2009 27" 11,1 iMac graphics glitches bars and lime green circle

The last few weeks my iMac has been glitching every so often. It starts with a minor glitch usually wherever I'm using the mouse in a menu or selecting something and from there it mutilates everything I click on or switch to, even entire windows of applications become a complete mess of unrecognisable gibberish images.
If I then power down and restart I get a large, lime green oval in the centre of the screen on a grey background and other than the clock, almost nothing else even shows up on the menu bar or anything else, just grey with large bars running down the screen like the ones I've linked to here:
http://i.imgur.com/8z79nte.png
http://i.imgur.com/SRivY2e.png
If I boot into safe mode then I only seem to get the bars but everything else works ok. Previous to this most recent event, I had booted into safe mode and it had somehow fixed the problem. I rebooted into normal mode and went about my business.
I really hope this is some sort of fixable problem as I really can't afford a new computer or even to replace an expensive part

As babowa points out, the images you have linked to are just a white square and a black square. If you have screenshots showing the problem, you can add them to a post here by using the camera icon in the toolbar.
What you describe certainly sounds like a hardware issue. I would recommend contacting Apple for evaluation and service. You could make an appointment at the Genius Bar at your nearest Apple Store for that purpose.
Note that 53° C is not at all a concerning temperature, and also note that using SMC Fan Control is a bad idea. You should not tamper with the fan speed. If there is a cooling problem (which, again, is not indicated here), that would be a hardware issue that needs to be addressed by a hardware fix, not a software Band-Aid that could make the problem worse by preventing the fans from working as designed by Apple's engineers.

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Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forums and Welcome. I have looked into your issue about your HP ENVY m6-1200 Notebook and issues with RPG gaming site. Seems that the game uses Direct X control. Make sure all update have been done to the Notebook.
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Thank you for your time. Have a great upcoming sunday mass/great upcoming weekend. I hope this helps.
God bless, Rev. 21:4, Matt. 16:18

Does an external display also act in a similar manner as the internal one?
Some earlier Intel-based iMacs had graphic processor card issues; not sure what
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could be wearing out.
http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/
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of diagnostic tests there even though the computer is out-of-warranty; that may be
of help to narrow down the cause of the symptoms you've noticed. They may not be
able to repair it, however, at an Apple Store; as it is rather old by today's standard.
An Apple Authorized Service Provider could do repairs and testing on older models
the Apple Store's Genius and other may not be set up to handle due to vintage.
Find an Apple Authorized Service Provider
Visit an Apple Retail Store
There is a country locator page to help find either of the above in regions outside
of the US & Canada, not sure how the above links would work; and it appears my
bookmarks to the country locator page may not be accessible now to post here.
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function by name by looking into an iFixit.com repair guide for your iMac series.
Hopefully the parts supporting the display are the reason it is dimming down, as
a graphic processor failure likely would exhibit other behaviors than just dimming.
PS: I see you've added content to your thread after I'd started working on this
& the answer likely is a hardware repair; professional testing is worth the time
and you seem to have at least one other thread on the same topic....
Good luck & happy computing!
edited 2x

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graphical glitches appear and disappear randomly. Didn't have them before Mavericks update!
Thanks a lot for the help

15” MBP Mid 2010 models have been recalled for GPU issues. See https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5681.
Official Apple statement: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4088
Print out a copy of your kernel panic and a copy of this Knowledge Base article and go to an Apple store or Apple Authorizes Service Provider with your machine and the documentation.
Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ .
or find an Apple Authorized Service Provider https://locate.apple.com/country
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If anyone has the same setup. Then I would love to know if you have the same problem. I have included the steps that recreate the problem. I have sent a bug report to Apple about this, but I am still not sure if this is a hardware issue or a software one.
I believe this glitch is specific to the Intel 3000 HD graphics card, as I am unable to replicate the problem on a Mid-2009 Macbook Pro or a Late 2009 iMac.
My Setup:
A) Late 2011 Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz with Intel 3000 HD graphics.
B) iPod touch 4th Gen 8GB, Original iPad 16GB, SDHC 4Gb Card
I have been able to replicate 3 times out of 5 this glitch by following these steps.
1) Connect your iPod touch or iPad or SDHC card to your Macbook Pro.
2) Wait for iPhoto to launch.
3)Once iPhoto is launched. Select iPhoto from the Menu bar and click EXIT iphoto.
4) Relaunch iPhoto since your iPod touch or iPad or SDHC card is still connected, iPhoto will show you device photos first. Deselect that by:-
5) Clicking on Photos option under Library and then hovering mouse over your Photos. The glitch should show up.
6) Quit iPhoto
7) Relaunch iPhoto
8) Deselect Device photos by clicking on Photos under Library
9) Hover mouse over Library Photos. The glitch should be still present.

