Sick MDD

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I have a mirror door which has been working perfectly for a few months. Tonight while watching a video, the screen developed measles, or rather small matrix dots approx 1/8 in apart. it started small but wihin a few seconds, the whole screen was covered and I got a gray message"You need to restart your mac" This I did and the little dots came back. I have transfered my hard drives into my old G4 ethernet to write to you today. My MDD has 10.5, dual 1.25G, 2G ram, original video card. I keep thinking this is a video issue because it's what i see that goes wrong. I have watched tons of movies and downloaded videos before without any problems. Perhaps scan the hard drive containing the video to see if it's infected? Thanks group!!
 
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G'day and wlcome to the forums.

Sure sounds like your video graphics card. If it is the original it has done well. If you have access to another G4 Mac you might try changing of cards and see if there is any joy. Another way to check it is with Apple Hardware Test if you have the original system install discs, probably about OS X.2 or thereabouts.

MDD use 4XAGP cards and 8X cards will run okay but they must be Mac cards and not PC. An ATI Radeon 9800 Mac Pro would be a pretty good choice and you can find them on eBay and such.

If you do not have Apple Hardware Test, go to this web site and download the version 1.2.6 for G4's. Drap the .dmg icon to the desktop, and then the left hand column of Disk Utility, pop in a blank CD and hit burn. The CD will be bootable holding down 'C' after the chimes.

http://www.info.apple.com/support/aht.html
 
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sick MDD

Thanks for the quick reply. I have run Norton AV and found no viruses present. I'm going to look into a new card-probably an upgrade to make thing work a little better. I've used GeForce and ATI over the years and they both run well. I guess it's whatever ebay has at the moment at a decent price.
 
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Did you run the Apple hardware test yet? I would run that before replacing the video card, as I believe the test checks the video card.
 
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And as there are no Mac OS X viruses what would you expect Nortons to find as they use Windows virus definitions to do the scan? As a suggestions remove Nortobns by going to their web site and downloading the uninstaller.

And yes Apple Hardware Test does a check of the graphics.
 
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sick MDD

I WOULD run the test IF the unit would stay stable long enough to run it. From start up. it will stay on for about 1 min before it crashes. I don't think it would give me enough time to start the program and give it time to analyze the problem. I'm assuming this AGP card won't work in my gigabit ethernet(what i'm using now). Thanks for the responses and advice.
 
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AGP upgrade

I might as well upgrade the AGP. I was going to do this when I had the money but everything works so well. (Well it did until yesterday LOL). OK guys-tell me what i should get. Brand, size etc. I usually shop thru ebay unless you have a better idea. i listen to everyone and vote on the best solution. Nothing too extreme. I watch videos but really don't play crazy video games requiring huge memory. Muchos Gracias
 
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Told ya the ATI Radeon 9800 Mac Pro.
 
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I would try and repair permissions with the OS installer disc would be best. See if its then stable enough to run the test. You boot from the Test disc you make from the download. And get Nortons off the computer.
 
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This computer didn't have any start discs with it.I have used ONYX several times to repair permissions etc. I am curious why a video card would go bad. I've had Macs for years (15) and never had a problem with a video card. I thought this stuff was solid state as in "lasts forever". Did I do something wrong to make it go bad?
 
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Over heating can be one cause and quite often the fan units seize up and fail, where fitted, causes the heat to build up and the card fails. Also not regularly cleaning out dust, particularly in a MDD model, can lead to card failure.

With computers nothing 'lasts forever' as electronics must fail eventually.
 
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You guys are making me nervous with all this talk of failing MDD video cards....


*Patiently waits for Radeon 9000 Pro to go bad.....* :p
 
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Don't want to scare you but the card is now what ~ nine years or so old as it was first released with the Quicksilver G4?

Take good care of the heat sink and make sure the fins do not become covered in dust.
 
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Yeah, I'm well aware it could fail being that old...mine was one of the first to roll off the line in August of 2002. Mine also has the less problematic AC Bel power supply instead of the Samsung one.

And believe me, you wouldn't find a speck of dust in any of my computers. I open them quite often. Actually, my MDD was cleaned out completly BEFORE I even turned it on for the first time. Even the eMac was pulled apart the day I got it.
 

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