black horizontal lines on desktop only

[azzielou]

I have a G4 mac running OS 10.4.8. I only have 1 GB of ram and run some powerful programs like Photoshop. I haven't had any problems until recently when black horizontal lines began appearing on the desktop. Funny thing is they appear only on the desktop and not on top of desktop folders. Also, when I have an application window open the lines do not appear on them, so it doesn't interfere with what I'm doing.
These lines don't alway appear in the same spot or with the same intensity/size. They remain static until a restart. I've tried a LCD test, which revealed no dead pixels (as i thought).

Has anyone else had this problem? Is this a video or ram problem, even though it worked fine before? How do I fix it? and Does it mean something more troubling with my sytem that I should worry about?

 

[macworks]

Well if the lines are "below" your desktop icons, it's clearly a software problem and not a hardware one. I would check the health of your file system with some good utilities like DiskWarrior 3.0.3 or 4.0 and/or TechTool Pro 4. You might also try repairing permissions on your hard drive.

If none of those work, you could try creating another user account on the computer and then log in as that user and see if the problem occurs for that user too. If it does not, you know that the problem lies within some file in your Home Folder. To determine which, first try logging in with the Shift key held down. If the problem is gone, look at the items you have starting up at login -- System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items. You might try removing any items you no longer use or want first and see if that helps.

If you determine it's not a login (startup) item, try moving your entire Library folder (the one in your home folder) out to your deskop, then log out and log back in. If the problem goes away, put the Library back into your home folder then try removing the "Preferences" folder inside of it (move it to your desktop), log out and then back in. If the problem is in the Prefs folder, put it back in the Library then go inside of the Prefs folder and repeat until you've determine which file is causing your issue.