Odd display artifacts, glitch, and freeze

For the past month, upon starting up my computer after having traveled with it my screen began to glitch, fade, show mutiple colors or go gray to the point of being beyond recognition. I took it to an apple store and they told me that flexing the screen would solve the problem because it was problem with a connection to the panel. This worked for a week or so, but now often upon starting my screen goes gray, flickers, gets glitched, and shows a gray text box that tells me I need to restart. Restart does not help.
The interesting part however, is that if I hold down the option key while starting to select between OSX or Windows, all of the problems go away. I can start up in osx, no problem. I really have no idea what's going on. Any help would be much appreciated!

Updated my computer info at the bottom :P

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Problems with iMac retina 5K (artifacts, glitches and etc.)

Hello dear Apple.
I have bought new iMac with retina 5K display and I have found lot of problem with it. It was December 2014 when I got my first iMac. And after then I have found few real problems with it.
The first problem is I can't open high resolution image with standard Preview.app. I mean 'high resolution' - more then 30-40 megapixels. When I open them, I can see image, but only 2-3 seconds, and after that I see horizontal artifacts only. I can't open images, like this Rembrandt.jpg; Carpaccio.jpg; Holbein.jpg
The second problem, when I change resolution in to scaled mode (System Preferences/Display) for increase image on display. I found when select some area on background of desktop it has left some lines after itself. It is particularly unpleasant if you have plain colour desktop background. You can view, how does it look here.
The next problem with animation in different parts of interface, e.g. sometimes when I open Time Machine some parts of windows are freezing or appear some artifacts or glitches near borders of window. And I have the same situation, when I open Mission Control, or any Adobe app or other, or simply rename a files. I have found few discussions with problems like mine, but in the separate places
5K iMac - bad GPUs?
Graphic Problems with Retina iMac
iMac 5K and indesign glitch
And after that I want to tell you that I have this problems on four (4) iMacs. It was really difficult to arrange four replace. I have lost a lot of time an spent a lot of nerves for discuss and resolve my problems with Apple support. Finally, they told me that they do not know about problems with iMacs, and they could offer give my money back. I glad to get my funds, but now in my country price for iMacs has doubled. And if they refund my money, I can buy half new iMac only.
I am sorry for my language and style, but I do not know what I should doing with that. And should I hope, that my problem resolve with OS X updates? Or it is hardware problem of the whole iMacs 5K...

Yes Ralph, absolutely correct, 4 times. Do you have the graphic card the same as me, or m290? Could I ask you check your iMac for few things, please?
For the first, can you enlarge scale in System preference/Display and install plain dark color desktop background. Are there any footprints after rectangular selection like in my video https://youtu.be/dBglFvjJx1Q?
And for the second, could you download this image https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn _-_Nachtwacht_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg and open in plain Preview.app, and zoom it? Are there any glitches?
Thank forward.

Graphic glitch and freezing.

I had a graphic problem with my iMac 3 weeks ago, had to take it to an Apple repairer 3 hours away, there just isn't anyone closer, and have had it back for about 6 hours now. I got the Snow Leopard upgrade while it was away and have been looking forward to getting into it all. As soon as I got my iMac home I fired it up and straight away noticed a graphic glitch or something odd on my 2nd monitor, kinda looked like aliens from space invaders... This problem went away if I changed that monitors resolution or if I rotated the display, so I thought it might be a driver problem which should hopefully be fixed by upgrading to SL.
I attempted this upgrade, it seemed to go fine but when I finally got into SL I noticed that once again there were some space invader glitches, but instead of being huge and all the way across the 2nd monitor they were in 2 separate blocks 1 in the top left and one just slightly to the right from center at the very top, they were flashing green from time to time (just like before) but that was about all. After a few seconds all the icons on my desktop and also the dock icons screwed up, display as black and white lines, or weird colored blocks, or super pixelated and just pretty screwy.
I formatted from fresh doing Leopard (without updating fully to 10.5.8) then installing SL, same problem, I then tried installing just SL which worked as usual but still had the graphic glitches when hovering over or interacting this time, also there were some problems with the glitches showing over windows (I'll put a link to a screenshot of them at the end). I'm currently updating a fresh install of Leopard to 10.5.8 to then update to SL to see if that works.
I had a thought that it might be hardware, the logic board and graphics card were both replaced during the repair time, they said they tested it but on the repair form I got it just says 'restarted a few times with no problems' so I'm not sure if they even tested it very much.
It took almost 3 weeks to get my mac back today, and these problems are quite annoying, if I have to lose it for another 3 weeks because of this lack of testing I'm gonna be rather annoyed as I'm losing work because of it.
Anyone got ideas of what it might be? or just anyone else had this problem with SL or just Leopard? Any information would be great.
Screenshot of glitch while doing a google search:
http://www.xager.net/i/glitch.jpg

