[MsYvonne]

I have an imac dv se 400mhz 384 megs of ram running OS 10.1 and classic 9.2.1 Lately when I boot up the machine the screen looks strange. I then reboot and all is fine. This morning the screen was black but I heard the harddrive spin up. Other times I start up and it looks like it is warped and almost a purple color. All I do then is reboot and it is fine. Does anyone know what is causing it to do it? Is it OS X? I do have an isub/ sound sticks and the sound sticks are sitting right beside the imac?? Should I be conserned??? It is a 2 year old machine I really am not ready for a new computer.
Also I did replace the pram battery this year so it is not the pram battery
Any thoughts would be welcomed.
Yvonne

[vmarks]

Originally posted by MsYvonne:
<STRONG>I have an imac dv se 400mhz 384 megs of ram running OS 10.1 and classic 9.2.1 Lately when I boot up the machine the screen looks strange. I then reboot and all is fine. This morning the screen was black but I heard the harddrive spin up. Other times I start up and it looks like it is warped and almost a purple color. All I do then is reboot and it is fine. Does anyone know what is causing it to do it? Is it OS X? I do have an isub/ sound sticks and the sound sticks are sitting right beside the imac?? Should I be conserned??? It is a 2 year old machine I really am not ready for a new computer.
Also I did replace the pram battery this year so it is not the pram battery
Any thoughts would be welcomed.
Yvonne</STRONG>

Yvonne,

Try a few things-
move the sound sticks and sub away from the computer. Magnets can cause interference in the video, although it doesn't usually cause what you're describing. Still, it won't hurt to eliminate that as a cause.

I think you should definately be concerned.

Do you have insurance on the computer if it should fail? Call the company that carries your homeowner's insurance and talk to them about what kind of coverage you have and what your deductible is, and if need be, ask them what kind of coverage you can add on this computer. I'm not trying to scare you, but it's best you be informed just in case this gets worse and the computer becomes unusable.

The analog/video/power supply board (it's two boards in your iMac connected by a permenantly attached cable, sold as a set) is one of the more failure prone parts, although Apple claims no knowledge of that. However, the symptoms of that failure don't usually include the screen being warped and purple. They do usually include a dark screen but hearing the hard drive spinning up.

Here's a question: how good is the power where you live? sometimes, if power is fluctuating, it can cause odd results in sensitive electronics, and even damange them. Too little voltage and too much voltage are both damaging. Do you have a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) or a power line conditioner? It certainly wouldn't hurt to try one.

My inclination is to believe that you're looking at the early warning signs of a power/analog/video board about to fail, which is an expensive repair. I am a little stumped by the purple warped display, however.

So, move the sound sticks around, use a UPS or power conditioner, and find out what your insurance will do for you if it fails. Let us know!

Good luck,
Victor Marks
[email protected]

[xyber233]

That doesnt sound like a problem with OS X or the soundsticks. There has to be something seriously wrong inside the computer, maybe the video/analog board. Do you have a warranty on it?

[MsYvonne]

2 year old machine and I dont have Apple Care or any type of warranty. And I have been reading on the Apple Support forum it seems to me it is a very common problem. I tried to move the sound sticks away from the computer and then shut it down and rebooted and it seem to be ok. The test will be tomorrow when I turn it back on. I dont think it is sound stick related or power related. I say this because I have an ibook dual dvd 384 megs of ram running OS X and it works great. Anything I should be or not be doing to baby this machine along??

[vmarks]

Hi,

I didn't believe it was sound stick related, but because the purple-warped-screen is unusual, I wanted to consider all possibilities.

Yes, this is a common problem with the design of the power/analog/video board in iMacs.

Apple's customer relations position on it is "We know of no problem. You can't trust what you read on forums."

To prolong the life, you may want to make sure that you set your energy settings to not allow the computer to sleep. If you want to conserve energy or not score the monitor (where the image gets etched into the screen) shutdown the machine.

