iMac Kicked the Bucket?

[Entopia7]

I've had my 24" Alum iMac for a couple years now, at least. Today, while playing World of Warcraft, I had the screen freeze, turn white, then grey, then black (the backlight was still on). After forcing a restart, I was met with a very quickly flashing white and black screen. I averted my eyes, shut it down, and waited a few minutes to power up.

After a few minutes, I powered on, the familiar apple logo and apple sound greeted me, but there were artifacts all over the screen. 10 seconds later, kernel panic.

My question is, could all these graphical issues be related to the kernel panic? Or is there more than one problem presenting itself?

I didn't renew AppleCare, unfortunately (I did on my last three macs, including the one I'm typing this on, but I've never needed and and didn't bother :( ), and I'm hoping that this isn't a hardware issue.

Should I try a reinstall of the OS?

[NP3]

I always go through the usual battery of tests...disk util & hardware test off the OS install disk, diskwarrior if i can (you might try booting off an external drive and see if it works as well)

[flopticalcube]

Sounds like the graphics card. Leave it shut down and unplugged for a bit to cool down and then plug it back in and restart. If you get graphic anomalies when its cool, then your logic board/graphics card is toast.

[devianter]

gl :/

[Entopia7]

Update: It cooled down, and now it's acting like nothing ever happened. I suppose it's time I look into SMC Fan Control again.

[flopticalcube]

Now would be a good time to run the Apple Hardware Test on you install DVD and see if any permanent damage was done.

[devianter]

imho the most important thing is - DON'T BECOME A NOLIFER WOW PLAYER!:D

[Entopia7]

Update #2: Hard locked. Didn't even have time to download a fan control. No artifacts, just a hard lock-up. I'll run the utilities from the Install disk and see what I come up with.

Edit: Oh and lol on the wow comment. Playing a game, any game, a couple hours a day does not make anyone a "nolifer."

[Mike Macintosh]

Now would be a good time to run the Apple Hardware Test on you install DVD and see if any permanent damage was done.agreed, it never hurts to check.

[Entopia7]

Ran the simple Apple Hardware Test, no issues found. Running the extended one now, but I'm worried. The Hardware Test dialog is filling with small graphic artifacts...

I'm guessing definitely some kind of hardware problem. Sigh.

UPDATE: Well, I think I'm screwed. While testing, the artifacts got bad enough that the screen started flickering, then the whole thing just stopped and disappeared from the screen. I guess I'm making a Genius Bar appointment.

[DoctaKrafty]

oh no! This sounds like exactly what happened to my old G5 iMac. It was still under warranty at the time but it was exactly the same issues or very similar at least. As to what it was, I forget exactly what part broke but almost the entire inside of the computer had to be replaced, motherboard ect.