Intel iMac (Early 2008) Has vertical lines on the screen and doesn't boot. Posted:

I'd normally think it's a GPU failure, but for this to happen overnight makes me think differently.

Have you tried booting in the failsafe mode? That's the first thing I would do, as well as reset the P-RAM (Hold COMMAND + Option + P + R) after pressing the power button, and wait until you hear the Mac Chime/Bong at least twice.


Safe Boot
Hold down the shift key after you press the power button until it comes to the login screen. It should say safe boot on the top of the login screen if you did this correctly.

Until you let me know what happens after you did this this is about all I can suggest, although if it still has these issues after performing these steps it could possibly be a GPU (the graphics card) failure. I don't know about the early '08 models, but if they were white instead of aluminium, the white iMacs see a lot of these

neoelectronaut said:

My iMac froze up tonight, and upon restarting it there are a number of yellow vertical line segments throughout the display, and it will not boot completely into the OS. The spinning segment just stops and the computer does nothing. I inserted my Leopard disc to run a hardware test but holding D during bootup does nothing, even though I can hear the disc spin up.


Any Thoughts?

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This has just happened to me, same 2008 imac... booked an apppointment tonight....

Strange that a failed hard drive can display vertical lines like that..

Same prob but...

Same problem on mine - it was the Graphics adapter.

But the stock of adapters they had came from a bad batch, and I had multiple replacement attempts.

I suppose it could be the hard drive if it's corrupt at the location where a driver might be...

One way I could tell was to hook up a second display - if the graphics adapter is flaky, all of the replacements I went through had a horrible time on the second display, plus, quicktime movies would crash.

Took it to the genius bar today and they said it was a graphics card issue and that it needs to be replaced...

neoelectronaut said:

Really, now. Interesting that you got that answer. The tech that called me said it was a hard drive failure. It'll stink if I have to return it a second time to get it fixed again. (and have to wait another 7-10 days)

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But I forgot to mention that they also said they would order a logic board just in case the graphics card fix is not the problem... There was no talk of hard drive failure...

Any update on this? I brought my computer in to the apple store as well and they deemed it was the 8800 GS card that failed and needed to be replaced..

This just happened to me - January 23rd 2011

2008 Intel 24" model - same thing happened last night . Screen looked exactly the same as shots above. Appt today at Apple Store, did this get resolved?

Rellet1 said:

2008 Intel 24" model - same thing happened last night . Screen looked exactly the same as shots above. Appt today at Apple Store, did this get resolved?

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If all these have the 8800GS it is almost certainly the GPU. There have been complaints about these increasing for a while now. Speculation is that it's related to the known defective issue with the mobile 8x00 GPUs nvidia is dealing with as part of their legal settlement.

If you search here some people have received replacements even out of warranty.

Cheers,

panzer06 said:

If all these have the 8800GS it is almost certainly the GPU. There have been complaints about these increasing for a while now. Speculation is that it's related to the known defective issue with the mobile 8x00 GPUs nvidia is dealing with as part of their legal settlement.

If you search here some people have received replacements even out of warranty.

Cheers,

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply, I do in fact have the 8800GS. I have research and seen different results of this issue posted around. The most alarming common thread is that Apple techs fix the issue via replacing the GPU or even the Logic board but there seems to be persistent problems that occur until the iMac is actually replaced.

Have you had any experience with working with Apple to replace an iMac? From what I have read they tend to do the right thing for the customer at the end of the day.

(I have Applecare until November 2011 so I am ok in that I know there will be a positive outcome one way or another.)

Rellet1 said:

Thanks for the quick reply, I do in fact have the 8800GS. I have research and seen different results of this issue posted around. The most alarming common thread is that Apple techs fix the issue via replacing the GPU or even the Logic board but there seems to be persistent problems that occur until the iMac is actually replaced.

Have you had any experience with working with Apple to replace an iMac? From what I have read they tend to do the right thing for the customer at the end of the day.

(I have Applecare until November 2011 so I am ok in that I know there will be a positive outcome one way or another.)

Click to expand...

Considering that most other OSMs (HP Sony Dell etc) did a terrible job dealing with the defective nvidia GPUs, Apple can be commended for extending the warranty to 4 years on their Macbook Pro line, however, they have not acknowledged the issue on the iMac across the board. They have been handling each 8800GS failure on a case by case basis. Usually 2 or 3 consecutive failures gets you a new 27" iMac but sometimes you have to push.

I had a 8800GS based iMac refurb for only 3 months before I sold it and I didn't even know about the potential GPU issue. That thing generated massive amounts of heat from the back of the display. I replaced it with this 24" 9,1 with the ATI 4850 and it is much cooler. I understand the model of hard drive can also affect the amount of radiated heat coming from the back of the iMac but the sheer number of complaints being generated by 8800GS based iMacs is a bit too much to be a coincidence.

I hope they take care of you.