Sleep exacerbates the problem.

I still say you should find out if your homeowner's insurance policy covers your computer at all.

Good luck,
Victor Marks

[nyarlaho]

So these video related quirks are signs of a video board that is about to fail? That doesn't sound too good.

If so, then I shouldn't count on seeing my Imac alive for long. My screen has a tendency of moving to the left and right very suddenly. About every hour or so, for a couple of seconds.

I have heard lots of people talking about Imac monitor problems, especially owners of summer 2000 DV models.

[Rob van dam]

Should i be worried since im considering buying an i-mac.

Man i dont whether it's dell or apple.

[Naplander]

Same thing happened to my girlfiends machine. The screen started getting all skewed when booting sometimes. The screen would come out red or blue. We would have to reboot a few times to get it back to normal. Many bomb messages as well.

I was led to believe it to be the video board as well, so we took it into an Apple center. This is an iMacDV SE 400mhz.

They had a look, and ended up changing the HD!!! The machine now seems to run a lot better, with no more monitor problems. V ODD!!!

Anyway, my advice to you is to see if you can put in a new HD first, if you can do it yourself. Otherwise just take it in for a look, but prepare your wallet for a bashing.

[vmarks]

It is certainly interesting that at least one person only had to replace the hard drive for the machine to return to normal behavior.

I'm not there- I can't see the machine in person. I have said, the purple warping symptom is unusual and not normally associated with the analog/video board failure. There can be something else going on here, but that the rest of the symptoms are familiar.

You're right, it is within the realm of possibility that something else could be causing the problem-

take it to a service center and pay to have it checked out. Then you'll know what the service center recommends you fix on it. Back up your data first.

But just buying a hard drive if that isn't the cause isn't financially sound either- it's like taking your car to a mechanic and replacing things that are working in a 'fishing expedition' to find what's wrong.


Rob- should you be concerned about buying an iMac? not if you make sure it's covered on your homeowners insurance policy, not if you consider getting applecare, not if you shut down rather than sleep, and not if you use a UPS or power conditioner. The iMac _can_ be a fine machine. However, we shouldn't be hearing reports here and at the Apple iMac discussion forum of machines that fail at 14 and 18 months old. I don't have good numbers on how many iMacs fail versus how many are shipped, so it's difficult to say if it's statistically valid to declare the iMac prone to failure. It's probably not valid to say that... but still, there's nothing wrong with taking steps to insure you'll not be caught out if yours does fail at some future date. Many iMacs out there have run fine since day one and continue to do so. Of course, I'd recommend you buy a G4 tower, new or used.

Victor Marks
[email protected]

Originally posted by Naplander:
<STRONG>Same thing happened to my girlfiends machine. The screen started getting all skewed when booting sometimes. The screen would come out red or blue. We would have to reboot a few times to get it back to normal. Many bomb messages as well.

I was led to believe it to be the video board as well, so we took it into an Apple center. This is an iMacDV SE 400mhz.

They had a look, and ended up changing the HD!!! The machine now seems to run a lot better, with no more monitor problems. V ODD!!!

Anyway, my advice to you is to see if you can put in a new HD first, if you can do it yourself. Otherwise just take it in for a look, but prepare your wallet for a bashing.</STRONG>

Same thing is happening to my iMac, and I have replaced the hd recently. No change. It doesn't happen all the time for me, probably once a week.

Good luck..
George

[BobK]

Back-up! Back-up! Back-up!
Don't wait!! I can't stand hearing people complain about how they lost all there info., Question "when did you first notice this problem?"
response "It has been going on for about a month"
Computers are machines, they fail!
Count on it!

[GORDYmac]

I used to have that problem--a reddish plaid-type pattern overlaying the screen contents, startup to a black screen, and a gray screen at startup. I haven't had those problems in over a year though. I didn't do anything special, I've upgraded RAM, changed the battery, and kept the OS updated. However I don't shutdown my DVSE more anymore, since going to OS X. Also, I don't use Energy Saver to do scheduled startups and shutdowns anymore--which is what I believed to be the culprit, along with a video hardware glitch.

