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marklyn · Jan 22, 2003, 01:03 PM

My revA iMac just started flashing and blinking shortly after startup. The monitor wiggles and shakes and then will shut down the whole thing.Sometimes I can get it to run 5 minutes or more but it's definately not reliable. From the archives it seems like this is a video problem. Any ideas on how much this repair would run?
I'm not really interested in hooking up an external monitor to bypass the problem. I don't have any monitors around to plug in and check.
It's probably time for a new computer (woo-hoo) but it would be good to have the revA as a second one for my kids to use.
Thanks for any suggestions.

chip-douglas · Jan 23, 2003, 02:07 AM

What exactly do you mean by flashing and blinking? Different colors? The startup screen with diagonal lines....green screen...red screen...gray screen...black screen...question mark on folder...snapping sound.....lots of things can go wrong on the original, but most are fixable.

Every time I think my rev A is dead, I take it apart or search the archives for every possible way of bringing it back to life, and it starts chugging again.

The most success I've had is with cleaning the inside every 8-12 months. The thing is a dust trap. Go here to see how to take it apart and clean out all the dust. Reset the CUDA switch...search archives for NVRAM(I know one of those threads has just about every troubleshooting option there is in it)...make sure all cables are seated properly....bang on the side of it

Only once have I had to pay to fix the thing, and that was to replace a logic board. Keep it for the kids definately or you'll miss it. I've packed the thing away to give to my niece, my cousin, or to donate to a school several times (I have a new iMac too); but I've never been able to go through with it. Right now there are only 3 things I'll keep till I die: my jeep, my fuzball table, and my rev A; every thing else is disposable. Besides, internet is faster on 8.6 than X anyways.

marklyn · Jan 23, 2003, 09:07 AM

Originally posted by chip-douglas:
What exactly do you mean by flashing and blinking? Different colors? The startup screen with diagonal lines....green screen...red screen...gray screen...black screen...question mark on folder...snapping sound.....lots of things can go wrong on the original, but most are fixable.

Thanks for the cleaning suggestion. I'll try it. I zapped the PRAM and it's holding stable for a little while, I'll have to see how it holds up in 5 minutes or so.

Flashing and Blinking--The screen will blink black and then come back on immediately. It also starts to shrink a little on the horizontal or vertical. Sometimes it does this several times, shaking and wiggling, and then shuts off. This can happen over the course of a couple minutes or a few seconds. Other times, it just shuts off without any warning.

I think I've got the question mark on the start up folder so I'll take care of that also.

Thanks again.

marklyn · Jan 23, 2003, 09:46 PM

I thought the zap the PRAM trick did it, but it crashed again. I zapped it again and it's now working so we'll see.
Anyone else with suggestions?

Kenneth · Jan 24, 2003, 03:38 AM

I'm on the iMac Rev. A and Rev. D boat, but never have that problem so far. Meanwhile, both Jan 22 and 23 edition of MacFixIt.com talked about this issue [More on Rev A-D iMac video failure: dust culprit?]

Yesterday we reported that CRT iMacs - revisions A through D - sometimes exhibit a video display failure problem where after starting up the system, it powers down immediately after a few seconds, without even lighting the screen. The LED is observed to go from orange to green, and immediately shut down.

There are some feedback from the readers as well, you can look at them and see if those works for your case.

marklyn · Jan 24, 2003, 02:25 PM

Originally posted by Kenneth:
I'm on the iMac Rev. A and Rev. D boat, but never have that problem so far. Meanwhile, both Jan 22 and 23 edition of MacFixIt.com talked about this issue [More on Rev A-D iMac video failure: dust culprit?]
There are some feedback from the readers as well, you can look at them and see if those works for your case.

Thanks for the tip. I can't get macfixit.com to open up though.

Kenneth · Jan 24, 2003, 03:17 PM

The one on Jan 22.
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...30122074924495

The second one on Jan 23.
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...30123073347984

Hope those workaround/comments will help.

marklyn · Jan 24, 2003, 04:26 PM

Originally posted by Kenneth:
The one on Jan 22.
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...30122074924495

The second one on Jan 23.
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...30123073347984

Hope those workaround/comments will help.

Thanks again. I wonder if the problem is with my server. I'm still getting the "Atempt to load http: etc... failed" message.

vmarks · Jan 25, 2003, 08:23 AM

This is all related to the video analog board.

Certainly dust can be a bad thing- however, on my rev. A and B iMacs, when I measured, the problem I had was it would go to sleep, and then not get enough voltage to turn the monitor back on.

Madison · Jan 25, 2003, 09:35 PM

I had the video analog board go in my Rev. C iMac about 16 months ago. It was around $240 parts and labor at an Apple repair shop. Figured too, I had just had my tonsils out on the Monday, by Thursday I was feeling enough like a human to mess around online, and the freaking thing dies on me, only to be fixed just in time for me to be ready to go back to work. Oh well...

marklyn · Jan 27, 2003, 01:06 PM

Thanks everyone for your replies. I cleaned the dust out (there was a lot) and the problem still happens, so I guess I'll have to get it repaired. On the upside a family member was upgrading and asked if I wanted to buy his flat-screen iMac. Good timing for me as that was what I was looking at for a new computer anyway.