Okay, recently my iMac has been acting VERY oddly. These past few days the screen has been distorting to the point where it's FUBAR, and then pops up with a message saying I need to restart my computer by holding down the Power button(which I have been doing)
Is something going wrong with the monitor or does this have to do with certain hardware?
KurtonTheMagician Wrote:Okay, recently my iMac has been acting VERY oddly. These past few days the screen has been distorting to the point where it's FUBAR, and then pops up with a message saying I need to restart my computer by holding down the Power button(which I have been doing)
Is something going wrong with the monitor or does this have to do with certain hardware?
Got an apple store near you, or have you searched google for this? Installed anything lately?
[>] Brian
Just for standard diagnostics, try zapping the PRAM and NVRAM:
Resetting PRAM and NVRAM
1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.
If that doesn't work, it might be your computer's PRAM (backup?) battery. Of course, it kind of depends which iMac you have, so could you give us a complete list of specs for your computer?
EDIT: Whoops, took too long. Alex posted before I could. I'll try his method first.
Not my method, Apples.
I did some research, and before I post it all, I need to know if you have an iMac G5. If you do, is it one of the first models?
Yes, and it's one of the first models. I got it from my grandparents since they got one of the new ones.
Anyway, I did the NVRAM reset and, unfortunately, it still crashes, only not as often and not as fast. I guess that's a step up.
Step up maybe, but I think your computer is going to need some repairs. From what I've read, a lot of the older models of the iMac G5 had problems with this kind of thing. It has something to do with capacitors on the boards being faulty. The video card, logic board and power board can all be affected. I would suggest you take it to a Mac computer repair store now, and don't use it anymore, or use it as little as possible until you can get it looked at.
No, I don't think it needs repairs(though I could be wrong). That happened to my comp and it kept happening more and more then it stated to happen less frequently until it finally stopped. Unfortunately, I don't know the cause or how to fix it faster
.
It was also a old g4 iMac.
Yeah but it's almost certainly a hardware problem, and just because it doesn't happen anymore doesn't mean you shouldn't get it fixed.
Hardware problem? I don't think so, if it was a hardware problem it wouldn't of fixed itself on my comp and I doubt it would bring up the "YOU MUST SHUT DOWN UR COMP" in 100 different languages screen. If it was hardware I would think it would just crash/messup but not bring up the screen. I might be wrong though, as I don't know much about this kind of thing.