My 24" imac's video crapped out

[rigid]

Update:

So the computer stopped restarting itself and was 100% stable for about a week, leading up until today. Then the machine crashed and I had massive artifacts, static and screen tearing. Booting into OS X causes a kernel panic, as does booting from the SL DVD or trying to boot into safe mode.

Called apple, they are replacing it with a 27" 2.66ghz i5 ($300 upgrade). Only problem is they are backordered 2 weeks so not going to have a machine for like a month.

 

[rigid]

So I've been thinking about maybe getting the i7, because initially I didn't want to spend so much money but then I realized I'll have tax money to blow soon. The i7 is the only model with hyperthreading correct?

Also I was looking at 3rd party ram upgrade to 8 gigs. Its pretty damn expensive, would it be actually cheaper to do the apple ram upgrade? Thanks everyone.

 

[Klainn]

I'd like to add my experience to this thread.

I also have the 24" imac with the 8800 GS card. About a month ago the video card died, was doing the same thing that the OP was describing. Stopped video but the audio was still going. Eventually it gave up the ghost and did the bar code effect on my screen. Took to apple store and after a few days they replaced the video card and logic board. I failed to ask them to power it up at the store, never fail to do this.

Got it home, turned it on, and a fan was going balls out. They had forgot to reconnect one of the cables. So I'm mad, cause my apple store is nearly an hour away and only one in the state. They tell me I need to bring it back in and wait another couple of days. No, ain't happening. I found a shop down the road that is authorized to repair apple hardware. Best news I'd heard all day. I take it to them and it's back to me shortly thereafter and it's working fine.

for 4 days

Then the video card goes out again. This time the symptoms include the screen going black starting from the bottom and working it's way to to the top. So I'm mad, obviously. It's been in the shop twice already and now it's gotta go back. I take it back and it gets it's 3rd video card.

Two things I learned from this experience.
1> Finding a good, local, small shop was my best bet for a quick turnaround. The smaller shop really cared about my business and did alright by me.
2> Get applecare. You've spent a LOT of money on a mac most likely, protect it. Since it's not a pc where you can mix and match parts as they die, I feel the warranty and extended warranty are more than justified.

Happy Mac'ing.

 

[DRATM]

Looks like it's about time I updated my experience too!

Received my 24" 3.06 with the 8800GS (NOT under warranty, it should be reminded) back from my local shop after its second GPU/MLB replacement since October the Thursday before last. The following Saturday, it crapped out again--THREE DAYS after A BRAND NEW graphics card and logic board set were installed. Same issue: complete lockup and loss/distortion of video output.

Thankfully, after Apple very kindly agreed to cover the first repair a month out of warranty, these parts (and the parts before them) are still covered under their 90 day warranties.

I called Apple this past Monday after my local repair shop recommended that I try to work out a more permanent solution with them as opposed to going through with the repair again because, very clearly, something is terribly wrong with the machine. After a couple of hours on the phone with customer service, a Senior Advisor--despite my very determined pleas for a replacement unit--sent a report to the Apple engineers to see if they had any suggestions. I was told the turnaround time would be 5 business days.

It seems illogical to assume even the most talented of engineers could work out a solution without the machine in their hands, and I can't help but think he's just dicking me around, but I digress... Will wait and see if the phone rings tomorrow. Meanwhile, there is a lovely piece of very expensive Apple sculpture dominating my desk area: a once top-of-the-line iMac that has been broken for 38 days since October 1st.

 

[DRATM]

Also I was looking at 3rd party ram upgrade to 8 gigs. Its pretty damn expensive, would it be actually cheaper to do the apple ram upgrade? Thanks everyone.

To the best of my knowledge, it is ALWAYS cheaper to go third party with RAM.

Speaking of local shops, if there's an independent, authorized Apple dealer in your area, inquire about any deals on RAM they may be able to give you.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

The applecare plan:

The AppleCare Protection Plan extends your computer’s 90 days of complimentary support and one-year repair coverage

to three years from the date of purchase.

