post 10.5.5 video issues

Have you run the hardware test that came with your Mac?

Even hardware can fail with time.

An iMac has its graphics chip right on the logicboard.
An Intel iMac 20" Aluminum is well beyond the capacitor issue of the earlier iMac G5s.
10.5 is well within the spec range of the iMac.

Unless you:

1. Installed a different kernel extension for your graphics chip at any point than what was designed for it by target mode or root/superuser.

2. Installed some graphics chip sensitive software that runs at startup (Check your Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Accounts -> select your account and select Login items).

3. Installed some third party Appearance Manager extension (usually requiring an APE System Preference).

The chances of software failing on the GUI of the Finder are exceedingly slim.
It is much more likely the hardware has failed, and the operating system update is more sensitive to that hardware. RAM can create such a failure too*:

http://www.macmaps.com/badram.html

And since the graphics chip is also RAM related, your best bet is to see if anything is detectable with teh hardware test. RAM being random in nature may only show its failures via updates, or running system intensive tasks.

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Installed 10.5.5. Install went smoothly, rebooted, but when it started up my desktop is scrambled like when your video card is going bad. I moved the mouse around, and the desktop comes back under the mouse area. I waited, and the screen saver came on, and when I moved the mouse, and it went off, the desktop was fine. Very strange.

Yes, I could not have said it any better. Same issue here with an Aluminum iMac 24" 2.8ghz Core Duo

Managed to get a snap shot of my own video issue... Was using safari, just browsing the web, nothing too unusual.

Look at this link, look at the top left of the image.

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8504/picture2jt9.png

(I also occasionally get a problem that when waking under 10.5.5, the password screen saver screen doesnt appear, the system just hangs and i have to force reboot)

Message was edited by: crampy20

Crampy,
Sounds like you have a video card issue with your Mac.
Please start a new topic thread so someone can help you if you don't have a solution for the original poster.

No, its a software issue with 10.5.5 video drivers. I reproduced it several times then downgraded to 10,5,4 and the problem is gone. A major hassle, but i am sure now its software. I guess i will wait for a fix. I have the ATI 2600 card in a 2006 mac pro. , what do you have ?

Hi there, i´m new here but since 10.5.5 i have some graphic issues with my Imac.
In the Game Battlestations Midway, the system freezes totally...only a hard reset can help...in 10.5.4 it was all beautiful...so..these desktop crap i had also...now im back to 10.5.4 and all is fine.

it seems that apple has made some changes that´s not good for our Mac´s.

Why don't you try reinstalling the update as Combo

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1055comboupdate.html

I've read in some other thread that it helped some people, and also at el gato's homepage.

Installed 10.5.5. Install went smoothly, rebooted, but when it started up my desktop is scrambled like when your video card is going bad. I moved the mouse around, and the desktop comes back under the mouse area. I waited, and the screen saver came on, and when I moved the mouse, and it went off, the desktop was fine. Very strange.

I have a one month old 20 inch iMac. 10.5.5 upgrade went smoothly yesterday, but this morning I also got the "scrambled" desktop mentioned above. I dragged the curser to the hot corner to initiate the screen saver - that cleared it. This is the only time this has happened (so far), but it appears to be related to the 10.5.5 upgrade

Message was edited by: murphyb74

MacGuru,
Unless you have suggestions to help D Trip, please start your own thread.

Blaming it on an update when you don't understand how these things work only slows down the search for the cause.

To start a new topic thread, post here for Mac Pro users:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1128

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Please read the multiple possible causes I posted earlier. Updates on what otherwise are generally supported machines should not cause such issues, unless some contributing factor is at work. Once you look over that, please start a new topic thread here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1225&start=0

or here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1114

unless you have suggestions to help D Trip.

Welcome to Apple Discussions Scape1,
Sounds like your game hasn't been tested with 10.5.5, or there is a memory issue with your machine. Please start a new topic thread here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1225&start=0

where you'll get a wider audience and it won't confuse the original poster with solutions that don't apply to them.