Weird 27" Imac Resolution Problem: Hello all. Yesterday I was cleaning my desktop and I accidentally hit my mac around the Apple logo. Didn't seem like much of a tap. Immediately the...

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

Hello all. Yesterday I was cleaning my desktop and I accidentally hit my mac around the Apple logo. Didn't seem like much of a tap. Immediately the display started blinking sporadically. My first instinct is always to unplug and then plug back in. When I turned it back on, the startup screen was full of noise and the apple logo wasn't visible. I then reseated the Ram. When it booted back up, the blinking was gone, but the resolution was changed. Everything is twice as large and rasterized, especially text.
When I go to System Information>Graphics/Displays>Resolution it shows 1280x720. System Preferences>Displays>Resolution shows Default For Display. Under the Scaled tab it only shows 1280x720 not the default 1440x1080. Does anybody have any idea how it would be possible to change the resolution by hitting the front of the computer? Thanks in advance for any help.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1GB Vram Late 2012 27" Imac

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

I meant to say the default resolution is 2650x1440.

Grey Ghost

Call Apple support. They will troubleshoot over the phone and most likely solve your problem. It sounds like a simple software or settings issue. Thank

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

Can't help, but I do know that since that happened on a Monday that maybe your computer had not had it's second cup of electrons yet.😂

JBRIII

mflowe wrote:

Hello all. Yesterday I was cleaning my desktop and... (show quote)

loose part inside, wire, chip, etc. comes to mind.

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

Grey Ghost wrote:

Call Apple support. They will troubleshoot over the phone and most likely solve your problem. It sounds like a simple software or settings issue. Thank

Thanks. Don't know how much help they would be. Apple doesn't support this computer anymore.

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

ORpilot wrote:

Can't help, but I do know that since that happened on a Monday that maybe your computer had not had it's second cup of electrons yet.😂

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

JBRIII wrote:

loose part inside, wire, chip, etc. comes to mind.

That's what I'm afraid of. Apple will be of no help. This 2012 is not supported anymore. They won't even repair it. I hate to part with it. It was chugging along just fine until this mishap. Display was still bright. Cosmetics are still 9/10. It did everything I needed. Wouldn't update to PS 2022, but still supported 2021.

John Matthews Loc: Wasilla, Alaska

So when you are in settings and opened video there is not the ability to select other resolution because they are grayed out or the option does not exist at all?

Have you tried a hard system reset?

JD750 Loc: SoCal

mflowe wrote:

Hello all. Yesterday I was cleaning my desktop and... (show quote)

How hard of a "tap"? It's entirely possible and in fact it sounds like from your description, that something was jared loose. So take it to the old Apple store and let them give you a verdict.

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

JD750 wrote:

How hard of a "tap"? It's entirely possible and in fact it sounds like from your description, that something was jared loose. So take it to the old Apple store and let them give you a verdict.

It's too old. They won't even look at it, let alone repair it.

BebuLamar

I wouldn't know how to use a Mac but I think it's something about setting up. I think if you PM and ask BurkPhoto he would know. I suspect when you hit it the something camera loose. After that it's OK but the computer picked a low resolution so I think it's the matter to change the resolution back.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

BebuLamar wrote:

I wouldn't know how to use a Mac but I think it's something about setting up. I think if you PM and ask BurkPhoto he would know. I suspect when you hit it the something camera loose. After that it's OK but the computer picked a low resolution so I think it's the matter to change the resolution back.

I know how to use a Mac and I have never had a Mac change to low resolution when bumping the back of the screen. Unless Maybe Apple secretly added a change resolution button to the Apple logo? Lol.

It’s worth a check and can easily be verified using System Preferences/Display.

BebuLamar

JD750 wrote:

I know how to use a Mac and I have never had a Mac change to low resolution when bumping the back of the screen. Unless Maybe Apple secretly added a change resolution button to the Apple logo? Lol.

It’s worth a check and can easily be verified using System Preferences/Display.

My guess is that the bump loosen something and the computer after reboot thinks it's missing some of the hardware perhaps the amount of memory.

mflowe Loc: Port Deposit, MD

BebuLamar wrote:

My guess is that the bump loosen something and the computer after reboot thinks it's missing some of the hardware perhaps the amount of memory.

You may be on to something. Even though the screen was blinking after the incident, the low resolution problem didn't show up till after rebooting.