Until I can get my video card fixed, I'm not going to be able to play Vendetta with my computer's current state of affairs. In case you're wondering what I mean, looky here, it's not pretty:



The only way I can kinda read what I'm typing here, is because I've screwed around with the Universal Access settings. When it's black and white, the screen is slightly better, although it is unpredictable. This screenshot is from one of its less borked moments:



Yeah. using the zoom function, I usually have a pretty good guess what I'm typing, although this message box fills the entire screen... *sigh* At least this has a CHANCE of convincing my dad to get us a new computer... Until then, best wishes to all of you and a happy new year. Er... forget that. no new year. bye

/me cries

-Calder

You should linkify those PDFs instead of embed them as images.

That's the result of a screenshot?! Definitely one part or another of the video board has gone to join the choir invisible. Ouch. Sorry dude.

Being intermittent (bad to worse) it looks like a solder problem (expansion/contraction). One reason I never turn my Mac off.

any ideas how i can fixx it?

-CAlder

Well, if this is on a CRT imac, or emac, (and from what I can see, it is) then he's gonna need a new video board (NOT the same as the graphics board, this board controls the crt tube's electron guns, and its going bad.. If I had to guess, I would say it's probably an emac, one of the first models and as such, is possibly one that had a recall.. first thing you should do is call an apple authorized repair center. IIRC, you're lookin at about 300.00 in repairs.. but its been a LONG time since I did any apple repair

(oh, and yes, this is the truck driver.. and yes, I used to fix macs.. since macs dont break much, i get more work as the truck driver. :) )

CIA, eh?

It's a 15 inch g$ laptop we got in 20000 or so if that helps anything...

-Calder

Ok, in that case, your video cable is likely damaged and needs to be replaced, a competent technician can do the job in about an hour, the average work rate is 65.00/hr for mac repairs, and the part should run about 100.00, assuming no other hardware related problems, but being a G4, it's not likely to be any other problems... that problem is a fairly common occurance on laptops that are used as primary computers. Over time, the repeated opening and closing of the case, can sometimes damage the cable that links the video card under the keyboard, to the display..

thanks break, but I'm pretty sure it's not the thing. 22 reasons:
1) I rean the hardware test CD tihngy and it said there was a problem with the video cardo.
2) we had that happen before and it didn't look much like it.
3) it is not affected by opening and closing the screen.

oops that's 3 reasons. oh well, I can't change what I've written because I can't see what I've writtens, so uh yeah..,. you'll all have to live with mey typos ..
Thanks for your technical experties.

-Calder

While not being anywhere near the expertise of break19 in Apple repairs, this looks very similar to a problem a pal of mine had in 2003 with his G4 laptop. He was able to take it back to Apple Canada and have it completely replaced though, albeit, his was just new.

If not, bargain with those money grubbing rapscallians, I got my mac off of an office floor for free. Usually you can talk them down to a reasonable price.