Black and white squares

Hello everyone,
I was on my mac browsing the internet and all of a sudden BIG black and white squares on my screen and this very loud noise so i had to force the computer to shutdown. can anyone please shed some light on this, is there something wrong with my mac its the first time its happened.

Yep. That's what they call "artifacts." In fact, it seems a textboox case of an overheating GPU:
"A common form of serious GPU artifact is a checkerboard pattern which covers the entire screen." (http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html)
Do you hear the fan running? Try downloading an app like smcFanControl to speed up the fan. The noise you heard the first time could have been the fan going full speed OR the fan breaking --which in turn could have caused the logic board to overheat.
Placing the mini on a metal surface or on a laptop stand --preferably one with a fan-- may also help, at least for now.
Ideally, though, you should take the mini to the Genius Bar or an Apple certified technician.

Similar Messages

  • Black and white squares while logging off

    when I log off and the "turning square" animation starts, the desktop background turns into rectangular black and white squares... has anyone else seen this? any ideas? this does not happen every time. it is purely random.
    jamin

    Yep. That's what they call "artifacts." In fact, it seems a textboox case of an overheating GPU:
    "A common form of serious GPU artifact is a checkerboard pattern which covers the entire screen." (http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html)
    Do you hear the fan running? Try downloading an app like smcFanControl to speed up the fan. The noise you heard the first time could have been the fan going full speed OR the fan breaking --which in turn could have caused the logic board to overheat.
    Placing the mini on a metal surface or on a laptop stand --preferably one with a fan-- may also help, at least for now.
    Ideally, though, you should take the mini to the Genius Bar or an Apple certified technician.

  • Macbook pro screen has black and white squares

    I have an older 2007 15" MacBook Pro. I turned it on one day and, although the computer made the same sounds it always does when it is booting up, the screen showed these very depressing black and white squares, and the rest of the pixes around these blocks (half black, half white)  were very scrambled.  A few days later the computer booted up completely normally, but now it is back to the crazy screen.
    Does anyone know what this problem may be? I am currently in Thailand and am wondering if someone can help me figure out what problem this most likely is so I can decide how much an appropriate repair should cost.
    Thanks so much!

    Hi if the device is a Macbook pro 15 inch mid 2010 model then there might be a chance of replacement of MLB for NVDIA graphic problem, please contact an apple authorised service provider for more details about this issue and you may get a free replacement programme for this MLB also all the best.....

  • My Imac has black and white vertical lines

    Riddle me this Apple...
    A few months ago, my 2008 Aluminium 24inch Imac locked up and exhibited space invader style pixels all over the screen.
    After rebooting, it was fine for a while and then it would freeze again and I'd get the same Atari style pixels appearing, and everything would be frozen.
    Then, most reboots after that, I would get vertical lines in groups of three, alternating black and white squares as in the photo.
    I called Apple here in South Australia, and they said "it's your graphics card, and it will cost $400 to fix and we need it for a week".
    Not wanting to do that, I bought a $15 firewire cable, booted the Imac in T mode and used my PC laptop running macdrivepro to save all my files onto a 500gig backup drive, and then proceeded to fix the corrupted kext files and most importantly delete the recent flash player update which I believe was causing the problem.
    Booted her back up, and she ran perfectly. For a few weeks, until it started again.
    So I re-installed the Leopard operating system from the original disks, and that fixed it. $15 is better than $400.
    Now, a few months have passed, and the problem had come back again, now that I have added more stuff on my computer.
    This time however, I chose to wipe the drive completely and do a fresh install of Leopard, and then upgrade to Snow Leopard.
    The problem is that it won't boot from the CD drive anymore, won't boot from a thumb drive, won't boot in any mode except T mode, but then it has these lines on the screen again and eventually I get the kernel panic happenning and it wants to be shut down.
    Every time I start the computer, these lines IMMEDIATELY appear. I've tried resetting the Pram, tried changing memory and have now resorted to surgery.
    I've taken apart the Imac, yes I hear you Apple...you guys thought that we mortals wouldn't delve into the depths of your finely machined systems, however, some of us do own micro torx head tools to remove those pesky screws, and yes, a razor blade does lift up the magnetically attached screen glass without having to use suction pads.
    So once inside the temple of doom, I removed the hard drive, and dropped it into a hard drive dock.
    After days of messing around with it via four other MAC computers, running Tiger, Leopard and Lion, we have still not been able to install an operating system back onto this drive.
    Does anyone have any insight into what these lines actually are? Every one I speak to says a different thing...
    "It's the graphics card", "It's the hard drive", "It's the cable that connects the LCD screen", "It's the motherboard", It's the screen itself", "It's a corrupted bios" etc etc..
    But if it's any of those things...then why did it run perfectly after I fixed it the first time?
    Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

