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turtle777 · Apr 20, 2004, 10:01 AM

Hey guys,

after reading some stories about the eMac's supposedly horrible CRT monitor and endless problems, I'd like to find out how many of you actually have encountered problems.

So here is the poll...

bobthecannibal · Apr 20, 2004, 10:57 AM

Ive had my emac for about three months now and have not had any porblem with it.

I have three other monitors in my room

a 19inch flatscreen hitachi

a 17inch flatscreen samsung (attached to my emac as a second monitor)

and a 15inch fujitsu normal crt monitor

the emac monitor is by far the best out of all in terms of clarity and picture quality

i havee terrrible problems with interfearence in my room and all but my emac monitors shake late at night.

So as far i have not had a problem and have not seen any emac monitor problems but then again ive only seen about 5 other emac monitors long enough to notice a problem.

turtle777 · Apr 20, 2004, 12:39 PM

Originally posted by bobthecannibal:
Ive had my emac for about three months now and have not had any porblem with it.

I have three other monitors in my room
...
the emac monitor is by far the best out of all in terms of clarity and picture quality

Great, that's good to hear.

I am considering buying an eMac, but was kind a blown off by so many negative comments.
It' s good to hear positive stuff as well...

Thx,
-t

Jacke · Apr 20, 2004, 07:48 PM

I've experienced it first-hand, but luckily I had the Video adapter so I could just hook it up to the TV and back up the important stuff before sending it off to be repaired. Ever since I got it back it's been running flawlessly.

If you get an eMac with a faulty monitor you'll notice fairly early. I'm glad that the problem appeared while it was still under warranty as opposed to after a few years like with my rev. b iMac, which had a similar problem...

turtle777 · Apr 26, 2004, 10:01 AM

Originally posted by Jacke:

If you get an eMac with a faulty monitor you'll notice fairly early. I'm glad that the problem appeared while it was still under warranty as opposed to after a few years like with my rev. b iMac, which had a similar problem...

From what I heared, the problem was not the monitor itself, but the graphics card and the connecting cable (bad solder connections).

THAT does not necessarily show up right away, but can take time.

In addition, it seemed like problems got worse the hotter the eMac got. So brining it to an Apple Dealer and hooking it up sometimes did not show the problem right away since the eMac was still cold.

-t

Kilbey · Apr 26, 2004, 10:19 AM

The monitor on my eMac looks great. I have it set at the highest resolution and it is rock steady.

I have only had it for a few months though. I am still thinking about getting Applecare before the warranty runs out.

spookykids · Apr 26, 2004, 02:27 PM

the eMac line had some terrible problems with the screen a while ago. this has now been fixed by apple as far as i know.

ive only heard of old stories about emac problems, but never about newer emacs.

sillyputty1967 · May 8, 2004, 07:16 PM

Right away I could tell that my new 1.25 Mhz eMac's monitor was not as sharp as my original 700 Mhz eMac. After examing the display very closely, it appears that the center of the screen is sort of soft and blurry, but the outer edges are sharp, though even those are not consistently sharp--for instance, the bottom edge of the screen (just where I like my dock) is noticeably blurrier than the extreme left and right sides. The top edge of the screen is slightly blurry as well. The centermost blurry area also exhibits a slight, dirty discoloration, though the effect is subtle. I called Apple support, and they recommended I take it into an authorized service center, which I intend to do.

Makki · May 11, 2004, 01:18 AM

No probs here...
I have had my eMac since Feb and i have not noticed or experinced any troubles with my monitor at all.

Makki

irnbrumike · May 12, 2004, 03:11 PM

my eMac is almost 2 now, and the only thing I experieince is the screen shiimer when the resolution is set high, and I'm crankin' the music.

unfaded · May 12, 2004, 05:41 PM

No eMac problems to date - I think the newest revisions have licked them for good.

joeswell · May 14, 2004, 04:11 PM

We bought an eMac for my son last November. No problems. Worked great out of the box. The only problem with installing the airport extreme card. Once I got it seated in the little slot correctly, the airport card, the computer, everything has been perfect... knock on wood.

Kristoff · May 14, 2004, 04:41 PM

I am neurotic, obsessive, compulsive, and such--so take this with a grain of salt.

