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As most of you probably know I ordered a new iMac late last year, but when I finally received it in early January it was suffering from the dreaded yellow screen tint. After a simple phone call to Apple Customer Care they agreed to send me an advanced replacement. This replacement was due to arrive on the 28th of January. I got a phone call from Apple on the morning of the 28th telling me there was delay in shipment, and my new machine wouldn’t be here till February the 19th! Anyway, to my surprise I received an email on the 29th stating my iMac had shipped and that I’d receive it today.

Thankfully the new machine (on the left) doesn’t suffer from the yellow tint, the hard drive in it also seems a lot quieter. I thought I’d have a bit of fun and see what it’d be like if I were running these two in a dual screen kind of setup, have to say I was starting to get used to it until I finally gave in and started the Migration Assistant! It’s currently got just under two hours to go and I’ll have to start clearing the old one and packing it up. Never nice to wave goodbye to any Mac equipment, even if it is faulty.

Well it finally arrived. After waiting the best part of 3 weeks, my iMac showed it’s face on the 6th of January, a full day ahead of schedule. After eagerly unpacking it I prayed the glass was intact, it was. I then prayed it would boot, it did. So far, so good (I thought)

I’ve been following a few forums online with plenty of people complaining about various ailments their iMacs are suffering from. This put me on tender hooks, I didn’t know what to expect when I turned it on. The first thing I noticed was the lack of any dead pixels, which is always a good thing. After a few minutes of use though, I did notice something, the dreaded yellow screen tint problem was clearly visible. The bottom section of the screen, more towards the right hand side, is a very warm colour, whereas the rest of the screen is clarity personified. I was slightly upset.

I ran through a few more tests to see if there were any other problems, the hard drive wasn’t noisy, the screen didn’t flicker or blackout and I had no beach-balling problems whatsoever, the thing really does fly to be fair! This made me wonder whether I could forget the yellow tint problem and just get on with it, after all, it is a beast of a machine and I was loving using it.

So, after two days of trying, I finally cracked! For the money I paid I think the machine should be perfect, hell it should be better than perfect! So I called Apple, they were very helpful and have agreed to send me an advanced replacement, meaning I can keep the current machine until the new one arrives. It’s a bit of a lottery at the moment though, will I get a machine that is 100% perfect? It could get even worse…?

I ordered this machine on the 16th of December knowing there was a 2 week lead time on them. For the first few days I was constantly checking the tracking hoping a miracle would happen and I’d have it before Christmas. I was wrong. I got the ‘Shipped’ email off Apple late on Christmas Eve (24th Dec) which was a week earlier than they had initially quoted. I was pleased and was hoping I’d have it in my hands before the new year kicked off. I kept checking the status online, but had still not been given a tracking number. I went through the usual antics of using Apple’s delivery reference number on a host of courier websites (TNT, UPS etc) but to no avail.

After a phone call to Apple they told me to expect my tracking number on the 4th of January. So yesterday came and went without any sign of an email, I phoned again. This time the representative told me my Mac was on schedule for a 7th of Jan delivery. I asked him regarding the tracking number and he said I won’t get one until the carrier in the UK pick it up! So basically I hear nothing until the day of delivery! I think this is shocking by Apple. I’ve been reading various online forum posts regarding shipment of their i7 iMacs. Many people in the USA have had their orders before me even though they didn’t order until late December! Not only that, they had full tracking info all the way from Shanghai to their front door.

Let me just say, I’m hoping and praying I don’t get a machine with any of the following symptoms

• Yellow tainted screen
• Dead pixels
• Grumbling Hard Drive
• Flickering & Blackout issues
• iSight with dead pixels
• Cracked Glass