DazzaG

Q: 24" iMac Screen Freezes since 10.6.3 update - pls help!

I don't know if this is just coincidence or not, but since updating my iMac to 10.6.3 it keeps on crashing. On 3 separate occasions today, whilst using my Mac the screen has gone completely black with thin white lines down it.....see pic below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6SYzhCgVYEU5TBKqRfOQ1Q?feat=directlink

The fans and hard disk are still running but it will not respond to any keyboard or mouse presses - I simply have to turn it off by holding the power button in.
It will then restart as usual.

Anyone got any ideas? Do you think that if I was to re-install Mac OS X from my original install disk it could solve the issue?

Thanks

Darren

24" intel imac 2.8Ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Mar 31, 2010 2:43 PM

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Q: 24" iMac Screen Freezes since 10.6.3 update - pls help!

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  • by KrzysiuTurek,

    KrzysiuTurek KrzysiuTurek Jan 11, 2011 2:18 PM in response to Eminemdrdre00
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 11, 2011 2:18 PM in response to Eminemdrdre00
    Before: "I made this picture several weeks ago when Apple give us a 10.6.5 update"

    And today is another beautiful day without freeze, and with app store of course
  • by yogidig,

    yogidig yogidig Jan 11, 2011 8:42 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 11, 2011 8:42 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Hi KrzysiuTurek,

    I tried to apply your solution but I did something wrong because the computer only booted in safe mode. So if anyone could help me out. I have an iMac9,1 with NVIDIA GeForce GT 130.
    I replace the following 10.6.6 kext files:

    GeForce.kext
    GeForce7xxxGLDriver.bundle
    GeForceGA.plugin
    GeForceGLDriver.bundle
    GeForceVADriver.bundle

    For the following 10.6 kext files:

    GeForce.kext
    GeForce7xxxGLDriver.bundle
    GeForce8xxxGLDriver.bundle
    GeForceGA.plugin
    GeForceVADriver.bundle

    So if anyone knows what I did wrong, I would really appreciate your help
    Thank you so much,

    PS: My apologies for my english (it isn't my first language)
  • by balintalovits,

    balintalovits balintalovits Jan 12, 2011 3:01 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 3:01 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Dude!

    If you already know what the problem is, plese report it to apple, cuz it's seems to me, they really dont care about the whole issue.

    Message was edited by: balintalovits
  • by vexbit,

    vexbit vexbit Jan 12, 2011 3:21 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 3:21 AM in response to DazzaG
    @KrzysiuTurek - I've tried replacing the driver before but doing it manually and it didn't work for me - However, I must have done something wrong last time because your solution has worked perfectly for me so far! Thankyou! - I've been running 24 hours on 10.6.6 without a crash.

    @yogidig - Most people on this thread seem to be having problems with ATI graphics. If your machine is hanging using an Nvidia graphics, I think you've probably got different problem.
  • by nekosaur,

    nekosaur nekosaur Jan 12, 2011 5:12 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 5:12 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Add me to the list - THIS WORKS!
    Tried the method that KrzysiuTurek suggested, following each step as laid out and so far I am running at over 24 hours with NO issues at all.

    Here's what I did:

    • Reinstalled the original 10.6.0 OS from my Snow Leopard DVD
    • Immediately upgraded to the 10.6.2 update via combo update package
    • Grabbed the following Kernel extensions and put them on the desktop for easy access:
    ATI2400Controller.kext (I have an iMac 7,1 with ATI2400 graphics)
    ATIFramebuffer.kext
    ATISupport.kext
    • Upgraded to 10.6.6 via another combo update package
    • Used Kext helper tool to reintegrate the OLD video drivers back into the library extensions.
    • Rebooted

    I am reporting NO issues now at all. The machine just FEELS better. No lag, no weird pauses, no glitches, no artifacting, and best of all - no freezes.

    I could guarantee that in the morning when waking my iMac from sleep that a freeze would happen. It was 100% reproducible every day. This morning, absolutely perfect!

    Thanks goes out to you KrzysiuTurek! I will keep these three drivers handy for when Apple updates the OS - a quick 60 second process to reintegrate them until they get it fixed.

    A "special" note to ATI - once again, you seem to magically break your video cards with terribly-written drivers. I thought that I got rid of this kind of garbage when I switched from a PC in 1998... guess I was wrong. Apparently even on a Mac you can manage to muck things up! I do not blame Apple at all for this. ATI however.....

    Anybody want to be brave enough to "reintegrate" each driver (of the three) back in to the extensions folder to find out EXACTLY which one it is? Maybe that would help Apple kick ATI in the pants a bit to get a fix issued.

    My iMac is usable again!!!!!
  • by vexbit,

    vexbit vexbit Jan 12, 2011 5:16 AM in response to nekosaur
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 5:16 AM in response to nekosaur
    Logically speaking, it must be one of these two files:
    * ATIFramebuffer.kext
    * ATISupport.kext

    As it affects more than just one specific card- My gut instinct would be the ATIFramebuffer, but as the files may be interdependent, you might not be able to restore the files one at a time - they might not work with mismatched versions.
  • by nekosaur,

    nekosaur nekosaur Jan 12, 2011 5:18 AM in response to nekosaur
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 5:18 AM in response to nekosaur
    By the way -

    This really is a very drastic "hack" to the OS. Things might very well go downhill quickly if Apple issues an update that does not play well with this method.

    Beware. If you have critical data on your computer that you just cannot lose, then please do not do this. You should have three backups of everything anyways (just in case) Please back up. Its easy and cheap.