    Hi BDAqua,
    I appreciate you taking the time to reply, and for the suggestions.
    My spider sense was tingling, as were my eager fingers to login and read your reply, in fact I was almost salivating at the thought of crushing those Apple reps with a swift blow from one of my megalithic old 4gig internal drives, or better still, perhaps shooting my old DX266 sporting a massive 256k HD and 4mb of ram, fully loaded with Encarta and Windows 3.11 out of a cannon and straight into Steve Jobs bedroom window, with a note saying..."How'd ya like them apples..".
    But alas, my Aquatic friend, I am in need of a functioning operating system to be able to do any of those magical tricks you suggested (insert frown face here)..and yes, when I finally opened up the Imac and peered inside, a moment not unlike Indiana Jones peering down into the depths of the Well of Souls, I suddenly realised that an Imac might look impervious to heat vision and thermonuclear devices on the outside, but inside they can still gather as much dust as my infinately useless ZIP drive that I bought back in the late 90's, thinking it was the best thing since the invention of microsoft paint...awesome program by the way guys..
    Getting back to the problem at hand, the issue really is that I have, perhaps stupedly, reformatted the 500gig WD drive via a hard drive dock, which is really a lot like one of those early 1950's cassette drives you find in vintage cars..
    And upon returning the drive to the Imac and re-assembling it WITH REAL SCREWS, not titanium-alloy fingerprint encoded ones like you would expect to find in Iron Man's suit, I could only boot the poor thing into T mode. No other modes were available, and believe me, I tried all of the alphabet...even the "C" button, which if you ever watched an episode of Knight Rider called Knight of the Juggernaught, did not turn my computer into a convertable..
    By now you're probably sensing that the irony of all of this is that I am typing this message on my Windows 7 upgraded HP laptop, which sounds not unlike a jumbo jet taking off at times, the fans are so loud, and among other things, it keeps telling me it is not genuine, even though I paid good money for a proper copy to free me from the painful experience which was Vista, and so in a sense, microsoft is playing a small part in the desperate rescue of it's far superior, yet broken down and busted arch enemy...I bet somewhere in it's RAM, it is smiling in little ones and zeroes, while it hides behind a free copy of AVAST, hoping one of a billion nasty viruses don't come knocking on the kernel door..
    The next round of drinks goes to the man, woman, child or droid that has any other suggestions that could allow me to participate in some of the ideas put forward by our very knowledgable watery friend..as alas, I do not have any of those options available to me.
    Today's assignment is.. how do we install an operating system on a formatted external drive. Sounds easy doesn't it...I've read many articles, but in practice it's proved as elusive as Bigfoot.
    I just cannot make this hard drive understand that there is no spoon...
    EdStraker

  • Macbook display shows black and white lines when fullscreen

    If i leave my Macbook on for a while without shutting down and then I view a photo or movie (in player or safari) fullscreen the screen shows just black and white lines. Sort of like bad tv reception. It has happened a few times and a reboot has fixed it but it comes back. Any ideas anyone?
    Thanks

    I have a similar problem. Not sure you're on here (since the post is really old) but did you manage to work it out? How?
    My thread:
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/19007548#19007548
    My Imac froze earlier today as I was dragging an image from safari into indesig and when it froze the weirdest pattern overlaid the screen. It looked just like the opacity pattern from photoshop with grey and white squares. I turned the computer off using the power button and unplugged everything.
    Now when I try to start it these weird lines appear on my start up screen (see link)...
    http://meijerladdaruppgrejer.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/oops/
    as you can see the apple and the wheel appears as normal...
    ... then it moves to a normal looking white screen (perhaps a bit greener than usual) and around 30 seconds later freezes at the blue screen.
    I've tried the cmd + alt + p + r several times but it won't help.
    If i press alt during start up I can see and choose my hard drive but just end up at the blue screen again.
    Can I try starting it up in safe mode or something?

