iMac i7 Flickering during games

[Sciencia]

Hello everybody. I'm not a gamer but started to play some Team Fortress 2 and sometimes I play Age of Empires 3 on the mac. I have an iMac (2010) 2.93 i7 8GB RAM 1TB. As soon as i get in the game a sea of flickering lines on all possible angles start to show up...

I just called apple and told them the whole history but they said as far apple is concerned that should be a problem for the software companies from the games because that problem doesn't happen in any non-game environment.

I have tested both AOE 3 and TF2 and the problem is the same, have also tried to low all settings and it didn't change... You can have an idea of what is happening with the pics. I couldn't

I have tried all apple troubleshooting and nothing has changed...

Anyone??

 

[edddeduck]

Hello everybody. I'm not a gamer but started to play some Team Fortress 2 and sometimes I play Age of Empires 3 on the mac. I have an iMac (2010) 2.93 i7 8GB RAM 1TB. As soon as i get in the game a sea of flickering lines on all possible angles start to show up...

I just called apple and told them the whole history but they said as far apple is concerned that should be a problem for the software companies from the games because that problem doesn't happen in any non-game environment.

I have tested both AOE 3 and TF2 and the problem is the same, have also tried to low all settings and it didn't change... You can have an idea of what is happening with the pics. I couldn't

I have tried all apple troubleshooting and nothing has changed...

Anyone??

I don't play any of the games you listed but here are a few tips based on my knowledge of Mac gaming.

1. Make sure you are running the latest OS version 10.6.8
2. Make sure you have repaired permissions in Disk Utility
3. Contact the makers of the games (on the Mac) and as for support
4. Adding links showing the problem when emailing support will be very helpful for the support team answering your problems.
5. The most important thing if you have a graphics card problem is the model of graphics card and your OS version. Having an i5 or i7 will not effect a flickering bug. You can get your graphics card information from the "More Info" button cound in the About My Mac Window. ABout my Mac is at the top of the Apple menu.

Good Luck!

Edwin

 

[Sciencia]

I don't play any of the games you listed but here are a few tips based on my knowledge of Mac gaming.

1. Make sure you are running the latest OS version 10.6.8
2. Make sure you have repaired permissions in Disk Utility
3. Contact the makers of the games (on the Mac) and as for support
4. Adding links showing the problem when emailing support will be very helpful for the support team answering your problems.
5. The most important thing if you have a graphics card problem is the model of graphics card and your OS version. Having an i5 or i7 will not effect a flickering bug. You can get your graphics card information from the "More Info" button cound in the About My Mac Window. ABout my Mac is at the top of the Apple menu.

Good Luck!

Edwin

Thanks for the feedback Edwin.

I'm running Snow Leopard latest version (10.6.8) and it was my mistake not giving the graphics card I use, I gave the processor instead meaning that with that specification you can get the graphics card but you were completely right and my card is an ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB.

I'm now repairing the permissions in my mac HD but I would like to understand what that means and how it could contribute to fix the issue.

I'm putting a good amount of effort to find the problem because my hardware warranty expires next month and I really want to test everything to be sure it is or not the graphics card.

Do you know any other way to stress the graphics card and may see the problems out of a game? In that way I could prove to apple the hardware is the problem not the software.

Thanks a lot,

Pedro

 

[edddeduck]

Thanks for the feedback Edwin.

I'm running Snow Leopard latest version (10.6.8) and it was my mistake not giving the graphics card I use, I gave the processor instead meaning that with that specification you can get the graphics card but you were completely right and my card is an ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB.

I'm now repairing the permissions in my mac HD but I would like to understand what that means and how it could contribute to fix the issue.

I'm putting a good amount of effort to find the problem because my hardware warranty expires next month and I really want to test everything to be sure it is or not the graphics card.

Do you know any other way to stress the graphics card and may see the problems out of a game? In that way I could prove to apple the hardware is the problem not the software.

Thanks a lot,

Pedro

You can run this OpenGL spec test a few times to see if anything starts to go wrong.

We also have a few demos you can try for free to see if they work or not. BioShock with everything turned up or Pacific should really stress the card on high settings.

If you have a spare USB HD I would install an OS onto the spare hard disk then boot off this new OS you can then if the game runs with problems on that HD. It will not run fast but you can see if the flickering is present. This is a fairly simple test if you have a spare hour and it will quickly tell if it is your OS or your hardware which is causing the issue.

Good Luck,

Edwin

 

[Sciencia]

You can run this OpenGL spec test a few times to see if anything starts to go wrong.

