Intel iMac (Early 2008) Has vertical lines on the screen and doesn't boot. Posted:

[millk18]

I had this very thing happen to me in July. I have an iMac8,1. I had funky blue squiggles on the screen then, after all variations of boot up, it turned to unpleasant blue vertical stripes. I called Apple and they ran me through the same procedures. They surmised it was the logic board. My heart sank.

The iMac sat on my desk for a week or so until I finally got the moxy to take it in the the certified Apple tech. He "narrowed" it down to the video card or the logic board. I said go for the video card. What did I have to lose?

That was it. I was good to go. Or so I thought until I began reading this thread. Now I understanding that this card is prone to failure and could go down even as I write this.

It cost me $308.66. Am I reading right in that people are getting this replaced by Apple at no cost?

 

[twistedbydesign]

I've never really dealt with Apple tech personally but I would think since you got it replaced recently, if it were to cause problems again after such a short period they should replace it without much of a fuss. I don't know that for sure. But knowing that it was recently worked on would give me some peace of mind.
I can see them not wanting to work on a 3 year old machine without pay. But if a graphics card that is just a few months old craps out, then obviously there is a problem and they should fix it.

 

[panzer06]

I had this very thing happen to me in July. I have an iMac8,1. I had funky blue squiggles on the screen then, after all variations of boot up, it turned to unpleasant blue vertical stripes. I called Apple and they ran me through the same procedures. They surmised it was the logic board. My heart sank.

The iMac sat on my desk for a week or so until I finally got the moxy to take it in the the certified Apple tech. He "narrowed" it down to the video card or the logic board. I said go for the video card. What did I have to lose?

That was it. I was good to go. Or so I thought until I began reading this thread. Now I understanding that this card is prone to failure and could go down even as I write this.

It cost me $308.66. Am I reading right in that people are getting this replaced by Apple at no cost?

All the 8xxx series cards from nvidia were garbage. Apple extended the warranty on all the macbook pros that contained the cards, however, they never really acknowledged the issue on the iMac, other than replacing them for free on a case by case basis.

People here have also manually changed to the ATI 2600 and extended the life of these systems.

Cheers,

 

[baksharp]

All the 8xxx series cards from nvidia were garbage. Apple extended the warranty on all the macbook pros that contained the cards, however, they never really acknowledged the issue on the iMac, other than replacing them for free on a case by case basis.

People here have also manually changed to the ATI 2600 and extended the life of these systems.

Cheers,

Thanks to all before. Here is me giving it back!.
I had the same issue!. After 2 years of my imac sitting as a paper-weight!, i came across a youtube video this week (in Jan 2016) when i searched the problem again!. And using the instructions in the youtube video, I got my iMac to work!.

things i did-
- search fixit to dis-assemble a imac 2008 logic board. (2009 instructions also work, very similar!). Don't rush. Have patience and dis-assemble it!. It was not that difficult. Keep taking notes or pics as you remove screws.
- and this youtube video to actually fix the nvidia 8800 gs video card! - thanks to casual techs -

- I then also upgraded my 1TB sata drive to 240GB ssd - using a usb el capitan boot stick.
- things i needed - Torxx T6, T9, T10 screw-drivers, thermal paste/pads, i used pure silicon on the gpu chip!., and butane gas lighter!.

But the youtube video by casual techs made it happen!.

Unbelievable, but it worked!.
Good Luck!.