Video problems on white iMac 24"

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Level 8

41,164 points

Video problems on white iMac 24"

My son's white iMac 24" 2006 (iMac6,1) had a freeze in Pages '09. After a forced restart there are video glitches on screen.

Icons and text are breaking up, even in the log-in.

He is interstate so I am handling this via phone.

So far we have:

1. Run Disk Utility, repairing Hard Drive and Permissions.

2. Checked out everything we can using Activity Monitor.

3. Zapped the PRAM.

4. Removed the power cable for 10 minutes before restart.

5. Inserted 2nd System DVD (Application), attempted to run Apple Hardware Test (AHT) by holding down the letter d on startup (nothing happened, it went instead, after a delay to the log-in)

Any ideas? I am suspecting the video card is failing.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), iMac6,1 24" White iMac 2007

Posted on Jun 21, 2015 11:34 PM

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Answer 1

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,164 points

Jun 25, 2015 2:21 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Just bouncing this up again on the off chance it might get a reply.

Peter

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,532 points

Jun 25, 2015 2:34 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

I believe your suspicion is correct and the GPU has failed or is in the process of doing so. Considering the computer is 10 years old I think it is time to get it replaced. I think if you took it to an AASP you will quickly find that getting parts is difficult and when available cost prohibitive.

Please back up using Time Machine, then when you get the replacement Mac, setting it up will take a very short time.

When considering it's replacement I strongly suggest looking at Apple's refurbished store. There is no downside to Apple refurbished machines, they are virtually identical to new, have the same warranty as a new machine and are eligible for AppleCare and can save hundreds of dollars. If you are in the USA the link to the US store is:

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals

If you don't see the ideal configuration, check back often because inventory changes frequently.

Best of luck.

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Answer 3

PeterBreis0807 Author

Level 8

41,164 points

Jun 30, 2015 5:00 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Much as I thought, the video/cpu failed early on and was replaced, this has much the symptoms of dried solder joints, it fixed itself briefly twice.

It is actually my son's iMac who was passing it onto my father who uses AppleWorks and this model and version of OSX was the last to be able to run AppleWorks.

Not keen to get my Dad onto Yosemite running on a late model Mac, with no DVD drive, no upgradeability and the rubbishy versions of iWork.

Preferably he'd like to stay on his iMac indigo. Now that was a solid old workhourse. The difficulty is his printer failed and trying to get drivers for new printers to run on OS9 is impossible.

Peter

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