Hello everybody, I am new here as a registered user, but I have been around as a quest for a while! Like many of you I am patiently waiting for the new iMac to come out. My early 2008 24" iMac as a bad video card, so I tried connecting it to a different monitor, but the video card just displays the same garbage on the other monitor, Is there a way to bypass the iMac video card so that I can use the other monitor (and my computer), until the new iMacs come out? Thanks for any help. Michel
Yes the video card is bad! Connecting my iMac to a seperate monitor was one of the ways I confirmed the problem was with a defective video card. Michel
OK! Thank you Flatfoot, that's what I wanted to know. I quess I'll have to suffer along with all the other people waiting for the new iMac's to come out. Let's hope it is in July... Michel
you need a video card to display an image. Unless you can rig an external GPU to your iMac (not possible) You will get the same image. Your GPU is faulty.
you could try a USB -> DVI adapter http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011403 The trick would be getting the drivers installed, and putting the displays in mirrored mode (or disabling the internal) - if screen sharing is on you could do it from another mac. Performance will be pretty lousy though, since there's no decent acceleration and USB2 bandwidth is limited.
You cannot bypass the GPU for the internal monitor unfortunately. How does that USB out work? Surely it's still using your graphics card? Edit: Never mind. I see the USB devices are actually separate graphics cards, but connected via USB to the computer instead of PCIe. I've never bothered to look into this since it's so slow, but I guess it's better than not seeing a picture at all.
A graphics card doesn't only drive the connected monitor, but performs all the graphical rendering regardless of the output device. The OS graphical interface relies heavily on the graphic card and the graphic card memory buffers. Without a properly working graphics card the OS is likely not functioning properly either. So I would doubt you will get screening sharing to work either if it is a malfunctioning video card.
Pretty sure no CPU's had an integrated GPU in 2008 (which is what the poster has). And even if the CPU does have one, the main board might not expose it. For example, it looks like the CPU in my iMac has a HD 3000 onboard, but only the ATI 6970 is hooked up to the ports...
Thank's everybody for your imput. I tend to agree with marzer's response! I tried connecting the iMac to two different types of monitors, and nothing comes out differently than what I see on the iMac. And yes, other functions are affected also. The cursor does not appear on screen, so I move the mouse around until I see the icons in the dock grow bigger when I pass over them, and then I try to align myself with whatever I am trying to click on. It's a little bit like playing batteship in the dark!!! Anyway thanks for your help. Michel
By garbage do you mean the image somtimes burns into the screen but not really the actual screen more so the GPU? I have the same iMac and same problem For example when browsing the web on a white webpage I can see my desktop icons through it, I've tested this many times and it never goes away. I'll be building a custom PC in a few weeks anyway no more problems for me!
By garbage he means it still displays Mac OS X. The only way to get rid of this is to install Windows onto the computer.
Not exactly! By garbage I mean the desktop background image looks like a psychedelic version on crack, and there are also some patterns that appear that are not in the image. I dont know if I can post pictures, but if I can, then I could put up a picture. Michel
This is not entirely accurate in my recent experience. The 8600M died on my MBP. The MBP's display showed nothing and neither did connecting an external monitor. Apple Store confirmed the graphics card was dead. I was still able to screen share to the MBP and backup the HDD without a problem.
Safe mode is the only way I can actually get to use the iMac, but only under all of the conditions I have mentioned before! Michel
I believe it is possible. I have looked at a few videos of someone actually changing one, and you have to remove just about every component of the inside of the iMac to get to it. I've been told the price to have this done by a repair shop would be exorbitant! But if I can find a used card for cheap, I would like to attempt to do the job just for the fun of it, and maybe end up with a spare iMac. Michel