Apple admits Intel iMac video problems

A glitch that causes display problems on Intel-based iMacs under certain circumstances has been confirmed by Apple. The problem, first reported by one Mac user on his blog, occurs mainly when using the Front Row program to display video, and consists of "faint and intermittent patches of whatever graphics are on the screen appearing in random locations," along with ghosting and horizontal lines. Apple has responded by saying that the company "is aware of this issue and is looking into it," and by recommending that concerned customers contact AppleCare for support. However, there's currently no recommended solution. The original user who discovered the problem does have one suggestion, though: "Convince yourself that Front Row is stupid, pointless, and unnecessary eye-candy and never, ever use it."

[Justin @ Feb 9th 2006 1:01PM]

If you look on Apple's support forums you will find that this issue has been discovered to only exist on new iMacs with a certain operating system version (my fiance's came with a different version and no video issue). I also believe that it is limited to the 256MB video card.

[Matt @ Feb 9th 2006 1:01PM]

Apple and its products are flawless...or thats what the comments below this one will read.

[diulei @ Feb 9th 2006 1:05PM]

I guess people haven't figured out that it's never good to buy a first release, even from "flawless" Apple.

Especially with such a big transition like the Intel switch.

[iomatic @ Feb 9th 2006 1:05PM]

Yawn.

[Mandarin @ Feb 9th 2006 1:12PM]

I cant say "Flawless" is a perfect word for Apple products. "Overpriced" is probably better.

[Jordan @ Feb 9th 2006 1:14PM]

Hrmm, I use FrontRow every day and my 20" hasn't displayed that behavior.

My friend's 17" hasn't either.

Hope it doesn't.. :(

[Kaido @ Feb 9th 2006 1:17PM]

There are TONS of complaints about this problem, especially with the 256mb vram and 500gb hard drive machines. Check out this website, for one:

http://www.consumermachine.com/

My iMac Core Duo is coming later this month; I'm crossing my fingers that it won't have this problems. Curse Rev. A!

[atomb @ Feb 9th 2006 1:17PM]

maybe all that talk about 'releasing the intel chips from boring applications' isn't as they thought it would be.

computing is not all fun and games, you have to know how to use the technology....not just 'next, next, ok'

[hjones @ Feb 9th 2006 1:18PM]

haha, his comment about Front Row is how I feel about macs in general. Replace "Front Row" with "The Mac". LOL

"Convince yourself that Front Row is stupid, pointless, and unnecessary eye-candy and never, ever use it."

[Jeremiah @ Feb 9th 2006 1:24PM]

What's the big deal? Apple will probably drop a patch in the next couple of weeks to fix it anyway.

[ezkiel @ Feb 9th 2006 1:43PM]

Yeah Apple screwed up but the problem is already solved on people running a newer version of OSX.

[Paul @ Feb 9th 2006 1:49PM]

#10 - the big deal is that people are watching the new hardware very carefully to see what happens.

it also doesn't hurt to see apple fanboys shifting nervously in their chairs as their flawless and oh-so-superior mac gets a hitch in its getalong

[Silver @ Feb 9th 2006 1:51PM]

"haha, his comment about Front Row is how I feel about macs in general. Replace "Front Row" with "The Mac". LOL"

Tee hee, hjones. If ignorance is bliss, then you must be one happy dude.

[Desides @ Feb 9th 2006 1:56PM]

"2. Apple and its products are flawless...or thats what the comments below this one will read."

Far more annoying than the occasional Apple cultist is the sentiment expressed in your comment.

Way to show off that platform insecurity.

[wickedawesome @ Feb 9th 2006 2:15PM]

There are TONS of complaints about everything, especially on Apple's forums, which are a particularly putrid cesspool of exasperated whining.

I think it's most telling that people silently tolerate problems like this on other systems, typically blaming the user. Only with Apple do people get so red in the face about things like this. I have to wonder who makes a bigger deal about Apple always having to be perfect, the hardcore fanbois or the snotty neophytes?

[RASHONMON @ Feb 9th 2006 2:19PM]

maybe Apple should have used the cell instead of itel processor.

[dcstimm @ Feb 9th 2006 2:43PM]

GUYS, This has been fixed, its a software issue, gezz, do your homework before releasing bad news to everyone..

read this damn website http://www.consumermachine.com/

it says installing 8G1165 of the software fixes this issue. While 8G1171 has the software glitch.

