iMac i7 27" weird screen on boot

[capitaine]

I've had this happen to both myself and one of my friends who owns the same iMac (2010 2.93 Core i7), both with the stock 4gb Samsung ram. It boots normally, and then after the Apple logo disappears I get this screen.

Anyone know what's going on? I don't really see it affecting anything in any way, other than the occasional wtf after it boots up.

Some more info about the issue:

When I upgraded the ram to a different brand it only made it worse (I do not recommend using anything other than Samsung ram btw, unless you want Safari to crash the entire thing while watching youtube videos - presumably having to do with flash).

Anyway, sent that ram back and added more Samsung ram, still get the weird screen, no crashes tho.

Also, the weird screen after boot is always the same with the new ram - it was "arranged" differently and made noise with the other ram I had.

 

[macmx5]

Don't know what is causing it but my new 27" does the same, didn't do it the first boot up but is doing it each time I start now, get alternating patterns, one set like yours and one is a white screen on top with grey blocks that look like footsteps. My system is all stock, i7 3.4 with 1gb video card...

 

[spcopsmac21]

I am an apple tech and I have already seen this issue, One of a few fixes.
Firm ware update should be coming on soon, not the on that just opened up the 6gb sata function.

Or, Your graphics card is going out.

Or, You have a bad stick of ram/ or slot.

Or, You need to re install the OS.

Try one of these things.

1) P-Ram reset, Do not just do it 2 times like everyone may tell you. It would take 5-10 tries to properly zap the ram if the stick is fuzzy.

2) Remove each ram module and test the machine as it boots. Switch ram sticks out from different slots. You could have a bad slot, and or stick of ram. Or multiple of both. In either case you are under warranty.

3) Do a permissions verification on your HD.

4) Do a wipe and re install of the OS. Back up from time machine.


Most likely it is your GPU. OR the Ram/slot.

 

[discounteggroll]

I am an apple tech and I have already seen this issue, One of a few fixes.
Firm ware update should be coming on soon, not the on that just opened up the 6gb sata function.

Or, Your graphics care is going out.

Or, You have a bad stick of ram/ or slot.

Or, You need to re install the OS.

Try one of these things.

1) P-Ram reset, Do not just do it 2 times like everyone may tell you. It would take 5-10 tries to properly zap the ram if the stick is fuzzy.

2) Remove each ram module and test the machine as it boots. Switch ram sticks out from different slots. You could have a bad slot, and or stick of ram. Or multiple of both. In either case you are under warranty.

3) Do a permissions verification on your HD.

4) Do a wipe and re install of the OS. Back up from time machine.


Most likely it is your GPU. OR the Ram/slot.

ahh, the return of the bad RAM slot. I thought those were gone from the days of the early macbooks

 

[spcopsmac21]

I see bad ram slots in everything. I even saw a new macbook air with faulty ram....there is no changing that ram out....hhahaha

 

[iSayuSay]

I see bad ram slots in everything. I even saw a new macbook air with faulty ram....there is no changing that ram out....hhahaha

Does actually boot-test each Mac computers, BTO or standards before they left the manufacturing plant?

I saw a 2010 iMac on my LOCAL RESELLER did the same whenever it try to launch game. Blocky artifact on the screen when it went black to change resolution or some sort, the game went fine, but hell that artifacts wasn´t supposed to be there, right?

 

[capitaine]

I am an apple tech and I have already seen this issue, One of a few fixes.
Firm ware update should be coming on soon, not the on that just opened up the 6gb sata function.

Or, Your graphics card is going out.

Or, You have a bad stick of ram/ or slot.

Or, You need to re install the OS.

Try one of these things.

1) P-Ram reset, Do not just do it 2 times like everyone may tell you. It would take 5-10 tries to properly zap the ram if the stick is fuzzy.

2) Remove each ram module and test the machine as it boots. Switch ram sticks out from different slots. You could have a bad slot, and or stick of ram. Or multiple of both. In either case you are under warranty.

3) Do a permissions verification on your HD.

4) Do a wipe and re install of the OS. Back up from time machine.


Most likely it is your GPU. OR the Ram/slot.

I'll have to try to first two.
I do permissions every week and I've had this problem as soon as I got it and then after using migration assistant. Also my buddy has the same problem, but maybe they shipped out of the factory with a problem with the OS.

But I also have still sometimes have a problem with Adobe Premiere crashing the entire system and the iMac making a beeping sound until I manually shut it off. Usually happens after resizing or minimizing the clip monitor window, leading me to suspect it might be the GPU....
Then again, I did just play through Portal 2 with no problems.

 

[maxtheswift]

My brand new 27in does the same thing. Did any of those suggestions help? Just thought I'd ask before running through each one.

Like you said, it doesn't seem to be effecting performance, I just want to make sure it won't become a problem before I can return it.

I am running a 27 i7, 2tb HD, 8g memory, and 2gig video card.

 

[maxtheswift]

Just an update, I took my 2 4g ram sticks and put them in the other 2 ram slots and that got rid of the issue. I initially took them out and tried to make sure they were in correctly, but I still got the problem, and when I put them in the other 2 slots they seemed to "click" in much better than their first slots.

Maybe I have a bad slot, or maybe they just got knocked out of place during shipping, but I am glad that it wasn't an issue that warranted returning it and buying a new one. If it turns out I do have a bad slot, at least that is covered in my AppleCare so I am all set.

 

[maxtheswift]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

Dangit scratch that. I booted it up this morning only to find that dang screen again. Guess I'll reinstall the OS, that's the only thing I haven't done.

 

[capitaine]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

Dangit scratch that. I booted it up this morning only to find that dang screen again. Guess I'll reinstall the OS, that's the only thing I haven't done.

Let me know if that helps, although I for some reason doubt it will.

 

[maxtheswift]

Let me know if that helps, although I for some reason doubt it will.

I'm just leaving it for now. I was looking on some other forums and everything I saw pointed to it being a software issue that was caused by some corrupted files because I just backed up from my old MacBook and something didn't transfer correctly.

I am probably just going to live with it until lion comes out because I really don't want to go through the long OS install and then have to go through the even longer process of moving all my stuff back on to it. As long as it's not affecting performance, I can live with a weird screen for a few seconds . Good luck!

 

[suhr]

Exact same thing is on mine, I already had apple replace the hard drive 8 G ram factory installed. Doesnt seem to be a problem yet but I wouldnt mind finding out if my video card is about to geek.

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM111.0034.B02

I've had this happen to both myself and one of my friends who owns the same iMac (2010 2.93 Core i7), both with the stock 4gb Samsung ram. It boots normally, and then after the Apple logo disappears I get this screen.

Anyone know what's going on? I don't really see it affecting anything in any way, other than the occasional wtf after it boots up.

Some more info about the issue:

When I upgraded the ram to a different brand it only made it worse (I do not recommend using anything other than Samsung ram btw, unless you want Safari to crash the entire thing while watching youtube videos - presumably having to do with flash).

Anyway, sent that ram back and added more Samsung ram, still get the weird screen, no crashes tho.

Also, the weird screen after boot is always the same with the new ram - it was "arranged" differently and made noise with the other ram I had.

 

[dwarnecke11]

I'm not sure if what I'm experiencing is normal or not. During bootup, between the gray  screen and the solid blue screen I get a millisecond-long flicker - a narrow black bar across the screen. Is this normal? No other problems or artifacts to report.