Purple Diagonal Lines (Hardware problem?)

illi · May 31, 2008

Recently my al Powerbook G4 15" has been showing purple/magenta diagonal lines which seem to move upwards and do not show where windows cast shadows etc. (This shows best on a dark grey background, different colours effect how intensely it appears). A bright green has started showing in some colours now too... It isn't captureable with a screen shot either.

First time it appeared was while playing World of Warcraft and it comes and goes. It's happening more frequently now though and for longer. I have no idea what is triggering it either :s

ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 is listed under graphics and displays if that helps any, can list other specs if needed.

Thunder82 · May 31, 2008

illi said:
Recently my al Powerbook G4 15" has been showing purple/magenta diagonal lines which seem to move upwards and do not show where windows cast shadows etc. (This shows best on a dark grey background, different colours effect how intensely it appears). A bright green has started showing in some colours now too... It isn't captureable with a screen shot either.

First time it appeared was while playing World of Warcraft and it comes and goes. It's happening more frequently now though and for longer. I have no idea what is triggering it either :s

ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 is listed under graphics and displays if that helps any, can list other specs if needed.

It could be a driver/software issue, have you tried reloading software/OSX? Honestly though, it sounds like your video memory may be going bad. Usually video memory issues start with something very minor (lines through the screen) and grow to the point where the computer is no longer useable. Unfortunately, with notebooks, you can't just swap out the video card.. the whole motherboard is rendered useless if something like this fails. Do you still have applecare on the unit, per chance?

illi · May 31, 2008

It's nearly four years old, so I don't think so.

And are you talking about the disk repair you can do from the DVD? I'll look into that.

****, and I just put some more ram into it too >>. (this issue showed up once or twice before hand, didn't think much of it at the time)

Waterpolo820 · May 31, 2008

Maybe your screen cable got unseated and is loose, it happened to one of my old dells and it took re seating it and the screen went back to normal.

Purple Diagonal Lines (Hardware problem?)

illi

Thunder82

illi

Waterpolo820

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