Graphic glitches after reformat

M

macthang

Registered
My graphic card is acting up only after a fresh Snow Leopard installation (reformat)
I never had a problem or crashing before. I used to be able to edit in design software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, etc and play World of Warcraft. Now, I get totally random digitized pixelated lines across my screen. In Photoshop, my computer freezes, crashes. Some times I need to manually reboot, some times it reboots on its own. I randomly see the digitized lines on the boot up screen (gray screen with apple on it as it loads up).

My software is up to date and my design software are freshly installed.

Anyone have any idea what may be causing this? Or could it just be my graphics card is going bad?

Thanks,

Suzy
 
First step would be to tell us which Mac you have...
MacPro?
MacBook Pro?
iMac?
Different Mac model?
Are you using an external display?
More details are better in this case.
 
Hi there,

Sorry to have left this information out.

I have a 2006 iMac Intel Core Duo Model 2105

I do have an additional monitor hooked up to it which extends my desktop. The graphic glitch is happening on both monitors.

Any other info I can provide for help, feel free to ask.

Suzy
 
If you did NOT have that video glitch before installing Snow Leopard, then you may simply have a coincidental failure of the video chip. Unfortunately, the video chip is not separately replaceable on the early intel Macs - and you would have to replace the logic board. BUT, could be a software glitch, too..
Do you still have your original restore DVD (the set of 2 grey DVDs that came originally with your iMac?) Try booting to the disk that is labeled for a Hardware Test while holding the D key (D for Diagnostics) - and run both the standard and the extended tests. You may get a failure code that can indicate that the video is, in fact, failing. If you get a failure, then the logic board is likely bad.
If no failure (or you don't have that DVD now), you might try reinstalling Snow Leopard. If you boot to your Snow Leopard DVD, and you already have Snow Leopard installed, the installer will automatically do a reinstall, similar to the Archive & Install used with older versions of OS X. It won't erase your hard drive, but simply install Snow Leopard on top of the existing installation. That install will return your version to whatever is on that Snow Leopard DVD, so you next task is to update. You can use Software Update for that.
The reason that I recommend this reinstall - the driver part of the OS X install might have 'missed' part of the video drivers, and this reinstall should pick that up, and perhaps fix your issue that you have now. Some folks here might recommend trying a combined 10.6.7 updater first - but if you have that issue since a clean install, the combined updater might not help either - and the full reinstall won't hurt anything. Just remember that you may have some apps that need the system fully updated, so don't try your apps until all the updates have completed - and you have restarted a couple of times. I don't have a technical reason for doing several restarts, but it's simply what I have developed over time with OS X.
One more thing - check that the small air intake (on the back directly above the power plug, underneath the hinge) is completely clean and clear ...
 
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