Odds & Ends: Thermal Paste & iMac; iMac Colors Off?; Lexar

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Overheating iMac With regard to yesterday's item detailing Matt Bacon's problem, in which his flat panel iMac would shut off due to apparent overheating, a service technician notes that the absence of thermal paste due to system tinkering may be the culprit.

"The flat panel iMac's bottom panel, which is under the user-removable panel for upgrading RAM, is not to be removed by the end user. If it is removed, thermal paste must be re-applied or overheating can occur."

Update: Matt now informs us that the cause of the problem with his iMac turned out to be rather simple: the fan inside the iMac was broken. The heat build-up then triggered the "thermally-triggered safety shutdown mechanism."

iMac colors off? Brandon McWhirter reports a recurring problem where tilting back the screen of his flat-panel iMac would cause it to turn red, which Apple tehcnical support blamed on a faulty neck connection.

"The tech that came on-site said this wasn't the first time of a red screen on the iMacs but he said there didn't seem to be any one cause. The first time it was the power supply, the next iMac it was the Logic Board, and now this one is the neck."