IMac :: Not Booting Up/ Crashing With Squares On Screen?
Jul 29, 2010
I have a 10.4 iMac. Recently when using it the screen starts to pixelate with large random squares and effectively makes the computer useless. Either that or I get moving multicoloured flashing squares (very psychodelic)Also on booting up the grey screen with the apple logo has dark grey sqaures and then when it goes to the blue screen has a series of smaller squares top and bootom. The booting up stops at this point.
I have ran the disk doctor, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference.
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Jun 20, 2014
New iMac at first of year has always locked up with green squares (1/4") randomly on the open window. I have to do a hard boot to unlock the screen. This may happen 5 or 6 times a day but I'm finding no pattern. It happens in any software, mail, internet browser, extra programs and only using what I need at the moment, including mail and internet, hasn't worked. I've run disk utility - repair disk and repair permissions multiple times to no avail. I've reinstalled the OS Mavericks and Adobe Creative Suite programs (Photoshop & Premiere Pro), no improvement. Â
I purchased a high-end iMac specifically to handle high-demand video editing needs. But this happens when checking email or browsing the internet too. Here's a listing of the system from a "Panic (system crashes) log" from the "Activity Report."Â
System Profile:
Model: iMac14,2, BootROM IM142.0118.B00, 4 processors, Intel Core i7, 3.5 GHz, 32 GB, SMC 2.15f2
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M, PCIe, 4096 MB
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 8 GB, DDR3, 1600 MHz,
[Code] .....
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Mar 25, 2012
Sometimes, when my iMac has been "resting" and I then move the cursor using track pad I get a stream of black squares on the screen. The more I move the cursor the more black squares I get. If I switch off and then on the screen is ok. This is an intermittent occurrence.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1)
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Jun 20, 2012
I just booted up me Mac and got a screen full of yellow squares. I can still see all the icons and everything seems to be working. Is my display going, or is there a fix?
Info:
MacBook Pro
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Mar 9, 2009
Apple delivered a refurb MP. And I just hooked it to my 30" ACD. Then suddenly the screen froze with digital artifact lines and squares. Only way to release it was to do a hard shut-down. And restart. Looks like its the stock standard graphics card. Is there any know probs with the ATI 2600. Also under Graphics/Displays. it just says ATI Radeon HD 2600 (rather than 2600 "XT") guess its the same card. Should I call Apple and get this exchange?
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Apr 27, 2012
My MBPro, OSX 10.4.11 boots up to frozen blue screen with little pixelated squares.
Info:MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.4.11)
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Jun 11, 2012
How many Mac users have suffered from the problem of small coloured squares appearing at random on the iMac desktop? They can be wiped by dragging a window over them but they will eventually reappear. I have discovered at least three other threads where this issue has been discussed but our local Apple store is claiming that Apple haven't declared it as a legacy fault. It would be interesting to hear how others have been treated when presenting Apple with this fault. At first they thought it was the GPU but they now think that it is either the logic board OR the logic board AND the GPU together!! Being charged between £480 and £650 to repair a machine that is less than 18 months old is a bit much from a company that continually boasts about the quality of its products.
Info:
MacBook
Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
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Sep 6, 2009
When I turned my iMac on this morning (iMac G5 PPC 10.5.8) it went through all of the "normal" steps (gong, grey screen, apple logo, progress wheel, blue screen) and stopped at the blue screen. Thinking it was just a fluke, I shut the machine down and restarted, only to have it stop at the blue screen again.
After disconnecting everything going into the iMac except the keyboard and mouse, I attempted to boot into safe mode but it stopped at the blue screen again. I tried single user mode too but I didn't get any further than the blue screen.
Next, I flashed the PRAM (big gong, single quieter gong) and afterwards it came to the blue screen.
I reattached my external drive and selected to boot from a 2-day old backup. Using the backup I was able to log into both my regular account and my "test" account (without login items).
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Nov 2, 2008
I have a problem with the display of an iMac G5 20". It shows up as vertical lines of small squares.
If I change screen resolution, the display will look ok for about half a second, and then it comes back again. Anyone had seen this before? (This is does not look like the usual problem with iMac and thin vertical lines.)
