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salino28351

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 20, 2016
88
44
I have an :

MacOS Sierra version 10.12 (Haven't updated past this cause it is a work computer)
iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
Processor 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 512 MB

Overnight when I leave work I log out and put it in sleep mode and when I come in the morning I log in fine. Once I get to the desktop screen the graphics are weird and looks like they get stuck and don't render properly, happens pretty much every day(see attached Image). I have ran Apples Quick 2-3 Minute Hardware test and it didn't find anything wrong with the iMac.

Could this be the graphics card failing (even though the hardware test found no issues) or something else like leaving it in sleep mode over night? Or is it the fact that its a pretty old Model from 2012 and can't really handle 10.12? I have a MacBook Pro (force touch) and Mac mini (2014) at home and leave it in sleep mode every day and never have any issues with that. Currently how I fix it, is turning my computer off and back on and no issues.

Any help is much appreciated
Thanks
 

Attachments

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It would be best to update Sierra as the early versions are quite buggy, so it could be a software issue. Updating to 10.12.3 within the OS will not affect anything; they're just patches and won't affect any data or change any settings. This would be the first thing to do.

If the issues are still persisting after updatring the OS, you can run gfxCardStatus and force it to use the iGPU at all times. If you do this before you put it into sleep mode and the issues don't occur when you take it out of sleep, that would pretty much confirm the dGPU is on its way out.

GFX can be downloaded here: http://gfx.io/downloads/gfxCardStatus-2.3.zip

You can also run SMART Utility to verify the hard-drive's OK -- a faulty drive wouldn't be causing the issues you've described, but it only takes a minute to check, so why not: https://cloudfront.volitans-software.com/smartutility323.zip

It may also be best to restart the computer at your earliest convenience with reopen windows when logging back in disabled/unticked.

Finally you can try a PRAM/SMC reset.

Let me know how you get on. :)
 
Once I get to the desktop screen the graphics are weird and looks like they get stuck and don't render properly

Wish we knew what your actual Desktop Pictures looks like...

Anyway, this looks like an instance of the Sierra 24 bit vs. 30 bit depth graphics bug. Sierra 10.12.3 may include an attempt to fix this.
 
It would be best to update Sierra as the early versions are quite buggy, so it could be a software issue. Updating to 10.12.3 within the OS will not affect anything; they're just patches and won't affect any data or change any settings. This would be the first thing to do.

If the issues are still persisting after updatring the OS, you can run gfxCardStatus and force it to use the iGPU at all times. If you do this before you put it into sleep mode and the issues don't occur when you take it out of sleep, that would pretty much confirm the dGPU is on its way out.

GFX can be downloaded here: http://gfx.io/downloads/gfxCardStatus-2.3.zip

You can also run SMART Utility to verify the hard-drive's OK -- a faulty drive wouldn't be causing the issues you've described, but it only takes a minute to check, so why not: https://cloudfront.volitans-software.com/smartutility323.zip

It may also be best to restart the computer at your earliest convenience with reopen windows when logging back in disabled/unticked.

Finally you can try a PRAM/SMC reset.

Let me know how you get on. :)

Will let you know if the problem is fixed once I update the macOS

Wish we knew what your actual Desktop Pictures looks like...

Anyway, this looks like an instance of the Sierra 24 bit vs. 30 bit depth graphics bug. Sierra 10.12.3 may include an attempt to fix this.
Its the background that Apple used when they debuted the new MacBook Pros
 
Will let you know if the problem is fixed once I update the macOS


Its the background that Apple used when they debuted the new MacBook Pros

I believe you and obviously that is messed up, my guess would be GPU. But you can take a screen shot if you want to show people what the computer should be displaying. A screen shot will capture the data prior to being displayed.
 
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