe as, "distorted video", and tbh I don't think many of their tech staff know either.

Will chat again to an online techy, as they are free, and let them know my progress.

PS. I spent 20 mins on hold earlier to Apple (phone) @ National rate

Our iMac at work had the problem, it looked like this:

On bootup when you see the apple logo, the whole picture was slightly "off" - i.e. the Apple was slightly loped sideways and was flickering really badly.
Sometimes it would start alright, only for to have half of the screen start flickering: (i.e. imagine the top half of your display starting to look screwy - stretched to the side and flickering).

If you only have an issue with jumpy/pixelated video playback (i.e. movies not playing correctly in Quicktime or Windows media player) it could really just be an issue with the way the video was encoded (really low quality, faulty codec).

Thank you for your views aptmunich. I am still sceptical about the encoding method, as it also happens when viewing geniune DVD's.

I have just spoken once again to a tech guy, and he has told me to have my logic board AND power supply changed FOC at my local apple repairer.

Another few tests I did before this happened was a PRAM reset, 2ndary test account, test download and viewing of a quicktime trailer, stream of a quicktime trailer, Apple Hardware Test, disc utility, and finally an archive install preserving users. None of which helped.

I am glad this issue is being resolved by Apple, and these parts are being replaced.

I hope this thread helps others too in the future

Great-that's what had to be done to our iMac at work too...
It now works beautifully - hopefully yours will as well soon!

Just a quick update on this matter.

All the apple authorised re-sellers I contacted have got back to me, and told me that I am entitled to support under warantee, which is perfect, as I lost my receipt.

One did bring up a good point, where it says that the issues I'm experiencing doesn't seem to be the same as the majority that are being recalled for.

Most of the display issues show complete distortion, as aptmunich describes, but mine is only very slight.

I have attatched a short video clip of what you see when playing DVD's/video from any format.

Let me know what you all think

Clicky


The apple dealers are going to get back to me next week, and arrange an appointment for me to drop the unit in

I highly doubt what you're seeing is anything that's involved with the recall. When they say distorted video, they mean really distorted video.

As for being slightly pixelized when watching DVDs up close, that's going to happen and I notice it slightly myself. I can say overall the LCDs on the iMac G5s are not as nice as the ones on the iMac G4s and I notice alot more "noise" on the new iMac G5 LCD.

However I think this is just the LCD, not the recall video issue.