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Horizontal faint lines on imac monitor

G

greggumz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2006
6
0
i got my imac this june, so i'm not sure what generation that makes it. (somone let me know plz) anyway just today i noticed I have some horizontal lines going across it. very faint and hard to notice, but i'm anal and i noticed them. My first instinct was to find out how to degauss this monitor. but apparently you can't on this thing.

2 possible reasons i could give to this problem.

1. my monitor speakers on both sides of my screen, they are m-audio bx5a. so they are big, but ive had them for months now, and just today the lines appeared. which leads me to belive

2. on mistake i started up call of duty 4, and forcequit it as it was loading. After some time i noticed the lines. next time i opend the game it said it was shut down inpropperly and i would have to open it all weird.

any ideas? i'm gonna call apple but does anyone have experience with this, could it be a virus?

24 inches, top of the line video card, i think its a geforce something. 500 gb hd, leapard.
 
It won't be a virus, most likely a failing video card, internal display connection or display itself. Best get this checked out by Apple whilst you still have warranty.

Degaussing monitors applies to CRTs only.
 
you cant degauss LCDs, speakers have magnet shields plus they wont affect LCDs, viruses dont affect LCDs and OS X currently doesnt have viruses.

sooo take it to the Apple Store and show them (or take a screenshot if its picked up) and i will guarantee they will repair or replace it (happened to me).
 
richthomas said:
you cant degauss LCDs, speakers have magnet shields plus they wont affect LCDs, viruses dont affect LCDs and OS X currently doesnt have viruses.

sooo take it to the Apple Store and show them (or take a screenshot if its picked up) and i will guarantee they will repair or replace it (happened to me).
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. Last night instead of putting my computer to sleep it shut it off. Today the lines seem to be gone. Maybe they are still there but for faint lines they, if they are still there its only 10% of them. I can't tell. I'm gonna sit on it a little longer and see if they come back like last night. I think i have my warranty for the first year automatically.
 
I'm new and I will pick up my first mac ever tomorrow. I'm getting the imac 24 and am excited.

I've read and read various posts and did find one from 2003 regarding my question, but of course couldn't post on it.

I live in an area where we get STRONG pop-up storms and we get a lot of lightening strikes. I've lost one computer already because of this as well as other electrical equipment.

I now shut down (and unplug) my computer every night and every time I leave the house. Will this hurt the mac if I do this?

Thanks for any help!!
 
SharonLM said:
I'm new and I will pick up my first mac ever tomorrow. I'm getting the imac 24 and am excited.

I've read and read various posts and did find one from 2003 regarding my question, but of course couldn't post on it.

I live in an area where we get STRONG pop-up storms and we get a lot of lightening strikes. I've lost one computer already because of this as well as other electrical equipment.

I now shut down (and unplug) my computer every night and every time I leave the house. Will this hurt the mac if I do this?

Thanks for any help!!
Click to expand...

Unplugging isn't good for your Mac, the internal clock battery goes flat which means it will no longer keep the time whenever unplugged.

Just get a really good surge protector, with warranty. Don't buy the cheap stuff, get a more pricy Belkin, which offers warranty.
 
TheReef said:
Unplugging isn't good for your Mac, the internal clock battery goes flat which means it will no longer keep the time whenever unplugged.

Just get a really good surge protector, with warranty. Don't buy the cheap stuff, get a more pricy Belkin, which offers warranty.
Click to expand...

Oh boy, that's scary. We've lost one computer, one DVD, three phones all to electrical strikes in this area. We've had two homes right up the street take direct hits and both burned down.

I really have to unplug. Should I not get a Mac? I HATE Windows Vista.

Even a really good surge protector probably won't help, if the strike is close enough will it?
 
I installed a whole house surge protector that goes across two phases in the electrical panel. It cost $75.00 at the electrical supply house. I also have my computers plugged into UPS battery backups that also provide powerline protection. all the other devices are in surge protectors.
 
greggumz said:
Thanks guys. Last night instead of putting my computer to sleep it shut it off. Today the lines seem to be gone. Maybe they are still there but for faint lines they, if they are still there its only 10% of them. I can't tell. I'm gonna sit on it a little longer and see if they come back like last night. I think i have my warranty for the first year automatically.
Click to expand...

Any update on this?

I just noticed one faint line running horizontal right above my dock. Did they come back?
 
SharonLM said:
I'm new and I will pick up my first mac ever tomorrow. I'm getting the imac 24 and am excited.

I've read and read various posts and did find one from 2003 regarding my question, but of course couldn't post on it.

I live in an area where we get STRONG pop-up storms and we get a lot of lightening strikes. I've lost one computer already because of this as well as other electrical equipment.

I now shut down (and unplug) my computer every night and every time I leave the house. Will this hurt the mac if I do this?

Thanks for any help!!
Click to expand...
If you get a good Surge Protector, I should work.
However, I suggest starting a new thread.
Hijacking somebody elses thread isn't the best way to get support for you Product.
David
 
I've shut down my two windows computers for the past 11 years every night before I go to bed and never had a problem. I've pulled the plug out of the wall whenever it was storming for hours on end and never had a problem or loss of time. I've had a Mac now for almost a year and I've been doing the same thing, shutting it off at night and pulling the plug before and during lightning and thunder storms and never lost a second of time. I think unplugging the computer from the wall is a non issue.
 
Salmar said:
I think unplugging the computer from the wall is a non issue.
Click to expand...

I've seen several older iMacs/eMacs in education environments where failure has occurred (over 70%).

The main thing is to ensure the computer is plugged into the wall enough for the battery to charge.


SharonLM said:
Oh boy, that's scary. We've lost one computer, one DVD, three phones all to electrical strikes in this area. We've had two homes right up the street take direct hits and both burned down.

I really have to unplug. Should I not get a Mac? I HATE Windows Vista.

Even a really good surge protector probably won't help, if the strike is close enough will it?
Click to expand...

Mac or PC it would be the same, if you leave the computer unplugged for long periods of time it should be recharging it enough if you use it everyday.

Unplugging during a storm is fine (I do it, even with a surge protector, even with equipment warranty).


If a battery does fail, it's not the end of the world, they can be replaced, just generally harder to access on Macs.
 
Faded Horizontal lines of 24" Early 2008 iMac

I have a similar problem. I took a picture of my iMac display with no other sources of light except the mac itself. The photo was taken using my iPhone so the quality is not great, but you can see what is going on. In your oppinion, should I take the risk and change it with another iMac? The picture is here
 
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