Flickering dots

[ADB2]

Hi there --

As my Mac Pro woke up from sleep this morning, it had white/black (depending on the background color) flickering pixel-size dots on the two monitors I use. Most of the dots are clustered by 4, drawing a square or other forms.

It's a 2 x 2,66 Dual-Core Xeon (2006 I think), 14 Gig on 10.6.8.

Graphic card is ATI Radeon HD 5770, where I have plugged a Samsung (12") monitor with a VGA/Mini-DVI adapter, and a (2007) 21" Apple Cinema Display (DVI).

I don't think it's the cable/adapter, since it started to occur simultaneously on both.
Another thing is that I don't have the flickering dots if I boot in safe mode.
Last, it seems that the more video there is (flash, web pages, FCP, etc.), or the more I'm moving finder windows around, the more dots I get.

Any idea?

TIA ! (I need some graphic/video work done and it's a hassle... \).

 

[Kaveman]

Another thing is that I don't have the flickering dots if I boot in safe mode.

We its not hardware then.

I'd guess a preference file, or corrupted driver.

Always good to have a unused Admin Account that you can log into to sort these sorts of problems.

 

[ADB2]

We its not hardware then.
I'd guess a preference file, or corrupted driver.
Always good to have a unused Admin Account that you can log into to sort these sorts of problems.

Thanks for your input. Just curious: what can I do with an(other) unused Admin account that I can't do with my regular one? Can I still create it now, or does it have to have been created beforeward? Thanks.

 

[Kaveman]

So you have an unused Admin Account? I thought because you were using "Safe" mode you didn't have a clean Admin account.


Thats good, log into that and see if the problem is there too?

 

[ADB2]

So you have an unused Admin Account? I thought because you were using "Safe" mode you didn't have a clean Admin account.
Thats good, log into that and see if the problem is there too?

No, I don't. Should I create one, or is it too late? Wouldn't it use the same drivers or pref files anyway? TIA.

 

[Kaveman]

No it's too late the problem would travel with to the new account.

 

[ADB2]

Ah, ok ; thanks. I'll keep the tip in mind for next time.