A grassroots fanboi site has sprung up to document what would appear to be widespread hardware problems with Apple's latest iMac desktops.

In recent weeks, iMac buyers have complained of cracked screens, flickering displays, and even machines that turned up dead on arrival. Scott Pronych - a web designer based in Bedford, Nova Scotia - was among those whose iMacs arrived with a crack in the lower left-hand corner. As he waited for a replacement, he launched imac.squeaked.com in an attempt to determine how prevalent these problems really are.

The site culls data from the Apple support forums while inviting buyers to share their experiences firsthand. As it stands, Pronych has collected information on 280 problem iMacs. Of these, 173 arrived with flickering displays, 51 arrived with cracked glass (42 in the bottom left corner), and 11 wouldn't boot. Other lesser problems include dead pixels, noisy fans, and noisy hard drives.

A majority of the problems occurred with machines offering Intel's quad-core i7 chip and a 27-inch display. Notably, these are build-to-order models only available on the web.

Pronych - a Mac user since 1984 - tells The Reg he has now received a replacement for his cracked iMac. His second machine arrived 10 days after he returned the first. Some users have complained of a slow-turnaround on replacements, while others have said Apple is slow to ship machines the first time around. ®