# [SOLVED] Weird colours on mac screen



## Gullly

This could be a screen problem so sorry if it's in the wrong place.

Ok, first my computer - 20" G5 iMac, 2.16 GHz Intel, 1 GB RAM, ATI Radeon X1600 and Mac OS X 10.4.11 EMC:2118

I was talking to a friend on web cam the other day when after an hour or two the screen suddenly went tinted green all over. You could still see everything but it was all green and some of the edges of windows and other things had gone all jpeg-ish (as in areas looked like an image compressed in a lossy format but more extreme). Then the screen turned completely green (3 shades of green in vertical stripes each abut 2-3 mm thick), so nothing else could be seen. At this point I could still talk to my friend through the microphone - just see nothing!

I turned it off and on again and it was fine for a little while, then a new problem occurred. Suddenly a weird magenta colour had appeared in the dark sections of the screen. This is the problem that remains. Sometimes it changes a bit and at the moment it seams to have stuck with a greenish yellow as well as the magenta for a while, but there has also been an intense white, in a similar style to the magenta and green. These colours are solid and vibrant and are not still - they seam to glisten/twinkle as different pixels light up. Sometimes there's also a red/orange and yellow tint to areas. The red/orange colour more often comes in lines though (not strait lines - following the lines of an image for example highlighting the lines on a face or in hair)

Here's an image as it should be and a photograph taken of the same image viewed through my screen, showing the magenta and green problem clearly. What you can't see is the movement of the pixels

Text seems to be pretty much unaffected, even black text, which is odd considering it seems to target the dark areas of images.On this page the only thing affected is the 'Tech Support Forums' Logo. The smilies are fine, as is the advert at the bottom.

I've tried turning it on and leaving it overnight but the problem persists. I don't think the distortion is copied through a print screen but it's hard to say because I can only view it on this computer with this screen, so if it didn't copy the distortion, then it would just be reapplied by my computer anyway. 

Ok, I've tried to give as much detail as possible... maybe too much! tell me if I've missed anything. I think it must be a video card problem but if anyone thinks there's something wrong with my screen - please let me know. Any help much appreciated.


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## Gullly

*Re: Weird colours on mac screen*

Now the white area's have slowly turned yellow....the yellow colours seam to ripple down the screen and only pure white is affected.


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## emosun

*Re: Weird colours on mac screen*

Try reinstalling the drivers for the x1600 , if macs use drivers. I'm not entirely sure how macs work. You might get better help in the apple area.


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## Gullly

*Re: Weird colours on mac screen*

I've tried that but don't know how! I'm a windows man too. There wasn't any option for it on the Mac equivalent of Device Manager.

Is there actually an apple section?... I could only find a section for Mac operating systems and Applications. Seeing as this isn't either of those I didn't post there, but if you think it's still my best shot? Or if there is a hardware/non-application software section that would be useful? Thanks for your reply.

Quick Update: The yellow colour went away on reboot.


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## sinclair_tm

*Re: Weird colours on iac screen*

No, you did good describing your issue. I just wish I could see the the pictures that you said you have. It sounds like the video card may of over heated. The only other thing I could think it be is video cables not connected right, but that would only be it if you had opened it up recently. Either way it's hardware, and will require a trip to Apple for a repair.


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## emosun

*Re: Weird colours on mac screen*

If macs use catalyst control center , go into the color options , I once had a similar problem were my colors were messed up but I forgot how I fixed it. It was in the color section of CCC.


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## Gullly

*Re: Weird colours on iac screen*

Sorry for not linking to the pictures properly... thought I did, but was in a hurry.

Here they are:

http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/75/l_24c250c185e3448fba8d64db326bd828.jpg

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/77/l_9cb25b3386984c9da61f9ecba6899bed.jpg

No I haven't opened it up recently and it seems weird that the graphics card would have overheated since I was only on Skype talking to someone on a (poor quality) web cam, with an idle background. Not hot in the room or anything either and it doesn't go on reboot. It had been on a while though, so I suppose it's probably the most likely. Thanks for your help.


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## Gullly

*Re: Weird colours on mac screen*

No catalyst control centre is only for windows atm unfortunately  Thanks for your input though.


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## sinclair_tm

*Re: Weird colours on mac screen*

ATI does have a Mac version of Catalyst, but it is for full fledged Mac video cards, not integrated video cards which your Mac has. Looking at the shots, I'm willing to bet it is a hardware issue, and seeing that your Mac is an older one, it is possible that it is over heating. There are many reasons too, a couple could be that the heat sink is all dusty, or is falling off of the GPU ( I have had that happen before). If you download this app, it should be able to read the temp sensors of the GPU, if there are any on that card.


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## neil1255

*Re: Weird colours on mac screen*

Have you moved your Mac closer to any type of speakers?
Do you have a stereo in close proximity to your monitor?

The colors look like the effects of having a magnet too close.


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## Gullly

*Re: Weird colours on mac screen*



neil1255 said:


> Have you moved your Mac closer to any type of speakers?
> Do you have a stereo in close proximity to your monitor?
> 
> The colors look like the effects of having a magnet too close.


It's an LCD screen so it's not affected by speakers. Thanks for the input though. Just to let everyone know I've taken it to an apple centre and they've replaced the whole motherboard (damn integrated graphics) costing a bomb. So - yeah it was faulty hardware  not good after 3 years!


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