It's the same with the extended warranties of automobiles. For example, I have a six-year extended warranty on my Forester, which translates to three years of extended warranty. The first three years or 36,000 miles is free, so the extended portion is another 3-years (or three years/36,000 miles), not really six years.

I always buy the extended warranties on automobiles, computers, and iPods, but so far only used it once on my wife's iPod a couple of years ago. I will be buying extended warranties on a new iMac, and an iPod Touch, just in case.

 

[rigid]

Update update!

So I decided I wanted to shell out the 500 dollars instead of 300 for an i7 instead of an i5. The applecare woman who was in charge of my case called me to verify some info about the upgrade, then told me she was upgrading me to the i7 for the i5's price. WOW!

 

[panzer06]

nvidia strikes again?

Hmmm, I'm hoping this is just an isolated incident. I just bought this iMac as a refurb and it has the 8800GS. It never once occurred to me that it's an 8x00 series nvidia GPU. I though the problem was confined to laptop GPUs. I will reluctantly buy Applecare just in case.

If I see more of these issues on the iMac I may need to make a note to sell this thing before the three years are up.

Cheers,

 

[Stuart in Oz]

I've had similar from my 3.06GHz, 24" machine as well.

Graphics failure, boot hangs, crashes, HDD failure. I think it got basically fried - the fans would never speed up, even when the temps were off the charts.

The flagship Apple Store here in Sydney took it in at 6 months old and replaced the GPU, MLB, LCD panel and the HDD! Why they didn't throw it in the bin and just give me a new one I'll never know.

It's now 18 months old and the symptoms have been returning the last 3 months. There is clearly an issue with these 3.06 machines.

Thankfully I did purchase AppleCare, so it'll be going back the Sydney Apple Store next week.

A new 27" would be nice - except they seem to have a few issues as well!

 

[rigid]

Okay last update:

FedEx picked up box today, emailed applecare lady, she checked fedex system saw it was in there, placed an order, and I can view it on the apple store order status page. Delivers Jan 14th =(.

Fake edit: I only sent the computer back, didn't include any of the other stuff that came with it I hope thats okay?

 

[DRATM]

Fake edit: I only sent the computer back, didn't include any of the other stuff that came with it I hope thats okay?

That should be fine. They'll probably just replace the critical components and resell the machine as a refurb anyway. They've got little interest in a keyboard and mouse stuffed with millions of dead skin cells and hairs and cracker crumbs.

Actually, does anyone know for sure what they'll do with the unit? Mine's been a refurb from the get-go...

 

[Corruptitudes]

I've had a similar experience. I bought a 24" iMac with a Geforce 8800 GS back in May 2008 and it worked great until Halloween this year. On that day, artifacts began appearing on the screen, whether in Windows or Mac OS, and every time I attempted to launch a program that would access the video card, the computer crashed. I took it to an authorized repair place, where they replaced both the video card and the logic board, and returned it to me nearly two weeks later. The computer died again, with the same exact symptoms, within a few hours.

Figuring it was an overheating issue, I booted into Mac OS X while it was still able to boot, and found that iStat was reporting some strange numbers: 65° C for the GPU diode, and 42° for the GPU heatsink. I figured the repair place had failed to attach the heatsink properly, so I decided to drive much farther this time, to an actual Apple store. Within 3 days (compared to 10 days with the other place!), they called me back saying that they had replaced the logic board and video card again and that it was STILL not working correctly, so they decided just to upgrade me to a 27" iMac. So perhaps it wasn't the previous repair place's fault, but I was glad that the Apple store worked so quickly.

However, I have some remaining questions. First, I assume your iMac also had an 8800 GS. Perhaps this model is plagued with the same doomed-to-failure defect that affected the 8600M? I remember Apple or nVidia releasing a statement showing that the 8800 GS (or really the 8800M GTS) was not an affected card, but perhaps nVidia was still covering it up. Second, which version of Windows had you installed? My iMac began having issues one week after I installed Windows 7, and I was frightened that it was the cause. However, I'm not sure of that anymore, but it would be an interesting correlation.

