Vertical streaks on 2009 20in iMac screen

These vertical streaks have been developing over the past few months. Is there a way to fix this without having a new display fitted? Screenshot attached.

Hello, I see no streaks in the screenshot here, but that is taken at the Video card, not the actual screen.
You can test it youself...
Take a screen shot & view that in Preview, move the Preview window around, if you see double lines it's a Video card/VRAM problem, if the lines do not move moving the pic around then it's the LCD or cable.

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Vertical black line running down imac screen

This morning i noticed for the first time (wasn't there yesterday) a thin black vertical line running down my 21' imac screen.
Any suggestions?

Take a screen shot & view that in Preview, move the Preview window around, if you see 2 black lines it a Video card/VRAM problem, if the line does not move moving the pic around then it's the LCD or cable.

I need to replace my early-2009 20" iMac Screen. What fits?

I have an early-2009 20" iMac MB417LL/A and I am having a very hard time finding which screen works for this computer. With window computers I just have to type in the name of the computer followed by LCD and I will find the one I need but its not so simple with Macs. Does anyone know where I can find a compatability list or something of that sort? So far I have found that there are apple part numbers but the LCD will be LG with a seperate part number. 661-4983 seems to work. I also found that Dell M201EW02 will work. Is this true?
Help...please

And from MichelPM's reference to LG as a supplier and your own finding of LG and a part number, you seem to have a match.

2009 27" iMac screen artifacts. Make iMac unusable, Please help

27" Late 09 iMac, Was running Mavericks and Mountain Lion, i7, 8gb Ram, ATI RadeonHD 4850 512mb
About 2 weeks ago i had a random issue where my screen was displaying some odd artifacts. I tried resetting everything, unplugging it, etc and finally out of no where it was back to normal.
Yesterday it started happening again but this time, I could not get rid of the artifacts. Let me explain what it is doing.
The screen at random times will have black spots, icons will be black, some are fine. If i open a menu, The menu will be so distorted that you cannot even read it. At times the mouse pointer will disappear and various areas. Its never the entire screen, only various area of the screen, like say the icons on the dock, or drop down menus, sometimes the entire page on the screen is black.
The issue is so bad that it makes my iMac unusable. The only way i am able to do anything is boot into safe mode BUT now after a few days, Its starting to happen in Safe Mode now.
I have done everything possible from doing a clean install of Mavericks, Totally formatting HD and going back to Mountain Lion. Unplugging all USB devices and HDs, PRAM reset, SMC reset. I have tried different resolutions, etc, etc. You name it i have tried it.
It took me almost 2 hours to install Mountain Lion and Mavericks because once the OS is done installing and you have to go thru the setup screens ( choose your country, your wireless, your apple ID, etc ) half of the screens were blacked out or distorted and you couldn't even see what it was asking you to do. I have to use voice over the entire time to select and enter all my information.
Everything on the iMac works perfectly fine, The problem is, You just can't see 75% of what your doing.
Since i am out of warranty, What can i do? I assume Apple will not fix this issue for free and i assume its a hardware issue? From what i have read everywhere my guess is the graphics card is going out.
Can anyone suggest any fixes? or what the best thing is to do? I have no idea what it will cost to fix and then if its even worth putting the money.
Any help or advice would be great, Thanks.

