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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Strange video artifacts

kingtool - Jan 29, 2008 - 7:09 pm

I turned my mac on and there's some weird output...



I connected it to a different monitor and got the same thing.
All of my Apple software(Final Cut, DVD Studio, etc.) also shows the glitches, but not software from other companies (Photoshop, After Effects, etc.)
The computer hasn't crashed or had any new software installed recently... Like I mentioned, I started it up as I usually do and those glitches showed up.

Thanks in advance...
Chris

Serenak - Jan 31, 2008 - 6:31 pm

Hello Chris and thanks for using us at macosx.com

Wow man that is /strange/... I had a G5 iMac that got the midplane/graphics lurgi... one that Apple admitted was due to a hardware fault on some of those models and I had the guts replaced on their "extended replacement" scheme

But that wasn't like that - it started like some "stuck" pixels and inside 72 hours had gone to great big bits of rainbow all over the place and they would change with every window shift/change - and they were omnipresent... Changing applications didn't make any odds at all.

I would say that you need to get it checked out by a Hardware "Dude" but if the problem disappears in Adobe, MS, etc Apps then I doubt it is actually a Hardware Problem!

As to the remedy I am pretty stumped (yes we are not supposed to take problems we have no idea how to fix... but I have seen this one sitting here for days and I guess the other techs are as stumped as I am).

Obvious suggestions that you may have already tried are...
1) Repair Permissions (Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities
2) Run the Disk Utility from the installer and run "Repair Disk" Start up with the installer in the drive, select your language then go to the menus and get the Disk Utility and choose Repair Disk
3) Use the Apple Hardware Check (start from the installer Disk holding D usually or if you have a separate silver one follow the instructions on the front of that.

More importantly BACK UP ... especially your data - music/photos/documents
Hopefully this is something you already do - but Mr Jobs says only 4% of home users do... In fact do this BEFORE you do any of the above... If you don't already do it then do it and do it now... free tools like SilverKeeper, Carbon Copy Cloner, iBackup and more can help you (just Google the names...)
If you do already back up don't overwrite a previous backup - you might want that later if something is screwed and you don't want to overwrite good backups with ones with corrupted data

I recommend SuperDuper! and even if you don't want to buy it the demo mode allows a full back up clone...

Even if your OS is up to date consider downloading and applying the latest "Combo Update" for your version of X... sometimes this will fix stuff that you just can't pin down - the 10.4.11 combo is here http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...updateppc.html for PPC or here for intel http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...dateintel.html

your screen shot is blocking the "info panel" here so I can't see what you posted re Mac/OS/etc.

OK come back and let me know... but realistically I have to say you may have to consider the "Windows Way" - i.e. Wipe it all and Reinstall ...