Ah, I really should have listened to you guys. Got myself a Core Duo 20 inch, 2ghz, 2gb ram at auction. It came with OS 10.6.6 but no cds. So I dutifully ordered myself the SL Mac Box Set as well.
When it arrived i spent a few minutes checking things out and all appeared ok. I then wiped the drive, installed my Snow Leopard, and updated to 10.6.7. Before i finished i was getting video artifacts that continued after the OS was installed. Text turning to gibberish, pics not displaying correctly, random horizontal lines in screen which come and go. Then i started experiencing shutdowns for no apparent reason. Sometimes the machine will restart on its own, sometimes just shut down. Most often though, i will be in the middle of something and it will just lock up. At such times i can only watch the spinning wheel . Sometimes it eventually recovers only to shut down. Sometimes i just pull the plug. Command-Option.Esc usually has no effect. I tried replacing the BT keyboard and wireless usb mouse with wired hardware and reinstalled using these. No change. I tried turning off airport. No change. I experimented with ram putting one dimm in bank 0, then in bank 1, then the other dimm by itself in bank 0, etc. No combination of ram and slots cured or changed the problem. My roommate blames the software as no symptoms appeared when i first tried it out. But i am coming to another conclusion. I shut it off in disgust and rebooted cold just a bit ago. I am typing this on the machine in question and all appears normal, just as it did when i first turned it on. It seems to act normally for awhile, then the video problems start, then the shutdowns. Seller, naturally, denies knowledge of any such problem. Sooo. is this the infamous video issue that plagued the G5, and apparently succeeding models as well? Or is it perhaps an overheating issue? If the former, i read the problem is in the video card and that it could be upgraded in this model to a 256mb card. BUT i read in another place that the video is integrated into the logic board. Which is correct? And if it is only an overheating issue, how might i resolve that? I either case i am VERY reluctant to try to get into this thing. Advise please? And many thanks. -william -- You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist
