Strange Graphics Glitches Occurring Randomly

For the past 10 months or so, I've been getting these random screen anomalies on my monitor. They normally don't appear until after the computer has been turned on for awhile. The longer the computer is on, the more frequent they appear. They almost always occur when a new window from an application is created. They remain in the same position even if I scroll up and down. The only way I can get rid of them is if I close the window and open a new one. I've had this occur in both Leopard and Snow Leopard including the 10.6.3 update.
Does anyone know what's causing this? Is it my graphics card or a software issue? I've repaired permissions and run Diskwarrior but that doesn't seem to make a difference. I have a 2006 Mac Pro.
Here is a capture of one of the glitches in the lower left of my iTunes window.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/538897/forums/graphics_glitch.jpg

I'm getting the same thing. I did the Disk troubleshooting and everything came up ok. Then I thought maybe it was a OS thing, so I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Didn't help. Now I'm thinking of upgrading video cards.
My display goes black some times, and the OS freezes. Don't know if maybe that is video related as well.
We'll see. Can't wait to hear and answer on this problem.

Similar Messages

  • 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.

  • Strange graphical glitch in Select Columns

    I've noticed a strange graphical glitch in the Select Columns region of an interactive report when using IE7 or 8.
    When a column is selected (other than the first or last) and sent to the Bottom or Top the change doesn't actually show until the mouse is moved over the Display in Report List. If the Apply button is clicked, then the column ordering is set correctly.
    I'm using Apex 3.1 and was wondering if anyone else has noticed.
    Thanks,
    Simon

    alright.. once again a nvidia isssue... the nv driver does paint it correctly

  • Graphics glitches occurring with the GeForce 9400M?

    Has anyone seen the same type of graphics glitches occurring with the GeForce 9400M in the new MacBooks that occurred in the MacBook Pros with GeForce 8600M GT?
    The link to that previous issue is here: http://apcmag.com/appleacknowledges_macbook_pro_graphics_glitch_offersfix.htm
    When viewing web pages with both Safari and Firefox, the page gets corrupted when I scroll down with the trackpad (this does not happen when scrolling with arrow keys). Any type of animation or video on a page is also really jumpy and flashes in and out.
    It sounds like this was a hardware issue with the graphics card in the last version of the MBPs. Has anyone seen this issue in their new MacBooks?

    Hi there,
    the same issue on my new MBP Late 2008. First, it happens in Safari, then I tried Firefox and there it was too. I switched the graphics to the second GPU (the better) and it seems the problem were solved. Back on the mobile GPU it never happened again.
    I've never tried, but I think the problem occurs when to much Apps are opened and the Mac runs out of memory. The logout for switching the graphics gave the memory back and the better GPU has it's own memory.

  • Shattered glass strange graphical glitch

    I've been having this strange thing happen every once in a while on my imac. Sometimes when randomly when you move the mouse the screen changes to look like multicolored slivers. the only way I can describe it is as multicolored "shattered glass". As you move the mouse it changes colors and such. The only work around I've discovered so far is to open dashboard several times and it disappears. Any help is appreciated.

    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.

