20" Aluminum iMac Traingular Blocky Video Issue (IMAGE ATTACHED)

[mergedown]

See attached images. Anyone else seeing this problem? Initially thought it was caused by my running the Strata3D app, but it has happened without that app running. It goes away with reboot.

I looked at the hole/vent on the back of the iMac and it was pretty well covered up with dust. Could my video card be over heating?

I cleaned out the dust, deleted Strata and rebooted. So far it's good, but it's only been about 30 minutes.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Vocalvoodoo]

Definitely looks like a video card problem to me. Could have been overheating. Now that you've cleaned the back vent, is everything continuing to display ok?

 

[Muncher]

Whoa!! Trippy colors!

Like all the others who think their machines are overheating, I recommend using smcfancontrol. Double/triple your fan speeds, see if the problem takes longer to arise.

If you want to try blowing the dust out, put your fan speeds on max (only for a few minutes) and put extra fans under the speaker slots. That should blow out any dust. If you still are having problems, I can assure you they're not heat related .

 

[mergedown]

thanks for the feedback. I will look into increasing my fan speeds. What is the best way to ensure there is not any more dust inside? I was surprised to see the vent covered in it. My iMac is also in an enclosed deskspace with light above it that gets pretty hot. That will all change this weekend when I get a new open desk.

If its just heat related, I'm not too worried. If something wrong, I'm concerned.

 

[Vocalvoodoo]

thanks for the feedback. I will look into increasing my fan speeds. What is the best way to ensure there is not any more dust inside? I was surprised to see the vent covered in it. My iMac is also in an enclosed deskspace with light above it that gets pretty hot. That will all change this weekend when I get a new open desk.

If its just heat related, I'm not too worried. If something wrong, I'm concerned.

If you are still having the problem after getting it out of the enclosed desk space where is can have proper ventilation, I'd call Apple personally, or take it to an Apple store.

 

[Samuel88]

Are you running crossover? I had identical, or at least very similar, patterns when I ran crossover. Had no problems since i uninstalled it.

 

[mergedown]

Whoa!! Trippy colors!

Like all the others who think their machines are overheating, I recommend using smcfancontrol. Double/triple your fan speeds, see if the problem takes longer to arise.

If you want to try blowing the dust out, put your fan speeds on max (only for a few minutes) and put extra fans under the speaker slots. That should blow out any dust. If you still are having problems, I can assure you they're not heat related .

I've followed your suggestion and installed smcfancontrol. I maxed out the speed for a minute and could see some dust coming out of the back. I seemed to be running at 109F. What should I be running at? What's a good speed to run smcfancontrol?

It has happened while running Strata 3D and Parallels (Vista). Both obviously somewhat graphic intensive. It started after installing Strata, but I do believe it's due to overheating/dust/etc. Hoping at least.