Good luck.

[bluebean]

Rob, don't know if you'll read this thread again, but if you really want to know whether to buy an iMac or a Dell, post a new topic asking that question and you'll plenty of good reasons to get the iMac. There are millions of users who aren't having the problems we deal with here, and maybe it would be helpful to hear from a few satisfied users first.

[Indigo Boy]

As to the iMac purchase question: I think it's important to remember that this is a forum, and as much as it's nice to hear "I love my iMac" postings, the reality is that most people are here to post questions, concerns or problems with their iMacs. I don't think the issues raised here should be taken as a scientific sampling of how reliable or unreliable iMacs are. (That's not to say that every iMac is trouble free either.) Reading the questions and issues raised in an iMac forum is not going to give you an accurate picture of the way the majority of iMac users feel about their machines.

[ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: Indigo Boy ]

[Rob van dam]

I am actually considering getting aqpplecare.Dont get me wrong the imac is a kick ass machine if used my friends 233mhz i mac and neumerous occasions and it rocked.The only thing that amazed me was the number of imacs having analog board problems and other forms of unusual problems

[Indigo Boy]

I have AppleCare on my summer 2000 iMac 400. Money may not buy happiness, but in some cases it can buy peace of mind!

[brianosaurus]

This is really strange. About 2 weeks ago, I replaced the HD in my imac DV 400 SE, and when i turned it back on, the screen was purple and warped. I kind of freaked. But while it was booted, I partitioned the drive.

After a few reboots, it was normal again. I installed OSX, and it ran fine for a few days. I went out of town one weekend. When i came back, the computer was off, perhaps due to power failure. It took a few tries to get it to turn on... black screen + power light + no disk, grey-screen + no disk, then finally everything worked and its been running fine ever since.

The disk I put in is a WD 120G 7200RPM, so i was thinking maybe it was something to do with that, but for now I have a kickass iMac (640M RAM, 120G Disk) for a media server.

[Nyuni]

I've got a 2000 iMac DV also, and while I'm off at school, I've been getting frantic calls from homebase telling me that the screen is dead.. once it gets unplugged and plugged back in though it seems to boot just fine. The harddrive spins up and the system seems to boot normally, but no video. Monitor doesn't even make that static crackle that is normal with a powering up CRT.

Is it good to assume the Analog/Power board is going? If so, I'll have it taken in to get replaced (Have an extended warranty on it, and the place I've gotten it from has really honrored the thing after the modem's been blown a couple of times.. leave the house, and it seems like nobody can take care of the iMac.. ). On that note, the poor blueberry bauble has been taking quite a beating going back to the doctor's to get the modem replaced twice in less than 3 months.. think the techs might've knocked something loose?

[vmarks]

Originally posted by Nyuni:
<STRONG>I've got a 2000 iMac DV also, and while I'm off at school, I've been getting frantic calls from homebase telling me that the screen is dead.. once it gets unplugged and plugged back in though it seems to boot just fine. The harddrive spins up and the system seems to boot normally, but no video. Monitor doesn't even make that static crackle that is normal with a powering up CRT.

Is it good to assume the Analog/Power board is going? If so, I'll have it taken in to get replaced (Have an extended warranty on it, and the place I've gotten it from has really honrored the thing after the modem's been blown a couple of times.. leave the house, and it seems like nobody can take care of the iMac.. ). On that note, the poor blueberry bauble has been taking quite a beating going back to the doctor's to get the modem replaced twice in less than 3 months.. think the techs might've knocked something loose?</STRONG>

Unlikely that the techs knocked something loose. From the symptoms you describe, take it to them now. Let us know what they change on it. My bet: analog/video/power board.

Victor Marks
[email protected]