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Mar 29, 2010
I started up my 24" iMac today and it just got stuck on the grey screen before the apple logo appears. I reset the PRAM and I tried using the OSX disc and holding down C. I got to the disk utility and it freezes. I am stuck using my bottom of the line laptop untill I can work around this.
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Aug 26, 2014
I'm running a late 2009 iMac, 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 with 8 GB memory with 27 inch ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 graphics card running 10.9.4 OSX.
I will get spontaneous crash of the system that causes small blue squares over the entire screen. The problem will resolve after 1-2 restarts. I ran the system diagnostic disk and found no problems on the long and short versions. It is an intermittent problem as the display and system are running fine now but daily will have the crash occur. Once the spots are present the computer will be frozen with no response to keys or mouse.Â
Info:
iMac (27-inch Late 2009), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
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Nov 22, 2010
Just installed Windows XP using bootcamp and usually no problems switching between operation systems. Recently started using an USB modem for my wireless internet connection. Internet works on both Mac and windows through the modem. Now the problem is whenever I restart or switch on my computer, it shows a black screen if I choose windows partition to boot. No problem if I start through mac partition. If I unplug the USB modem, everything goes fine and I have to plug the modem after starting windows. Is there any solution so that I can permanently plugin the USB modem and avoid booting problem?
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Nov 20, 2009
what can I do about his to boot back into OS X again. Holding down buttons (eg option) will not do anything.
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Dec 1, 2005
I just bought a iMac M5521 from a friend and it won't boot. It looks like it's about to start up and then it goes to a gray screen and tells me to press the reset button or hold the power button, and it says that in like 3 diff. languages. What do I do? I'm a PC guy and know nothing about Macs.
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May 24, 2012
Daily hard freeze, sometimes when booting up, sometimes after working for hours. Console offers no clue that I can decifer. Thought at first it was Thunderbolt running my second monitor. Now I think it is Firewire 800 connected to my WD MyBook 2T external drive. I use this drive with Time Capsule exclusively. Nothing else lives on the drive, so it is only hit once an hour. Never crashes while backing up.
Tech info: 10.7.4
8 gig Ram
MBP 17 quad core i7
Has been problematic since new, as soon as I installed Lion.
Info:
MacBook Pro 17" 2.6ghz
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Mar 9, 2010
I'm trying to diagnose problems with a friend's MacBook Air who due to language barriers cannot get help from the Apple Store. He has a Rev. A MacBook Air (with the 1.6GHz and 80GB HDD) and Snow Leopard. My friend is new at computers (this is his first computer) and only goes online to read the news, check the weather, travel research, etc. So the Air is the perfect machine for that. The issue started with a few weeks ago, he called me to ask me how to fix his internet. I wasn't sure where to start, but I suspected the Airport card. After testing the USB-to-Ethernet adapter which did not work, I figured it was something else. He told me everything gave him the "red" dot in Network Preferences (Well he didn't know to check there, as I had to tell him where to go). A PRAM reset fixed that which is good and he was able to go online again. Over the past few days he has called again because his computer would constantly freeze. At first it would be freezing and then it would work again after a few minutes. Sometimes it would just freeze and would require a forced shutdown (power button—5 seconds). Now of late it sometimes does not boot. I have been notified that it does boot past the gray screen, but stop right before when the desktop loads. Here is where it difficult: I do not know how to continue.
I can't have him run hardware tests off the Installation DVDs because he does not have an optical drive and even if he did, he would not be able to relay me the results of any test. I cannot have him take it to the Apple Store because well they wouldn't be able to speak his language). All my family friends come to me for computer help, so that's no good and his neighbors are well not Mac proficient and again call me for computer help. He does not email, text, send MMS, etc. So I can't even get the console files. I would like to suggest a Erase and Install, but again with no optical drive and the difficulty of explaining things over the phone—I don't think I can do it. Any one has suggestions on how to proceed? Maybe even what's wrong? The only thing I can think of is to give him my MacBook Air and have him give me his and then I can figure it out later, but that's a bit inconvenient (but I'm definitely willing to do that if that's the only solution).
