Back on the phone to the senior engineer/manager and I asked for a replacement machine as this one is fubard but there’s no chance as apparently I am out of the 30day window (Mac was bought on 20th August), despite my protestations regarding the issues I have been having from new. Apple will not even collect the machine for repair, it is now up to me to drive to Carlisle and hand the Mac in for repair at an authorised Mac repair store which I plan to do on Wednesday.

If your problems started within the 30 day window are you not covered? I would argue, that the machine since the start hasn’t been working how it was advertised.

On the safari issue, I never use it, it was shit and google chrome worked much better imho.

@Mister-P – Maybe the ex-girlfriend in the Golf 🙂

Safari does that a lot so possible red-herring. clearing the cache usually fixes it temporarily or using another browser (e.g for most google stuff).

Random shutdowns does tend to point to a hardware problem. I’d be looking at the system logs to see if any errors were reported at the timestamp before it shut down. Or if it just hard failed you might see random chars in there which is almost certainly a hardware failure (as it’s a mac so a closed system and not a kernel issue with a component).

This is covered in the Consumer Rights Act. You are still entitled to a refund as the issues started within the 30 days. Talk to your bank about a charge back (still applies to debit cards)

This. Have a chat with your bank.

Although, having thought about it, I think it’s not a question of reporting the fault within 30, you actually have to return it within 30.

Which leaves you the six month threshold – during which they need to be given a chance to repair.

@somapunk

Have you actually tried removing the memory that came with it yet?

the_muffin-man
epicyclo – a brand new iMac should handle it with ease though.

About the only reason I want a Mac now is for BBEdit.

Everything else is basically internet and photos.

LibreOffice opens old Mac files that I can’t open with current Mac software, eg where the original programme has been obsoleted by Mac. I’ve been caught out a few times too often by Mac ditching perfectly good software. It’s a real bummer when you need to look at a very old document to discover you can’t see it as it looked originally.

I’ll probably be on Linux soon after 30 years on the Apple ecosystem.

That’s not a complaint. Mac computers were stand outs in their time for ease of use, and when you ran a business with staff as I did, the value of a system that did not need gurus, network experts or extensive training to use was well worth the Apple hipster tax. That’s commonplace now though.

These days I grudge spending what I willingly paid 30 years ago for a specced up SE/30 for something a zillion times more capable.

I suspect the next version of the Raspberry Pi will handle my current needs. 🙂

I think there are two things: The Consumer Rights Act 30 day thing, and Apple’s no quibble return within (I think) 14 days. Your tech guy might have been talking about the latter without realising that the consumer rights act also applies. AIUI, if you have reported the problem within 30 days, the Consumer Rights Act still applies.

At the moment, I’m sure Apple thinks this is a resolvable software issue. If you can prove there’s a hardware problem then it’ll be far easier for you to get it replaced (even if only under a standard 12/24 month warranty).

If you haven’t already done so, run the hard drive health check in the Disk Utility app to see if that throws any errors.

If that comes back clean, you may wish to delve a bit deeper E.g. http://www.rawinfopages.com/mac/content/access-hidden-disk-utility-commands-using-terminal-macos

I’m sure if you tell Apple you’re going to do a charge-back they’ll take notice…

Can’t do much with it as it’s stuck on apple log in screen with process bar, no matter what I do will not boot up in safe mode either.

first thing is to make a backup of anything important if you have not done so.
then keep the backup far away from your mac for the time being.

My advice wold be to get the fusion drive swapped with a SSD.
the later MacOS uses a new APFS file system instead HFS+
it is optimised for SSD/flash drives and does all sorts of encription and other background tasks as well as completely altering the way changes to files are handled.

Buggy and unreliable in weird and wonderful ways… bu some people have no issues?

high sierra on an old cheesegrater MacPro is a cheap and high performing if you want to geek out a little bit. You can run any OS you want in a virtual machine which covers you for compatability forwards and back.

PS macrumours has a helpful forum.

try command+r for recovery mode?

or Option-Command-R
Shift-Option-Command-R

for internet based recovery

I suspect the next version of the Raspberry Pi will handle my current needs. 🙂

Well that’s all fine and dandy!