My old first gen macbook pro had a similar problem (under Tiger and Leopard), it was fixed. My current unibody macbook pro is doing this as well, I've only noticed it now under Snow Leopard.
I doubt it's a software problem, I've had similar issues in PCs when their video cards were running too hot. My current mbp gets these glitches when the system is under more load and so I'm sure its heat related. One time the heat and glitches got so bad the system just locked up.
I hope you can get your system repaired. I am going to now go ahead and try my luck with apple support as well.

My Macbook keeps glitching and freezing

Since March 18, 2013 I have been dealing with glitches from my MacBook Pro. It freezes up and won't allow me to move my mouse or anything. Is this occuring with anyone else? The screen also glitches and beeps repeatedly at me because I have to use the On/Off button to shut down. Do you believe this could be from hardware or software damage? I take care of this like it's a baby with the except of carrying it in my backpack (Which I am very careful about) during school there has been no risk or time that I have dropped it or damaged it somehow. I could seriously use some help or light on the situation. Thank you!

i dnt think its even charging, it just has the apple logo on the screen, it dems and comes back on and then it says low battary please wait.

What to do when MacBook Pro glitches and freezes, then won't turn on?

My MBP glitched and froze the other day, so I turned it off and turned it back on and it was fine. A few hours later it glitched and froze again, I turned it off but this time it wouldn't start back up again and it made a beep every 10 seconds when I would try to turn it on. I took it to the Apple Store and the replaced the RAM under warranty. Today, it glitched and froze again but I got it to come back on. I don't know what to do, and it's only a matter of time before it does it again and it won't come back on.

..Step by Step to fix your Mac

2008 iMac running beautifully untill recently. Screen glitches and freezing. Apple Hardware test showed error code 4MOT/2/40000004:ADD and I have not seen others with this code. Guessing it is a fan issue based on the ODD and HDD error codes

computer felt hot and while running apple hardware test the screen glitches covered the screen and it froze. Now computer wont boot up. Again AHT code is 4MOT/2/40000004:ADD and I have just seen ODD and HDD codes discussed on other threads.Those were hardrive or superdrive fans, so I am guessing this is a fan issue and then it fried by graphics card. Any help as to whether this is game over or worth repairing would be very appreciated.

You need to take it to your local Apple Store or AASP for a professional evaluation. Apple does not publish the codes from AHT, you can Google the code you got and see if you can determine what it means however the best method is to let a pro handle it.

Premiere Pro CS6 Render and Export Screen Glitch and Freeze

I use Premiere Pro CS6 on a 2012 Macbook Retina display - 16GB RAM, 751GB Flash Storage, NVIDIA GeForce 650m Graphics Card, 2 External 4TB hardrives for scratch disks, Thunderbolt connection. When I try to render and export videos I often get a graphical glitch like in the pic shown below and my computer freezes. It happens very often, especially when there are a lot of effects in the videos - I use the GenArts Sapphire plugin often.
This has been going on basically since I bought my Macbook 2 years ago, but it is starting to become more and more common - considering this was the most expensive Macbook Pro you could buy I am very annoyed with this - even on some videos where I have applied no plugin effects or any color correction it happens, especially when trying to export videos.
Any help on this issue would be appreciated.

