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Model A1312 / Mid 2010 / 3.2 GHz Core i3 or 2.8 & 3.6 GHz Core i5 or 2.93 GHz Core i7, ID iMac11,3

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The display boots up with vertical yellow lines.

It started out booting up with yellow vertical lines and grey dots in the background and that was all you could see. When I boot into safe mode the lines are still there (sometimes) but at least I can see everything and get into what I want such as system preference in order to change the display settings. The first five times I fixed this by booting into safe mode and changing the display resolution from the default to something else. Then the Mac would boot up just fine and last for about two weeks at which time it seems to reset its display resolution to the default setting and therefore revert back to this display problem. Today, the problem arose again but this time when I change the display settings and restart, the settings do not stick. It automatically resets to default and the problem still occuring. I have tried an external monitor and the problem still exists which tells me it's not a LCD problem. I'm wondering if it could be the pram battery since the settings aren't holding. If not, I’m thinking it’s a bad video card. Either case, I'd like to try and fix it and get some more experience with Macs under my belt. I’m a PC girl and I only starting learning Macs this last year. Suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank You!

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Yes I concur here as I have the exacta Mundo Problemo on my iMAC as well. Vertical Yellow lines on start up and as I have not investigated this issue, I would assume it probably is a graphics card problem, however patients should NOT self-diagnosis themselves as I am doing now :-)

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I agree it's a bad video card. You might be able to replace it that's an advanced DIY repair. . . and for EFI reasons you'll have to use a card that was used by Apple.

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Thanks. Got "do it yourself" but whats EFI?

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Extremely &&^&@@-up Interface (EFI. Same problemo I am currently experiencing now on my BigDaddy iMAC. Yellow vertical lines on start-up, ultimately resulting in no ability to conduct a normal start-up that progressively gets worse along the way. I do however agree with some of the temporary workarounds in terms of going into Safe Mode which seems to work if you need to gather data off your computer and transfer this to a working machine. However as many have pointed out, this is only a temporary solution and if any one else is experiencing this I would highly suggest grabbing as much data as you possibly can get your hands on to transfer it to a more stable backup. However I honestly believe this is a graphics card issue thus once fixed, theoretically your data should be just fine.

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Here is the fix:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iyDu-Y_G1D...

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