Some of us just like nice things – and a 27″ 5k iMac is a nice thing to use. And my experience of Apple is they last for years. My 2010 MacBook Pro is still being used by my daughter for her sixth form work (even gets other pupils looking at it wondering how it’s still going!). My 2009 iMac is still be used by my parents for all their internet/email/banking needs.

I’ve lost count of how many Macs I’ve had in business (print) and personally, but I know only 2 of them gave me trouble and that was when they were brand new (motherboard failure and HD failure).

Do you still have the original laptop and a 16GB USB drive?

It will take a bit of doing but download a copy of the Catalina software from a torrent site of your choice and use the laptop to make a USB install disk.

Fire up iMac via this USB install disk. Safari is normally part of the bare-bones OS you get in this set up (or was).

Run the hardware check from the USB stick and let us know what it says!

If the fusion drive is dead the disk utility should let you know.

Armed with this knowledge head back to Apple and insist on your CRA rights (polite assertion recommended). If denied try getting them to confirm in the confirmation that they are denying your CRA rights.

Iffoverload : my time machine backup hd is unplugged and moved to a drawer, I’ll ask the apple service center at Carlisle if they’ll fit a 1tb ssd in place of the fusion drive as I’ve since found out the many issues folk have been having with them on iMacs, dunno if/how that would possibly affect any further warranty issues if they arrive in the future.

Tried the command d option last night but no joy so I’ll leave it alone.

download a copy of the Catalina software from a torrent site of your choice

Why on earth would you risk doing that?

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372

cmd-d is the diagnostics test, will likely not start if the drive is on the blink

the alt-cmd-r will attemt to start you mac from a recovery disk over the internet

if the problem is the drive and your internet connection is ok it should start up

Yeah I concluded about 10 years back that Apple basically don’t GAS about Mac users.

I had very poor treatment from the ‘geniuses’ a few times with Mac problems. I remember once I was in there begging for a serious problem with my macbook pro to be fixed, and while i was in there they replaced a girl’s smashed iphone screen for free.
Pretty annoying considering mine was a well known and commonly occurring fault with the product, and hers was 100% user error. But it shows Apple’s attitude at the time.

Sad for me as a (now ex-) fanboy but it makes good business sense really, as they make most of their money on iphones and ipads.

I’ve always bought from Jigsaw 24 or KRCS – independent dealers so good service matters to them.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372

This can sometimes not to work if your computer doesn’t support the software.

Mister P : for you,

16v conversion with built ABT engine from a guy at ABT sports line in (Germany) I got talking to when I went with a mate to collect his new B4 RS4 ABT, got talking bout my mk2 gti and he mentioned about the engine he built for his track car and I eventually managed to convince him to sell it to me.

192bhp at 7500rpm-revved freely up to 8500rpm, custom profiled cams, balanced/profiled crank, bored and larger forged pistons/conrods, uprated oil pump/oil cooler/custom baffled sump. stand alone ignition/engine management, fettled gearbox with selected ratios for acceleration rather than top speed and quaife lsd, quick shift gear linkage, twin Webber’s with uprated fuel pump, custom stainless miltek 4 branch manifold and exhaust, all ports matched for flow, fully polybushed and camber adjustment top mounts with bilstein b12 shocks, eichbach springs and anti roll bars. Vibratechnics engine/gearbox mounts, custom quick rack steering rack/ upgraded brakes/discs. Basically if it was possible, this car had it and it would easily see off a modern golf

Was a bit thirsty though, I would regularly see sub 18 mpg but didn’t mind as it was a hoot to drive and the throttle response/overrun pops were addictive, if you drove carefully you’d get mid 20mpg which was fine

No longer mine though as I’ve been unable to drive it for the last 4years so decided to sell it, I needed the cash as disability benefits don’t amount to much, no point in hanging on to the past as it’s the type of car that deserves to used n’ abused (within reason).

I got bored with Apple chat TBH, but I’m glad I persevered for the Golf pics. That’s lush.

Second trying Command+R to go into recovery mode and run disk utility. Also as previously mentioned remove the original RAM (not the extra RAM you installed) or all RAM and try one stick at a time.

I don’t know if it has been suggested, but holding down P, R, command & option & while it reboot twice saved my old iBook from becoming a paper weight.
I’m using 2012 iMac here which complains about facebook, but still runs fine. My late 08 MacBook won’t load Singletrack the same as epicyclo mentioned.

