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User profile for user: JoshS182
JoshS182 Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Graphical issues with 2011 iMac and Lion

I have a 2011 27" iMac (core i7 and AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2GB) with 2 external displays, most of the graphical issues are present in the external displays but the menu bar, dock and volume popup all appeared distorted on the main display.

On the external display most apps look like this http://i.imgur.com/FQ0AJ.png

there are a few exceptions like steam, safari and itunes, these apps don't show any distortion apart from when being switched the the other displays though, almost all other apps apear disdorted (as shown in the image) on the external displays.

I never had these issues with Snow Leopard but as far as I can tell its some kind of graphics driver problem, don't know how this wasn't spotted in the beta..



More images:

http://imgur.com/bK3jBl&RSaix

http://imgur.com/bK3jB&RSaixl

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 9:06 PM

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194 replies
User profile for user: deadcert01
deadcert01
User level: Level 1
0 points

Sep 19, 2011 11:41 PM in response to JoshS182

Another iMac same issues - 3.4GHz, 8GB, 2GB graphics - glitches in menubar, halo's around windows & dialog boxes. Intermittant problem but as with others experiance normally associated with playing web video. Restart normally cures.


Am convinced that it is a driver issue as I regularly use bootcamp to play games and the glitches have never replicated under Win 7.


Going to do battle with Applecare as suggested... will update my results...

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User profile for user: Brian Semotiuk
Brian Semotiuk
User level: Level 1
20 points

Sep 22, 2011 7:35 AM in response to alessandro85

If you look on page 4, I mention in my 2nd post that it happened to me after using quicklook. I was watching video taken with my iPhone. I believe I may have been doing that the first time too. I also mentioned that you don't need to restart but simply log-off gets rid of the screen glitch.


I also believe that this glitch may have more than one cause which triggers it. It may well be the case that versions of Adobe Flash could cause the glitch along with quicklook in the finder. Upgrading Flash may have seemed to fix it for some because they may not use quicklook. I don't use flash that often and rarely watch youtube or anything else online.


For those that have, or had the problem with YouTube, what types of video would cause the problem - was it regular 320p or did it happen more with 720p and higher?


I am pretty sure that it is a driver problem which allows applications to use GPU hardware acceleration and video overlay. Youtube is known to use the GPU and quicklook also would use it when playing back H.264 files.


I notice that when it happened the 2nd time, I got a flash of pink/purple line in the video right before it glitched.

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Graphical issues with 2011 iMac and Lion

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