Graphics issue on G4

Hello, this is my first post here. Hopefully someone can enlighten me.

I have a G4 Quicksilver (2001) running a 1.47 Ghz processor. My problem is this: When using Photoshop, small artifacts begin to appear in the image I'm working on. They look like short lines, about 1pixel in width and about .25" long, usually purple or green in color. They sometimes shift position based on whatever I'm doing. In addition, running any kind of video application usually causes my computer to freeze. Even converting video without watching it can cause a freeze up. Watching video online can sometimes trigger a freeze also. The artifact problem started out almost unnoticeable, but has gotten worse over time. Now my Mac is pretty much only good for websurfing. I've been told it is a video card problem, but I thought I'd get a second opinion. Any help is appreciated.

Artifacts specifically are a symptom of a failed video card. Depending on what video card you have installed, this would be a good opportunity to upgrade it.

It's almost a certainty it's a failing video card. There's a very, very, very, very small chance it's RAM related, but in that case it would probably be flaky in everything. And since it appears in graphics-heavy situations... video card.

It could be that the card is overheating due to dust buildup and/or a failed fan on the heatsink... you can open up the machine and check those pretty easily. If it's full of dust, blow it all out with canned air. If there's a fan on the graphics card heatsink, try to turn the fan by hand... it should freewheel for at least a little bit without making noises. If it makes noise or if it just stops immediately or almost immediately after you take your finger off, the fan's gone.

If the fan (assuming it has one) is good, and the heatsink is clear of dust, and the case and power supply fans are working (they should be, the machine's not that old and those fans are much larger and thus longer-lived than the GPU fan, if it has one), then either the GPU itself or, more likely, the RAM on the video card is failing. Which one of the two is dying is really irrelevant to you though, because either way the solution is the same; replace the video card.

What video card is it? Perhaps you should be looking for an ATI Radeon 9800 Mac Pro as they are bees knees for Quicksilvers.

Help! I am having the same problem!

THX1333 said:

Hello, this is my first post here. Hopefully someone can enlighten me.

I have a G4 Quicksilver (2001) running a 1.47 Ghz processor. My problem is this: When using Photoshop, small artifacts begin to appear in the image I'm working on. They look like short lines, about 1pixel in width and about .25" long, usually purple or green in color. They sometimes shift position based on whatever I'm doing. In addition, running any kind of video application usually causes my computer to freeze. Even converting video without watching it can cause a freeze up. Watching video online can sometimes trigger a freeze also. The artifact problem started out almost unnoticeable, but has gotten worse over time. Now my Mac is pretty much only good for websurfing. I've been told it is a video card problem, but I thought I'd get a second opinion. Any help is appreciated.

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Did you figure out what the problem was??? Was it the video card? I'd hate to replace it if it is not related. I have already took my machine in for testing and they assume it is not the video card because all tests came back fine.

AtaGirl: What mac do you have?

Geeky1 said:

AtaGirl: What mac do you have?

Click to expand...

I am working on a 1.25 GHz PowerMac G4 (mirror door).

Chances are very good that it's the graphics card. I can't guarantee it, but I'd say better than 90% that that's what it is. You can always buy a cheap Apple PCI card on ebay and verify that it works with that and then replace the graphics card with one that will perform well afterwards, if you'd rather do that than spend the money for an equivalent-or-better replacement for what you have right up front, but I think you'll find that the graphics card needs to be replaced.

Also, keep in mind that most of the apple graphics cards on ebay aren't apple cards; they're PC cards that have been reflashed. Which isn't necessarily bad (my G4 has a flashed PC card), but you need to know what you're getting into. Some flashed cards work better than others; you may only have one functional monitor connector on a flashed PC card, for example.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am ready to get this machine fixed! I have been troubleshooting for a long while with not much success. There is a dealer in town that has looked at the computer (and told me they did not think it was the video card) and they have quoted me roughly $160 to replace what I have got in the machine now (ATI Radeon 9000 Pro). Don't you think it would benefit me more to replace it myself and just upgrade to a better card? Can I upgrade without changing anything else? And do you have any recommendations? I have heard Nvidia Ge-force is a good choice.