Blurry iMac

[RedDragon870503]

The display on my iMac (G5, 20in, "iSight") has suddenly become very blurry; almost as if parts of the screen are anti-aliased. Nothing has really been changed of late.

This blurring depends on position of the screen not content. ie, if I move a window to a different part of the screen the "blurriness" ceases.

 

[Jasonbot]

Eitehr the internal connector is loose or the screen/gfx card is broken. SOunds like a harware issue to me.

 

[iBookG4user]

When an LCD is not at it's native resolution it looks blurry, although I don't think that's the issue, but check the screen resolution and make sure it's at the highest resolution possible (If I remember correctly I think it's 1600 x 1050 or something similar to that).

 

[RedDragon870503]

Right,

I was thinking that myself; however, when the OS X is booting and the splash screen is displayed it is obviously not blurred, nor is any section of screen I move my mouse over.

Also, it becomes blurry about half a second after OS X is done booting. I haven't moved the machine so a connection coming loose is probably not it.

And, though I can't rule it out; these machines did not have gfx issues did they?

 

[RedDragon870503]

Res is correct. I'm new but not that new.

 

[Jasonbot]

lol, is that really the only problem! Wow!

 

[iBookG4user]

Res is correct. I'm new but not that new.

So the resolution was changing to a lower one and that was the issue?

 

[RedDragon870503]

No, sorry for being unclear. The resolution settings are, and have always been 1680X1050... I was saying; I am new to Macs... But not that new.

 

[RedDragon870503]

I booted from a CD and had no blurry problems... just an FYI. I reset/deleted any culprit apps (shapeshifter/ati accelerator/display prefs)... any other ideas?

 

[iBookG4user]

Try creating a second user account and logging into that, that way you know if it is just for your user account or for all of Mac OS X.

 

[RedDragon870503]

Like the idea, I'll try that.

 

[RedDragon870503]

good news, the new user had none of this blurriness... bad news, what the heck should I change with my current user to make this go away?!

 

[iBookG4user]

Well one sure fire way to get rid of the blurriness if it's not system wide is to do an archive and install. An archive and install won't touch your data, but it will reinstall Mac OS X.

 

[RedDragon870503]

Guys, I really appreciate the suggestions!

Archive and Install... Did it, but no go, same blurriness.

It is funny; with fast user switching it goes from blurry to sharp in a flash. Obviously not a hardware OR system issue, but something with in the user folder... ANY ideas?

 

[RedDragon870503]

I should also be more specific about this "blur"

It looks like minor anti-aliasing on most of the screen... Also, the menu bar on the top seems to be misplaced 3 or 4 pixels up... Basically my display is acting funny...

 

[iBookG4user]

Guys, I really appreciate the suggestions!

Archive and Install... Did it, but no go, same blurriness.

It is funny; with fast user switching it goes from blurry to sharp in a flash. Obviously not a hardware OR system issue, but something with in the user folder... ANY ideas?

It's an issue with a program then, what programs that you have do you think could have something to do with it?

 

[RedDragon870503]

Unbelievable; I fixed it.

It was the accessibility option of zooming getting activated by default on login only very very slightly.

This was causing everything on the screen to appear anti-aliased!


Whew!

 

[iBookG4user]

Unbelievable; I fixed it.

It was the accessibility option of zooming getting activated by default on login only very very slightly.

This was causing everything on the screen to appear anti-aliased!


Whew!

That's weird, on my MacBook Pro if I zoom in very slightly it automatically resets itself after about a second. Glad you fixed it though .

 

[MyAwesomeBlog]

The display on my iMac (G5, 20in, "iSight") has suddenly become very blurry; almost as if parts of the screen are anti-aliased. Nothing has really been changed of late.

This blurring depends on position of the screen not content. ie, if I move a window to a different part of the screen the "blurriness" ceases.

Dude, you're probably going to laugh... but I think I just had the same problem.

Here's the fix that did it for me:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/441742/

 

[MsN1ncy]

Worked like a charm!

I am an Apple Certified Trainer and I was stumped by my blurry screen.
I figured it was my darn kids spending too much time on the Mac. Imagine my surprise when I tried the easy fix of alt-Apple-8!
Thanks!

 

[IndustrialSpace]

Give it a good slap on the side. That should help.


...actually, I've had issues with a CRT (blurring and in-and-out of focus) and slapping it actually helped. I dont think you should hit yours though. Something inside the monitor casing of mine was loose so it was actually effective.