iMac doesn't start, all i see is colored lines on white background

[deviceful]

I have iMac 2010 which is out of warranty. I recently came up to the computer and it was sleeping and was not waking up. I held the powered button for a while so it turned off. Then i pressed it again the iMac turned on but i saw colored lines on the white background with apple logo and activty indicator spinning. It was spinning for a bit then the screen changed to checkered color lines and white background and it froze that way. I turned on my tv that the iMac is connected to and all i see there is white screen. I tried cmd+option+P+R and it did restart and same thing happend. I also tried plugging out all the cables including power wating for few mintues and plugging them back in but that didn't help. What esle can i try? Do you think the monitor is dead or the video card? Hopefully not the hard drive. Here are the screen shots of what happens

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ic9qvsxaffc1rmi/photo%201.JPG

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ciecwngyu5se0o/photo%202.JPG



Thanks in advance!

 

[Thraun]

Ooh, bad graphics card would be my guess. Get it in to your nearest authorized service provider.

 

[dr.oid]

some words

i repaired Macs for two years and iam a passionate Mac user..

it is very difficult to find the problem without inspecting the computer.
your iMac starts up, the EFI test runs, you have apple logo, the kernel loads, tried PRAM reset and SMC reset, pulled out all the cords which can cause startup problems [mini display to HDMI, firewire800, USB, gigabit ethernet], checked that the backside ports are sitting firmly and are not loose, broken or damaged, the power cable is intact the power connector and the socket is in excellent condition..

so my guess is the following:

your computer got a current overload -while it was in sleep mode- which damaged the logic board circuitry probably something in the video card. changing the whole logic board is a horror. try to find a specialist who can repair electronic components and who has a good reputation..

hopefully iam not right and your problem can be solved much more easily

 

[deviceful]

Thanks for the replies. @dr.oid I went through most of the things that you suggested. Nothing helped. I found the Diagnostic cd that came with the iMac and i am running it now. The quick test didn't find anything, so i am running the extended test. Trying to do as least as possible not to mess up the hard drive. I am probably going to take to apple to just to get a quote on how much they would fix it for. I am sure its nothing less then $400+ I don't know any good tech place that fixes apple products in new york that i would feel comfortable taking iMac.

Is there anyway to bought to a different operating system let say ubuntu and access the osx hard drive to copy the files from it?

Here is the screenshot from the diagnostic test. The screen is all in lines.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xboa108gj2d72ig/photo.JPG

Regards.

 

[dr.oid]

after all this things done i tried to start up the machines in safe mode, then from another drive on which i had osx installed, you can connect the iMac to another Mac in target disk mode via firewire800 and you can copy the iMac's HD to another. i have also a 2010 iMac and after a firmware update i can use internet recovery to startup. It would be the easiest way to check out whether your machine can boot up. If it works you can use Safari for example to check out your display/video card.

This picture doesn't look good. The apple hw test included on the installation disk sometimes finds something, sometimes doesn't.

The apple service has a specific video card test. The dedicated video card can be replaced separately. This is better than replacing the whole logic board..

 

[aggri1]

I recently had a similar issue, except I got green and black vertical lines on the screen when using certain applications. The hardware test CD didn't tell me anything was out of the ordinary.

I had the video card replaced (under warranty), and it's all perfect again now. I am glad I bought the Applecare, in the end, as I felt it was a bit of a waste of money initially.

The video card replacement didn't affect the hard drive.

Cheers,
A.

 

[deviceful]

Thanks for the help. I went to the apple store and they said it is the video card and $200 to fix it. I decided to let them fix it. Hopefully they will not touch the hard drive and i am not going to loose any data. I would think there is no reason for that.

 

[HE15MAN]

Mine did the same thing, I pulled the drive and I am just hoping to sell it.

 

[macthefork]

Thanks for the help. I went to the apple store and they said it is the video card and $200 to fix it. I decided to let them fix it. Hopefully they will not touch the hard drive and i am not going to loose any data. I would think there is no reason for that.

Always keep an up-to-date backup. This issue shouldn't affect the data on the HDD.