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Help for a Mac User who doesnt know Macs


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Hi all... I have the G5 and about 5 days ago, my computer started doing weird things... the screen will split a little bit and get all blurry... sometimes it even goes to a message that says I have to power it off using the power button and restart it. Everything was going fine and then all of a sudden this started. I jsut recently switched from PC to Mac and I have no idea what to do now...

On a PC I would run my virus software, etc. but I dont know what to do on a mac.

Please help!!!!

Thank you!

Pamela Wilson

Santa Monica, CA

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If its a brand new Mac, and you just started using it recently, I would either call Apple support, or maybe bring it back to the store. That doesn't sound too good. If I had that kind of problem with a brand new computer, I would return it for one without a problem, even if I knew I could fix it myself... Good luck.

 

edit: ha ha - you like that incredible wisdom, huh Metrogirl :)

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Thank you, JBJonas!

 

My thoughts are this - either your video card or your memory is responsible. If it's fairly new it's possible that the card or the chips have become unseated slightly. Some G5s had a problem with 'thermal creep' where plug-in components would try to walk out of their sockets due to temperature changes after a number of power-up-power-down cycles, but I thought they'd cured that.

 

My advice - since it's so easy to open the G5, take the side off when it's powered down. Don't unplug the power cord until you've opened it, because that provides your ground path against electrostatic discharge. Place one hand on the case, then unplug the power cord with the other hand. Now you can jiggle the video card and the memory in their sockets, maybe even remove the DIMMS and re-install them.

 

If that doesn't work, you need to get onto Apple right away as JBJonas says. Although modern computer equipment is very reliable, if it is going to fail it often does so quite early on, the so-called "infant mortality syndrome". It's quite possible that the system has a serious problem.

 

By the way, this post wasn't in the right place. I'll move it to where it belongs.

 

-s-

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Metrogirl, your responses to these kinds of questions always make me smile :lol: Thanks for being here :)

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Haha - thanks JB! angel_not.gif

 

One other thing occurred to me. You can get blurry images and split screen problems if your video lead isn't plugged into the back of the machine securely! I'm sure you checked that... I wouldn't expect a loose video lead to crash the Mac, but I suppose it's possible!

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Pamela, is the machine just filled with the stuff that came with it? Just want to make sure you didn't have any after-market memory upgrades. Memory (as others have stated) is a good cause of a lot of these things.

 

What version of OS X are you using? We don't know your technical level, so just in case you don't know, go in the Apple menu in the top left and do "About this Mac" and you can see it there...

 

Finally, which G5 model do you have? :)

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I mentioned this post when I was on the phone this morning with my brother. He said:

 

"I bet she's using a DVI-to-VGA adapter and it's not screwed in properly"

 

After that, his suggestions were much the same as the ones you've already been offered. Let us know how it goes!

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Any feedback for us? We're dying to know what the solution was!

 

Yeah, it's probably a graphics card problem. If the Mac is new or you have AppleCare, then at least you can get the problem fixed by Apple pretty fast. A couple years ago I had a powerbook that had a graphics problem out of the box. Apple paid shipping both ways, fixed, and returned it to me in under 4 days which is excellent service.

 

IMO the problem with Macs, at least before they went intel, was if the computer was out of warranty it would cost more to have Apple fix it than to buy a new one. That's why I like building my own computers.

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