I am having precisely the same problem as bricklaneeditor, and have exactly the same setup: MBP early 2011, 16GB RAM, 512 GB SSD,
30" ACD, Mac OS 10.7.4 , PPro 6.0.1
Indeed, a restart of Premiere Pro always fixes the problem -- for a while. I've also seen similar behavior in Media Composer 6.0.1 once or twice so am wondering whether it's an issue with this machine/OS, as the playback software architectures are so different on those two NLE's.
I should also mention that the problem is not isolated to any particular file format -- have seen it with timelines containing 7D footage, HDV and ProRes files.
I strongly suspect some sort of problem on either Apple's or Adobe's end with the GPU in this machine, as it is ATI and not Nvidia -- and is, as far as I know, the only non-CUDA GPU, at least on the Mac side, certified to work with the CS6 Mercury Playback Engine.
Also wondering whether an over-the-top or a clean install of Mountain Lion might shake things up enough to make a difference. (Otherwise I'm in no big hurry to upgrade my OS.) Is anyone seeing this problem with PPro under 10.8? Might be worth installing 10.8 over an external HDD clone of the System drive and booting temporarily from the clone just to see if the problem persists in Premiere.
Anyone have any thoughts on these possibilities?

My iMac turns on and about 10 mins later it glitches and freezes and then the screen turns blue/green/white

My iMac turns on fine, but about 10 minutes later I can't use the mouse as the whole thing freezes. Sometimes it continues to move the mouse for a while but then glitches the screen (see first image). After that my screen turns blue/green/white and even purple as a solid colour (second image - changes to a different colour). I'm wondering what the problem is and can I fix it myself?

I have a similar iMac.
1. Be sure you have 4 GB of RAM.
2. Create a new USER wih Admin Rights
3. Don't add anything to the start up sequence.
4. Update all your apps. This is a big problem. Do it.
5. Use Font Book and verify your fonts. Delete any broken fonts.
6. Download and install Applejack. If you have to force a restart, press and hold command s. A black screen will appear. Finally it will say something about Applejack. Type applejack and run #1 and #2. Restart.
Don't run Applejack outside of safe mode. (Command s)
Come back and let us know how it is working.
;-D
DL Applejack: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15667/applejack

Macbook Pro ''15 Retina Graphic glitches and freeze

Hey, I hope some of you may help me. Sometimes when I open my Macbook and it's awaking from sleep it freeze and I have a distorted screen with wired colours, I need to reboot it then, but after rebooting all is fine :/ Is that a software bug or related to my Logicboard ? I just got it back after a warranty case where something on my old Logicboard died after 8 weeks after purchase. I bought it this June. I have that Nvidia graphics in there. Here is a pic I made: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42689244/IMAG0090.jpg

SnipeSwipe wrote:
What is an SMC reset? The gfxcardstatus worked. Partially. I now know something is either wrong with the nvidia graphic card or its software(the hd 4000 one is better from a performance test by individually testing both cards).
How does the apple exchange work? Just walk in with the Mac and they resolve/replace the Mac or what? Any ideas?
Thanks
SMC Reset: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
The reset is a little tricky and might take a few tries before you do it successfully, keep eye on for the colour change on the magsafe connector

