Apple repair stuck- Imac ati video issue

Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Messages
169
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Hi there.

I'm an old mac user and now run a small computer repair business specializing in macs. Today i'm stumped for the first time in years. I have a intel imac which is an original core duo 20inch and it has a weird problem with smearing graphics. It's like someone has got a finger and rubbed the screen smearing the text.

The only way of describing it any better is when you do a slow genie minimize its like that but stuck and on random parts of the screen. I did notice a lot of problems with the hard drive permissions and have repaired these and the actual drive had repair issues around the structure.

Have anyone else come across this? I've only ever known it with Nvidia chips never with an ATI before? I'm putting on 10.5.7 in the hope it sorts it out.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated.
 
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
4,554
Reaction score
146
Points
63
Location
Crawley, England
Your Mac's Specs
20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
I'd avoid 10.5.7 at the moment, it seems to have a lot of issues.
Probably stating the obvious, but have you run a hardware test to check the video card? That would be my first thought.
 
OP
S
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Messages
169
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Reseated card

Well I did a clean install or Leopard and put on SMC fan control. I'd heard of excessive dust and debris around the end on the connection of near the graphics causing this.

I spun up the fans and there was a massive dust cloud come out of the machine. I decided to then open the machine and clean off any more dust. I rebooted and upgraded to 10.5.7.

After doing this i ran a number of stress test, running iphoto and changing the image size and then using coverflow in itunes. Previously this would have triggered the start of the gui corruption but so far so good.
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Sounds like you got it going. Let us know if you have any more issues.

Not to contradict anyone but I have had no issues with 10.5.7 at all so far.
 
OP
S
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Messages
169
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Touch woods it's been fine since. 10.5.7 made no difference really to the overall running of the machine. Fingers crossed.
 
Joined
Apr 20, 2006
Messages
2,255
Reaction score
47
Points
48
Your Mac's Specs
Al iMac 20" 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
Sounds like the drivers within OS X were corrupt somehow.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top