Keyboard swap fixes video problem -- how weird?

[iMacZealot]

I had my iMac G5's logic board and power supply replaced a few weeks ago because I was having problems with my video supply and I was eligible for the recall, and it's been working fine until now.

I woke it up from the screen and hard disk turned off as usual, and I find the screensave frozen, but I could still move the mouse (which had turned into the beachball.) I had to do a hard turn off and then turned the Mac on again, and I saw the grey Apple logo, then it proceeded to the blue screen with the mouse in the top left corner. I could move the mouse, but it left a frozen duplicate at the top left of the screen as well. It never advanced beyond the blue screen, and after a few minutes, the screen went black. I did another hard turn off, then tried it again, and again, and again. i also tried resetting the PRAM, and nothing new happened. I inserted by restore disk, and nothing new happened. Finally I decided to unplug my keyboard and mouse. It did a few roars upon startup, and then went to the grey Apple screen, and then the blue screen, but it scrambled the video. I tried again with the keyboard and mouse reconnected, and I got beyond the blue screen to my wallpaper, and I got this report dialog and could move the mouse, but it quickly turned into the beachball and I couldn't do anything. Finally, I tried a different set of keyboard and mouse, and apparently, it worked. I don't know why.

I'm afraid to try my usual set of keyboard and mouse now.

Has anybody seen something be fixed like this?

 

[iMacZealot]

This happened again today. It blanked at around the same time, but I could never get it back up until this morning. Why? Was it that I left it on continuously with a big FCP project on it? Is this something that will happen every week now?

This is so frustrating. I don't want to take it into the Genius Bar now.

 

[Darkroom]

This happened again today. It blanked at around the same time, but I could never get it back up until this morning. Why? Was it that I left it on continuously with a big FCP project on it? Is this something that will happen every week now?

This is so frustrating. I don't want to take it into the Genius Bar now.

if you're covered under Apple Care, you can call Apple and get help over the phone. if they can't solve your issue over the phone, since you have a desktop mac, you can order a technician to goto your place for onsite maintenance (if you're within 50 miles / 80 km from an authorized technician)... if the onsite people can't solve your problem, they will take it with them, and deliver it / ship it back when it has been serviced. this way you won't have to go thru the hassle of packing it and taking it to an apple store...

in the meantime, i would:

1) unplug everything from the back of the iMac (except the power cord, of course), see if that helps.

2) take your memory out and put it back in - could be loose?

 

[iMacZealot]

if you're covered under Apple Care, you can call Apple and get help over the phone. if they can't solve your issue over the phone, since you have a desktop mac, you can order a technician to goto your place for onsite maintenance (if you're within 50 miles / 80 km from an authorized technician)... if the onsite people can't solve your problem, they will take it with them, and deliver it / ship it back when it has been serviced. this way you won't have to go thru the hassle of packing it and taking it to an apple store...

in the meantime, i would:

1) unplug everything from the back of the iMac (except the power cord, of course), see if that helps.

2) take your memory out and put it back in - could be loose?

I just took it into the Genius Bar. I didn't say that I couldn't go to the Genius Bar, but that I didn't since I was just there, but I took it anyway on Tuesday.

I tried everything I could. I did it with only the power chord in, as well as with different keyboards, or inserting them midway into startup, and I also reset the PRAM, as well as many other solutions, but nothing worked. The Genius Bar couldn't do anything onsite. They deemed the new logic board to be defective, so they ordered a new one and I should have the computer fixed and home tomorrow.

This all happened on 5.5.08-- exactly three years after I bought it (5.5.05). It didn't make a difference, however, since this is part of a recall and the repair didn't take.