New 27 iMAC keeps crashing iMovie and freezing videos on YouTube & Quicktime

We just got a new Sept 2013 iMac three days ago, purchased refurbished from the Apple Store online. The whole point of the purchase was to be able to use iMovie to thoroughly edit videos for our YouTube channel, use garage band, lots of internet surfing and video watching etc. We spent the extra dollars to get what we thought was the most improved version of the iMac with all the souped up specs in order to avoid any hassle and headaches from a lack of performance. Here's what we have:
3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
27-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2560-by-1440 resolution
8GB (two 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM
1TB hard drive (We have only used 80 GBs of it so far, so plenty of space left)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M graphics processor with 2GB of GDDR5 memory
720p Camera & Mic
OS X 10.9
We're feeling a bit duped now as this seems to have turned out to just be a big expensive piece of junk. Here are our problems:
- Firstly, thank goodness that we had our own Logitech HD camera/mic left over from our PC because the "HD camera" built in to the iMac is worse in quality than my old blackberry curve. Grainy, lack luster, mic has sharp and distant sound, really really bad and false advertisement.
- In the middle of using iMovie (iMac came preinstalled with the newest one, i think its 10?), it will stop responding properly or will crash and close, we wont even have any other programs running.
- When opening Quicktime to record a new video, in the middle of a recording or while the recording window is idle, it will start glitching - flashing between live footage and a freeze frame repeatedly. The only way to stop it is to quit out Quicktime and open again and try to record quickly, or in some cases we have to completely restart the iMac, which then still randomly in the middle of a recording or idle window it will continue to flash and glitch. (You can view an example here in the last minute of one of our videos, we tried to make it work and kept the take since we were doing our outro music dance, but it totally ***** when this happens randomly during our content portion and we have to redo recording. http://youtu.be/MAJzaEShJGw?t=4m34s )
- When watching YouTube videos, the computer takes a while to respond to a command, like if we click on a certain part of the video, it will not load it until we press the pause/play button a few times and wait. Also at the beginning of a video it will start glitching and freezing again, similar to how we explained above in the quicktime, but faster.
If you are familiar with what could be the problem or have any advice, PLEASE HELP, we are concerned that after dropping so much money within just 3 days of use, this iMac is not performing flawlessly in the areas that we most needed and want to know if these issues are common and fixable or if its a defect that would require we send this thing back immediately. We did not get apple care and would hate to have wasted money that we really dont have on a glitchy crashing huge piece of junk.
Want to mention a few other pros and cons unrelated to our issues, for those who may be considering buying one too:
PROS:
- The Magic mouse is really great, particularly because of the scrolling and zooming gestures. (Though sometimes i accidentaly swipe in a browser and go back to a previous page losing any information that was input on the page i was originally on, for example, i had to retype this whole apple imac inquiry because i swiped backwards by mistake and the whole form cleared! annoying, wish the horizontal swipe navigated between tabs instead of going through the page view history.)
- When the imovie is not crashing, after watching some tutorials and making a few vids, its a really greatly improved program from the '09 version we used to use. I import and edit videos much faster now, and footage does not freeze or take time to load while im dragging and dropping, it is immediately responsive.
- Love using the Talk to text function (like Siri) by pressing "fn" twice. Use this to write long emails and papers with ease. Would like to see a "Speak" read back option that allows for text to be selected and read back (like Siri on iPad)
CONS:
- The text is SO small everywhere and there is no option to exactly set text size across the whole system, only option given is to set a different resolution which lessens the quality of the screen with pixelation, and some programs give you the option to set custom sized text in their individual preferences.
- Sometimes in both iMovie & Garageband, simple automated functionality will stop working, for example in iMove, when certain screens or images are dragged and dropped to the work area by the activity bar (i dont know what else to call it, the line that rolls across during playback or stays put when pressing spacebar) usually, that screen or image will click into place to align with the activity bar and will highlight the bar yellow to further communicate that alignment before you drop it, but after extended use in a session, that snapping into alignment when adding items stops working. Or sometimes you can drag and drop the ends of a title screen to adjust/trim the clip, but after extended time that too stops responding and does not let the cursor turn into that arrow that allows you to trim or extend, until after many frustrated clicks or a quit and restart.
- When sharing/exporting a video from iMovie, i would recommend unchecking the add to theatre option because it significantly extends the amount of time needed to complete the action and i found out the theatre is just like a video stream of your movies to be shared on icloud for easy access from your other devices (similar to the icloud photostream connected to iPhoto). It takes the time to make the video readily availabe in various sizes on the Mac server for easy access, which means it takes forever for your video to be exported to where you actually want it. This is not something we need and is not worth the wait time. (For example, last ime we left the theatre box checked, the progress status of the video was estimated to be completed in 351 minutes, and then 20 minutes later that somehow inclreased to 385 minutes, then duddenly it was done, so i think this add to theatre option also cause the progress status updates to go berzerk.)

