Flashing Screen, fonts changed,..iMac unusable

[SweeneyD24]

I powered on my 21" iMac at work and noticed it was taking a rather long time to boot. When it finally got to the login screen, i noticed the fonts have changed. I logged in and a few minutes later finder crashed, i got an error message (Finder crashed) and the screen started to blink

There's basically nothing i can do. No menu bar, no docks just the cursor, the error message and the flickering screen.

I'll try a restore (if possible) as last resort but i was just wondering if anyone has come across such an issue and how they fixed it.

Thanks.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

If you are lucky it's the hard drive but that's sounding like a logic board failure possibly due to the graphics card. If you have a bootable back up try booting from that, if it works it's the hard drive if not it's probably the board.

 

[havokalien]

what year iMac?

 

[SweeneyD24]

what year iMac?

iMac 21.5" Late 2012

 

[Kcof]

iMac 21.5" Late 2012

Same issue for about 3 years.

My research indicates bad soldering in graphics card, can't find alternative.

 

[havokalien]

2012 i dont think the gpu in it is removable to below like the 2008 - 2011 iMacs. might check ifixit.