I spent 45 minutes trying to adjust the geometry of my Mother-in-law's new 1.25 GHz eMac. I got it pretty close to perfectly square, but it's got a bit of an indentation on the upper left screen about 1" down from the apple

dj_psypher · May 14, 2004, 05:23 PM

Originally posted by sillyputty1967:
Right away I could tell that my new 1.25 Mhz eMac's monitor was not as sharp as my original 700 Mhz eMac. After examing the display very closely, it appears that the center of the screen is sort of soft and blurry, but the outer edges are sharp, though even those are not consistently sharp--for instance, the bottom edge of the screen (just where I like my dock) is noticeably blurrier than the extreme left and right sides. The top edge of the screen is slightly blurry as well. The centermost blurry area also exhibits a slight, dirty discoloration, though the effect is subtle. I called Apple support, and they recommended I take it into an authorized service center, which I intend to do.

RE: Yes, we bought 3 eMacs and returned 2 of them for this reason, only to get two more with the same problem though not as severe. It's very subtle, and it may just be noticable because the screen is so sharp. But none the less it is annoying to have inconsistent color across the screen. I'm fairly sure that this is a normal issue with eMacs and there is really no way around it. Unless you are looking at consistent tones, however, or you are a photo editor of some type, I doubt this would have any effect on your work. It is disappointing, but I guess you get what you pay for in a low end Mac originally designed for education, where color is not quite as critical as in the professional work place, and students are unlikely to complain about such issues.

wuf810 · May 14, 2004, 05:35 PM

Bought eMac couple of weeks ago. Screen is not particularly sharp and worse still is that the left hand side of the screen shows strange colouration and a sort of washed out effect.

Strangest of all is that if I turn the machine on its side, then the latter problems disapear although its still not sharp.

M.

unfaded · May 14, 2004, 08:04 PM

Are you near a source of interference? That sounds very much like interference.

sjk · May 15, 2004, 05:10 AM

Originally posted by Kristoff:
I spent 45 minutes trying to adjust the geometry of my Mother-in-law's new 1.25 GHz eMac. I got it pretty close to perfectly square, but it's got a bit of an indentation on the upper left screen about 1" down from the apple

Ahh, thanks for the clue to notice the Geometry settings under Display preferences. I missed 'em when I bumped the resolution up to 1280x960. Wish the refresh rate were higher at that res since flickering is noticeable when focusing on certain text/graphics on the screen (e.g. Dock icons), but after using 1024x768 for 2.5 years on an iBook I'll live with that 'til I upgrade to a system with a nice LCD later this year. My wife likes the eMac so she'll have no trouble inheriting it then, and I'll finally be relieved of having to help her with Windows on her old Toshiba notebook.

After booting the eMac when it arrived yesterday I immediately noticed the left side of the Dock seemed a slight bit higher than the right so now I can tweak the rotation a bit. And move the height/width out a little. Yeah, that looks better now. I'll check it more closely later when I'm not as bug-eyed from making adjustments.

I'm curious if color calibration would matter but I don't know enough to mess with that (yet). Never touched it on my iBook.

mitchell_pgh · May 15, 2004, 07:23 AM

I think it's standard that when someone has a problem (especially in this forum) that they tend to post as many threads as they can.

While you do find them, you hardly ever see a "I've got an iBook/eMac and have had no problems" threads.

You will also find that maturity has a good bit to do with how the thread turns out. Some younger (and sadly older) people tend to feel that they deserve compensation should their system fail (AKA, not only the repair of their system, but a free upgrade as well).

It's unfortunate.

jfryar · May 15, 2004, 09:19 AM

Bought an earlier (880MHz) eMac in December of 2002. Experienced the raster shift problem about a month later. I took the computer to the local Apple store where it was fixed in about a week. The only problem I have had since is an occasional small momentary shrinkage of the screen after which the picture returns to the normal size - maybe happens once a day or every couple of days. This time the shrinking is of the entire viewing area, unlike the raster shift in which the bottom of the picture would "shrink" upward and the Finder menu would disappear into top of the monitor. Hopefully this "minor annoyance" is as far as it will go this time. Other than that, I am very happy with the computer.

