apple support telling me to wipe my HD clean

[julieda]

I've had this scrambled screen problem - the screen goes fuzzy, or gets all wavked-out and looks sorta like noise on a tv screen.

anyway, I've been trouble shooting it for weeks (bought an applecare contract) and the more the apple tech support people tell me to do, the worse it gets. Among mny other things, I did a system reinstall with preserving my network settings and the thing is such a mess right now it is like nothing is working right. So the guy (all very nice people I've spoken to, by the way) said he thinks my only next step is to back up all my data and do a complete system reinstall.

So I backed everything up and am the type of person who enjoys a big purge of old files anyway...

But in addition to calling, I've done alot of seraching around and it appears my problem is something with the motherboard, and it sounds EXACTLY like this: http://www.apple.com/support/imac/repairextensionprogram/

I had another link too, that said if in fact it is this problem, apple extends the warranty for one more year.

But I really wonder if at this point they are trying to avoid sending out a person to see if it's a hardware problem? And having to offer me the extended warranty?

I guess this is juat a big rant... I'm all set to do the system reinstall, but if anyone has any words of wisdon before I go ahead with this (probably this evening) please share!

thanks,
Julie

 

[gwuMACaddict]

back up your files imediately, just to be safe. apple care is notorious for recomending a hard drive sweep...

sounds like hardware to me, maybe logic board

 

[36183]

Dont bother reinstalling your operating system, it would be a waste of time, but backing up files is a good idea as you may have your system replaced.

 

[Sun Baked]

If you boot from the DVD and it has the same problem, it's doubtful that it is a software problem.

However if the boot of the DVD and the machine is fine, and it's also fine if you boot into single user and/or safe mode.

It presents a strange situation.

---

Changes are more likely a HW problem, but there are time that a clean install without preserving any old settings will fix things -- sometimes the 3rd party hacks really screw the system up.

 

[julieda]

If you boot from the DVD and it has the same problem, it's doubtful that it is a software problem.

However if the boot of the DVD and the machine is fine, and it's also fine if you boot into single user and/or safe mode.



yeah, that is why i figure I better try the reinstall because it does not happen in safe mode and I worked in safe mode for days, it doesn't happen if I have the system disc in, but then I haven't worked for very long with it in, never more than an hour. I cannot set up a new account, if I try to log out of my account (only user ever set-up on the machine) the system freezes and I have to restart.