  • Why black and white photo changed back color after exported?

    The photo I took shows up in black and white but after I exported the photo, none are black and white.  Why is that?
    I can see it as black and white while on the iphone.

    You need to duplicate your color photo. 
    1. Open your color photo in PSE11 Full Edit expert tab (A raw photo will open in camera raw so click the open image button too send it to the PSE interface)
    2. On the Top menu click Layer >>Duplicate Layer >>OK
    3. On the top menu click Enhance >>Convert to Black & White >>OK
    4. If you can’t see the layers pallet to the right click Window >>Layers
    5. In the layers pallet click add layer mask (the icon with a small circle)
    6. Make sure your foreground color is set to black then select the brush tool
    7. Click the mouse over the area where you wish to reveal color and use like an eraser to reveal the background below
    8. To correct errors switch the foreground color to white, then switch back to black and continue
    9. Save as PSD to preserve your layers and if you wish make a jpeg copy from the PSD file using File >> Save As
    N.B. if your brush is too big or too small you can use the square bracket keys to adjust the size up or down.
    The smart brush tool has black & white options but it does involve making selections which can be more tricky than using the ordinary brush.

  • Black and white photo with color added back

    I want to be able to turn a photo black and white, then add color back in, say for instance a ball turned back to red only.  How can I do that in elements 11?  It's driving me crazy!  Help

    You need to duplicate your color photo. 
    1. Open your color photo in PSE11 Full Edit expert tab (A raw photo will open in camera raw so click the open image button too send it to the PSE interface)
    2. On the Top menu click Layer >>Duplicate Layer >>OK
    3. On the top menu click Enhance >>Convert to Black & White >>OK
    4. If you can’t see the layers pallet to the right click Window >>Layers
    5. In the layers pallet click add layer mask (the icon with a small circle)
    6. Make sure your foreground color is set to black then select the brush tool
    7. Click the mouse over the area where you wish to reveal color and use like an eraser to reveal the background below
    8. To correct errors switch the foreground color to white, then switch back to black and continue
    9. Save as PSD to preserve your layers and if you wish make a jpeg copy from the PSD file using File >> Save As
    N.B. if your brush is too big or too small you can use the square bracket keys to adjust the size up or down.
    The smart brush tool has black & white options but it does involve making selections which can be more tricky than using the ordinary brush.

  • Mysterious black or white squares appear

    Sometimes when editing a black or white square will appear over the image on the display.  It stays on the image and I can't get rid of it.  It is not saved and my image displays normally when I reopen the file.
    I haven't figured out what causes this, but it only happens after I edit something or move the frame on the screen.  It is intermittent.  Next time it happens I'll grab a screen shot.
    Ideas?
    Thanks,
    Carl

    Google updated the plugins recently to correct this problem:
    https://support.google.com/nikcollection/answer/4400822?hl=en&ref_topic=3001406
    Version 1.109 (December 11/2013) is the latest:
    Fixed black or white tile artifacts that might have occurred after returning to Photoshop from plug-ins
    You can find out the version you have installed by launching Photoshop:
    On Mac: Select Photoshop>About Plug-in>Analog Efex Pro… (or any other NIK Plug-in)
    On Windows: Select Help>About Plug-in>Analog Efex Pro… (or any other NIK Plug-in)

  • IPhone 5s - Camera Photos in Black and White

    I have a new iPhone 5s and for some reason, when I click on Camera to take a photo, on the main photo it comes out as black and white rather than colour.  If I switch to Square I get colour, but on switching back to ordinary photo, it goes back to black and white again.
    Anybody have any ideas about this?  I also have an iPhone 6 and checked on this, but when I open the Camera app I get colour too.
    Both phones are running the latest version - iOS 8.1.2.
    Thanks

    Your black and white filter is probably on. When taking a picture, in the bottom right, there are three circles overlapping. Click on that and chose "none".

