Screenshots are distorted on Mac Mini with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M

Question

I am trying to take screen snap-shots with the shortcut keys of

• cmd + Shft + 4 and
• cmd + Shft + 3.

I am not getting the proper screen-shots. This is one of the examples:

What would be the reason behind these blurry screen-shots?

MacMini: Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, Older model
Monitor: Dell Monitor - 15"

NVIDIA GeForce 9400:

  Chipset Model:    NVIDIA GeForce 9400
  Type: Display
  Bus:  PCI
  VRAM (Total): 128 MB
  Vendor:   NVIDIA (0x10de)
  Device ID:    0x0861
  Revision ID:  0x00b1
  ROM Revision: 3362
  Displays:
DELL E773c:
  Resolution:   1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz
  Depth:    32-Bit Color
  Core Image:   Hardware Accelerated
  Main Display: Yes
  Mirror:   Off
  Online:   Yes
  Quartz Extreme:   Supported
  Rotation: Supported
Display Connector:
  Status:   No Display Connected

Answer 1

Well, Macs and NVIDIA. It seems that either you just have a minor software glitch, or your graphics card is faulty. In any case, consider running all software updates possible — from your previous question history, I think you'll get Snow Leopard soon?

NVIDIA had problems with their 8600M GT chip before, when Apple had to replace the logic boards of a large number of MacBook Pros. This is still covered under warranty, even four years after buying.

As for your particular graphics card model, there are quite a few people that deal with similar problems and distortions on the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M:

• Graphics glitches occurring with the GeForce 9400M?
• Nvidia GeForce 9400M makes my MacBook Pro screen blinks

In such a case, the only resolution would be to have the logic board replaced, which is a quite expensive procedure for any Mac, unless it's still covered under normal warranty or AppleCare protection.

You can be lucky that it only affects screen shots. As you're probably not playing any 3D games, you haven't seen any other issues so far. You might try using an alternative screen shot program (like Skitch, Jing, InstantShot), and see if that gives you better results, but I can't really promise that'll work.