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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) on Monday released its second firmware update in three months to resolve screen issues with its 27-inch iMac computer.
This latest update is aimed at issues that "may cause intermittent display flickering," according to Apple's Web site.
Some 27-inch iMacs have been plagued by problems since the model was launched in October 2009, and it's been reported that Apple has temporarily stopped production of the computer.
Firmware to Finish Off Flickering?
Installing Apple's 27-inch iMac Display Firmware Update 1.0 requires the user to quit all open applications, then download the update, according to Article TS3207 on Apple's Web site.
The downloader will place the disk image with an installer in the user's Downloads folder or in the location the user specifies. The user will need the administrator password for the installation.
As firmware goes, the installation is fairly standard. However, users will need to check their systems. Some USB and FireWire devices may prevent firmware updates from installing correctly, Apple's Web site says. Users have to disconnect non-essential devices and use only an Apple keyboard and mouse to apply the update.
However, there's apparently a chance that the update will not quite work as hoped. "If your screen remains black after applying the update, contact AppleCare or an Apple Authorized Service Provider," Apple's Web page on the update reads. Users who continue to experience image corruption or display flickering have to make sure they have also installed the iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0.
Apple released the iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0 in December to correct image corruption and display flickering.
If the 27-inch iMac still has display issues after both firmware updates have been completed, users should contact AppleCare or an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
They Call Me Mellow Yellow
Some owners of the 27-inch iMac may not be satisfied even if the display problems addressed by the latest firmware update are resolved. Many have also been complaining about the computer's screen having a yellowish tint.
As of Tuesday, there were 43 pages on Apple's discussion boards devoted to the yellow problem.
Users Mathias Buergin, jajo.j, and jteschner were among those complaining about the yellowish tinge. Buergin's iMac was replaced by Apple but it, too, had the tinge, the poster claimed. "Just received my replacement iMac 27-inch," Buergin wrote. The new computer's yellow tint was apparently even worse than that of the first. "Together with the yellow tinge fading to the bottom it has a vertical yellow strip right from the center of the screen. It looks terrible if you have a grey background or if you drag a finder window across the desktop area."
According to some users, even dealers have the same problem. "I visited a local Mac retailer today and their demo 27-inch [iMac] had it. Looked exactly like my iMac, even the same shape of the yellow tinted area. Sounds very much like a panel fault to me," jajo.j wrote. "I talked to another Mac retailer in my town and he confirmed that their demo 27-inch [iMac] has it too," the poster wrote.
"I [have] just been to my Apple reseller and demo models they have also has
Some users also complained that their 21-inch iMacs suffered from a yellowish tinge on their screens.
Born Under a Bad Sign?
Although Phil Schiller, senior vice president of world wide product marketing at Apple, hailed it as "the best desktop computer in the world" at the unveiling, the 27-inch iMac has been plagued by problems since its launch in October 2009.
By mid-December, there were hundreds of complaints from users about their brand new iMacs on the Web. Most of them appeared to concern 27-inch iMacs. Many complaints centered on flickering displays; other issues were cracked screens, the yellowish tinge, noisy screens, computers that would not boot and dead pixels. There were also complaints about problems with the processors.
At the time the complaints first started to surface, Broadpoint Amtech Analyst Brian Marshall said that the problem was probably due to Apple's using AMD (NYSE: AMD) ATI (Nasdaq: ATYT) graphics cards in its iMac instead of the Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) graphics cards it uses in its other models.
Why is a company once noted for the quality of its products being hit with so many quality issues on a line of computers in which it had so much confidence?
It's the size of the screen, Carl Howe, director of anywhere research at the Yankee Group, told MacNewsWorld. "The problem is that the 27-inch monitor is a unique beast," he explained. "The 20- and 24-inch monitors are a dime a dozen, but just try to buy a 27-inch monitor from anyone and you're likely to come up empty."
Apple is selling a unique LCD product for which there is likely only one supplier, Howe said. He suspects that supplier is Korea's LG Electronics, the world's second largest manufacturer of television sets.
"The challenge with a unique LCD size is that, if anything goes wrong at that supplier, Apple can't swap in another supplier, because no one builds that size of LCD," Howe said. "Apple would literally need to get a company to start up a new production line to do that."
Yellow is Not for Apple
The yellow tint is a problem that could seriously impact Apple, Howe said.
"Color accuracy is one of Apple's key value propositions to the designer community, so it should be addressing the problem of the yellow tinge," Howe explained. "But this, too, is mostly constrained by the fact that the screen's a single-supplier product."
Apple did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
