Old iMac with problems

[J. J.]

Hi. Today a friend of mine gave me his old 2006 iMac (model A1207, EMC 2118) because he didn't need it anymore. He said it might not work, and indeed it has some problems.

1) When first I booted it up, it didn't get past the blue screen after the Apple logo (it runs Mac OS X Tiger). Also, there were lots of green dots all around the screen, so I thought that maybe the LCD was not working properly.

2) However after some time I tried again; the second time it booted to the Desktop and there were no green dots anymore, but USB ports didn't seem to work and the computer immediately froze after showing the Dock and the Wallpaper

3) The third time I started it, it worked almost completely. No green dots, USB ports OK, and it didn't freeze. I could connect my Magic Mouse and I used the computer for ~5 minutes. I noticed that sometimes when I opened some photos and Finder windows the display became corrupted, with some horizontal lines. After 5 minutes it froze again, meaning that I could move the mouse but nothing else worked.

Every time I boot the Mac up, I randomly get in one of these three cases.

Any ideas? Thank you

 

[Intell]

That sounds like the GPU is starting to fail. It is common with some models of white Intell iMacs, but not with your model. However, it can still be failing.

 

[J. J.]

That sounds like the GPU is starting to fail. It is common with some models of white Intell iMacs, but not with your model. However, it can still be failing.

I suspected that. Do you think there is anything I can do?

 

[Intell]

You could replace the GPU/logicboard, contiue using it as it, verify that the GPU is failing, or reinstall Mac OS X. I suggest wiping the drive and installing 10.6.8 on to the drive.

 

[J. J.]

You could replace the GPU/logicboard, contiue using it as it, verify that the GPU is failing, or reinstall Mac OS X. I suggest wiping the drive and installing 10.6.8 on to the drive.

I'm testing it further and it looks like as soon as it has to show some animation everything crashes. I couldn't keep it running for more than 1-2 minutes but in Single User mode. So, basically, it is unusable. I don't even have time to configure the Mac OS X 10.6.8 installation from the DVD because it crashes before it completes.

 

[Intell]

Replacing the GPU or logicboard would be the next step if you plan on keeping that machine.

 

[J. J.]

Replacing the GPU or logicboard would be the next step if you plan on keeping that machine.

That would be the solution. However GPU and logic board are one single piece and it costs not less than 100$. I don't think it's worth for such an old computer you can find on eBay for 160$. Maybe I'll tear it down and use its parts, but I'm still not sure. Well, thank you for your help.