iSight : black or green picture

Hello EZ Jim, and thanks for your welcome.

I still think my issue is very similar as the OP's one, as once my iSight freezes, all I can see is a black picture in iChat or a green picture in Photobooth.
The cam is not working in any other applications, and I've been through all the above mentioned troubleshooting without any success.
This morning, I brought my iMac to an authorized Apple service centre, and prior to doing it, I had replaced my separately purchased (Apple certified) 2x2Gb RAM by the original 1Gb that was shipped with the iMac.
I was then unable to reproduce the issue within a couple of minutes of testing, and the technician told me it was likely a bad RAM.
Then further tested the camera with the original 1Gb, and the issue appeared again. In Photobooth, I don't have the pink flashes, but after a while (warming up time?) the image starts to flicker for a couple of seconds, and then freezes. After it freezes, I can only see the black (iChat, iMovie and Quicktime) or green (photobooth) pictures.
At this point, I don't think I need to start another thread here, and I'll bring the iMac back to the Service Centre for further investigation.

Also, when testing iChat or Photobooth with my external iSight (firewire), the applications behave correctly, so I don't think this is related to only iChat or Photobooth either.

Hi Cube,

If you want to find out:
Pull all RAM modules except one (or two if your Mac requires paired RAM)
Check for persistence of the problem(s)
If the problem is gone, add the removed modules back one at a time (or two at a time if your Mac requires pairs), restarting your Mac each time to check if the problem recurs; If the problem is not gone, switch the module out with one (or two) of the remaining modules and check for elimination of the problem until you've identified the problematic module(s)

Hello everyone,

Here is an update on my iSight issue:
I brought the iMac to service, and they ordered a replacement for the iSight. I got the machine back yesterday with the new iSight, and it's working fine so far.
This was therefore a hardware issue as suspected.

Cheers.

We have a number of brand new iMacs (Aluminium) Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 4Gb RAM, 320Gb HDD. I've only seen the green screen on 2 of them and they are the only 2 that are connected to DV decks. When the deck is switched on, the Green Screen happens, when the deck is off, it works fine, so it's obviously a Firewire issue. How to fix it? No idea, sorry.

First off, thanks EZ Jim for all the tech support, you are very thorough, professional and helpful.

My issue with iSight is the green light comes on RANDOMLY at startup, even before the apple logo. In spite of your great list of steps to try, my only fix is to SHUTDOWN (not restart) and it works fine again. Being that the green isight light is on at startup only like one out of maybe 10 times I boot up makes it difficult to troubleshoot. Most of the time I boot up and its fine. So its unpredictable when this problem is going to happen and tech support can't walk me though it because of the unpredictability. My Macbook is the first gen, so warranty and applecare has run out. Do you have any other suggestions besides #6 (in my case that would be to pay another $200 for applecare and mail it back to apple?

Thanks again

Thanks for letting us know, Philippe

EZ Jim

PowerBook 1.67 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.10)  G5 DP 1.8  External iSight

In response to CodLBi. Your solution worked.

This is the second time I've had this problem (black screen in iChat, green screen in PhotoBooth). Incidentally, each time the issue occurred was after traveling through airports. I wondered if the security checkpoint scan had somehow damaged it, but after fsck (I think, or a software update) it one day started working and has continued to work for about six months.

Now, after returning from a recent trip, I'm having the problem again. (Although, I should note, I have flown with the MacBook many times in the interim with no problem.) Like many others, I've tried all the solutions listed here and nothing has worked. I'm hoping one day it will somehow retune itself again.

*Hello Everyone,*

I have been having a problem with my iSight for a few weeks now. It's the one built in to the Power PC iMac G5. The little green light turns on when it is supposed to, but the camera does nothing. It shows a black screen in both iChat and Photo Booth. Please help!

~Eric

Hello ~Eric

Try the suggestions in this thread until you find one that works for you. One will work for you.

If something simpler does not fix your problem first so you want to try applying the "Combo Updater," use the latest Tiger Combo available for your PPC (G5) iMac. As of the date of this posting, that would be Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (PPC).

EZ Jim

PowerBook 1.67 GHz w/Mac OS X (10.4.11) G5 DP 1.8 w/Mac OS X (10.5.1)  External iSight

[quote]Select spotlight from the top menu and write "terminal"
Open terminal and write:
clear cache
hit return and write:
sudo periodic weekly
hit return> enter password>hit return and wait until a new line appears and write:
exit
hit return[/quote]
did not work for me. But another problem with this terminal command:
I got 'password' over and over again, then a warning for using 'sudo periodic' and could not exit. Strange numbers and letters. So I just quit, but terminal didnot close properly! Now I got a very slow copmputer: it took a 12 minutes spinning wheel just to start up. And everything is very very slow. Please help!! To reset or clean my terminal!!

This is right: [quote]A note of caution if you decide to try Terminal: Terminal commands require exact entry of all characters including spaces and punctuation. In worst (albeit unlikely) case, improper use of some terminal commands can damage the OS or data files stored on your hard drive. Unless you are comfortable using your Mac's "Terminal" commands, third-party apps like MacJanitor are a better way to perform OS X maintenance.[/quote] I am not comfortable with terminal -again plese help

I got 'password' over and over again

There is no visual feedback in Terminal for keystrokes on entering a password.
If you did not enter the right password, you have not run periodic.
+Q (quit).

Message was edited by: CodLBi

Your problem is related to the password, log in with the account that goes with the right password 😉 and use your iSight with Photo Booth or close the application that uses the iSight before you log in again with the account that has the black-screen problem.

For Dutch friends;

De iSight kan maar door 1 account tegelijk gebruikt worden, sluit alle applicaties die gebruik maken van de iSight voordat je hem gaat gebruiken in een andere account. Vraag een beheerder om te helpen.

Message was edited by: CodLBi