Red and green square dots?

I've been able to eliminate the symptoms by reducing the resolution to 1920 x1080 and removing all suspect programs (like drobo utilites etc.) and their remnants with AppCleaner, Etrecheck and LaunchControl. The only time I see squares now is after a reboot and just before the wallpaper background. It is a dark gray blotch on the light gray startup screen and then all's well, and no crashes.

jmf

I don’t recall if I mentioned it before but I was quoted that my system also suffered a kernel panic. Based on the two crashes I had documented the Genius bar told me that it was related to the wireless Logitech S530 keyboard that I use (yes I know old but still love the layout of the keyboard). I turned off wireless and removed the wireless connector from USB but still saw the issue with the squares after rebooting.

As mentioned before, I was able to get one of the lead technicians/managers to pass along a discounted offer on a new iMac. I returned the computer 3 times to the Apple store with the same issue and they were unable to figure it out (within reason of “throwing parts at it”). Since I had documentation that I was having issues before the AppleCare ran out they decided it was too costly and time consuming to keep troubleshooting. At that point I was under the impression that I was going to get $600 for my old damaged machine with store credit towards a new one.

I found out today that they were promising me $600 and I get to keep my 2010 machine. I will certainly still attempt to troubleshoot the issues but at the very worst I will now have a second 27” display. I am sharing this information to suggest that if you have documentation of this issue before you AppleCare ran out then they may help you out. Just show a lot of documentation of the issue, notes about your troubleshooting, posts like these to the technician and maybe they will do what they can. Sure it ***** dropping money into another computer after 3.25 years but 25% off a new one with a full sized spare monitor (that may still be fixable?)… I really cannot complain. Seems as though they will cover people with this issue under the right circumstances. Still surprised there was no recall but that may still be in development?

Hope that everyone else out there with this issue will be able to get a good deal out of it. Still seems to me as no one knows exactly what the solution is but hopefully I am wrong.

It's on Windows as well?! I thought this was strictly an OS X issue. As a reminder, i have a lab that has 9 of these iMacs (Mid 2010 27" iMac i7 2.93GHz, ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024MB). One had this issue bad and is now being completely replaced by apple with a new generation iMac(under applecare). I have now noticed a second having this similar issue on Mac OS X with red/pink squares appearing. However, now i notice them appearing in Windows 7 (running bootcamp). I don't remember seeing this behavior with the other iMac.

denmoff77, have you ever tried a TDM thunderbolt from a Macbook on these problem iMacs? Does it clear up?

I ask, becuase if I can go glitch-free on TDM, then I basically have a thicker 27" Thunderbolt display instead of an $800 repair headache...

I'm running my early 2011 MacBook Pro to a secondary display (32" LG TV).

I've had 'RGB Square' issues on both windows(bootcamp 5.0.5033) and OSX 10.6.7. When I don't let it sleep it doesn't crash and issues are minimal. However, the other day, I let it sleep and upon booting up, my LG display was covered in RGB's.

I find that interesting, because as far as I know, the external display is a completely different video chipset. Right?

Does apple really want to tell me that both my video cards are going bad with the same issue?

Anyone know roughly how apple designs the chipsets for these machines? Are they using shared ram between the cards?

Or, even just using system ram?

Frudah wrote:

I'm running my early 2011 MacBook Pro to a secondary display (32" LG TV).

I've had 'RGB Square' issues on both windows(bootcamp 5.0.5033) and OSX 10.6.7. When I don't let it sleep it doesn't crash and issues are minimal. However, the other day, I let it sleep and upon booting up, my LG display was covered in RGB's.

yep...doesn't matter what OS you have going, you let these lemons cool down, expect it to light up like a Christmas tree until it runs semi-hot again; then a "mostly" stable operating environment resumes....

Actually, it's not the temperature that does it for me. It's just the fresh reboot. My studio where I mostly use my computer is typically 50 degrees. My mac will be cold to the touch and run beautifully. My theory is this problem is due to the display ram somehow getting corrupted and when it gets bad enough a reboot clears it all out. If someone could confirm how the two display adapters work with eachother?

Frudah wrote:

Actually, it's not the temperature that does it for me. It's just the fresh reboot. My studio where I mostly use my computer is typically 50 degrees.

I'll be ****** if 32-90 deg. farenheit ambient room temps make a differene. It's the operating internal & surface temps coming of the hardware. Sleep mode cools down the hardware, the room temp doesn't do really anything to affect the machine unless your using your iMac directly in the sun with a black sticker on the back of machine. I'm guessing we've all seen what Apple heat sinks look like....

Of course. What I've heard other people say, is that they need to let theirs warm up to perform at some level of stability. I'm saying I don't need to. I will leave my computer in my studio (powered off). The entire computer will get to room temp (50 degrees). The computer performs no better or worse upon boot than it does an hour later when the thing is quite defintely warmed up.

oh, sorry. miss read what you were concluding. Well, that blows. I fear that level of corruption, but I also inevitably expect it. I would have it repaired if I was at that level of damage now that I can grasp the general behavoir of this gen iMacs.

...Or TDM and hope the issue is circumnavigated.

dgd2000,

How is the patient doing?

jmf

dgd2000 wrote:

jmf,

This is Day 3, and so far the hard drive swap (or cleaning the dust and lint out of the iMac interior) has eliminated the red and green squares. I'll report back if they reappear...

Is anyone else experiencing strange Finder behavior?

Finder has been erractically dysfunctional for me lately. I sometimes get error messages when deleting the trash. I get the beachball when I open folders or drives. Strange.

Hello Stein,

Yes I have also noticed strange Finder issues. I am guessing that the pixels, finder delay, etc may be somewhat related to the high memory usage of the 'kernel_task' and 'com.apple.MediaLibraryService' processes. I don't know if others in this post see a high memory usage from these features but I do (especially considering such a high usage from launch).

Usually when I see the squares or have other graphics issues I will see the Finder lag significantly. I also recorded several crashes specifically from Finder. Was also using AppleScript at the time with Finder so was not sure if the two were related.

The beachball could be related to a similar lag on your machine?

jmf,

Two weeks later, still no red or green squares. New hard drive and dust cleanup may have fixed it. I'm still not convinced this good performance will continue, however.

dgd2000