What are these black rectangles on my Mac's desktop?

[Montivarch]

I get these black rectangles on my desktop (and in my browser pages), sometimes one, sometimes more. They go away on their own but they always come back. My computer is a MacBook Pro 13".

 

[Raz0rEdge]

You can't link to a video file (which is no longer around) that way.

Take a screenshot by press CMD+Shift+3 and attach it here..

 

[Slydude]

Are you by chance hearing your Mac verbally describe what is happening on the screen? If so press command F5 and the problem should stop.

 

[Montivarch]

No, my voiceover is off. A new quirk has developed- now my volume scroller is always "selected" and the computer is running slowly. Does all of this point to a virus?

 

[mrplow]

A screen shot would really help

 

[chas_m]

No viruses for Mac, so that's not it.

 

[bobtomay]

To post your screenshot, you need to upload it to the forum.
You can't just paste the path on your local machine.

Click on the 'Go Advanced' button
On the page that loads, scroll down to and select 'Manage Attachments'
Then select 'Choose File'
Select the file from the Finder window that opens up
Then hit the 'Upload' button

 

[Montivarch]

Black Rectanlges

Thanks for the attachment tips.
So here they are- slider is always highlighted in blue, always "selected." In the other picture you can see the black rectangle off to the left side of the screen (usually the rectangles are longer).

 

[mrplow]

Do you have an application that modifies those **** icons? If so, I'd start by disabling that and restarting

 

[Montivarch]

No application, just right-click, 'get info,' and paste a png file over the old icon image. I changed those icons long before the rectangles started.

 

[Montivarch]

I don't know if it means anything but I was looking through the files on my computer and a found "Remote Desktop Connection" application and folder that I'd never seen before- the icon indicated it was for PC though... does the unexplained RDC have anything to do with my issues?

 

[bobtomay]

No, RDC would not be the cause of either of those.

Have no explanation for the volume slider being active all the time.
Although, not sure what you mean by "always' selected as it is not selected in the 2nd pic.

The black area on the screen - video card - I'd take it in to Apple and let them have a look at this issue.

 

[Montivarch]

By always selected I mean that it is highlighted blue around the volume slider circle- it never used to have that blue ring around it. And the strange thing is, the black rectangles aren't just on the desktop, sometimes they're in my browser windows (in the web pages) and when I minimize the page, the rectangles are minimized too. Meaning (or so I guess, I'm no expert) they are not video card issues burned into the screen/desktop or a missing chunk of pixels or something.

 

[dtravis7]

Try this if you haven't as yet. Did some searching. Try making a new User Account and logging into that. Is the issue still there? Report back please.

 

[pigoo3]

One way that I always like to do to eliminate or confirm if I have a software/ OS related issue is...boot the computer from an external HD with ONLY a fresh install of the Mac OS.

If the issue is software or OS related on the internal HD...then booting from the external HD with a fresh OS install will show no issues. If booting from this external HD still displays the problem...then it's probably a hardware issue.

For me...confirming whether it's a hardware or software issue is the first troubleshooting step.

- Nick

 

[Montivarch]

So, on a whim, I did all necessary Software Updates and for one reason or another, the volume scroller circle is no longer highlighted in blue. I have no idea why that works but at least that is fixed. And the issue with your suggestion, pigoo3, is that these black rectangles are not consistent at all. Sometimes they happen three times a day, sometimes they don't happen for a month or two. If it happened all of the time that would be a great way to determine whether it's a hardware/software issue. And this social networking site seems to really agitate the Black Rectangles. If you plotted the BR's appearance with my use of this site- they'd be very close together. Any ideas?

 

[dtravis7]

Something was corrupted and the update happened to patch what was causing the volume control issue. Try my suggestion if you can as you don't have to install anything, just a new user account and log in and go to a bunch of sites. See if any rectangles show up.

 

[pigoo3]

And the issue with your suggestion, pigoo3, is that these black rectangles are not consistent at all. Sometimes they happen three times a day, sometimes they don't happen for a month or two. If it happened all of the time that would be a great way to determine whether it's a hardware/software issue.

It really would have helped if you had mentioned this initially! A problem that is as intermittent as NOT happening for as long as a month or two...is almost certainly a software issue/software conflict.

Generally speaking...when folks post with problems similar to yours...we generally have to assume that it is a constant problem (or at least it occurs daily). A problem that may not happen for 1-2 months...is a TOTALLY different situation.

- Nick

 

[chscag]

@Montivarch

No free advertising is allowed. Your URL was removed and was very close to being Spam which will get you removed from our forums.

Thanks for understanding!

 

[Montivarch]

@Nick
Sorry about that! Operating under the assumption it is a software issue, do you have any suggestions on what kind of software problems I have?

@dtravis7
I'll give that a go and let you know in a few days if the BR pop up under the new user account.

@chscag
Sorry about that, I wasn't trying to advertise (especially not a site that could be causing software issues)! But could that site have anything to do with this? Some kind of malware or...?