Strange monitor issues - messed up display

[marlomarizza]

Hi MacRumors people! I've only just joined so I can ask my question, but in the past have found a lot of help in the forums form other people's questions :-}

My Mac specs:

Mac Pro – OS X 10.6.7
Processor: 2.93 GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon
Memory: 6GB 1066 MHz DDR3
Graphics Cards: I have 2 NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
Displays: 2 Dell 24" LCD displays currently (had one 24" and one 22" last week before I swapped out the small one) (24"s: e248WFPb and 22": 2208WFPt)

Problemo:
My monitors are freaking out. I have a screen shot to show what I mean (it's hard to describe). I have had this computer (work computer) since August 2010. The 2nd graphics card was installed a month later by out IT guy.

About 2 months ago I started having weird screen rendering issues. They affected both screens, but were significantly worse on one of them (covering the entire screen on one, and only animations/vids on the other {such as animated gifs on a website, youtube vids, .mov/.avi files})

I asked my IT guy and he thought it could be one of the graphics cards - but each monitor is attached to a separate graphics card.

I called the Apple support hotline and the guy there told me he couldn't diagnose anything, and that I should take it to an Apple store and get a diagnostic test run on it (in case it was other hardware such as the motherboard)

I took it to the Apple store and the Genius ran diagnostics for 2 days (so he told me), and said they didn't find anything wrong, and they didn't see any display issues (but it was hooked up to 2 Apple displays)

So I brought it back, hooked up my 22' and 24" and had no issues for a couple days. Then they started again - this time reversed sides (i plugged my monitors into the opposite graphics cards). Finally today, I swapped the worse one (the 22) out. This made the issues on the 24 worsen, and the new one i plugged in (with a new cable too) has been fine except for videos (the video are is choppy, but not the UI/screen animations).

OK, sorry if that's confusing, I am just at my wit's end!
I am by no means tech savvy, I just use my computer everyday.

Usually I am running Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign at the same time (though problems occur when none are running), as well as Safari (the company website has embedded videos) and Firefox - using Eloqua.com (which features a browser based UI for email management - company stuff), and Outlook 2011.

My thoughts on what it could be:
- Dell and Mac not friendly with each other?
- an embedded video causing it?
- a script in Safari?
- a script in Eloqua on Firefox

Help!!!!!

 

[Reflow]

I'll just throw this out there, but to me it looks like the video resolution is set wrong.

 

[marlomarizza]

My displays are set at 1920x1200 – is this right? is there another resolution setting somewhere?

 

[Dr Kevorkian94]

Does this happen with every program u runor just the one in the picture. And make sure the resolution is right, it shuld be at whatever your monitor is, also try setting it to the same as your computer to see if it still happens. Also maby try a diferent monitor. But if worst comes to worse try running disc utility on your hard drive, if that doesn't work do a reinstall of the OS using the disc the computer came with. Also back up your stuff just in case.

 

[marlomarizza]

Dr Kevorkian94 –
The resolution is set at what the monitors are. I am not sure what you mean by setting it to "the same as the computer"....?

This issue happens regardless of what programs are running. The program you see on the screenshot is Safari, with www.purple.us (the site has an embedded video). But this problem happens when Safari isn't running at all. In fact, it happens when I have quit out of all running apps (aside from Finder, obviously)

I would love it if the cause could be discovered before I do a reinstall.

 

[DewGuy1999]

What kind of ports are used for each graphic card and it's corresponding monitor, ie, DVI-to-DVI, etc.? Have you tried different video cables?

 

[marlomarizza]

Cables

Hi DewGuy1999
On both monitors i am using DVI to DVI
On my 2nd 24" (the one i replaced the 22" with) I used a different DVI cable, and for about a week I had no issues, but today it's happening again.
Could it be a compatibility issue between my Mac and the Dell screens?
Here are a couple new screen shots from the screen that is the worst (the original 24")

http://cl.ly/0Z0x3G023I2M44112N0l
http://cl.ly/092I2j02462v0q0p0z3t

the other screen is only messed up on animated things such as embedded vids in a website, animated gifs/banner ads,

 

[DewGuy1999]

Hi DewGuy1999
On both monitors i am using DVI to DVI
On my 2nd 24" (the one i replaced the 22" with) I used a different DVI cable, and for about a week I had no issues, but today it's happening again.
Could it be a compatibility issue between my Mac and the Dell screens?
Here are a couple new screen shots from the screen that is the worst (the original 24")

http://cl.ly/0Z0x3G023I2M44112N0l
http://cl.ly/092I2j02462v0q0p0z3t

the other screen is only messed up on animated things such as embedded vids in a website, animated gifs/banner ads,

Since it's two different monitors, two different cables and two different video cards to me it doesn't seem like it's directly related to a video issue. I noticed that in all the screen shots Safari is running could this be somehow related to Safari? Could you shutdown and then start back up an go for a day or two without using Safari to see if it's related?

 

[marlomarizza]

I can give that a try. See if I can break the Safari habit!

 

[DewGuy1999]

I can give that a try. See if I can break the Safari habit!

Another possibility could be to create a new user account and see if the problem occurs there. It might be caused by something corrupt/damaged under your current user account. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.