Given the maximum RAM that model can use is 32GB, and the earlier release of that 27" mid-2013 iMac is nearly the same in most regards, you may note the listing of this slightly older iMac 27" is here in an Apple support document...
•iMac: How to remove or install memory:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1423
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1423#1
The images of where the RAM chips are located, behind a metal plate, should be similar in your iMac and the mid-2013 iMac 27" shown in images on that page. Note there are several models discussed.
You could take the computer to a certified Apple service facility (retail store, or specialist reseller) and pay them to do this, and buy the RAM from them, and you will pay for this at a retail level. If they do it, you'd want to be assured the computer did all the things you sought to cure by upgrading RAM, correctly without fault. Like run tests and stuff.... Or there's no reason to not go ahead (after confirming from Apple) that you could buy quality RAM and do this job yourself, citing the Apple page link I'd posted above.
Contact Apple Support:
http://www.apple.com/support/contact/
You'd have to obtain the correct RAM (as indicated in my earlier post, citing MacTracker) of suitable quality for use in a Macintosh computer, and the recommendation for a DIY is to get the kit from 'Other World Computing' OWC online at their site. You can talk to knowledgable sales staff at OWC about what you have and what you need, and to help they may ask for the product serial number.
This is OWC and they have the spec RAM required for your iMac 27" model; double-check info:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/iMac/2012_27/DDR3L
Since yours is an Apple Refurbished model it will have a different number series. Unlike those in a retail store, because Apple does that to tell what ones they refurbished; refurbs I bought online were like that.
With questions during the first three months, you can get 'support' under the initial 90-day span of ownership of the new (and certified) Apple refurbs bought online; the other part of that is 'service' for 1 year. Call a nearest retail Apple Store, to set a genius appointment; or go online, and start the process of reporting your issue, while you still have some kind of warranty on the device. They can diagnose the issues you cite and tell you if you can upgrade the RAM (as you likely can) then you can buy and install the RAM yourself and probably pay less than 1/2 the retail rate, if you get some from OWC. A diagnosis is free if the Genius looks into it, but you'd need to set an appointment & lug the iMac to their store; protected from weather/shock.
If you want to extend the complementary service to three years (less the included 90-days) and add two years of AppleCare service, that is an affordable option of about $170. For a total of three years coverage.
{If you had a 21.5-inch iMac the RAM would require a service department visit where they use a different method to install the RAM upgrade. Those are built differently than the 27-inch iMac.}
There is a bit of detailed important information in the Apple link on how to upgrade the iMac RAM. There is a certain amount of RAM installed already and these chips would likely be removed if you get matching sets of new RAM to upgrade the capacity. And no matter what some say, there is a reason why they can be upgraded with more. Even with Mavericks OS X 10.9.x and its 'memory compression' etc, it would gladly accept all the RAM upgrade chips it could swallow. (Behind metal screen, mid-bottom iMac 27")
You may need to consider questions about applications that use system resources separate from those about whatever issues your iMac seems to exhibit. There may be some other cause of the video and iMovie symptoms, but more RAM won't hurt given the beast you bought can use 32GB and it has 8.
And if it seems too much to handle, you have 14 days from date of
purchase to take it back. Contact them ahead of then, if you do.
Hopefully this helps.
Good luck & happy computing!

IMac 27" (late 2012) GTX 680 MX, glitch and artifacts on the screen.

Hello.
I have a one year old iMac 27" (Late 2012) i7, 8Gb RAM, GTX 680MX, 1TB Fusion drive. I was working at the computer and was away for two hours. When I woke my iMac from sleep mode on the screen appeared glitch and artifacts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-666QJQ51Lk&feature=youtu.be
That could happen? This is a GPU problem? Or software?
I am very sad.
It happened a month later after my 1 year warranty expired.

Hi DiMichaelDi,
If you are having issues with display distortion or anomalies on your iMac, you may find the troubleshooting outlined in the following article helpful:
Apple computers: Troubleshooting issues with video on internal or external displays
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1573
Regards,
- Brenden

HT1477 When i disconnect my iPod 2nd Gen from my laptop, its display turns off and working freezes. Please help me.