Originally posted by turtle777:
Hey guys,

after reading some stories about the eMac's supposedly horrible CRT monitor and endless problems, I'd like to find out how many of you actually have encountered problems.

So here is the poll...

nat · May 15, 2004, 09:27 AM

2 700mhz eMacs and both work great. I've been thinking about getting a newer one but looks like I'll wait since there are a few posts here about it's display.

macmonkey · May 15, 2004, 11:18 AM

I work tech support for the campus newspaper. They bought four, one has the screen issue--came about just a few weeks after the one year ran out. It would take $500 to get it repaired, on a $750 machine, so we're just waiting to buy a new machine in the fall instead.

David Joyce · May 15, 2004, 05:17 PM

I have a client who purchased 20 eMac's in December. To date we have returned 4 to Apple for display repairs. Each one required some hardware replacement. In addition, we are keeping an eye on at least 2 others that seem to display (no pun) the potential for a service call. Not a great track record as far as my client is concerned. Hopefully Apple has resolved this issue.

olePigeon · May 15, 2004, 05:22 PM

We have 22 eMacs and not one exhibited problems with the CRT. We did have 1 serviced for a bad USB port, and another was eventaully replaced when it was having problems booting.

We're in the process of ordering 42 new eMacs. I can let you guys know by mid summer if any of them have CRT problems. But so far we haven't had any.

turtle777 · May 15, 2004, 07:59 PM

Originally posted by olePigeon:
We have 22 eMacs and not one exhibited problems with the CRT. We did have 1 serviced for a bad USB port, and another was eventaully replaced when it was having problems booting.

Wow, that's quite amazing.

Judging from some of the stories that are out there you would think that at least 1 in 4 has serious problems.

I really wonder what the true picture of that is...

-t

rspress · May 15, 2004, 09:00 PM

I have had the "raster shift" myself. Six weeks after getting my new eMac. The repair worked and it has not come back but the video is not really up to par. It is often jumpy at the bottom of the display but livable. The superdrive stopped burning discs nearly one year to the day from purchase, the mouse had to be replaced after 9 month. I would not purchase another eMac.

Anyone who has an eMac should purchase Applecare if they have not already done so or if they still can. As soon as mine is up in a couple of years I will be overclocking it and a few other tricks to get a little more speed out of it..

Spiritman · May 15, 2004, 10:00 PM

The new eMacs have a different design and no longer are plagued with the monitor problems.....

King Bob On The Cob · May 16, 2004, 12:09 AM

Originally posted by rspress:
I have had the "raster shift" myself. Six weeks after getting my new eMac. The repair worked and it has not come back but the video is not really up to par. It is often jumpy at the bottom of the display but livable. The superdrive stopped burning discs nearly one year to the day from purchase, the mouse had to be replaced after 9 month. I would not purchase another eMac.

Anyone who has an eMac should purchase Applecare if they have not already done so or if they still can. As soon as mine is up in a couple of years I will be overclocking it and a few other tricks to get a little more speed out of it..

I have slight video problems (my screen shakes on wake and the screen has little distortion lines on the outside). My superdrive failed also (Since been replaced by a newer burner by myself)

Detrius · May 16, 2004, 12:27 AM

Originally posted by King Bob On The Cob:
I have slight video problems (my screen shakes on wake and the screen has little distortion lines on the outside). My superdrive failed also (Since been replaced by a newer burner by myself)

The fact that your display shakes on wake is actually a feature and not a problem. This is the screen degaussing--doing what it can to remove any internal magnetic residual interference. Also, Apple notes in internal documents that turning the volume all the way up produces distortion in the screen. They say not to turn it up so loud--it's powerful for quality, not for volume.

To everyone else: The eMac does not have any kind of adjustments that we techs can do (the slot load iMacs did). In general, we just replace the Display/Analog assembly, which is the PAV board *AND* the CRT. They don't come separate anymore (like the iMacs). However, a big thing to note is that there is a simple IVAD cable inside the eMac that causes most of the odd geometry issues. Replacing this cable can fix all of your problems. So, if you are having weird geometry issues, it should probably just be a simple cable replacement. Note however that nothing involving CRTs is truly simple. This is much better than the Display/Analog assembly, though. It's possible and likely that not all techs are aware of this cable.

sjk · May 16, 2004, 01:32 AM

Originally posted by Spiritman:
The new eMacs have a different design and no longer are plagued with the monitor problems.....

