Shaking screen on iMac G3

rlieving · 11-15-2006, 11:36 AM

I am trying to rescue an old Mac for my nephew. It is the PowerPC G3, 450 MHz, front loading DVD edition. We loaded Dapper Drake.

The install went very smoothly. The only issue is that the screen keeps shaking - more like vibrating - so that the machine is unusable for long periods of time. This issue did not manifest itself when the iMac ran OS9.

I have reviewed other forums and have checked the xorg.conf for the refresh settings and they appear to be correct. So, are there other settings that could prevent the screen from vibrating or is this possibly a hardware issue?

Nathanael · 11-15-2006, 12:27 PM

try running of live cd's, or booting of the ox9 or osx install cd and let it run somewhere for a while and see if the issue reappears.

rlieving · 11-16-2006, 07:49 AM

That would be an excellent test. I wish we could go back to the old system, but OS9 has already been wiped from the machine. There was an urgent need to upgrade as the limitations of OS9 (weak word processor, lack of modern browser) required the upgrade. My nephew went with the entire install instead of the dual boot option.

We do know that this was not a problem in OS9 - so could it be an xorg.conf setting that I am not seeing? Or is it more likely a hardware issue?

Nathanael · 11-16-2006, 08:27 AM

that is what i am trying to tell you - to find out if it is a hardware issue, put your os9 install disk into the drive, boot and just leave the computer in the graphical install (assuming here os9 install is graphical - like osx) if the screen appears to be wobbly there too you know it is a hardware issue!!
same with a linux live cd - boot, and leave the computer in X11 mode and wait for the 'wobble' effect to appear - if it does you have a hardware issue - if it does not - well - then i dont know what it is

please read this thread
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread27997.html
have you actually googled any at all?

rlieving · 11-17-2006, 10:54 AM

I didn't know that OS9 was bootable from a CD similar to Ubuntu. I guess we could reinstall it, but I am going to try the other solution first.

What strikes me is that the modem plus some other electronics are very close to the computer. I am going to run some tests and will get back to you.

Thanks for your help and posting. It is appreciated and makes a lot of sense.