    For me, the benefits outweigh the risks right now. Be cautious, I will let you know how things go on a weekly basis if I can.
  • by yogidig,

    yogidig yogidig Jan 12, 2011 5:40 AM in response to vexbit
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 5:40 AM in response to vexbit
    @KrzysiuTurek thank you... That is bad news... The behavior is basically the same everything went down hill since 10.6.3 upgrade, so I want it to try your solution with my video card. There has to be a way to install old nvidia kext to my machine...
    Thank you for all your help
  • by Vurey,

    Vurey Vurey Jan 12, 2011 5:48 AM in response to nekosaur
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 5:48 AM in response to nekosaur
    nekosaur wrote:
    Add me to the list - THIS WORKS!
    Tried the method that KrzysiuTurek suggested, following each step as laid out and so far I am running at over 24 hours with NO issues at all.


    I'm running at 2 days now on 10.6.6 on my iMac 7,1, with no issues at all. I've been encoding video, burning DVDs, editing images, using iPhoto '11, using Firefox, playing games etc etc. Not a single crash and the usual snappiness that was present before the 10.6.3 update.

    I have emailed AMD/ATI to request a fix. Thanks again to KrzysiuTurek for the easy to follow instructions for a temporary fix.

    If anyone else needs to contact AMD, you can do so at http://emailcustomercare.amd.com/
  • by Jonah Lee Walker,

    Jonah Lee Walker Jonah Lee Walker Jan 12, 2011 6:38 AM in response to Vurey
    Level 3 (591 points)
    iPhone
    Jan 12, 2011 6:38 AM in response to Vurey
    Make sure to leave feedback with Apple as well http://www.apple.com/feedback/imac.html

    I have multiple times, but have now updated with the information in this thread, which seems to prove that this is not a hardware issue, but a software issue.
  • by nekosaur,

    nekosaur nekosaur Jan 12, 2011 6:47 AM in response to vexbit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 6:47 AM in response to vexbit
    Yes - that is my fear, by mixing and matching files it might actually make it much, much worse.
    Kind of like poking at a beehive. Best to be left alone, especially if it is working.

    My gut tells me that it is the FrameBuffer as well. The driver seems to be OK (otherwise the machine would not boot at all OR would have strange color/resolution/bad 3D performance.) The frame buffer seems to be the culprit only because that is what tells the video card how to store and sort the "memory" of the graphics on screen. One little memory leak in that FrameBuffer file and it is only a matter of time before the memory on the graphics card "fills up" and overloads resulting in strange behavior, a full lockup or even worse a kernel panic.

    It's a shame to see all of the time and effort wasted on figuring this out - it has almost been a FULL YEAR! If this is truly the root issue, then all of the hubbub about turning the fans up on the machine was doing nothing more than wasting even more energy, literally :P.

    If Apple really does not want to get ATI to fix this then I guess we might just have to live with it. It shouldn't be too hard for someone to hobble together a little AppleScript installer that looks into which ATI video card your machine has and then overwrites the kext drivers with a collection taken from 10.6.2.

    Anybody good at that? Certainly not me

    BTW - if anybody wants the 10.6.2 drivers for a 21" 2.0Ghz Core2Duo Intel iMac (7,1) using the ATI RadeonHD 2400 / 128MB Graphics card let me know - the whole 10.6.2 ATI driver set is only about 3MB.
  • by Tazthed,

    Tazthed Tazthed Jan 12, 2011 6:56 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 6:56 AM in response to DazzaG
    Att: KrzysiuTurek

    I think it is very good that you found this solution concerning the graphics card. Well done!

    Now we definitely know that the problem is the ATI card!

    However i still think it is a bit risky and I will wait for an official update.



    *To All of YOU:*

    *Remember that we ALL still have to report the problem to Apple. We have to put pressure on them or else they will just ignore us! All updates on Mac are going through Apple so it is them who needs to know about all these problems.*

    *They probably already think that we should just buy their new mac-computers? NO!*

    Message was edited by: Tazthed

    Message was edited by: Tazthed

    Message was edited by: Tazthed
  • by nekosaur,

    nekosaur nekosaur Jan 12, 2011 7:02 AM in response to Tazthed
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 7:02 AM in response to Tazthed
    Yep, agreed.
    Still reporting the issue to Apple as usual. I am sure that they are sick of hearing about this by now.
    I know that they are probably looking into the issue, it just isn't "critical" and may take some time to work its way down the pipeline.

    I will be happy once this is over and I can stop reading threads all day
  • by nekosaur,

    nekosaur nekosaur Jan 12, 2011 7:08 AM in response to Vurey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 7:08 AM in response to Vurey
    I have done the following since performing the "fix" to try to trigger a freeze:

    • Rebuilt my iPhoto database (44GB, 8,000+ photos)
    • Installed and integrated the database into Aperture 3.1.1
    • Played iTunes in the background with the visualizer active in the window
    • Scrolled & zoomed frantically in Chrome and Safari
    • Let the screensaver activate with Mosaic and ran it for 3 hours
    • Put the iMac to sleep several times over and woke it right away.

    ALL GOOD! I think that before the fix with the 10.6.6 ATI drivers iMac may have literally frozen solid.

    This is working....
  • by KrzysiuTurek,

    KrzysiuTurek KrzysiuTurek Jan 12, 2011 8:41 AM in response to yogidig
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2011 8:41 AM in response to yogidig
    @yogidig - you restored the *.boundle file wich is not *.kext file, try to restore only GeForce.kext.
    Please paste here your kext files list, maybe I could help you.
    In my system there are not kext files called GeForce or Nvidia.
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