Hardware/ OS Problem and question about support

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I got my first Mac (Mac Pro) on Friday. Everything was going great until these green dots and lines started showing up on my monitors in the darker areas (whenever there is a dark image it would have these flickering green dots).

I called Apple Support and they want me to re-install my OS. This looks like a hardware issue to me but I will follow their advice. However first I had some questions:

1. If I reinstall my OS what happens to all the applications I have installed?
2. I use time machine on another drive so what should I do to restore after the OS re-install?
3. If this doesn't work I'll call Apple back but is there anything else I can try?

The machine is a 2009 quad mac pro with the radeon card, 8GB Ram from OWC.

Thanks!
 

chscag

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The green dots and flickering could be associated with a display defect. You might try swapping out your current monitor for another if have a spare on hand. It may also be graphics related but I lean more toward the monitor.

1. If you decide to reinstall, do an "Archive and Install". Read this first. Link

2. During the reinstall you'll be given a choice of restoring from your backup (Time Machine). See this: Link

3. As I said above, I recommend you try another monitor first before going through the reinstall process. If the same occurs with another monitor, you can then eliminate the display and focus on graphics or a software glitch. However, it's my opinion that the problem is hardware related.

Post back and let us know.

Regards.
 
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The green dots and flickering could be associated with a display defect. You might try swapping out your current monitor for another if have a spare on hand. It may also be graphics related but I lean more toward the monitor.

1. If you decide to reinstall, do an "Archive and Install". Read this first. Link

2. During the reinstall you'll be given a choice of restoring from your backup (Time Machine). See this: Link

3. As I said above, I recommend you try another monitor first before going through the reinstall process. If the same occurs with another monitor, you can then eliminate the display and focus on graphics or a software glitch. However, it's my opinion that the problem is hardware related.

Post back and let us know.

Regards.

Thanks - I don't think it is the monitor though. I left out one piece of information. I have two monitors and it happens on both. Also the monitors work fine on other computers I tested on. The really weird thing is it only happens on one monitor at a time. Could be a coincidence but I have never seen the issue on both monitors at the same time.

I'll read the links - thank you!
 

chscag

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Thanks - I don't think it is the monitor though. I left out one piece of information. I have two monitors and it happens on both. Also the monitors work fine on other computers I tested on. The really weird thing is it only happens on one monitor at a time. Could be a coincidence but I have never seen the issue on both monitors at the same time.

I'll read the links - thank you!

OK, that leaves the graphic card to test. Do you have a spare graphics card you could try? Trouble Shooting is all about "divide and conquer"! :)

Let us know.

Regards.
 
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OK, that leaves the graphic card to test. Do you have a spare graphics card you could try? Trouble Shooting is all about "divide and conquer"! :)

Let us know.

Regards.

I like your approach. Unfortunately I don't have a spare card that works on a Mac. So I'm going to rule out software first leaving the card as the culprit. I read the OS links above and it looks pretty straight-forward. It's a pain but worth it. I'll report back.
 
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I like your approach. Unfortunately I don't have a spare card that works on a Mac. So I'm going to rule out software first leaving the card as the culprit. I read the OS links above and it looks pretty straight-forward. It's a pain but worth it. I'll report back.


OK it gets stranger. I switched my monitors around. Now neither monitor is having a problem after leaving it on all night. I'm wondering if it is (was) either a loose connection of the card or cable issue.

I any event I'm going to hold off the OS reinstall until I see it again.

Hopefully it is gone.

Thanks for your help.
 

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