iMac G5 screen problem: Hardware or software?

[pusman83]

About a month ago, I started having trouble with my iMac G5: there seemed to be a pink grid all over the screen and the computer had trouble booting past the user login screen. When it did, the pink grid would be all over the place and a lot of the visuals would be screwy (transparency, etc.). However, when moving from "millions" of colors to thousands, the effect was not all over the screen, confined to the taskbar and icons.

Pink grid:

Transparency problem:

If I started it safe mode and turned the display to thousands of colors, the problem pretty much went away (all the visual effects were there) except for one specific thing with the pointer in MS Office.

I was wondering if anyone knew what the heck was going on, what I could do? I figured that if the problem shows up on a screenshot it's probably software-related, no?

Help please!

 

[pusman83]

Anyone have a clue?

 

[Jurwin]

Yeah that's the imacs way of telling you to upgrade to an intel machine and stop using stone age technology.

 

[mrsir2009]

Yeah that's the imacs way of telling you to upgrade to an intel machine and stop using stone age technology.

Woah man, G5 isn't stone age... I still use an G3.

To the OP: Anyway, it might be the logic board or HDD failing... I'm pretty sure its the hardware. Run the hardware test and try re-installing the OS.

 

[Colman]

Looks like the video RAM failing. It's soldered to the motherboard. Time for a new motherboard - way too expensive - or a new machine.

Run the hardware diagnostics to check.

 

[jmonfire]

applecare

If you're still under applecare warranty get it fixed by all means!
if it's graphic card issue which is soldered to the motherboard there's a chance they might replace the whole machine for you.

 

[pusman83]

It's long been out of warranty. How do I run the Hardware diagnostics?