Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

GPU glitch or possible virus? Weird problem....

P

PDE

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 16, 2005
2,484
18
My girlfriend just had something very strange happen on her macbook (core2duo 2.16) that I've never seen before. Basically the letter B became distorted in several applications - firefox, Mail and preview. Restarting the apps didn't solve it, but logging out did. For now at least.

It is visible when I took a screen grab, indicating that it's hardware, but still very strange. Are there any viruses for mac that could do this? I've used macs since 1992 and never seenanything like this..

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 

Attachments

  • jjjj.jpg
    jjjj.jpg
    90 KB · Views: 231
What about helping the OP instead of fighting about the existence of viruses on macs?
 
Zenor said:
What about helping the OP instead of fighting about the existence of viruses on macs?
Click to expand...

Thanks. I realise that this is probably not a virus, but it looks very suspicious to me. All letter B were basically bleeding downward. No other letters are doing it, just B. And I could grab it with the screenshot function too. I've seen all sorts of graphics weirdness in my life, but never just one letter like this. Has anybody else seen something like this?

She didn't download any pirated copies of iwork09 either....
 
Zenor said:
Do you remember if the problem occurred after a software installation?
Click to expand...

No, she was just working on her computer: writing, downloading some articles. No new software.
 
Corrupt font maybe?

You said it showed a strange "B".
Corrupt files can sometimes mess up a whole bunch of things.
 
The B was corrupted in preview, firefox and Mail - would they be using the same main font? She had chosen Times in the Firefox preferences and lucida grande in the Mail preferences, but do those really affect the GUI fonts or just content? I don't think it was corrupted in the finder itself.
 
Although there are virus for Mac, Apple has long issued the respective security updates and pushed them to a point in which a Mac today would be immune.

There were virus for Mac, just none right now and that doesn't necessarily mean there won't be. The trojan going around in iWork is not a virus. Virus by nature are destructive and do damage without a user's permission. Anything that requires user authorization to be installed is an app/daemon or simply a program. This program has capabilities that allow it to run the machine even though its not supposed to. Thus, it leave the realm of application and becomes a malware and is now known as trojan. Since it came an innocent app and turned to be evil. (to say something)

Anyways, back on topic more likely, its a glitch in your drivers. Also, maybe a problem with your screen. Try calling Apple Care or taking it to an Apple Store.
 
whats the difference between being able to capture the glitch with a screen capture or not?
 
Have you tried a PRAM reset. Might also want to run an AHT

Also check you don't have duplicate fonts running
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back