Very Strange Graphics Issue

I have a white 13" MacBook:
2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Mac OSX v. 10.6.8

I think it's 2008...purchased used, so I can't remember exactly.

ANYWAY, when I switch spaces, graphics and fonts intermittently become blurry. Most of the time, it corrects itself in varying amounts of time. In other cases, I have to click on it to clear it up and "bring it in focus". If I try to take a screen shot it clears up, so I can't show you what it looks like.

I have re-installed OSX and thought that I did a format prior to this, but did notice that when I looked in the "all documents" that there are things there I had on the old drive. I don't know where they came from, or why they're still there.

Background: I used to play a game called Second Life and I've read that some viewers can mess up a graphics card. During the time I played, my "frames per second" had been 17-30 depending on the sim. Then there was an immediate drop down to 5 fps and literally as low as 1 fps. I was on/off the game and cannot pinpoint exactly what I had done. It seemed at first that the game was the only thing affected until I noticed the blurriness start in spaces. I have tried to research and find someone else with this problem, only to come up short. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Your machine is likely an early 2008 MacBook which uses the Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics chipset. That particular graphics chipset is a good one considering it's integrated. I have not heard of any problems with it. Although it's not really designed for any serious gaming, it does fairly well with most low level games.

What I suggest is to run the Apple Hardware Test on the machine. You'll need to use your install DVD to boot the machine and run the hardware test. Follow the directions given here.

Thanks! I'll try that

I'm on an 24" iMac 2.8GHz C2D purchased mid 2008 and equipped with NV GeForce 8800 GS.

Interesting to read your post, because I too have that "problem" coming up once in a while. It's almost like spaces doesn't zoom back in all the way and everything is a wee bit blurry. Clicking on the window or sometimes even moving the mouse over brings it back to normal. So usually not a big deal.

I also would be interested to know what the issue is and how to fix it!

..no other hardware, screen or any other issues with the machine.

Yea, it's really not THAT big of an issue. More of an annoyance than anything. However, it seems to be somewhat related to the graphics issue with the game, too. I mainly use photoshop and illustrator for my job, so if the card is about to go, it would be nice to know

I'll let you know if my card goes ;-)

I could imagine it's just some fluke thing (btw also running a lot of photoshop and illustrator here) and see if the upgrade to Lion does anything to it...

Cool! It's good to hear SOMEONE out there has heard of this. I'm a little weirded out by the files that made it through the formatting, too. I'm just a computer "user" but, the files are in some weird email folders.