We also have a few demos you can try for free to see if they work or not. BioShock with everything turned up or Pacific should really stress the card on high settings.

If you have a spare USB HD I would install an OS onto the spare hard disk then boot off this new OS you can then if the game runs with problems on that HD. It will not run fast but you can see if the flickering is present. This is a fairly simple test if you have a spare hour and it will quickly tell if it is your OS or your hardware which is causing the issue.

Good Luck,

Edwin

Thanks a lot Edwin! Just repaired the permissions and the problem persisted, I then downloaded the OpenGL and in the first test, the problem was there!! Not exactly in the image itself but got some flashes of lines in the numbers as you can see in the pic. What should I do about it? Do you think this test would be good enough for apple? I have a spare USB HD and I can do the test to be sure but I'm really thinking on collecting "proves" that the problem is the hardware and so I can have them to change it with not so much effort again.

I'm downloading demos from the website you sent me and I'll tell you the results later.

Really glad for your help.

THANKS,

PEdro

 

[Sciencia]

You can run this OpenGL spec test a few times to see if anything starts to go wrong.

We also have a few demos you can try for free to see if they work or not. BioShock with everything turned up or Pacific should really stress the card on high settings.

If you have a spare USB HD I would install an OS onto the spare hard disk then boot off this new OS you can then if the game runs with problems on that HD. It will not run fast but you can see if the flickering is present. This is a fairly simple test if you have a spare hour and it will quickly tell if it is your OS or your hardware which is causing the issue.

Good Luck,

Edwin

Edwin, I installed the OSX from scratch in my USB HD and the problem persists... Also played different games from the webpage of demos you sent and the problem is there on all games.... What more can I do?? Have started another thread for the hardware people.

Thanks a lot for your time.

Pedro

 

[PowerGamerX]

In your first picture, the heavy's arm appears to have a geometric issue which is either indicated usually by a faulty GPU or an overheating faulty GPU. It would also explain the flickering lines, which are indicative of a failing GPU as well.

Does the problem persist in Mac OS at all?

Either way, I'd take it to the Apple store and get it replaced.

 

[Sciencia]

In your first picture, the heavy's arm appears to have a geometric issue which is either indicated usually by a faulty GPU or an overheating faulty GPU. It would also explain the flickering lines, which are indicative of a failing GPU as well.

Does the problem persist in Mac OS at all?

Either way, I'd take it to the Apple store and get it replaced.

The problem shows up in the games and also it happened on the OpenGL test on the Mac OS. The geometric issue is exactly the type of things are showing up for me and that problem is much bigger than only what I could document in a pic, every second many of those geometric deformations show up.

The Apple store closest to me is not that close, I should call and make everything clear first, right?

Thanks!

 

[edddeduck]

The problem shows up in the games and also it happened on the OpenGL test on the Mac OS. The geometric issue is exactly the type of things are showing up for me and that problem is much bigger than only what I could document in a pic, every second many of those geometric deformations show up.

The Apple store closest to me is not that close, I should call and make everything clear first, right?

Thanks!

I would call the local Apple store explain the tests you have done and get ready to bring it to your local store. As the other poster commented it sounds like a hardware failure to me of some kind so best get that solved before your warranty runs out.

Edwin

 

[Sciencia]

I would call the local Apple store explain the tests you have done and get ready to bring it to your local store. As the other poster commented it sounds like a hardware failure to me of some kind so best get that solved before your warranty runs out.

Edwin

Hello Edwin and anybody else that helped. Just to follow up my issue I went to Apple and the guy was able to replicate the problem using an apple app called grapher, which you can find inside of utilities and then opening all the examples within the app (3D) and the problem was pretty clear there. Left my computer there and in 3 days it was good to go, they changed the graphics card.

I would advise anybody to check your graphics card using at least that app, I haven't played games for almost an year and if I didn't check before a month (my last month in the warranty) I was giving to apple a check of almost $300.

Thanks for all the help.

Pedro

 

[edddeduck]

Hello Edwin and anybody else that helped. Just to follow up my issue I went to Apple and the guy was able to replicate the problem using an apple app called grapher, which you can find inside of utilities and then opening all the examples within the app (3D) and the problem was pretty clear there. Left my computer there and in 3 days it was good to go, they changed the graphics card.

I would advise anybody to check your graphics card using at least that app, I haven't played games for almost an year and if I didn't check before a month (my last month in the warranty) I was giving to apple a check of almost $300.

Thanks for all the help.

Pedro

Happy to help Glad it got sorted without costing you anything!

Edwin