  • DVI to Video adapter | Black and white TV display.

    - -
    Hi,
    I just pruchased a DVI to Video adapter and unfortunately, it doesn't work (the display on my TV is black and white).
    I use a S-Video cable.
    I tried restarting and using other displays.
    Thanks,
    Chris.
    - -

    Anyone else has an idea?
    The subject has been discussed here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2136106&start=60&tstart=0 and apparently the problem is fixed with OS 10.6.3.
    But I'm using 10.5.8! Thanks.

  • How can I print with the black and white cartridge only?

    I am trying to print using the black and white cartridge only because magenta is out of ink but I'm getting the following error message in HP Photosmart C7200 series print dialog:
    The printer is out of ink.
    The following ink cartridges are empty: Magenta. Replace these ink cartridges to resume printing.
    How can I print with the black and white cartridge only?
    Mac OSX 10.7.3
    HP Photosmart C7280 (7200 series)
    This question was solved.
    View Solution.

    I am absolutely disgusted by this; clearly a scam from HP to make more money by selling extra ink cartridges!!  I will make sure to never buy any products from the shoddy rip off merchants at HP ever again!!
    You should be ashamed!!

  • HT3669 I have an HP deskjet color printer that only prints in black and white from my mac ... how do I get it to print in color

    I have an HP deskjet color printer that only prints in black and white from my mac ... how do I get it to print in color

    Check the printer itself.  Some printers you need to set the color & B&W settings on the printer itself instead of the Mac.   If that is not the case w/your printer, contact HP tech support and/or post in their forums if they have one. 

  • How can I get my printer to print in color? I can only print black and white

    HP Officejet 6500 E710n-z-------windowsxp      My printer will not print anything in color.   How can Iget my printer to print in color?  I can only print in black and white.    It is a new Printer and we just installed it 2 wks ago.

    I am not sure I understand ''it still will not print. ''
    If you cannot see any content on pages you printed or in print preview, the cause might be margins which are set too high.
    #In order to check the margins, we need to go to ''File'' > ''Page Setup''.
    #Once this is done, switch to the ''Margins & Header/Footer'' tab.
    #Check what's set there under ''Margins''.
    The following are the default values for ''Margins'':
    '''Right''': 12.7
    '''Top''': 12.7
    '''Left''': 12.7
    '''Bottom''': 12.7
    Check these values accordingly and change them if necessary.

  • Hoiw do I force my new mf8580cdw to print in black and white only (grey scale)?

    First of all I am using windows 7 - 64bit and my printer is the MF8580CDW. I am using the UFRII print driver. I have tried changing one/all of the profiles in the print settings and printer properties to "black and white" printing but the software keeps chainging my selection back to "Auto[Color/B&W]". I have also tried enabling the toner saver option to no avail. When I changed the settings I clicked "Apply". Why is the driver not saving my settings? How do I force the printer to always print in black and white?

    Hi,
    From the application used to print open the print dialog.
    Click Properties / Preferences / Settings to access the Printing Preferences dialog.
    Click the Advanced button.
    Under Printing Features set the Print in Grayscale value as Black Ink Only.
    Say thanks by clicking the Kudos thumb up in the post.
    If my post resolve your problem please mark it as an Accepted Solution

  • How do i get my hp 3070 to print in black and white only?

    I am struggling with changing the print settings on my hp 3070 B611a to print only in black and white. please assist. Thanks

    Hi,
    From the application used to print open the print dialog.
    Click Properties / Preferences / Settings to access the Printing Preferences dialog.
    Click the Advanced button.
    Under Printing Features set the Print in Grayscale value as Black Ink Only.
    Say thanks by clicking the Kudos thumb up in the post.
    If my post resolve your problem please mark it as an Accepted Solution

Maybe you are looking for