mafmmx wrote:
27" Late 09 iMac, Was running Mavericks and Mountain Lion, i7, 8gb Ram, ATI RadeonHD 4850 512mb
About 2 weeks ago i had a random issue where my screen was displaying some odd artifacts. I tried resetting everything, unplugging it, etc and finally out of no where it was back to normal.
Yesterday it started happening again but this time, I could not get rid of the artifacts. Let me explain what it is doing.
The screen at random times will have black spots, icons will be black, some are fine. If i open a menu, The menu will be so distorted that you cannot even read it. At times the mouse pointer will disappear and various areas. Its never the entire screen, only various area of the screen, like say the icons on the dock, or drop down menus, sometimes the entire page on the screen is black.
The issue is so bad that it makes my iMac unusable. The only way i am able to do anything is boot into safe mode BUT now after a few days, Its starting to happen in Safe Mode now.
I have done everything possible from doing a clean install of Mavericks, Totally formatting HD and going back to Mountain Lion. Unplugging all USB devices and HDs, PRAM reset, SMC reset. I have tried different resolutions, etc, etc. You name it i have tried it.
It took me almost 2 hours to install Mountain Lion and Mavericks because once the OS is done installing and you have to go thru the setup screens ( choose your country, your wireless, your apple ID, etc ) half of the screens were blacked out or distorted and you couldn't even see what it was asking you to do. I have to use voice over the entire time to select and enter all my information.
Everything on the iMac works perfectly fine, The problem is, You just can't see 75% of what your doing.
Since i am out of warranty, What can i do? I assume Apple will not fix this issue for free and i assume its a hardware issue? From what i have read everywhere my guess is the graphics card is going out.
Can anyone suggest any fixes? or what the best thing is to do? I have no idea what it will cost to fix and then if its even worth putting the money.
Any help or advice would be great, Thanks.
Run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode at least 2-3 times back to back, if errors occur then you have a hardware problem. This means it is in need of repair and there is nothng we can do to help on this forum.

2009 i7 iMac Screen Stuck at Black during and after Startup

Have had this iMac since early March 2010, its been great and my favorite apple product to date. 4 Weeks ago I left to Europe and left my computer OFF and with the power cord not plugged into the wall. I came back, plugged it all back in and turned it on...everything worked fine, surfing the net and CS:S i leave again last week to Denver and left the computer in the same way, OFF and unplugged. I came back today turned it on, i hear the fans, I hear the computer starting up, my external hdd gets power but my logitech mouse would not get power through USB. Ten minutes later my screen is still black, no flickering no nothing just black. I then went ahead and turned it off via power button and disconnected all peripherals mentioned earlier and still nothing. Called applecare they made me do some power cycle thing and still nothing, now I have a Genius appointment tomorrow afternoon....any ideas? Could the screen just have died or some connection on the board burned out? Thanks in advanced!
Message was edited by: aphxtwinin

HI and welcome to Apple Discussions...
Try Resetting the PRAM
If that doesn't make a difference, try Resetting the SMC
iMac since early March 2010
Should still be under the one year limited warranty.
Carolyn

Streaks in your iMac screen?

I have about a dozen different colored streaks running down my iMac screen. What causes this and how can I get rid of them?

Probably a hardware failure, it may be the display itself or more likely the graphics card. You need to take the machine in for professional diagnosis to your local Apple Store or AASP.
On the off chance the machine is still covered by AppleCare (you failed to complete a profile se we have no idea what mac you have or the version of OS X it's running) any hardware repairs would be done at Apple's expense.

Vertical thin pink and blue lines on my iMac screen

20 inch iMac 2009 model I think 2.66GHz 4GB RAM 500GB HD.
First the screen went all blocky so I turned off the iMac via the button at the back. When I switched it back on I was created with loads of pink vertical lines then a grey screen.
After a while of resetting the PRAM and SMC and safe mode. Still nothing. I have managed to get it back to the Mac OS X desktop but now I have light blue and pink thin vertical lines with larger white vertical lines in-between.
Is this a RAM issue? Graphics issue or logic board? or just old age 7 years old there about?
Any help would be good?

