screen goes black

Hi

I do not know where to look for this on imac to sort out?

I have a imac 2.1 GHz powerPC G5, running mac OS X 10.4.11 with 1GB memory. When i have a couple programs running the screen dies on me and goes black, click the mouse then it resumes for 2 or 3 mins then goes again.

I am sure its to do with memory, space, power how and where do i check, do I need to delete some files, or remove stuff from dock, desktop etc.

Any ideas

regards BS

any takers

anyone got a suggestion, where do i look to find how much memory is left I have looked at system profiler, but dont seem to see anything apart from what it should be, not what is used or available to use like on a PC

You check your memory usage with the MemoryStick.


Download http://www.tidbits.com/matt/

I have a brand new iMac and it's happened FOUR times. I know how to reset it (unplug cables, power cord, etc). The Apple guy I talked to said to shut it completely down once a week, said it was a good idea.

Could it be a heat problem?

Possible heat problem, I live in Spain so could be. I downloaded the memory stick, and i have noticed not enough when i have lots of windows open. Mail was a big user as i had about 2000 emails, once i got rid of those the memory went up about 30%. I never turn my mac off, so I will start doing that each night.

Do you run any maintenance programs such as Onyx? Folk will say you can leave the machine on but personally like to turn it off, boot next morning and let it run checks on memory, HD etc.

If you have Onyx or similar run the daily, weekly and monthly scripts. Macaroni is a cheap utility which runs these scripts automatically when the computer is idle. Just do a Google.

Well, I was glad I did turn it off last night. It started up just fine this morning, or so I thought. When I started Safari, it shut down immediately and created an error report, something about a kernel protection failure, which suggests some security issue to me.

Of course, I've only had the iMac for two weeks, so what I know about it you could put in a thimble (how's that for an ancient cliche).

I reopened Safari and it's fine for now. I called Apple but of course Monday morning is a very busy day and the wait time was quite a bit, so I'll call back later. A trip to the nearest Apple store uses up pretty much a whole day which I don't have the luxury of doing now.

There is an Apple Certified Tech in our local area of at least 300,000 people and fortunately in my town. I thought Apple would use him to provide on site service (he did a great job - I guess - of hooking up the iMac, the Airport Base Station and a MB. Of course, I didn't ask and it doesn't appear to be the case.

Hopefully, the phone folks can help out or there is an on site tech somewhere around here that I don't know about.

Better get busy burning some document files. Fortunately, I haven't created too much, so that won't be much of a problem.

Ok, rant over. Sorry.

BTW, I already miss George Carlin. Sigh.

Jenny try and deal with the guy who set everything up for you as you are lucky to have a certified tech so close. Doubt Apple will use him as he would get the cash?

...crazy, happened on my 20"

Try Rember (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/24508). It is a memory testing program to see if it is your memory that is causing the problem.

Hi all, thanks for all the great suggestions. I finally talked to Apple (btw, such nice folks and VERY helpful) and although he hadn't heard of this happening often said the reports indicated some kind of conflict with other software (he mentioned Adobe Photoshop and a couple of others that I don't have, but that it was hard to pinpoint which program), however just by clearing the cache and cookies, he was fairly certain that would take care of it. Apparently whatever program put it into a sleep mode from which it wouldn't wake up from, except for doing the unplug cables and power cord, putting them back in and restarting.

So far, so good at least for the black screen issue and it's been a couple days now. Fingers and toes crossed!

I do plan on checking out the memory using the versiontracker link anyway, sounds as though it would be a helpful thing to know.

Strange that of the other two problems that I was/am having, the one I thought would be the easiest to fix is the most involved. Wrong thread for them here, so will search or post a new topic.

Hi , I have just been reading through the messages about the IMAC Screen goes black i have just had this problem, I Use windows Xp on it and use windows on it most of the time. But I also use MAC regularly as well. I have 1TB hard drive and that the state of the Art Imac 24" Wide screen Imac , i bought this in August this year,

I Leave the Imac on regularly really turn it off only when I go out or away. But after reading the - forum posts that it makes sence of the way that - it sounds of my symtoms are the same.

So I will be shutting down this mac every night and let it cool down. It seems that the fan gets too hot and needs to breath, sort of speaking.

Thanks For the tips guys,

I will be shutting down my Imac every night for now on to prevent Over heating.

Cheers
Jason Grey
(AUSTRALIA)

mine has done this two times in the last month. I'll be working and boom. black screen. but the machine is still powered on.

I called apple the first time. he walked me through something, resetting the logic board.

he said it could be: power issue, power supply, or a video card issue. I am calling apple now, I have 3 months left on my extended warranty.

I have the 20" imac 2007 model, aluminum.

mine did it again the other day... apple found nothing.. said they could not get it to do what i say it does...

so now my warranty is done... and its still doing it

could it be a video card? if so where can I get another one cheap?

any ideas on what this is?

macgig said:

mine did it again the other day... apple found nothing.. said they could not get it to do what i say it does...

so now my warranty is done... and its still doing it

could it be a video card? if so where can I get another one cheap?

any ideas on what this is?

Click to expand...

If it's doing it so rarely that apple couldn't find see it during the action, and it's already been 3 years...I wouldn't worry about it. If it was a constant thing...like doing it every 15 minutes or so, then I would take it back(even though you are out of warranty, you are stilled covered due to it being noted while in warranty, especially in your case since they weren't able to spot it.