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Here are some screenshots:
http://homepage.mac.com/marceline407/.Pictures/glitches/dock_glitch.png
http://homepage.mac.com/marceline407/.Pictures/glitches/spotlight_glitch.png
http://homepage.mac.com/marceline407/.Pictures/glitches/misc_glitches.png
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In the picture below; I moved a window and it locked up again. Then when it came to, it refreshed the pixels around the window but wouldn't refresh the rest unless I took the window and moved it all around the screen or went into the overview of my spaces.
http://homepage.mac.com/marceline407/.Pictures/glitches/graphicrefreshglitch.png
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~Cody

Ok, well according to my local Apple certified computer specialists; I need a new power supply and logic board. I have no idea what caused the malfunction of these components (and they didn't seem to either), but I'm not putting down 500 wing wangs that could be going towards a new computer to fix a 3 year old iMac.
Amazing timing really. The warranty ended in September.
~Cody

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My Imac model identifier is imac8,1; the machine is a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, with 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. I am running OS 10.6.7. I have an ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics card.
Firmware Update 1.0.1 is apparently installed, since my graphics ROM version is 113-82250L-259.
Symptoms occurring within last 6 months or so: Without notice, the screen goes black, though I can detect light “behind” (i.e., it doesn’t look powered off). The only remedy I’ve been able to get to work is to use the power button (or unplug) to turn the machine off. I don’t know whether the system has frozen or not. I’ve looked at the console and system log, but I can’t tell from them what’s happening.
I have reset the SMC and PRAM. The computer passes the extended Apple Hardware Test.
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If there is an update to your particular graphics firmware, Software Update will let you know; if there is nothing showing there, it means there is no update available for your configuration. Do not simply download from the Apple website and install something that could cause havoc on your machine.
I'm not sure what the problem might be, but it could be graphics card and/or logic board related. Since you've already done the SMC and PRAM resets, unless someone else has another idea, I'd suggest booking an appointment at your nearest Genius Bar for a free evaluation and diagnosis. If the problem is intermittent, take screen shots or video of it so you can show it to them.

