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Model A1419 / EMC 2806 / Late 2014 or Mid 2015. 3.3 or 3.5 GHz Core i5 or 4.0 GHz Core i7 (ID iMac15,1); EMC 2834 late 2015 / 3.3 or 3.5 GHz Core i5 or 4.0 GHz Core i7 (iMac17,1) All with Retina 5K displays

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Black screen at specific location

We have a very odd issue happening here. The clients iMac passes all of our diagnostic tests and works fine at our office. No black screen for hours plugged in at my office.

When the client takes the system home the display is dim. He can still see the Apple logo but it’s very dim. He even changed out his power outlets and tested them to make sure they’re pushing 120v of power.

This is really weird because he then brings it back to me saying “it’s still dim man!” So I proceed to plug it in at my office and I show him that it works with no lightening issues.

This is the weirdest issue I’ve ever encountered in my 12 years of Apple repair. Any input is appreciated.

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Well, you have the right idea! This is a power issue at the persons home.

They will need to get an electrician in to fix the buildings wiring. The problem is one or more outlets are mis-wired so the ground side is tied to the hot leg. So if the outlet is used the device plugged in is shorting the neutral side (now hot) to ground. Depending on the device there can be enough resistance so its not a full short, but the wiring and the device can get overly warm which could start a fire! A direct short would blow a breaker.

I would strongly recommend the owner check >> All << of the outlets inside and outside using a cheap outlet checker as it only takes one to mess you up! Outlet checker

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The breaker panel its self could be bad or mis-wired! To add to this the buildings grounding services may need to be checked as well. The breaker panel should have a heavy gage grounding wire to either the metal water pipe leaving the building or one or more grounding rods, and the pipes or rods and the clamps are all clean of oxide buildup (Green junk) .

Even will all of this done one or more devices plugged in and/or turned on could be the source. Someone may have mis-wired a lamp or other device (three wire) or a transformer within the device is shorted out.

Clearly, this is not a system issue. You may want to recommend they get a good quality UPS to help protect their system, but thats not the highest priority.

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