Seems like others have seen this …
my imac27" freeze showing some pink lines and after this some dots...help!!!!
Early 2009 24" iMac - Startup Problem
I think it may be a GPU issue, I'm not sure how you can resolve this considering the age & the difficulty to get official Apple parts. You could ask an Apple store what the service cost is likey to be. I believe they will give you an estimation if they can inspect it. I would try to rule out the current installed OS by booting into recovery mode - if that also has the issue it seems like it would be the hardware itself.
You can also try a safe boot - that should also rule out third party software (but that seems unlikely to me).
OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? - Apple Support

Black screen in Windows 8.1 on Late 2009 27" iMac

Hi,
My Late 2009 27" iMac i7 will not allow the display to turn on under Windows 8.1. It's not just black, its as though its powered off. This is some kind of a software problem. I am certain of this because I ran Windows 8.1 just fine since its release (10/17/2013). Hoestly, I ran it for months without a problem. I think it was an upgrade install over Windows 8 and not a clean install. Anyways, last week I upgraded to an SSD and needed to re-install Win 8.1. Now the display won't turn on. It works fine when you first boot it up after the setup runs, then a windows chime sounds and the screen goes blank and never turns on again. If you enable RDP before this happens you can still access the computer. I have re-installed Windows 8.1 and also I have tried BootCamp 4.0.4033, 5.0.5033, and 5.1.5621. None of them have enabled the display. Nor has the vanilla driver from AMD/ATI. I am at a complete loss as to what to do. My only hope is there are a handful of other users with this model of iMac who also have this issue and have solved it. If I ever find the solution you can count on me writing it in detail here in this thread or linking to a thread that solves it.
Thanks,
sr.matto

Summary: The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4850 and other "legacy" graphics cards are not yet supported by AMD/ATI on Windows 8.1.
If you are disatisfied with a perfectly serviceable series of video cards being dropped from support make yourself heard: http://emailcustomercare.amd.com
---Details---
Okay after some pretty exaustive research I have found out a few things.
First, that AMD/ATI has decided to not include several series of "legacy" video cards in their support for Windows 8.1. This support may come in the future. There are conflicting reports about wether or not this is happening.
Second, there is a small community that is devoted to unofficial modified drivers that are supposed to allow legacy cards to be used on Windows 8.1. -> http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=372799. I had no success whatsoever with these drivers, even on a clean install of Windows 8.1. I did get the drivers to install, but no games could start and Windows warned me about the drivers being unsigned frequently. So I would be hesitant to devote a lot of time to installing those drivers.
Lastly, I am pretty disapointed with AMD/ATI. Sure, the card is approaching its sixth year anniversary (~June 25, 2008) but it works just fine for most uses. It is a perfectly serviceable card for desktop uses. I just installed an SSD with the hopes of getting four more years out of this computer. I guess I will be religated to Windows7/8 on this machine till the end of its life. People considering the SSD upgrade may want to take this into consideration. I suppose its a non-issue if you are OK with using Windows 7 for four more years.
There seems to be a potential for upgrading the video card to the part used in the 2011 iMac, but for now that part costs $500 or $600, if its even stocked.
Message was edited by: sr.matto (spelling)

What should I set me screen resolution to in photoshop CC with my late 2009 27" iMac?

What should I set me screen resolution to in photoshop CC with my late 2009 27" iMac?

If its native resolution is 2560x1440 then some people do find it marginal with a 27 inch screen, but I'd have thought it workable if you know where everything is. People are using that screen res on tiny laptops, but to be fair, they are not much liking it with Photoshop.
I don't know how Retina support works with CC, but I wonder if you could force it on your iMac?
Any Mac users out there know how Retina support works?

We have an iMac 21 inch 2009 model. Screen is black upon switching on although we hear the sound. Any fixes for this? Thank you

We have an iMac 21 inch 2009 model. Screen is black upon switching on although we hear the sound. Any thoughts and/or fix? Many thanks

2009 iMac? You posted in the iMac (PPC) forum. Your iMac is an Intel.
Try Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
It really helps to tell us which Mac OS X you have installed...

My 2009 iMac screen looks like a picture negative - how do I reset it to the normal screen?

Yesterday my 2009 (maybe2008?) iMac screen switched over to look like a negative. How do I reset it? Do I have a virus or something?

Hi...
Open System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing
Check your Display settings.
Doubtful it's a virus. Sounds more like you have "white on black" or "grayscale" selected.