Lastly, I definitely recommend Applecare, even for a desktop, to anyone who questions its value. I know that I would have had to pay for my iMac to be repaired twice already and that it would still have issues. And I was a proud owner of the May 2005 built-in-Shanghai 17" Powerbook, with the defective Bridget-Riley screen issue. For that, I had not purchased Applecare, which I regret very much. It has been rotting in my basement for years now and Apple will do nothing for it.

What type of artifacts? Ive noticed on my 8800gs Imac, I get weird "artifacts" when opening a new safari sometimes. It will hang a bit, and it will show a jumbled mess of pics of either websites, or movies if I had been watching itunes. In a few seconds though it will pull up the top ten list and I have no problems. Is this what you first noticed?

 

[rigid]

Artifacting on mine was little black pixel dots all over the screen, this only happened once it got to kernel panic mode though.

 

[rigid]

So I was checking my order status today and it says "prepared for shipment." Are you serious? lol.

 

[budgej867]

What type of artifacts? Ive noticed on my 8800gs Imac, I get weird "artifacts" when opening a new safari sometimes. It will hang a bit, and it will show a jumbled mess of pics of either websites, or movies if I had been watching itunes. In a few seconds though it will pull up the top ten list and I have no problems. Is this what you first noticed?

Nope, it was a system-wide thing, not application specific. It became unusable just a few hours after the artifacts began appearing however, both times. If your issue has existed for a while, then I doubt it's the same problem. Sounds like a software issue.

I would link to an example, but I believe the forum rules state that I am not allowed to post links yet. Search for "video card artifacts" on Google Images to see some examples.

 

[Klainn]

Update on my mac issues ...

After getting my imac back after it's most recent video upgrade, I went to log into World of Warcraft and one of the fans starts going balls out. This time it's only when I'm doing something that's graphics intensive. It would then die down after I logged out.

Took it back in for service. After 4 days, I got it back new years eve. Plugged it in, logged into wow ... SAME DEAL. They didn't "fix" anything. They did replace the fan but that's obviously not the problem.

Why oh why, can nobody seem to get this stuff fixed. Now I know the fans are there to cool the hdd, cpu, graphics card when they heat up, that's fine, but I find it hard to believe it needs to sound like a jet, 4 minutes after boot up after sitting powered off all night.

 

[DRATM]

Why oh why, can nobody seem to get this stuff fixed. Now I know the fans are there to cool the hdd, cpu, graphics card when they heat up, that's fine, but I find it hard to believe it needs to sound like a jet, 4 minutes after boot up after sitting powered off all night.

The 8800GS's appear to run VERY hot. Mine's a potential fire hazard, in fact. If I boot it up, let the video crash and the system lock up then leave it, it continues to heat up without the machine shutting down.

The first time I let it run in this fashion, just to do some basic troubleshooting and to see if it would shut down by itself when it overheats, it got so hot that I was able to sizzle a droplet of water on the top-left ledge of the unit. I wouldn't be surprised if it could fry an egg.

Spoke with my senior advisor yesterday after waiting a week and a half for a response. The engineer assigned to my case recommended that he check to make sure I have a video card installed in the unit. Sigh...

 

[rigid]

The 8800GS's appear to run VERY hot. Mine's a potential fire hazard, in fact. If I boot it up, let the video crash and the system lock up then leave it, it continues to heat up without the machine shutting down.

The first time I let it run in this fashion, just to do some basic troubleshooting and to see if it would shut down by itself when it overheats, it got so hot that I was able to sizzle a droplet of water on the top-left ledge of the unit. I wouldn't be surprised if it could fry an egg.

Spoke with my senior advisor yesterday after waiting a week and a half for a response. The engineer assigned to my case recommended that he check to make sure I have a video card installed in the unit. Sigh...

As I was reading through my original post again, I saw that this was also my original diagnosis, that the 8800GS overheats inside the tight imac enclosure. Don't get me wrong, it served me well for over a year, it's a GREAT video card.

I feel like the reason our imacs have been dying so quickly after repairs is that the "new" parts being replaced are actually refurbished.