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Dec 2, 2009
Had a quick question. I'm on my third 27" stock 3.06Ghz imac that was replaced yesterday. The good news is that so far it doesn't seem to have any of the problems of my previous two 27" imac's. There is one thing though. A couple of seconds after pressing the power button to bootup there is a brief mechanical sound from the dvd drive like a quick ejecting sound even though there is no cd in the drive. My first 27" imac dvd drive made the sound but the second imac 27" Imac I had didn't. Is this sound normal? Would be curious to know why two out of the three 27" Imac's I had make that noise.
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Oct 5, 2010
i keep getting these squares instead of the symbols in my equations if i type in () then it shows two squares if i type in omega the it shows one square what's happening? language settings? cuz my mac was originally Chinese traditional now i set it in English. this is a screenshot from the example u can find in your grapher too but my symbols are squares.
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Mar 27, 2012
I urgently need to be able to read a document, which is written in Thai. Up until this afternoon I was able to copy the thai text and paste it into Google translate, obviously not the ideal but I can understand the jist of the document, that was all I needed. Stupidly I went and had a look at the languages settings as some characters were copying over as hollow squares. Now all that is copying over is the squares and if I copy it into word or pages I get either squares or an alien head inside a square!
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Jun 6, 2006
When I boot I get a full black screen, and:
/etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory
/etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory
-sh-2.05b#
I have tried fsck -f and it runs, I get the response The volume Macintosh HD appears to be ok I type "reboot" and it starts rebooting again and I get the loop of:
/etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory
/etc/master.passwd: No such file or directory
-sh-2.05b#
Is there any way of fixing this problem? I am running OSX 10.3.9 on a 17" iMac.
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Jan 12, 2009
I've had this 2.0 Ghz 1gb ram Macbook since September 2007 and this was the first time I've ever had any problemas with it. So let me start from the beginning.
It all started this year. One day I picked up my Macbook and turned it on and I noticed that the screen was blinking quite a lot... then it started to get worse to a point I got really worried and it started to annoy me. Sometimes I'd boot it and Leopard would be changing my wallpaper every second (it's supposed to change my wallpaper everyday according to what I've setup in system preferences). While blinking the colors would get messed up and when I closed the Macbook and let it on, sleeping, I'd open it and it would be on the blue screen as if I had just turned it on.
It's worth mentioning that I was running a version of Leopard I downloaded from a torrent and had installed it from an external hard drive. So I thought I should try to format the machine, erasing everything and installing a new and original version of Tiger. Once I installed AND got all updates installed as well it was running perfectly. The blinking had gone away.
Yesterday I installed some new updates, booted and used it fine. Today I turned it on and it won't go past the blue screen and the apple logo won't show up as well. My Macbook just won't boot... I've tried booting on safe mode, booting with the tiger dvd on, i've tried resetting the pram and everything else I could do. The apple logo won't seem to appear and the machine won't boot.
First the blinking screen and now it won't boot.
Any other suggestions besides taking it to a support store? It's worth mentioning as well that I live in Brazil and support to Apple computers isn't as great and cheap as it is in the US. I've had this Macbook for less than 1 and a half year.
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Jan 28, 2010
I have a two and a half year old mac book. It's not booting further than a white screen.
What has happened I think is that it was run flat. I have though charged the batteries up to two green lights on the battery.
It's making hard drive noises but sits on the white screen.
Any ideas. This is my main work machine and I rely on it.
