Are some iMac Corei7 models shipping D.O.A.?
Fresh from the “uh-oh, watch out for” department, Engadget warns that some - by no means all - Core i7-based iMacs may suffer a couple of technical faults, one of which sees the all-new superpowered Mac turn up D.O.A.
“A quick glance across Apple's support forums and on other Mac boards around the web reveals that some machines are showing up D.O.A. and / or with cracked screens,” the report explains.
“We're a little more familiar with the D.O.A. issue, since the new i7 we just bought doesn't boot at all,” Engadget adds, but observes that this fault only seems to affect a minority of machines.
Assuming your model’s unaffected, the performance gains offered by these new Macs seem pretty impressive (see chart).
The 27-inch 2.66 GHz Core i5 750 iMac has a suggested retail price of $1,999, with the 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 860 processor available as a $200 upgrade. Both systems include:
- quad-core processor with 8MB shared L3 cache
- 27-inch 2560 x 1440 LED-backlit display
- 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB
- ATI Radeon HD 4850 discrete graphics; with 512MB GDDR3
- 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm
- A slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+ / -R DL/DVD+ / -RW/CD-RW).
This could also be a good time to note that Amazon offers AppleCare Protection Plans for various models of Mac at much, much cheaper prices than if you purchase them originally from Apple itself.
AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac, for example, costs just $131.56 from Amazon, against Apple’s price: $169. Check out other deals on this invaluable protection right here.
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Comments (20)
Seriously. If this issue were happening to another manufacturer's products we'd all be talking about how bad they are. This is a serious issue for Apple! I'm not suprised though. As we all know Apple have many different companies making different parts of their products and most of these companies are in China. Apple have to do this to keep their manufacturing costs down because their profit margins are so low because we all want cheap products. Anyway given the nature of Chinese sweatshops (i mean factories) these things are bound to happen.
Agree. This is unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.
I would be more inclined to believe it is a packaging issue, not a design issue. Having seen a UPS delivery driver litteraly drop a flatscreen tv in box out of his truck, packaging is very important in protecting a product, especially when it is being handled by third parties or careless employees. The product is probably fine, the packaging(especially with that edge to edge glass) probably needs to be either beefed up or redesigned a bit.
I mostly agree, but Apple's profit margins are in the mid thirties... not exactly "low", as you say.
I was about to come here and post this... glad you guys realize how hard you are on other companies
Is it just me I have been noticing most blogs are digging up and publishing whatever dirt they can find on Apple. And every tiny bit concerned Apple make news. Lol...
I'd rather there by no disturbing reports regarding the quality of Apple products. However, I would be more disturbed to find that those knew about the problems didn't care and did nothing to correct the problems. Time will tell.
If this is as real a problem as believed, Apple needs to refund purchasers their money, delay further shipments, investigate the cause(s) of the problem, resolve the problem, and inform the public what steps are being taken to prevent recurrence of the problem.
Apple's silence demonstrates no respect or concern to its customers, irresponsibility to the public, and despicable corporate hubris.
My Apple's a lemon to which I give Steve jobs a big raspberry.
Seriously, quality control is slipping terribly and Apple is being negligent.
I still have over a week to wait for my i7 iMac. If it arrives DOA I am going to be extremely pissed.
I'm waiting for mine to turn up, should be next Friday if it don't work I'm going to go mad!!!!!
I find a DOA product fairly refreshing. A DOA product is clearly broken, and I don't need to waste a lot of time configuring and then recovering. I can immediately return it with no questions asked.
In contrast, a machine that craps out 30 days after arrival sucks. By then I've spent a lot of time configuring it. Then I'll need to restore all that data, convince the manufacturer that I didn't break it, and repeat the entire process with a replacement machine that might suffer the same fate.
Apparently, Apple will gladly sell you a completely nonfunctional iMac that you can return at your convenience...again...and again...and again.
Not surprised at all....
I think many of you people should be complaining to Fed Express or UPS instead of Apple. In this case, you can blame the messenger for flinging Apple products off the backs of their trucks. And exactly how many of these iMacs got damaged? A huge number of like maybe five out of a 100,000? And they'll all be replaced free of charge, so what's the big deal? File this article under "another minor incident being blown too far out of proportion by bloggers looking to stir up controversy."
Some of the posts I have read indicated that iMacs were delivered in boxes without any visible external damage. If the boxes were delivered intact once could reasonable surmise the damage or defect occurred prior to shipping.
I have had an i7 iMac since Nov 9th. So far working just fine. Great high quality machine.
The fact that the boxes are undamaged tells me that Apple has a product packaging problem. That means the mechanical design of the product is at fault. Edge to edge glass is sexy but very imprctical, it is a problem just looking for a place to happen.
Computers that arive DOA or fail almost immediately after being powered up suggest internal connectors coming loose. Again it sounds like a product packaging problem.
I'd like to know if Apple turns these machines on when they come from Chiona or just ships them out the door.
I was about to order an iMAC core i7, 4gb, 1TB etc
Kind of worried abou these issues now.
Don't want to spend almost £2k and go through all this hassle.
I ordered my IMAC, base 27 inch model from Amazon. When I received the package, there were gashes in the outside box and going through the imac box. Luckily the one that went into the imac box went into the protective foam. The other ones did not penetrate into the actual imac box. I felt the shipping of my computer was not handled properly. The box that Amazon put it in was a plain brown box, with no indication of Fragile or Handle With Care. I know this box got tossed around and treated like every other package, which it shouldn't have since there is breakable glass inside. I was lucky that the part of my imac box that was damaged was at the protective foam. If it would have been in the center of the box, I'm almost sure my screen would have been cracked.
How can Amazon package this item without identifying that it should be handled with care? This isn't a 20 dollar thing I ordered, I dropped a lot of cash to get this. Even if there was not a monitor involved, computer components can get damaged by tossing it around like that (not to mention driving swords through the box, which is how my box looks). I filed a shipping complaint with Amazon and uploaded pictures of my box. This was earlier this week, I haven't heard anything back yet. My computer luckily survived whatever the hell it was put through getting here, but I can understand if ones show up DOA or cracked if this is how the packages are being handled.