iMac Display Suddenly Malfunctioning...What is this?

[nathanjbrown]

What would cause this (see link below)? My iMac has been functioning without issue for years. Now, today, there's a display malfunction going on.

I updated the OS today, but I believe I saw this before the update.

Thanks everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8lCvbNAgyk

 

[nathanjbrown]

Hey All,

This remains an issue - now worse than ever with full system freezes associated with the malfunction - and I could use some insight.

New observations:
- The visual artifacts are visible on my iPad WHEN CONTROLLING MY IMAC FROM A REMOTE DESKTOP CLIENT (LogMeIn Ignition)! In other words, the iMac is sending those artifacts to the iPad (that rules out an LCD panel issue, I suppose).
- The flickering "dots" or "squares" are often green and sometimes purple.
- The flickering seems relative to the amount of GPU/CPU intensive "things" taking place (e.g. Flash ads on a webpage seem to cause the problem to flare up).
- The system periodically freezes after these squares/dots litter the screen for a while.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Nathan

 

[SaSaSushi]

A failing GPU would be my guess, especially if it's leading to the system freezing. If that's the case, you're looking at a logic board replacement.

What sort of temps is your GPU reporting? (try iStat Pro)

 

[buckawheat]

I've had the same thing on my 2008 nvidia iMac as it freezes with the same types of squares constantly when under load. I've been keeping it alive by installing smc fan control and running the fans higher to cool the gpu until a new Mac mini comes out.

 

[Diversion]

Def failing GPU/logic board.. hope this is inside a year for you so they can replace you for free.

 

[nathanjbrown]

Damn. It's a 2010 27" iMac that I tricked out with dual 512GB Samsung 830 SSDs and an internal Blu-ray burner.

I'm thinking I should strip it down, sell it for parts (eBay) and buy a new Mac Mini (or Mac Pro if I can convince my wife that we need such power for web browsing, email checking, music listening, and the occasional Blu-ray rip/re-encode).

I have a contact at my local Apple store where my business does $100K+ in business annually, but I'm thinking they'll point and laugh when I suggest that perhaps they could - just this one time - fix it for free or provide a discount on a new machine (considering the customizations I've performed).

I'll check GPU temps tonight...If I can get it to remain stable long enough (it continually crashes).

Thanks, everyone.

 

[jaxhunter]

I would take it to the Apple Store and have them run ASD on it. If it is a failing GPU those run somewhere between $125 and $250 last I knew (haven't been a Genius for about 2 years now). Logic board replacements are also sometimes quite reasonable. They may balk at all the 3rd party accessories but they should be able to do something with it. Any Genius worth his/her salt should be able to seperate out a video/logic board issue from everything else. While there is a slim possibility of an issue like this being caused by a bad hard drive (SSD) or software or even from monkeying inside the machine to install those things that possibility should not be large enough for the Geniuses to turn you away form at least running diagnostics.

Look into the repair costs. You may find them reasonable enough to be a better solution.

 

[nathanjbrown]

This is my second attempt at a reply (iMac crashed again). Interesting side note: When the iMac crashes, everything freezes on the screen, the blinking squares are gone, and the mouse/cursor continues to move about the screen (though it doesn't do anything with clicks).

Attached to this post are the results of iStat Menu (slick software).

Thoughts?

Nathan

 

[liquorice]

This is my second attempt at a reply (iMac crashed again). Interesting side note: When the iMac crashes, everything freezes on the screen, the blinking squares are gone, and the mouse/cursor continues to move about the screen (though it doesn't do anything with clicks).

Attached to this post are the results of iStat Menu (slick software).

Thoughts?

Nathan

Recently had my 2nd graphics card replacement, I recognise the having the desktop in view the mouse moving, but not being able to click on anything.