Cheers,

Very helpful

Thanks again, your reply is most helpful since it gives me a clearer idea of what is going on with other iMacs with the 8800GS. I may have to do some pushing to get a satisfactory resolution since the "bandaid" approach does not sound like it will last judging from what others have said.

I will post how it turns out since others may be in the same boat as me.

The store has the iMac

I left the iMac in to have the GPU replaced. Should have some news by end of week.

Rellet1 said:

Thanks for the quick reply, I do in fact have the 8800GS. I have research and seen different results of this issue posted around. The most alarming common thread is that Apple techs fix the issue via replacing the GPU or even the Logic board but there seems to be persistent problems that occur until the iMac is actually replaced.

Have you had any experience with working with Apple to replace an iMac? From what I have read they tend to do the right thing for the customer at the end of the day.

(I have Applecare until November 2011 so I am ok in that I know there will be a positive outcome one way or another.)

Click to expand...

My iMac is currently at Apple getting its GPU and main logic board replaced. This is the second trip. On the first trip they just replaced the GPU and it worked for about 15 minutes after getting it home and then died. Supposed to be getting it back in a day or two. We'll see how it goes.

You can read my story HERE.

Good luck on your repair.

Thanks for your story, I will keep watching yours for a resolution.

BlackMax said:

My iMac is currently at Apple getting its GPU and main logic board replaced. This is the second trip. On the first trip they just replaced the GPU and it worked for about 15 minutes after getting it home and then died. Supposed to be getting it back in a day or two. We'll see how it goes.

You can read my story HERE.

Good luck on your repair.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your story with me. I think there is a going to be a big wave of these machines failing on Apple's hands. I kept my cool but told the manager of the store how disappointed I was about the Nvidia and the blatant fact that it is a faulty product to begin with. They agreed and said its the only card that'll fit. I understand that they have procedures so I kept civil. If it goes back in I think then I will demand a replacement but perhaps be forceful about it rather then my normal sweet and polite self.

Rellet1 said:

Thanks for sharing your story with me. I think there is a going to be a big wave of these machines failing on Apple's hands. I kept my cool but told the manager of the store how disappointed I was about the Nvidia and the blatant fact that it is a faulty product to begin with. They agreed and said its the only card that'll fit. I understand that they have procedures so I kept civil. If it goes back in I think then I will demand a replacement but perhaps be forceful about it rather then my normal sweet and polite self.

Click to expand...

Seems to be a case of back to the future. I have a G5 iMac that went through the same sorts of issues. It took two board replacements to get it working right. Then the display failed so that also had to be replaced.

ethyleneguy2003 said:

Seems to be a case of back to the future. I have a G5 iMac that went through the same sorts of issues. It took two board replacements to get it working right. Then the display failed so that also had to be replaced.

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Did you end up getting the G5 replaced?

Me 2 have a problem

Hi, i seem to have some kind of same problem as you du.

Here is a vide of my iMac trying to boot normally & trying to boot from DVD (Snow Leopard).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgvULlNPODo&feature=plcp&context=C4c6d9dbVDvjVQa1 PpcFPrzYeIxTPl6UsZFoYBX5z3geWiQfm_K0g%3D

Does anybody have a clue what the problem would be about?

Regards
Ola

Call Apple

Holstein said:

Hi, i seem to have some kind of same problem as you du.

Here is a vide of my iMac trying to boot normally & trying to boot from DVD (Snow Leopard).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgvULlNPODo&feature=plcp&context=C4c6d9dbVDvjVQa1 PpcFPrzYeIxTPl6UsZFoYBX5z3geWiQfm_K0g%3D

Does anybody have a clue what the problem would be about?

Regards
Ola

Click to expand...

Hi Ola,

Unfortunately if it's the same issue I had it has to do with the graphics card failing and it had to be replaced. You should contact Apple and get it in there to see what can be done because mine had to be replaced. Good luck,

Caleb

My screen looked like that once too ... had to replace the video card. early 2008 iMac.

i do have the same problem with the grafic card but it happend a year ago already. i didnt have the money to fix it and i read that apple replaces it(even if your warranty run out) since it seem to be their fault with the NVIDIA 8800 GS. Does anyone know that? otherwise i have to get out the harddrive and throw the rest out of my window. thanks

felixk said:

i do have the same problem with the grafic card but it happend a year ago already. i didnt have the money to fix it and i read that apple replaces it(even if your warranty run out) since it seem to be their fault with the NVIDIA 8800 GS. Does anyone know that? otherwise i have to get out the harddrive and throw the rest out of my window. thanks

Click to expand...

No question, they SHOULD do a recall on these machines. But it's not looking too promising. I replaced mine with an ATI card. Look at my recent threads for the guide i posted. If you don't mind sinking a bit of money into the computer and downgrading the graphics card (no real performance decrease from what I've seen with mine, just depends on what kind of stuff you do), you can have it working again in an evening.