  • Strange Graphical Glitches For Both Arch and Archbang

    So here is the issue. In 3 diffrent arch installs and my new archbang install, I have been plagued by a strange glitch that seems to persist. This glitch has a few diffrent varitations, the most prevalent being the screen wrapping from an uncentered end to the other side. Here are some pictures to clarify.
    Arch
    ====
    http://imgur.com/qOJWdR5
    http://imgur.com/ECU4FpU
    Archbang
    =======
    http://imgur.com/kGqG1Y7
    The other variations of the error are as follows:
    ==============================
    -A flickering screen after grub bootup, highly distorted.
    -A black screen after grub bootup and intitial system processes.
    -The same error, but with the rift closer to the middle of the screen.
    -A normal bootup
    Here are some system specs as well
    ===================
    Ram- 4 gigs of corsair vengance
    Cpu- AMD Phenom II x4 965
    Graphics card- Raedon HD6670
    The screen for my mint and archbang live usbs are just fine. The screen during the initial install is usually just fine as well. I am postulating that this error is arch-specific, as my old ubuntu and mint installs never had this problem. I am also curious because for my arch installs, even before I installed graphics drivers and mesa and whatnot, I still would get the error. Other then this strange glitch, my arch based operating systems would work just fine and dandy.
    Here are some fixes I tried
    ==================
    -Adjusting my monitor- This seemingly obvious  fix did abslolutely nothing. It would move the screen over, but a black space would appear where the screen was, almost as if I tried doing the same thing with a fixed screen..
    -Installing a display manager (this was in arch)- The screen was still glitched over
    -Trying a new monitor- The same glitch happened, although both monitors are the exact same Dell monitor, and the only distinguishing feature is the size.
    Here are some theories I have
    ====================
    -The most likely issue is my graphics card itself, as Raedon and Linux tend to have issues as I have heard.
    -A corrupted iso file in my live usb (this is highly unlikely since most of the arch install process is done via downloading files from the web). However I used the same flashdrive for both live usbs. I made the archbang one by formatting the previous arch live usb (in FAT32) and then using the dd method.
    -A possible monitor size issue, but I feel as though this is highly unlikely
    -A corrupted HDD (this is just me grasping at straws, therefore this possibilty is possible, but highly unlikely as other symptoms would have presented themselves).
    Does anybody have any idea what to do at this point?

    fak9r wrote:
    I'm having a very similar problem. I tried installing Arch on a laptop of mine I'm not really using anymore, and every time I'm either trying to startx or startxfce4 my screen looks like this: http://imgur.com/7wZohhw.png (sorry for the blurry image).
    As you can see only roughly 40% of the screen are drawn at the top of the monitor, whereas the bottom 60% are artifacts. Note that the system is perfectly responsive, the right click context menu opens up etc. It is safe to assume that this is not a hardware error since the device was running a Win7 installation flawlessly just 2 hours ago. The laptop in question is a stock ASUS X7BJN with a built-in Nvidia GTX 425M graphics card. I tried switching from proprietary Nvidia drivers to the nouveau ones, however all that does is forcing the X server to terminate on startup (no devices detected, etc.). Forcing vesa in the boot options didn't help either.
    I can't even play around with the xorg.conf since this will lead me to the same error as above (no devices), I have to delete xorg.conf every time I want to get X running in the first place.
    Hooking up an external monitor and trying to move the alignment did nothing for me, same as OP. Unforunately the solution proposed here won't work for me since I don't have an AMD card.
    While I do not know much about nvidia graphics cards, I do know that the command that I entered into the grub boot (and made persistant through other means) was a command that edited the power profile of my graphics card. It was suggested to me earlier to edit the power profile, but it didn't work because I didn't mkconfig the changes. However, it would have (in theory) worked. Perhaps you need to find a way to edit your nvidia graphcis driver power profile, and tinker with it until you find a setting that works.

  • Strange graphical glitch in kde4 [SOLVED]

    hi... as the topic says i came across this strange looking issue in kde:
    http://carnager.dyndns.org/~carnager/glitch.png
    this is without 3d acceleration. Also affected are text input fields, where sometimes the written text is messed up.
    Last edited by Rasi (2008-08-25 08:10:30)

    alright.. once again a nvidia isssue... the nv driver does paint it correctly

  • Why does my Mac hang at some point? The startup is slower than usual and sometime's the graphic glitches occur. please help!

    My mountain lion OS hangs like windows does and sumtimes have visual glitches like the drop down menu's are half visible. Sometimes it slows down at every point. And its just 2 months old. Please help.

    Isolating Issues
    Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.
    Try a restart.
    Run Disk Utility/Repair Permissions. Run until it reports no errors. If there is a recurring error, see the article on what permission errors can be ignored.
    Disk Utility                                                       
    Disk Utility Repair Permissions You Can Safely Ignore
    Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.
    Isolating an issue by using another user account
    If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode.  Shut down the computer and then power it back up. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
    Safe Mode
    Safe Mode - About
    General information.
    Isolating issues in Mac OS X
    Troubleshooting Permission Issues
    Step by Step to Fix Your Mac
    Upgrade Nightmares  

  • Had a wierd graphics glitch...

