UI fell apart all the sudden?! Pls help!

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UI fell apart all the sudden?! Pls help!

Hi,

I'm in a dire need for help. I have no clue what happened to my iMac.

I was using Safari and VMWare Fusions and all the sudden some weird characters started to show up on my screen.

I was trying to restart the machine but it seemed frozen only the cursor was reacting. I've shut down the machine by pressing and holding the power button. I have disconnected the iPhone that was charging from the USBport at the time than tried to restart.

That's when I've got this screen. 😟

The wheel kept spinning for a while than it froze.

Next I've connected my thumb-drive with the OSX Lion install image on it; this time it loaded perfectly with clear screen.

I've done a "fix disk permissions" (or something like that) than restarted the machine which seemed to load ok but all I got on the end is a white screen and as I was moving the mouse cursor more and more weird "character" showed up on the screen.

Turn off. Try to boot again. Same frozen boot screen.

And that's where I am now. There is no Apple Store in 250 mile radius so Genius Bar is out of question. 😟

Anyone knows what am I facing here? Please help!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2), 24" late 2008 3.06 GHz 4 GB

Posted on Oct 28, 2011 2:45 PM

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Answer 1

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rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,568 points

Oct 28, 2011 3:06 PM in response to Sysco

It sounds like you have had a hardware failure. Run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode, this takes about 30-60 minutes. If no errors come up you may have to run it 2-3 more times to be sure. If you have trouble running AHT (Lion is a little challenging for AHT) then use the following directions taken from another post:

FWIW. Mine boots into AHT with disc 2 inserted, restarting, and holding down the D key. Alternatively, mount disc 2, run this command in the Terminal app, OPTION-click & hold Finder's Dock icon, and select RELAUNCH:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1

That unhides all hidden files/folders.

Now, drill down to /"Applications Install\ Disc"/System/Library/CoreServices/ and drag the .diagnostics folder into your SL boot volume's /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder.

Run this command to hide the normally hidden files/folders and RELAUNCH the Finder again.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0

This should allow the machine to boot into AHT when restarting and holding down the D key

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Answer 2

Sysco Author

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Oct 28, 2011 3:31 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks for the quick reply I'll try it than post back with the results.

*fingers crossed*

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Answer 3

Sysco Author

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Oct 28, 2011 4:11 PM in response to rkaufmann87

So it was unplugged for almost an hour, when I plugged it in and started it with the "D" key pressed and held it just loaded into lion -no AHT screen- when I restarted it to try again pressing and holding "D" all I get is black screen. 😟

I have an old bootable clone hard drive I will try to plug that in and post back.

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Answer 4

Sysco Author

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Oct 28, 2011 4:31 PM in response to Sysco

No luck. It freezes on the loading screen (grey apple logo + spinner) but the external drive keeps working and it even made a sound like when it gives you some warning in OS X.

For some reason I have a feeling that it loads up in the background just I can't see it because the frozen UI that stays on the messed up loading screen:

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Answer 5

rkaufmann87

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140,568 points

Oct 28, 2011 5:09 PM in response to Sysco

Based on what I'm seeing and reading I think you would be wise to take it in for a professional opinion.

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Answer 6

Sysco Author

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Oct 28, 2011 5:51 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I wish I could but the closest Apple store is around 300 miles from where I live. 😟

Here's best buy in town but i dont trust GeekSquad with a Mac.

Thanks anyway.

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Answer 7

Sysco Author

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Oct 28, 2011 6:10 PM in response to Sysco

UPDATE: I've tried to load Windows from the Bootcamp partition and it did loaded guessing from the HD working and the well known Windows chime sounding after the desktop UI loads up. Only problem is that the screen stays black the whole time. 😟

Can I safley assume that I have a videocard issue? And if absolutly sure who knows how much the replacement graphics card cost?

Please comment, thanks!

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Answer 8

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,568 points

Oct 28, 2011 7:01 PM in response to Sysco

Use the Apple Authorized Service Provider Locator to locate an AASP closer to where you live. And I agree I wouldn't take anything to BBY.

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Answer 9

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Oct 28, 2011 7:41 PM in response to Sysco

Sysco --

Are you hearing beeps on startup?

If so, is there a pattern? say a series of three chimes, for example?

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Answer 10

Sysco Author

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Oct 28, 2011 9:34 PM in response to TildeBee

@Bee - No, nothing just the usual little noise when the superdrive looks for a disc in the drive, but that's all.

The HD keeps working like when it's booting up normally and in bootcamp I can even hear the windows chime loud and clear when it's done booting up. Only the screen is black (blank).

Any idea Mr. Bee?

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Answer 11

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Oct 29, 2011 8:30 AM in response to Sysco

Shoot!

I was hoping it was RAM, but probably not. Follow rKaufmann's advice.. It needs professional attention, I'm afraid.

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Answer 12

Sysco Author

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Oct 29, 2011 2:08 PM in response to TildeBee

@Bee: I'm afraid you guys are right. 😟 I did a lot of googleing and unfortunately a lot of ppl has the same problem with the same model. They all say it turned out to be logicboard or graphics card or both.

Thanks both of you for the replies.

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