I hate when people dont read..

[bondo @ Feb 9th 2006 2:44PM]

"Convince yourself that Front Row is stupid, pointless, and unnecessary eye-candy and never, ever use it."

Gee... that has been my take on every mac since the LISA...

[Steve @ Feb 9th 2006 2:45PM]

I think I could live with Front Row, after all, Microsoft's Media Center ALWAYS crashes at the best part when I'm watching a DVD, nothing like rebooting in the middle of a car chase scene. Oh, and if you have > 100 CDs in your audio collection it takes about 1 sec to search for a song and about 3 minutes in Media Center/Player. Microsoft - "How long do you want to wait today?"

[bryan ribas @ Feb 9th 2006 2:50PM]

When it comes to Apple people blow things up. Like the nano & scratching. Maybe you should be more careful with your stuff and it would not scratch. I am going to buy my Imacs tomorrow and if it had a problem big deal that's why there is a warrantee. Bring it back and they will fix it. Stop crying on forums.

[USTommyMC @ Feb 9th 2006 3:21PM]

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one with this problem. I have the 20" iMac completely loaded (256MB VRAM, 2GB RAM, 500GB HD) and was dissapointed to see that Front Row is almost useless because of this issue. Hopefully a fix will be release without me having to ship my iMac anywhere.

[coasterjob @ Feb 9th 2006 3:25PM]

Enough whining. I read this blog every day, and there is always someone whining about Apple is great, or Apple sucks. Get over yourselves and shut up. It's like chocolate and vanilla, everyone has their favorite flavor, but your never hear people getting into a pissing contest at the Baskin Robbins!

[andrew @ Feb 9th 2006 3:30PM]

My PowerBook (G4 Ti, 550Mhz) used to do the same thing during some flash animations ad heavy Photoshop work (usually when resizing).


Eventually I figured out the problem had something to do with the RAM in my machine. Whenever I have a 256mb RAM chip in the top slot I get the "faint and intermittent patches of whatever graphics are on the screen appearing in random locations," along with ghosting and horizontal lines." When the top slot is empty I NEVER have a problem (except my older PowerBook gets even slower).

One chip is the 256mb that came with it, the other is a 256mb chip from Crucial. The only difference I can find on the two chips is that original Apple chip says CL3 and the Crucial RAM says CL2. It doesn�t matter which chip is in the top slot if they are both in there at the same time, I have the problem. If either chip is in the bottom slot and the top is left empty, everything is fine. Someday I will buy new RAM and see what happens. I figure it�s either a RAM compatibility issue or the RAM slot itself is bad.

The point being, the symptoms you guys are talking about are EXACTLY the same. So maybe, it�s just a RAM issue?

[Desert @ Feb 9th 2006 5:43PM]

Hmmm, my VPU crashes everytime I play Everquest II. Where's the news story on that?

[Nuno @ Feb 9th 2006 8:25PM]

I don�t get it!!! I use both, mac and pc with windows.
When i have hardware problems with my mac i go to store and repair it, or trade it, the same with my pc.
If I buy something and it�s "broken" i go to store and trade for a new one...
The thing is, every series of a product has a number of faulty ones. It happens in every industry.

Also i don�t understand fanboys, why deffend so much a product?
I like my mac because of the sleep feature, close the lid and it�s sleeping also the white light gives me warm feelings (kidding). I like my pc beacause i can change what ever i want. But do i deffend each one with my life?
Hell No!!! Get a life!!!

( if want to see real fanboys, go to a rich group of people and say that a porche is better than ferrari, or vice versa ... it�s even worse than mac vs pc)

Ps: sorry for my bad english.

[Ali Mudara @ Feb 10th 2006 5:04AM]

When apple said "What's an Intel chip doing in a Mac? A whole lot more than it's ever done in a PC." They were right....

[Thryon @ Feb 10th 2006 12:24PM]

WHAT??? Not true...say it ain't so...
Surely you jest. I think you should look deeper and find out that Microsoft is somehow behind this problem. You are not trying hard enough.

(just jocking in case you could not tell)

[Asim @ Feb 10th 2006 6:31PM]

Just bought a 20inch Intel IMac (256Mb ATI) from the UK, and browsing the the FrontRow menus results in major flicker and video repaint problems... hmmm. Nice.
Hope this is patchable!

