My iMac screen is freaking out...help!

Question

It's doing two different things (not usually at the same time):
- Sometime when I move a window, like in Safari, a chunk of the window will remain behind. Or look as if it is (the chunk doesn't actually do anything). But if I move anything over that chunk, then move it away again, it's gone.
- Sometimes the whole screen (or part of it) will go all wonky in that the text (actually everything) will disappear and there will be only scattered colors left behind. The actual functioning of the Finder is usually not affected - I could have shut the system down if I only got lucky enough to navigate blindly to the appropriate menu item.
Reinstalling the system does not help. (I have an iMac Core 2 Duo which I bought in about September of '06)
What should I do?
Message was edited by: Babaganoosh

Answer 1

Babaganoosh wrote:
It's doing two different things (not usually at the same time):
- Sometime when I move a window, like in Safari, a chunk of the window will remain behind.
- Sometimes the whole screen (or part of it) will go all wonky
Reinstalling the system does not help.
Your first priority is to ensure you have complete backups of everything from the internal drive in the iMac just in case your system is dying; it could be just the graphics system or it could be more serious. Once you have your backups, either call Apple for advice, take it to a reseller to have it fixed if it seems a reasonable cost or consider upgrading to a new iMac. Shame you are a few months beyond any AppleCare warranty.