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Feb 13, 2012
A few times now, maybe once a month, I've restarted my (first generation, 2006) Macbook and gotten nothing but a black screen, while the computer seems to be continuing to boot in the background. The boot-up sound plays, and if I leave it to finish, the screen goes from black to a dull grey, and I'm able to shut it down by hitting the power button and pressing Enter, as if the shut-down dialogue screen has appeared. The pattern so far seems to be that if I shut down down mid-boot, by holding the power button, the next boot will still have a black screen; but when I let the boot finish and shut down from 'within' Mac OS X, the next boot works normally. I restart the computer once or twice a week, and this only happens occasionally--but it has been happening repeatedly.Â
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Apr 10, 2012
I'm trying to boot a relatively new intel iMac. I can boot to a blue screen, in which all that happens is the music that happens with the welcome video of mac OS X. Â
I currently have no keyboard to do diagnostics with because I don't have the wireless keyboard that came with the mac, nor a wired keyboard. I'm planning on borrowing a simple wired keyboard to use to diagnose the mac in verbose mode and safe mode etc.Â
The owner of the mac has done a complete reinstall, hence the welcome video music, and that hasn't worked, as the screen shows no sign of anything other than blue.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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May 22, 2012
I sign in and when Safari opens, whilst Microsoft Messenger is downloading, the monitor screen vibrates between Safari and Messenger at a very, very, fast pace. Back and forth, back and forth, alternating between the two. When the booting process is completed the computer is fine. Everything is OK. Any know what is causing this, and what to do about it?
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 2.4 GHz Intel 2 Duo Pen
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Nov 25, 2007
I have a 2005 G5 PowerMac. It has been locking up lately. Tonight it will not boot. Everytime I turn it on I get to the apple screen and the circle keeps going round and round. I then followed the directions to reset the PMU and I disconnected the second hard drive. Now it will still not boot and gets to the apple screen, circles a couple of times then locks up. I have disconnected everything except the monitor, keyboard and mouse and still have the same problem. The largest issue is the CD drive will not open so I cannot attempt to reload the OS or anything else that requires the CD drive. I do not know if there is a manual way to open the drive. I have searched the help forums and only see the keyboard as an option. I have read many posts that the 9800 video card is a problem - we have an ATI 800 XT and I have not read anything hear about that card being an issue.
Information:
PowerMac G5 1.8g Dual-core
Mac OS X (10.5.1)
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Dec 24, 2006
Yesterday I installed the latest security updates for my ibook via software update. I'm not sure if this is related to my problem, but I thought I might as well mention it. A few hours after installing the updates, I turned on my computer. Everything was running fine, however as I was listening to music and surfing the internet, my screen turned black. I checked the contrast and it was all the way up. The screen then turned completely off. Upon restarting the computer, my screen got to the loading page with the apple icon and the loading circle, and then turned black and flickered every so often with a screen of vertical multi-colored bars.
I held down the power button to turn the screen off, and the flickering increased, before becoming completely covered by the multi-colored bars and then shutting off. This morning I tried again and my computer actually booted up. However, after a few seconds the screen went black, paused for a few seconds, then went completely red, then green, then blue, then three shades of gray, and finally black again. It repeated this cycle twice before the screen turned itself off. Is this a virus, or hardware/software malfunctioning. I've had my ibook for two years.
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Sep 17, 2008
I'm on Mac Pro os x 10.5.4 and having a problem with my computer waking up from sleep or as it is booting up.
As it wakes up from sleep, the screen becomes blank or shows weird, pixelated bars all over the screen. When I try to move the mouse or press something on keypad, the computer freezes after and I would have to force shutting it down by pressing the power. It doesn't always happen, but quite often these days.
Also, when it's booting up, it sometimes will freeze with a blank screen in the middle and won't show the desktop.
Everything worked fine until a few days ago, and i'm wondering what's suddenly causing this problem.
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Jul 20, 2009
I have an MBP about 2 yrs. old. This morning when booting up, the computer made the chime sound and appeared to turn on but the screen stayed completely dark. I tilted it around and tried to see if the backlight was just dead, but there appears to be absolutely nothing on the screen. Furthermore, the little light that normally pulses while the computer is sleeping is on, though not pulsing, anyone know what's going on?
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Oct 31, 2009
I just installed Snow Leopard on a white MacBook. Everything was fine until I went to Update the rest of the software on the computer. I hit "Install 11 Updates", it started installing, and then it just turned off. I powered up, hit the update button again, it began downloading and then powered off again. I plugged in power and powered up and now im stuck on a blue screen with the black spinning showing up and hiding repeatedly for 5-7 seconds at a time.
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