Horizontal lines on screen

Lany · Apr 20, 2010

Hello,
I have a Mac at work (imac OS X Version 10.5.8 2 GHz INtel Core Duo & 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM of memory with added memory that was put in a couple years ago.)
Lately it's been having these horizontal lines through the screen. They are very random and appear a lot and sometimes appear a little. I have been able to take screen shots of the problem (attached) and sometimes when I try to take screen shots they disapear. $:\$

Does anybody know what this is, how it might be fixed, and if my computer is doomed?

Thank you
Lany

bobtomay · Apr 20, 2010

Note: Moved to appropriate forum and gave it a better title.

chscag · Apr 20, 2010

Welcome to the forums!

It looks like you're experiencing video problems which may be coming from the graphics unit on the iMac. Since they're intermittent, that makes it a bit more difficult to track down.

If you can run some tests for us, it would be helpful: Attach an external monitor to the iMac and set it up for "mirror" mode. (You can do that from System Preferences, Displays.)

If those same random lines appear on the external monitor as well as the iMac monitor, then we can assume it's graphics related. If the random lines do not appear on the external monitor but do appear on the iMac monitor, it may be the iMac display itself which is defective.

Post the results back here to the same thread and we can go from there.

Regards.

samhodgkiss · Apr 20, 2010

I had the same issue.

Unfortunately its hardware problem and the only remedy is the have your Graphics Card/ Logic board replaced at your local apple store. Or buy a new Mac.

Hope you are still in warranty of have Applecare.

Lany · May 7, 2010

chscag said:
Welcome to the forums!

It looks like you're experiencing video problems which may be coming from the graphics unit on the iMac. Since they're intermittent, that makes it a bit more difficult to track down.

If you can run some tests for us, it would be helpful: Attach an external monitor to the iMac and set it up for "mirror" mode. (You can do that from System Preferences, Displays.)

If those same random lines appear on the external monitor as well as the iMac monitor, then we can assume it's graphics related. If the random lines do not appear on the external monitor but do appear on the iMac monitor, it may be the iMac display itself which is defective.

Post the results back here to the same thread and we can go from there.

Regards.

Thank you.. I have been really busy so I haven't got to this yet, but I definitely will try these test and then post what happens.

Lany

SaturnA · Jan 1, 2011

Whatever happened with this? I noticed a line like this in my display yesterday when I started up. I thought maybe my desktop picture had been corrupted somehow so I just re-installed my desktop pic and it went away. It looked exactly like your pictures except it only had one line.

I have been spending a lot of time under BootCamp, and have never seen any errors like that while running Windows. The only time it has appeared is in OS X. This could mean it is a driver issue, or an issue with the integrated Intel graphics chip (which is not used under BootCamp/Windows). If it's driver related, hardware exchanges are probably pointless and unnecessary.

Lany · Jan 4, 2011

I actually haven't done anything about this.... The computer is still ticking along, but because it is a refurbished, company computer, I was told to just play it out until it dies.. if it does die at all.. or maybe I just have to deal with the line interruptions..

Horizontal lines on screen

Lany

bobtomay

,

chscag

Well-known member

samhodgkiss

Lany

SaturnA

Lany

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