Ghosts in the machine

[MamaMoose]

I had a strange experience the other day. I woke my system and instead of my usual desktop I got this strange rectangular array of rectangles covering my entire monitor (23# Cinema Display). When I tried to select something, my desktop appeared and a small version of the rectangular  array appeared. What happened? Was someone trying to reach me from the other side? Was this some nefarious trick by Microsoft to get me to switch to Windows 7?  Was this Al Qaeda trying to penetrate my highly classified computer which contains secret, documents on how to prepare pork dishes?

Seriously, what was the source of the phenomenon. Is it a hidden part of the OS? Thanks for any help

MamaMoose

[jchuzi]

Did the situation resolve after a restart? If so (and it doesn't recur), forget about it; you'll never know the cause. When I first started to learn about operating a computer, the universal wisdom was to restart as a first resort. Maybe that's not the best advice but it isn't bad either.

[Paddy]

I've seen that or something similar once or twice with the kid's computers - it wasn't consistent though and went away after a restart. If you start seeing consistent problems, it could be a video card issue. If it recurs, test the monitor on another Mac to eliminate the monitor as the issue, and then, if you have another monitor, try that on the Mac, just to narrow things down. If it's the Mac Pro, I'd suggest you take the video card out, give it a good dusting (canned air, mini vacuum) and then put it back in, making sure it's seated properly. Probably won't change anything, but worth a try.

(BTW - which list of Macs is current or do you have them all still - you've got two listed in your sig and another 2 listed in your "My Macs" - might want to consolidate that under "My Macs" to avoid confusion.)