Pumping, distorting and fading screen leads to freeze

Question

Hi folks, I - or let me say my parents - are having big big problems with their new (1 day old) Mac Mini. Before I get to the details I have to say, that my parents have been Windows-Users all the time and I finally managed to get them to something stable and working, in short: to Mac.
Well, now you know that I'm automatically in deep trouble, when there's something malfunctioning.
To the problem itself: They said (I couldn't take a look by myself yet) that when they played the free variant of FreeCell 3D the screen starts pumping, flickering, fading, colorrotating, and so on ... then all the previous messageboxes, inputboxes and so on appear and finally the Mac Mini freezes totally and really needs to be cut off the powerline cause even the power button is "frozen".
In my opinion it could be a problem with motherboard-integrated graphics-chip.
What do you pros think about that problem??
Greetz, Didelphodon.

Answer 1

Didelphodon, could you tell us where they got the program that shows this problem? Perhaps there is something wrong with it.
I think you will have to get directly involved with your parents' computer and educating them how to use it. Users coming from Windows to Mac (perhaps against their will) will tend to have incorrect instincts for dealing with simple problems -- which can turn a simple problem into a bigger problem.
For starters, show them how to kill a program that is not responding: Cmd-Option-ESC, which is similar to CTL-ALT-DEL in the PC world.
If they regularly deal with freezes by "pulling the plug", they will soon have a non-functional Mac.
BTW, could you describe for us their hardware set-up, including monitor and all peripherals? And as already been suggested, do they have proper and adequate electrical power for all their equipment?