 

[DRATM]

I feel like the reason our imacs have been dying so quickly after repairs is that the "new" parts being replaced are actually refurbished.

That was the very first thought that occurred to me as well. But according to the great folks at my local Apple repair shop, they checked specifically to see if the parts were refurbished. Surprisingly, they were all brand spankin' new.

Can't wait to see what conclusions the "engineers" at Apple draw. This truly is a tough issue. In the meantime, my iMac has been broken and unavailable to me, despite being under a parts warranty, for 44 out of the past 94 days.

 

[Klainn]

DRATM,

I don't disagree at all. I believe the fan is doing it's job, I just believe that something is wrong as there's no middle ground. It's either silent or a jet engine. My first 10 months with the imac playing games the thing was silent. That's why I believe there's still a problem. I'm glad the fan at least runs but would rather it ramp up with the heat and not just go from off to BLAMO the second I log in. I'm thinking that when they originally replaced the video card and logic board, the logic board was also defective. The replaced video card has already been replaced so it's possible, but admit it's unlikely, that the logic board could have also been bad. When I run a regular hardware diagnostic from the bootable cd, it passes. When I run the extended it gives me 4M0T/2/40000004: HDD-1374 error on the logic board. Last time that was an unplugged cable but last time the fan was on from the moment I pressed the power button.

Side note: Apple error messages like the one above don't seem to be very well documented. Anyone know of a site that lists them out?

Perhaps what I should be asking is if anyone else reading this thread plays world of warcraft (as that's my game of choice when I'm bored), when you're standing around in a busy area, like Dalaran, does your imac sound like it's gonna lift off or is it silent to relatively silent?

 

[DRATM]

I don't disagree at all. I believe the fan is doing it's job, I just believe that something is wrong as there's no middle ground. It's either silent or a jet engine. My first 10 months with the imac playing games the thing was silent.

I hear ya. For a rather lengthy period of time, I was playing GTAIV online for several hours a week on very high settings, and the thing never skipped a beat. Played it beautifully. Same with a myriad of other very intensive games. Granted, the fans were VERY loud, but nothing absolutely unbearable.

It occurred to me before that the iMac is not designed for gaming, but it seems even more apparent now that it's not even designed for casual gaming. It can't handle that kind of extended use.

 

[Klainn]

Extended use I also would not disagree. However this imac after "repair" goes from off for the evening, boots, logs into WoW and the fan goes full bore. In less than 10 minutes. That I don't think is normal.

 

[DRATM]

Extended use I also would not disagree. However this imac after "repair" goes from off for the evening, boots, logs into WoW and the fan goes full bore. In less than 10 minutes. That I don't think is normal.

I can't speak for WoW since I've never played it, but my fans always seemed to go nearly full bore every time I'd merely boot up Vista via Bootcamp. Let alone start up L4D2 or GTAIV (at which point they'd scream like banshees---I have a decent sound system, so it never really bothered me).

 

[snowrider221]

Sorry to bump but I'm having the same exact issues... iMac 24" with 8800 and windows 7 boot camp.

Can access mac /windows partition about 1 / 10 startups (rest of the time kernel panic) and when trying to boot from CD it kernel panics. It also kernel panics when I try and boot from original install CD to install a new 1.5 TB harddrive i just picked up (when this new drive is the only drive attached.)

 

[Steffen]

Hello guys

I'm having a similar issue with a 24" 3.06 ghz geforce 8800 GS machine.

My Imac has been working great for 2 years and 3 months (Only used it for music production) in the last month i started playing a couple new games Starcraft 2 and Civ 5 (In windows 7 bootcamp) and suddenly I had artifacts all over my screen and the computer would only show black screen with a sound loop at startup.

I dragged it down to a local certified apple repair shop and paid for a new graphic card. (cost equivalent to 650 us dollar).

After 4 days i got artifacts again. Brought it down to the shop and got a new repair.

One week later... Same thing happens..

I've called apple and talked to them about it but they refuse that the Imac or the 8800 card is faulty. So now I guess they will just have to replace my graphic card in all eternity....