    Just had my first strange graphics glitch tonight. I was moving photos around in Aperture and listening to some music through iTunes, and also had Firefox open, when suddenly the menu bar turned into a bunch of random colored blocks and the computer slowed WAAAAY down, to the point I had to to a hard shutdown. The bottom did feel pretty hot to the touch, though iStat said it was running around 65C or so. First time it's happened, so hoping to not see a repeat.

    If this happens again, you might want to check Activity Monitor and see if you have some process running amok in the background and hogging the CPU. This could possibly produce the heat and slowness you are describing. Be sure to select "All Processes" at the top when you do this. See if you can find and quit the rogue process. If you can, then your computer should calm down and run normally.
    Good luck!

  • 3D graphics glitches/artifacts

    I've noticed a very weird problem in certain 3D applications. I first noticed it when playing Warcraft 3. In certain scenery, single pixels (usually yellow) will flash briefly then go away. Almost like static. Once it starts happening, two or three will pop up every few seconds so it's very difficult to detect normally.
    Figuring it was probably just the game, I fired up Quake 3 and after a bit I noticed the same thing. Then I tried Diablo 2 and again noticed the same thing (especially after entering a cave or something with dark corners - I see them quite a bit more in there).
    At this point, I was pretty sure it was either a defect in the video card or perhaps the video card was over heating and producing artifacts. But I went ahead and tried two other games, Ghost Recon and Doom3 (demo) and I couldn't get either one of them to show any errors. Even after cranking up the detail options, neither of them showed the slightest hint of problems. I'd roam around for a bit in Doom3 then exit out, go in to Quake3, stick my nose up against the display and sure enough I'd see one or two pixels flickering randomly. Go back into Recon or Doom and nada.
    The problem also doesn't show up outside of 3D apps - i.e, like on the desktop or anything.
    So I'm wondering - has anyone else noticed this sort of thing before? Could it be a driver issue, or an indication of a more serious hardware failure? Another thought occurred to me too - I'm using the ATI Displays (4.5.6 ) preferences panel from ATI. And although I notice the problem with or without and OpenGL overrides for those games, could that be what's buggering things up? My impression was that ATI Displays didn't replace the OS X drivers but allowed you to configure them more.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

    this is why I hate leopard because graphics problems arrose with outside applications, especially when I am trying to play a game. this is annoying, and once one graphic glitch occurs, I get tons of others! It bugs me soo much. Apple needs to work this out before I go insane from distoritions and graphics disappearing and getting stretched

  • Graphic glitch 10.7.x - moving program icons (active NVIDIA card) macbook pro mid 2010

    Hello,
    I have some strange graphic glitches when I move Program-Icons from my Dock Program-Folder to Desktop. (only with active nvidia graphic card)
    look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoTWzlZJ6Ps    
    On my other testaccount I have no problems like this?
    Some Ideas? 10.7.3 does not fix the problem, It's installed!

    no idea?
    same here?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rREz8Qf8hwA
    http://www.tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?t=48186&p=302219#p302219

  • Graphic glitch at boot since installing ML. Any clue why?

    Since installing Mountain Lion on my late 2011 MBP I have been experiencing graphic glitches every once and a while.
    The one thing that has stayed consistent is the glitch when I boot up. I get big square blocks that come up as I boot. (Pictured above)
    Anyone have any idea why my mac would do that? Could it be a hardware problem?

    I shut down my Mac overnight and it as I booted today no graphic glitch occured, tried 3 times to see if it would come back and nothing so far. I've never had any issues with overheating and I keep track of it pretty well with iStat Pro. Last night when it was doing it, the temp was around 170 after booting.
    I'm going to try to play a game or something to push the temp up a bit and reboot again. I'll update in a few and let you know if thats the prob. I've been running an FC but I've left it at the default 2000 rpm, I'm not sure how that would affect it because it haven't been that hot to begin with.
    Thanks for all the advice.
    I'm thinking maybe I better make a stop at an Apple store and see what it says before college starts back up and I don't have my mac.

