HT201177: Get help with video issues on external displays connected to your Mac
Learn about Get help with video issues on external displays connected to your MacQ: iMac early 2008 3.06Ghz 24" screen went black. Did the PRAM reset, SMC etc. First try screen came up with login, but went black at ... iMac early 2008 3.06Ghz 24" screen went black. Did the PRAM reset, SMC etc. First try screen came up with login, but went black at login. Havn't been able to get screen to come up again. Still waiting for adapter cable to try another monitor. Other fixes? more
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Sep 29, 2013 2:17 PM in response to mericpolonisby richsadams,Bummer...I had the same issue with mine and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's a good chance that it's your GPU (video card). The early '08 iMacs used the notoriously poor Nvidia 8800GS.
There are numerous threads discussing the Nvidia 8800GS here and elsewhere, but this one probably covers most of the details:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3272367?start=0&tstart=0
Unfortunately for our model the GPU is soldered to the logic board and takes a pro to replace it...plus it is the only GPU that will work...no options.
That said, it's not the end of the world as it can be replaced by Apple or an Apple authorized dealer for around $175 including parts and labor.
As you'll note on the other thread, I and others have had the surgery done without too much pain (except for the wallet of course). My new GPU has been working without any issues for about 18 months now. However since the new GPU was installed I "baby it" demand-wise. More about that on the last post of the other thread.
Perhaps it's something else...but that's my WAG.
Hope that helps and let us know how it goes!
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Feb 18, 2015 3:12 PM in response to richsadamsby swansonwi,The bottom line is that Apple orphaned this iMac line very early on, having made a bad engineering choice with respect to the graphics card, which is an unusual form factor not shared by other models of iMac. (It's not, by the way, really an 8800gs -- it's actually an 8800M GTS, or maybe GTX, ie. a laptop GPU). By 2011 it was clear that they had a serious problem on their hands, and they did NOTHING to protect the customers who owned the machines. In particular, they did not work with any of their suppliers to ensure the future availability of any newer model of GPU on the same form factor. Instead they charged increasingly ridiculous prices to replace the original card with a comparable card (that might even have the same engineered-in flaw). If your iMac went bad in 2012, you were looking at spending something in the mid-300s to mid-400s to replace the card with a technology with half the performance of cards selling for $150. It was outrageous. I have a 2008 iMac with a beautiful monitor and a fully functional motherboard, and it's been nothing but a paperweight since 2013 because Apple decided it was okay for a 5 year-old machine to be scrapped.
The exact circumstances of this engineering snafu are well understood -- there's a website devoted to it, nvidiadefect, though it can take you about two full days of searching and reading to get the full picture -- and I'm sure everyone at Apple knows exactly what happened and why. Someone at the company made an explicit and conscious decision that the owners of these machines would be hung out to dry as their GPUs failed. According to at least one user, the official story was that Apple <i>did</i> have a replacement program for the same cards in the Macbook Pro, but inexplicably didn't include this iMac model in the program. Moreover, according to the founder of that site, Apple personnel routinely told UK customers that they had no recourse, when UK law indicated that Apple WAS liable for replacing the parts, regardless of the official warranty period.
I can, indeed, go ahead and buy a brand-new (i think) hilariously outdated Apple part 661-4664 for the entirely unreasonable price of $295 (not including installation), because Apple orphaned the form-factor and left its customers in the lurch. As someone who has been using Macs since 1985 (first workplace machine was a 512K fat mac, with an external floppy drive, oooooooo!), my disgust at this particular choice by a company with literally more money than it knows what to do with is and shall ever be boundless.