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Rainbow Screen (not spinning circle)

Has anyone dealt with something similar to this?


This occurs frequently. It has occurred when no applications are running, if there are multiple tabs open in browsers, on the log-in screen, etc. Note it typically happens when the computer is idling. When it occurs the desktop is usually frozen until a mouse click wakes it back up. There have been times where this did not work though and a hard reboot had to be done.


Running macOS Mojave 10.14.2

iMAC Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017

3.5 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory 8GB 2400 MHz DDR4

Graphics Radeon Pro 575 4096 MB



iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Jan 23, 2019 2:14 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 23, 2019 3:01 PM

Unfortunately, it looks like the graphics processor on your iMac is failing ... or possibly the screen itself is faulty. At this point, you can try the following to see if it can help: Mac Basic Startup Troubleshooting Steps - Apple Community


Try steps 2, 4, 5, 8, and finally 10.

5 replies

Jan 24, 2019 9:50 AM in response to Tesserax

Thanks for the tips.


I went through the steps you listed. Apple diagnostics reported no issues. I tried EtreCheckPro and here is my system report. The EtreCheck showed that I am out of RAM. Could that attribute to this problem?


Luckily I did purchase apple care and have made an appointment at my nearest apple store for a in-store diagnosis on Tuesday. I will update with the results from that appointment.



Jan 23, 2019 4:43 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I have a mid 2010 iMac running OS High Sierra ( It will not update to OS Mohave . But in the past (?) two Months I have experienced very Bizzare Screens ( My iMac gets > Vertical Stripes ( each about one inch wide - alternating purple Or green with gray/ white stripes with " blinking pixel like icons . I did use every combo key restart / usually > safe boot restart ( Shift key hold > power on until start up bar line progresses . I agree with prior posts something is wrong - ? iMac last release - 2017 unsure when You purchased Yours (?)


I am considering buying a iMac though it is 2019 and model available = 2017 ( Perhaps a laptop this time for me )

Best

diamondblues



Jan 24, 2019 10:26 AM in response to hollyeva1

The report does indicate that your Mac has limited amount of RAM and has been swapping to the drive when running multiple programs. You should consider increasing the RAM amount or reduce the number of apps running concurrently.


The other item to check it under Configuration Profiles in the report. It may be that PIA (I'm assuming that is the Private Internet Access VPN) may have added this. However, I use PIA and it did not on mine.


Regardless, neither of these would cause the screen issues you are seeing, especially since your iMac has a discrete graphics card built-in.

Rainbow Screen (not spinning circle)

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