That's what I've read from trustable sources and it was an important consideration in my choice to buy one.

turtle777 · May 25, 2004, 01:29 PM

Originally posted by turtle777:

So here is the poll...

Ok, 2263 hits so far, but only 70 took the poll.

What's wrong ?
Did I forget an important category ?
So many people have no opinion at all ?

A little weird...

-t

tooki · May 26, 2004, 01:46 AM

Umm, some of us are just reading it, and do not own eMacs or have anyone who's had one with problems.

tooki

May 26, 2004, 04:51 AM

The Apple eMac "Raster Shift" Group

turtle777 · May 26, 2004, 09:48 AM

Originally posted by tooki:
Umm, some of us are just reading it, and do not own eMacs or have anyone who's had one with problems.

tooki

Ok, I see what you're saying.

D is not an option because you know of the problem, but you don't know anyone with any problems.

Why is C not an option for you ?

Still, to get a clearer picture, I think you should vote c or D.
That at least could correct some people's perception that every other eMac is faulty...

-t

cityroots · May 26, 2004, 11:28 PM

Hi Everybody

Two days ago I ordered an new eMac 1.25Ghz.
When I turned it on I noticed that the upperside of the display was not horizontal at all.
The bottomside was oke.
The shop decided to send me another one but when I turned it on it had the same problem.
the right uppercorner is positioned at least a half centemeter lower than the left upper corner.
I get seasick when I look at it.
Watch out with the eMac even when it is from the new serie.
I packed both machines back in their box and I want my money back.
This product really sucks!!!

Robert Brans

THERON_WHITE · Jun 14, 2004, 11:13 PM

My stepson has had an eMac for nearly a year. The display went all fuzzy and the machine had to be taken to an Apple store, some four hours away. The video board was replaced and the company returned the computer three days later. The display is even more screwed up than before. It shows the effects of gaussing, what happens when you move a magnet around on a CRT screen. The machine will not de-gauss itself, which tells me it's, again, a faulty video board.

I am thoroughly hacked that the company disclaims any responsibility whatsoever for the problem and will not do right, which is, to replace the video board again.

I am talking to Jean Toulouse, the senior vice president and director of AppleCare. I am taking my case to Cupertino, where I believe the address (1 Infinite Loop Drive) may actually be a metaphor for the process of getting this eMac repaired.

Any similar experience out there?

sideus · Jun 14, 2004, 11:27 PM

Originally posted by THERON_WHITE:
My stepson has had an eMac for nearly a year. The display went all fuzzy and the machine had to be taken to an Apple store, some four hours away. The video board was replaced and the company returned the computer three days later. The display is even more screwed up than before. It shows the effects of gaussing, what happens when you move a magnet around on a CRT screen. The machine will not de-gauss itself, which tells me it's, again, a faulty video board.

I am thoroughly hacked that the company disclaims any responsibility whatsoever for the problem and will not do right, which is, to replace the video board again.

I am talking to Jean Toulouse, the senior vice president and director of AppleCare. I am taking my case to Cupertino, where I believe the address (1 Infinite Loop Drive) may actually be a metaphor for the process of getting this eMac repaired.

Any similar experience out there?

So they replaced the video display and now deny any acknowledgement of the problem? I'm sure if you bring it back to the Apple Store and show them the problem they'll take care of it.

I'm thinking you don't want to drive another 8 hours round trip to solve the problem.

THERON_WHITE · Jun 15, 2004, 03:09 PM

Originally posted by sideus:
So they replaced the video display and now deny any acknowledgement of the problem? I'm sure if you bring it back to the Apple Store and show them the problem they'll take care of it.

I'm thinking you don't want to drive another 8 hours round trip to solve the problem.

Yes, I can take it back to the Apple store, but not entirely confident it will be fixed or that yet another similar thing won't go wrong. It is, to say the least, inconvenient.

If I were Apple, I would not want people bringing hardware problems into the stores, but, instead, would rather deal with them by FedEx and phone. During the half-hour I was there, the service techs dealt with three hardware problems. Having seen them, I left not a little confused.