  • Graphics glitches:  distored text

    I get graphics glitches in the form of distorted text primarily in firefox & safari when I try and scroll within the browser(s). Seems like it is not being refreshed properly.
    Picture of what the distorted text looks like:
    http://media.arstechnica.com/journals/apple.media/safari-distorted.jpg
    ArsTechnica article describing exactly the problem I have been having:
    http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/04/14/latest-apple-laptops-give-u sers-graphics-glitches-galore

    this is why I hate leopard because graphics problems arrose with outside applications, especially when I am trying to play a game. this is annoying, and once one graphic glitch occurs, I get tons of others! It bugs me soo much. Apple needs to work this out before I go insane from distoritions and graphics disappearing and getting stretched

  • Graphical glitches in Safari 5.0.1 render it unusable

    Wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Semi-recently, over the last month, I've been getting these intermittent strange graphical glitches in Safari.
    I can't tell if it's due to the most recent Flash update or an Apple software update.
    The fact that I can't make it happen at will makes it even more difficult to debug. It's so annoying that I'm considering ditching Safari for good.
    Basically, sometimes when I'm surfing one of three things may happen:
    1. Certain things stay on top of Safari, see the screenshot below.
    http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/1606/safariglitch1.jpg
    2. The entire window turns into a nasty looking mosaic, see the screenshot below which oddly enough is a screenshot of a screenshot because if I save the actual screenshot, it saves as all black.
    http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/1694/safariglitch2.jpg
    3. If you picture Safari in a 3x3 grid, sometimes the middle third will get "stuck" across all tabs and not scroll. Sorry, don't have a screenshot of that.
    The only way I've been able to remedy any of these is to quit and restart Safari.
    Anyone else run into this?
    Very aggravating.

    annoying indeed.
    I'd start by moving everything in the Home/Library/safari folder, except your bookmarks.plist (quit safari beforehand) & testing until you see the problem again. If you do, either disable Flash, or if you use it (naturally) consider swapping to an earlier version temporarily.
    If/when it seems Flash related, try trashing all of Home/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/, since that holds some Flash settings.
    If a new account (for testing) appeals, then your bookmarks & more can be copied over to it without much trouble - fast user switching makes it rather easier to flit back n forth too.
    *edit* you might usefully remove Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.safari.plist at the same time as the Safari folder contents.
    Message was edited by: andyBall_uk

  • Experiencing random graphical glitches in MacOS 10.10 Yosemite

    We have several users that experience random graphical glitches. See screenshots below for some examples.
    They all use iMacs from between 2012 and 2014 with Yosemite.
    The glitches only appear in Photoshop CC, not CS6 or any other programs.
    They have these graphics cards:
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2048 MB
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1024 MB
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 512 MB
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 1024 MB
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB
    I've tried the different settings under Performance -> Advanced Settings -> Drawing Mode, but no change.
    Also tried resetting the prefs and changing the color profile settings.
    It happens irregularly or at least I haven't found any pattern yet.
    Has anyone seen these kind of glitches before?

    MacOS 10.10 has some widespread video card driver problems that show artifacts like this.  They affect many applications that use the GPU, including Apple's own.
    Apple is aware of these driver bugs, and working on solutions.

Maybe you are looking for

  • HT1296 How do I switch WiFi syncing on my iOS device from an old computer to a new computer?

    While trying to move between an old computer a new computer I find that I cannot convince my iPad to WiFi sync to the new computer and no amount of power cycles seems to affect it.

  • Overwrite in Master data

    Hi All. I have an InfoObject which I want to overwrite its data. I recently modified the update rules and want to fill some of its attributes. I used Direct upload since it is master data. I created a Full load but there is an error of Duplicate reco

  • Paying a vendor with Credit Card instead of check and specifying so in Orac

    Hello, We are going to start paying some of our vendors in Accounts Payable via American Express credit card instead of generating a check. What is the best way to reflect this in Oracle? Now, we pay via check and it is specified in the AP records. I

  • Opinions... desktop image with or without ZCM agent?

    I'm working on deploying ZCM 10 to my company and was wondering what your opinions are on deployment method for newly ghosted computers (I'm going to use a deploy task for all existing computers). What are the pros/cons of installing the Zen Agent wi

  • Premiere Pro CS5.5 crash on load

    Installed Pro with Win 7/64 bit. No problems. Replaced hard drive, same exact specs. Reinstalled with same disc. Encore works fine, but Premiere keeps telling me "has stopped working" upon opening. I've reinstalled three times, same results. Suggesti