How much would it cost to replace my lTE 2009 IMAC SCREEN THAT CRACKED

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST TO REPLACE MY IMAC SCREEN THE GLASS IS BROKEN ITS A LATE 2009 MODEL
21.5 INCHES

Take it to Apple and ask them to examine it.
Stop typing in caps. It is difficult to read and also considered rude on the web since it is shouting.

Anyone know what causes thin vertical lines on my iMac screen?

Anyone know what causes thin vertical lines to appear on my iMac screen?

Hello,
Have you blown the dust out lately?
Get Temperature Monitor to see if it's heat related...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12381/temperature-monitor
Take a screen shot & view that in Preview, move the Preview window around, if you see double lines it's a Video card/VRAM problem, if the lines do not move moving the pic around then it's the LCD or cable.

There are coloured vertical lines on my iMac screen?

So, I was browsing Safari using my iMac the other day (as I always do), when my computer froze and I had to force shut down. Upon starting back up, I noticed that 1. there were coloured diagonal lines on my iMac screen, and 2. that my mac would not boot up unless I booted it using safe mode. I haven't had an issue with this iMac until now, so I am kind of concerned...
I know that this is not an issue with damage to the iMac screen because, well, when I took a screenshot using shift + command + 4, the coloured lines were still there!
So, I'm just wondering if anyone knows what the cause of this issue could be? I'm wondering if it is linked to Safari (because when I open a new tab, Safari slows down massively and my top sites selection keeps appearing and disappearing rapidly. Does anyone know what is causing this issue and how I could solve it. I hope its nothign expensive like replacing the motherboard...

Yes, it does require some disassembly. Namely, removing the glass, screen and the GPU component. Total war could probably develop temperatures too high.
I don't know how familiar you are with reflowing. This is only a crash introduction, to get an idea what reflowing might include (i.e. not a detailed procedure)...
Reflowing theory to give you some background. Here and here in more detail.
To get familiar with iMac (only steps 1 through 9 apply). After that, GPU component can be taken out, and from that point on, the work is done on the GPU component.
GPU component is then disassembled in 3 key parts. The heatsink, the reinforcement, and the video card itself.
The video card and the heat sink are then cleaned carefully using alcohol from any residue of thermal compound. Any paper stickers must be peeled off, too.
Reflowing. Videos to get an idea how it is done. Here and here.
New thermal compound is applied.
Assembly.
It is a risky approach, especially if you are not comfortable with disassembling your iMac. In that case I would suggest you do not do that at all. Still, even then, I hoped it could give some clue to the issue and you might get someone to do it for you.
Cheers

Can my Late 2009 24" iMac's video card be replaced without replacing the entire logic board?

Can someone help me determine if my video card is built onto the logic board on my Late 2009 Intel 3.06 mhz 24" iMac? The video shows corruption (checkered blocks) with a progress bar at the bottom of the screen, then it reboots in a cycle.
According to similar problems found on the web, I'm failry sure that the VRAM is corrupt. Apple Tech support had me do a reset on the PRAM and that only changed the direction of the corrupt pixels on my display. I also ran the Apple hardware diagnostic program that came with the iMac 3 times and it found no problems (from what I could tell squinting through my corrupt display). The S/N is W891507C250.
Thank you,
Will W.

I appreciate your reply and you are correct about it being an Early 2009 iMac.
But I'm not sure that you are correct that all Early 2009 iMac's do not have seperate video cards though. You may be, but according to other sources on the net (such as the link below) claim that some Early 2009 24" iMac models with certain video cards (i.e. NVidia, which I have in mine) are replaceable without replacing the entire logic board.
Again your feedback is appreciated, but I was kind of hoping for an Apple employee or at least an Apple Support Forum Admin to give me an official answer.
http://ifixit-guide-pdfs.s3.amazonaws.com/guide_13765_en.pdf
Thank again,
Will W.

Vertical streaks on 2009 20in iMac screen

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