Bad gpu? Hopefully not...

[Calum2]

Started when installing Ubuntu! Any help appreciated.
Psu/ mb caps are good, HDD/ ram is good.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Tried all the usual - reset PRAM, removed power & held power button down?

 

[AphoticD]

Maybe try reseating the display’s connection to the Logic board. It may have worn itself loose somehow. Check iFixit for step by step guides.

 

[Calum2]

Already done all this. Ill probably be buying an ibook g4 soon anyway. Ill probably pop er in the oven/ heat-gun it tomorrow to re-flow the board.

 

[AphoticD]

Already done all this. Ill probably be buying an ibook g4 soon anyway. Ill probably pop er in the oven/ heat-gun it tomorrow to re-flow the board.

Could be the display? I’ve seen lines appear like that on an ‘09 MacBook, but they were diagonal. Ultimately the screen’s image brighted out and disappeared completely. I did a little research and found others reporting a fix by just replacing the display. Found a top assy complete for $60. Replaced the old for new and it has worked ever since.

Just thought it was worth mentioning before you try cooking a possibly A OK PPC board

 

[Calum2]

Possibly, extremely unlikely though. The ati chips often fail in these imacs. Also I could buy a new iMac g5 for ~$50 nzd ($35.44usd). One strange thing I've noticed is that if I fully drain it of power it usually gets rid of all the graphics errors. (At least until I restart it).

 

[AphoticD]

Into the oven!

I imagine there must be a decent market for second hand Macs in NZ. Every kiwi I know has preferred Mac over Windows.

I have only found eBay to be reliable in Aus. And prices are not always great. There are more and more “Vintage” markups being attached to specifically iMacs and iBooks, whereas the Albooks and Power Macs haven’t been given the same collectible / vintage label and mostly sell for peanuts.

 

[Calum2]

No way it's 90% pc to 10% Mac. (Users) There's a huge markup for newer Macs here though the old ones are pretty cheap. https://trademe.co.nz/1433037459 (that's not a very good example)

 

[AphoticD]

No way it's 90% pc to 10% Mac. (Users) There's a huge markup for newer Macs here though the old ones are pretty cheap. https://trademe.co.nz/1433037459 (that's not a very good example)

Maybe I've only ever met the clever kiwis then

Trade Me was the site I went hunting for. That's not a bad deal at all. That's the final rev iMac G5, right?

 

[Calum2]

Into a skip! (Dumpster)
Fried it good with a heat gun. Ill scrap it for parts and buy and then buy an ibook. If it was actually a simple issue please don't tell me. :/

 

[AphoticD]

Did you try disabling the "Darkened Vertical Lines" feature by holding down the V and L keys on boot, while spinning the mouse around 3 times?

I understand it was an accessibility feature from ATI to assist users with contrast-perception blindness.

 

[Calum2]

Ha, funny. It was a nvidia chip.

 

[AphoticD]

I wonder if the display's internal connector could be re-wired as DVI/HDMI. You could then use it as a standalone display. Or transplant a Mac mini/NUC/RasPi inside it.

 

[LightBulbFun]

I wonder if the display's internal connector could be re-wired as DVI/HDMI. You could then use it as a standalone display. Or transplant a Mac mini/NUC/RasPi inside it.

the LCD screen on iMac G4s and iMac G5s are all TMDS panels so yes you can, its relatively easy to do and quite a few people have done so (sadly sometimes on still working iMac G4/5s :/ )