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Hello,
I'd like to share with you my story with the problems I've had with my macbook pro retina 15' 2012 (with both intel and nvidia graphics) and ask for some help.
First of all, back when it still had Mountain Lion as its OS I already detected some graphic glitches. When I started the mbpr, 1 out of 5 times it would load buggy. The dock would shake whenever I move the mouse over it, exposé would lag a lot and eventually scrolling in Safari was terrible, incredibly shaky. Basically every animation on the OS went laggy or just at 10 fps.
However the performance in terms of speed and results was still OK. If I played a game I would detect no error whatsoever.
So after some months of ignoring it because I had work and couldn't take the mac to the store I decided to take it. It was getting worse as it started to happen more often than usual. By then I had already upgraded to Mavericks (no clean install, just updated) and the problem still persisted.
Visit #1:
After explaning the problem and being able to show it to the genius they took my mac. They called a couple of days after telling me it was a OS issue and they did a clean install of Mavericks.
So I took it home, reinstall everything from scratch, they told me it may be an account/user issue so I better not use time machine to recover anything.
After a month it started to happen again. I have to say that it happen after I had already installed everything quite some time before, not right after installing any particular app or while running any.
It would load buggy again 1 out of 2/3 times and it wouldn't stop until I restarted and if I was lucky enough it would load OK.
Visit #2:
I returned to the genius and explained again the problem. They decided that it had to be some graphic issue related to the intel or nvidia systems so they replaced the logic board.
Again a couple of weeks later I detected the problem again.
Visit #3:
Once more to the store, they were quite puzzled that even after replacing the motherboard it would still show the issue.
After doing some tests they decided to reinstall Mavericks. Once installed they found no issue so they decided it was solved.
After this I had to return once again because it turn out that they forgot to connect the keyboard backlight system and it wouldn't light.
Anyway, this time I decided to install only the absolutely necesary apps for my work. I even downloaded the newest versions of all of them (if they had newer). Most of those apps are from the Mac App Store and the ones that are not are absolutely famous and used by thounsands of people, not that I use alphas or betas of any app.
One important detail is that the problem was getting worse. Now every time I started the mac it would be buggy and it was extremely shaky, it was impossible to read while scrolling in Safari now. Sometimes when using exposé/mission control it would even show weird pixels on screen. Every time I had this problem it was worse, more shaky and more often.
Visit #4:
Being already a VIP visitor of the genius bar I went decided to solve the problem once and for all. I told them every detail, they saw the problem and I insisted on the software I had was completely "normal". They told me they would replace the screen, the logic board again and the IO just in case.
So imagine my surprise when I receive a call from the genius who was repairing my machien saying that after reinstalling Mavericks it showed no issue! I was furious. They insisted that it was some app I had installed and that I needed to install one app at a time, wait ONE WEEK and if nothing happens install the next.
They were not kidding aparently. After complaining I had no choice but to take my mac back and....here I am.
So my question (after the diary I've written, sorry) is:
Is this really being caused by an app I have installed? Is really an app capable of crash the entire animation system and only while in the OS UI and not in games? I've never had any app running on the background besides Fantastical (from Appstore) and Dropbox (updated).
I am listing the apps I had last time I resintalled everything:
1. 2Do (appstore)
2. Indesign CC
3. Appcleaner
4. Autocad 2014
5. World of warcraft
6. Dropbox
7. Evernote (appstore)
8. Fantastical (appstore)
9. Keynote, Pages & Numbers (appstore)
10. Pixelmator (appstore)
11. Sketchup 2014
12. Skype
13. Steam
14. The unarchiver
15. Transmission
16. VLC
17. iPhoto
So, 17 apps, which I believe are just a few. Is there any of those apps you think may cause any issue? I haven't installed anything yet. I am using my old macbook pro (which btw have every app I had in the buggy retina with no problem whatsoever) while I try to see if the problem persist while installing nothing.
I still don't believe it is a software problem. Since it appears every time sooner and with more "intensity" I suspect it might be hardware but I am no expert.
Thanks for any help or info you can share!

Go for a few day (2-3) without installing any apps. Then install AutoCAD 2014 first and run only that for another couple of days. See if the problems resurface. If not, go ahead and reinstall all software, making sure that you create a clone after everything's installed (try Carbon Copy Cloner - they have a few 30-day evaluation period, I believe).
If problems resurface, you'll know that it's hardware.
Good luck,
Clinton

Strange graphical glitch on 55TL515

I'm getting a strange graphical glitch occasionally on my 55TL515. When the glitch appears, it will reoccur every 20 seconds or so. I've discovered one way to make this disappear temporarily, but I'd like a permanent fix. Let me describe my living room setup for a second...
I currently have the TV connected by itself to one outlet. The second socket is currently empty.
In another outlet, I have a filled power bar plugged in. The power bar contains my stereo, xbox, pc, macbook, external hdd, and router.
When the glitch appears, if I unplug this power bar and reconnect it, the glitch disappears. I don't understand why this is. They aren't even in the same outlet (they used to be, until i started messing around with this problem). I've tested different HDMI cords, all of the HDMI inputs, and have seen this glitch when using both my pc and my xbox on this tv.
Can anyone provide a possible solution to this? I don't want to keep everything unplugged as I use them all frequently. Could it be the power bar? Is it actually a problem with the tv? Please take a look at this youtube video and see what you think. Thanks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehR4cALs8co&feature=youtu.be

I get the same issue...typically this happens if I connect my laptop through a VGA cable. I've tried everything from changing my video card settings(resolution, refresh rate, etc...) but I get the same exact graphical glitch. Any luck on figuring this out?
Also, do you ever get thin lines that roll/move up the screen? I would get those occasionally and it had something to do with the digital switching inside the laptop power supply(the laptop power supply was on the same outlet) and was causing this problem so moving it to another power outlet or circuit breaker helped, but I still get the graphical glitch you have.

2009 27" 11,1 iMac graphics glitches bars and lime green circle

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