Doesn’t make any difference what I do with the ram, I’ve tried my additional two 8gb of ram in slots 1 & 3/2 & 4, made no difference and I’m not wasting anymore of my time buggering about with it, left the original two 4gb ram in original placement of slots 1 & 3 and the service centre can deal with it tmorn.

I’d put money on it being an issue with the mechanical disc half of the fusion drive.

My 2013 iMac was behaving in a very similar way last year and that’s what it turned out to be.

If the fusion drive is dead the disk utility should let you know.

No, strangely it didn’t – all the disk checks I could access reported OK. When I took it into the apple store they ran their own diagnostic on it which immediately showed up the spinning disc as the issue (so have to wonder why the consumer disk utility isn’t as good).

The fusion drive appears to be a standard spinning disc and an SSD linked together (in software/hardware) by Apple rather than a single plug in unit as I expected.

Spinning discs fail – 5 years or so is typical but sometimes the odd one is going to die in a few months.

My money is on on the fusion drive as it kept mysteriously filling right up despite having only 500gb ish stuff on it, disc utility showed no issues.

I’m with b33k34, I too had similar issues when a fusion drive failed. Interestingly they can replace just the failed part so not so much ‘fusion’ as ‘2 stuck together’

So many helpful posts. Have you tried swearing at it, hitting it or launching it across the room in a blind rage? Hammer frozen artisan sausages made from pigs that were hand reared by only the finest farmers (this is apple after all) in to the USB ports?

Small bumpers and quarter light windows. Oh yes!

UPDATE : received my iMac back from service yesterday, they did sod-all apart from a fresh reinstall of Catalina (which was previously attempted and did not work) and it has not sorted the issues, it still has the same problems as mentioned in my first post so I’ve contacted the bank and they are going to open a section 75 investigation which could take 45days.

Ho-hum………

Go back to the retailer and ask for your money back. If they’ve attempted a repair and it hasn’t worked, you’re entitled to ask for a refund.

It was bought online from the apple store, not making that mistake again

Am I reading this right that it works after a fresh install but plays up after restoring a backup from a 2009 unibody?

I’ve got a couple of those and they don’t work under MacOS, can’t put a recent enough version on them to use the browser. They do work fine with a Linux install but that’s immaterial.

No, it does not work with a completely fresh Catalina install by apple service, It has no time machine backup installed, there is 992gb spare capacity in the 1tb hard drive

Fubar for sure.

whats it doing now?

whats it doing now?

Almost every time I open a new website from my favourites/bookmarks or a new tab it constantly reloads the page given the same error messages over and over again as before/two weeks ago “this page was reloaded because a problem occurred”, then the activity monitor shows max cpu load (100%), the fans kick in and the hard drive whirs and clicks away like a dodgy ac unit and the iMac shuts down/restarts.

video playback issues – I downloaded a 4k movie from appletv/iTunes last night and there are artefacts all over the screen and audio is mismatched.

Lost all my iCloud photos again and will not reload them, just shows greyed out boxes.

Its going back in the box, i’ll continue to use my iPad Pro.

you could try to let all the updates run if you have not done it yet

but I would ask them to remove the fusion drive and fit a standard SSD

You might have a hardware fault otherwise

if you go to the store in person ask them to test it with you present.

good luck!

It has all the latest updates, as it comes fresh from an apple service center and still buggers up then I’ve no faith in keeping the iMac, I’ll wait till I get a full refund and buy the 2020 27” iMac with a 1tb ssd from a decent retail store

This info may be useful with regards to repairs / refund / replacement as it would appear your legal rights supercede the warranty from Apple. I think you’re in Scotland so have attached the Scottish version – English version also available. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/return-faulty-goods/

Cheers for that Philby, makes my rights clear, Ive gave them one chance to repair the Mac but the problem still persists so I’m within my rights to ask for a refund (or replacement).

Here’s a quick 20sec video highlighting one of the issues I have, the page repeatedly reloads and cpu load is 270% whilst I can hear the fans kick in like a dodgy ac unit, after 30 seconds or so the iMac shuts down and restarts.

Quite annoying as it is totally random as to when or why it happens