[Bobby Name @ Feb 12th 2006 8:04PM]

"Convince yourself that Front Row is stupid, pointless, and unnecessary eye-candy and never, ever use it."

"Gee... that has been my take on every mac since the LISA..."

The LISA wasn't a Mac it was a different platform made by Apple...

[Asim @ Feb 14th 2006 3:30PM]

Oh and by the way... just tried iMovie HD on my new iMac20"... when you try to add themes to your movie project you also get bad video tearing/flickering!
(Possible overlay issues perhaps).

[Lance Wilson @ Feb 14th 2006 10:11PM]

I was having the same problem. I did the update today to 10.4.5 and is working just fine now.

[Jim Knowles @ Mar 5th 2006 11:27PM]

On MAC: I don't know squat about computers (comparitively to most people here probably) - i'm 53 and a pro photog. In order to stay in my profession I had learn EVERYTHING all over again -from shooting on digital to processing on Photoshop - and I had to have a #$(*%$& computer to stay in business. Somehow - without taking a single class / without ever having used a computer for anything in my entire life / without any help from anyone I was able to buy a computer and do everything I needed to do. It was NOT easy. It took a lot of time. But I was able to manage and remain in business. My first OS was 7 on a Power Computing Clone. Then I got winged on a 5300ce laptop that had so many problems it actually CAUSED Jobs to come back to APPLE to save the company. But that CLONE is still working - I bought my FIRST G4 as a 15" laptop in Sept. 2003 - that little pbook has done everything from photoshop to invoicing to quickbooks pro to email for 2 1/2 years wihtout a single problem / without a single repair / without a single glitch i couldn't handle all by myself.

And now I've got an iMac G5 INTEL - had it for 2 weeks - and it is great! I have the 256meg Vid card and 500 gig drive - the only problems I had so far besides a bad keyboard that freezes occasionally was when I first got it I made the mistake of loading some software from Msft which caused a conflict somewhere and would not allow me to get online. After a complete erase and install of orig software I've been flying.

I will never ever no matter what ever spend a single penny on anything made by Microsoft ever again - nor will I ever use any software made by those fools - not only is it ridiculously complicated to use - it is so full of bugs it's almost unusable anyway.

MAC ROCKS PERIOD - so get with the program man - you want to use some complicated piece of junk and be fixin computers for the rest of your life - g'head and use PC's and the crap software made for 'em.

I want to be productive. I'll stick with Mac.

[Fredo @ Mar 13th 2006 1:02PM]

My issue with my new iMacIntel is that I cannot get Flash to work, won't even load. I've been advised to find an earlier version of Flash, but Macromedia only has the current one. I'm at a loss here, trying to live in a cyber world where I can't play videos or animation. Any ideas?

[Jerry Bush @ Apr 17th 2006 4:37PM]

my new 17"imac with the intel chip died last week after only 2 months. Apple is replacing the hard drive, logic board, and power supply. Has anyone else had this problem? Geez, my family is extremely frustrated...

[Jared @ Apr 17th 2006 5:49PM]

Ladies and gentleman, Jim Knowles has spoken!.... at length!

[jonnysods @ Aug 5th 2006 11:28AM]

Yikes! There is a lot of griping on this forum! I have been a PC user for all my life (20 odd years of computing), and I have spent the bulk of my computer life restarting machines, replacing parts, locating drivers, dealing with crashes, freezing, almost more time dealing with BS than with computing.

I discovered Macs earlier this year while working with Final Cut - no crashes, no lagging, restarting, application crashes. And I worked that G4 like a dog. I am eagerly awaiting the next iMac upgrade because I'm going to go for it and get one, and kick my current PC to the curb, then kick it when it's down.

You guys need to pipe down with the complaining about Macs - if you think they are that bad, why don't you go onto some PC forums and see how the other half are really living.

[Rayx @ Oct 28th 2007 4:49PM]

Man, I have a new Inte iMac with 256Ram graphic card. The computer somtimes crashes ( too many times for a Macintosh ) and I sometimes see the horizontal black lines on startup but when I pass a window over them they dissapear.

What can I do? I'm going freaking nuts couse this suposse to be a Mac.

There's any program to avoid crashes or a manager for seeing if there's something going wrong with any program?