Strange pink artifacts over iMac G5 screen

[KheeseKake]

Hi there,

I have an iMac G5 (rev. B with ambient light sensor) which has suddenly started having a problem where the entire screen is covered with pink artifacts. The iMac had been left on overnight and when waking up in the morning I found the screen looking like this and now it continues to stay like this no matter what I do. I have attached a screenshot and was wondering if anyone might have a clue what has caused this to happen

Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can provide

 

[tflint]

My Rev. B G5 did the same thing a couple of months ago. I took it in to the apple store and they told me the video card portion of the logic board was going bad and would need to be replaced. The cost was going to be $900. I didn't bother having them fix it, for a few hundred more dollars I could just buy a new iMac. So I decided I would hold off until the iMac was updated, but the funny thing was after being like that for a couple of weeks I turned it on one morning and it was gone. Every once in a while it comes back, but it doesn't last long. I know eventually it will be there to stay but as of right now my iMac is still usable.

 

[KheeseKake]

My Rev. B G5 did the same thing a couple of months ago. I took it in to the apple store and they told me the video card portion of the logic board was going bad and would need to be replaced. The cost was going to be $900. I didn't bother having them fix it, for a few hundred more dollars I could just buy a new iMac. So I decided I would hold off until the iMac was updated, but the funny thing was after being like that for a couple of weeks I turned it on one morning and it was gone. Every once in a while it comes back, but it doesn't last long. I know eventually it will be there to stay but as of right now my iMac is still usable.

Ah yes, I was beginning to get the feeling that it was probably going to be a graphics card related problem and knew that something like that probably wouldn't be cheap to get fixed. I guess the only thing I can hope for is that mine will also do the same thing and hopefully won't come back too often.

 

[spencecb]

My 1st gen iMac G5 had this problem, or something similar. The computer would not boot into OS X because of the video card. Eventually was fixed. But not before Apple replaced the computer completely and gave me an iMac G5 iSight.

Hope you can get this worked out. Probably in your best interest to just save up for a new iMac instead of paying to get this one fixed.

 

[tinyfish]

2005 iMac G5 display problems

Hi, I've been reading about the above problem and it sounds much like what just started happening to my display. Computer was on and screensaver was active. When I went to wake up computer, the entire display was covered from side to side and top to bottom with tiny orange-ish transparent rectangles.
If what I'm reading is correct, and I need a new graphics card, and forgive me because I am not at all savvy, if I got an additional display would the problem be the same?
I'd so appreciate any help at all. I'm currently an unemployed school teacher and hiring season is upon us and I desperately need my computer to find work.

Thanks,
S

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

Hi, I've been reading about the above problem and it sounds much like what just started happening to my display. Computer was on and screensaver was active. When I went to wake up computer, the entire display was covered from side to side and top to bottom with tiny orange-ish transparent rectangles.
If what I'm reading is correct, and I need a new graphics card, and forgive me because I am not at all savvy, if I got an additional display would the problem be the same?
I'd so appreciate any help at all. I'm currently an unemployed school teacher and hiring season is upon us and I desperately need my computer to find work.

Thanks,
S

Since the graphics card is soldered to the logic board, only replacing the whole logic board would fix the issue. I did hear of people changing the thermal paste in between the heat-sink and graphics card to get it to run cooler so it wouldn't have that problem again.

 

[DSPalpatine]

Since the graphics card is soldered to the logic board, only replacing the whole logic board would fix the issue. I did hear of people changing the thermal paste in between the heat-sink and graphics card to get it to run cooler so it wouldn't have that problem again.

This is good advice. When you open up your machine, clean out as much dust as you possibly can, especially around the video card. Your graphics card is probably on the way out, but if it's consistently overheating due to being choked with dust, cleaning it out might buy you some time... assuming it's not completely cooked already.

 

[Techhie]

This is good advice. When you open up your machine, clean out as much dust as you possibly can, especially around the video card. Your graphics card is probably on the way out, but if it's consistently overheating due to being choked with dust, cleaning it out might buy you some time... assuming it's not completely cooked already.

As a last ditch effort they can try reapplying some top-grade thermal compound to the GPU, as it's not covered under AppleCare anyway.