When i disconnect my iPod 2nd Gen from my laptop, its display goes off and working freezes. Please help me.

The computer freezes? There may be something wrong with the USB port. If the laptop has more than one port, does this happen on any port? If you are disconnecting the shuffle cable from the computer, does it make any difference if you disconnect the shuffle at the other end of the cable first, then disconnect the cable from computer? Or if you currently disconnect the shuffle from cable first, try it the other way.
You may be able to work around this problem, if you get a self-powered USB hub. Something like this one
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/USB2HB7PRO/
There are many choices, but be sure to get one that has its own power supply. You can leave the shuffle cable connected to the hub, and connect the shuffle to the hub, instead of directly to the computer. This may provide a "buffer" for whatever is causing your laptop to shut off when the shuffle is disconnected. Since the hub has its own power supply, it will not rely on the computer for power to re-charge the battery.

I have a powerbook G-4 15 inch, It wont boot up and the display only works on the first try. it gets to the apple screen and freezes, when i try to restart theres no display. Help please, whats the issue here?

I left it running over night, it was running perfectly, in the morning the screen was black. i tried to restart it and got no display but i can hear the machine running. so i put away for several months, plug it in, charge the battery, it boots, i have a display, it loads the desktop and freezes. when i try to restart it theres no display. the last time i tried, i started it, i got to the apple screen and nothing. whats the issue here? please help.

Will it boot OK in Safe Mode? See What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? (Mac OS X)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392 Takes a while to run, but it usually "fixes" problems.
Safe Boot takes longer than normal startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1884?viewlocale=en_US
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
 Cheers, Tom

Intel imac display glitch and involuntary restart

Just want to know if anyone else has experienced this specific problem, there are plenty of complaints about intel imac displays but I can't be bothered to sift through them all trying to find a match for my problem.
A couple of months ago I was watching a video in quicktime and noticed that my screen was glitching and flashing fragmented diagonal lines - like a commodore 64 loading type thing. Then the spinning-ball came up and a force quit didn't do anything so I had to force shut down. I started up and it occured again. Then the screen went blank/black, but still lit up, and restarted without me doing anything. It also got stuck during start up the second time this occured. I panicked and ran out to buy a 500GB external drive, backed up all of my work and then re-installed mac osx from disk, archive and install job. This seemed to sort it and for the following two months it seemed OK. No sign of any problems.
Since then I have updated from 10.4.7 to 10.4.10 (which I have suspicion that it screwed the firmware in my motu 828 firewire audio interface, costing me a £130 repair - but that's another painful story).
It happened again tonight (the screen thing, not the motu). And the ball came up and I couldn't do anything. Force shut down, restart - screen glitching again. Then I had 2 unexpected restarts, one getting stuck in startup. Then a successful startup but accompanied by the glitchy graphics, mainly red/pink pixellated diagonal lines flickering in and out. I ran a disk first aid - no problems. Did a disk permission repair. Shut down and ran a hardware test, the first few minutes of the test the screen was still at it but then stopped glitching, hardware test found no errors (it was an extended test too). Now I'm back on it and it's all OK.
Any suggestions/similar stories?
When it occured 2 months ago I had the original ram that came with the imac. Now I have 2x1GB sticks of crucial ram.

That's it! Well, that's what I have. Unfortunately, I don't know about the cause, but I don't ever recall having it prior to an update going back about a year ago. I recall an update, and that update being immediately followed by some sort of Apple Graphics something-or-other. I feel pretty certain that's when I first noticed this. I just had my LCD replaced for another reason, but I think you'll agree, it's not an LCD issue. In my case, browser activity, scrolling up or down in a page, seems to be the most common trigger. I've also seen "pieces" of the torn page, on the screen when minimizing the browser to the dock (usually Firefox, but I think I've seen it with Opera and Safari too). Is there a way to find update packages installed somewhere? I'd know it if I saw it, and I'd definitely try removing that suspect package/update.
Message was edited by: geekboy2000 - corrected OS

Odd display artifacts, glitch, and freeze

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