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 15, 2011 2:08 PM in response to SeSam
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 15, 2011 2:08 PM in response to SeSam
    @SeSam - A strange thing, if I understood correctly, it does not have anything to do with changing kext files - but with RAM modules. Look at this:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1547
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2341

    I hope I'm wrong, and everything will be ok with the RAM
  • by yogidig,

    yogidig yogidig Jan 15, 2011 4:15 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 15, 2011 4:15 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Sorry that it has taken me this long to reply.. I tried 10.6 kext and all I got was a gray screen.. I got out of it by pressing the shift key and booting into an external HD (I did the new installation to get the ket files in my external usb drive). The I tried 10.6.2 and I got the screen with a message telling me to reboot. I rebooted a couple of time and I got the same message. And now I'm back in 10.6.6 9 (I reinstalled the bundle and so far no issues). So you know, my machine froze up the last time with a temp of 72ºC (fans running a regular speed), while I was using Aperture. I'll try again and see if it freezes again.
    BTW, I have a NVidia GPU

    Message was edited by: yogidig
  • by Tim Isham,

    Tim Isham Tim Isham Jan 15, 2011 5:24 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jan 15, 2011 5:24 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    I used this fix on my 20" imac 7,1, and it seems to be working so far. The first time I got a kernel panic, but then I noticed in your original post that you had a different iMac than I do. I looked up the video card for my machine, and repeated the procedure using the ATI2400Controller.kext file instead of the ATI2600Controller.kext file and it worked. Has not crashed so far.

    For those interested, when I used the wrong kext file the first time, I was able to boot using the install disk. I had another partition on my disk with Tiger installed, because Snow Leopard had been freezing so frequently. One must get one's work done...

    Thanks so much! I will send feedback to Apple, hopefully they will fix this in a future update.
  • by KrzysiuTurek,

    KrzysiuTurek KrzysiuTurek Jan 15, 2011 5:52 PM in response to Tim Isham
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 15, 2011 5:52 PM in response to Tim Isham
    @The Isham - This confirms the every file must be in the same version, otherwise it would not work.

    @yogidig - could you tell what kind of gpu you have and which file you replace

    Could anyone confirm strange behavior of Finder after kext replace/10.6.6 update.A few minutes ago I had to manually shut down the computer after Finder crash.
  • by SeSam,

    SeSam SeSam Jan 15, 2011 7:15 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 15, 2011 7:15 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    @KrzysiuTurek:
    My RAM is fine. The Mac does not beep, the sound is the generic tri-tone Mac bootup sound.
  • by Vurey,

    Vurey Vurey Jan 16, 2011 12:51 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 16, 2011 12:51 AM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    On a related topic, I contacted AMD customer services regarding a fix for the graphics cards. This was the response I received:

    +Dear Customer,+

    +Your service request : SR #{ticketno:[8200381703]} has been reviewed and updated.+

    +Response and Service Request History:+

    +We apologize for any inconvenience. Please note that for embedded cards in a Mac system, we only provide the driver for the first revision then it is up to Mac to provide the updates . Please contact Apple for any driver update issues directly..+

    +In order to update this service request, please respond, leaving the service request reference intact.+

    +Best regards,+

    +AMD Global Customer Care+



    Looks like we'll have to wait for a fix from Apple. If that ever materialises.
  • by nekosaur,

    nekosaur nekosaur Jan 16, 2011 7:23 AM in response to Vurey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 16, 2011 7:23 AM in response to Vurey
    "+Please note that for embedded cards in a Mac system, we only provide the driver for the first revision then it is up to Mac to provide the updates .+"

    On what planet does this make sense?
    So ATI/AMD makes a standard video card to embed in Apple systems, creates the first round of drivers and then tells Apple that they are on their own from that point forward?

    No wonder Apple has been pushing for embedded graphics lately! I would too. While I will give credit to Apple in the graphics department, I by no means believe that they have the same deep knowledge of ATI's graphics cards as they do. There's just no way they are going to nail this bug down without their help.

    This doesn't give me much hope for a fix - without support from ATI I doubt they will put much energy or manpower into investigating a fix, especially when they are not the company that wrote the software to begin with.

    The move towards the A5 and Intel's new integrated processor/graphics combo chips are making a WHOLE lot more sense now. Good on you, Apple. Get rid of these goons.
  • by yogidig,

    yogidig yogidig Jan 16, 2011 5:13 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 16, 2011 5:13 PM in response to KrzysiuTurek
    Hi,
    @KrzysiuTurek
    Info from my "About this Mac"
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 130:
    Modelo de chipset: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130
    Tipo: GPU
    Bus: PCIe
    Anchura de canal PCIe: x16
    VRAM (total): 512 MB
    Fabricante: NVIDIA (0x10de)
    ID del dispositivo: 0x062e
    ID de la revisión: 0x00a1
    Revisión de la ROM: 3370

    and the kext replaced are:
    NVDANV40Hal.kext
    NVDANV50Hal.kext
    NVDAResman.kext
    NVSMU.kext

    BTW, I noticed that during a Verbose boot the kext called was NVDANV50Hal.kext
  • by yogidig,

    yogidig yogidig Jan 16, 2011 5:16 PM in response to SeSam
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 16, 2011 5:16 PM in response to SeSam
    @SeSam I don't know if this may help you, but I booted my machine to an USB drive by pressing shift just after the boot bell was done, and then copied back my good kext. My machine was also booting to a gray screen.

    Regards,
  • by Eminemdrdre00,

    Eminemdrdre00 Eminemdrdre00 Jan 16, 2011 9:45 PM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 16, 2011 9:45 PM in response to DazzaG
    It's definitely a problem with the video drivers. I have an iMac8,1 with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro and I did exactly what KrzysiuTurek said to do. I've been running 10.6.6 flawlessly for the past week. Before his fix, my iMac would freeze on anything higher than 10.6.2. As he pointed out, it's because 10.6.3+ ships with different versions of the video drivers.

    So what's next? KrzysiuTurek found the problem, how do we let Apple know?
  • by jzelko,

    jzelko jzelko Jan 16, 2011 11:03 PM in response to Eminemdrdre00
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 16, 2011 11:03 PM in response to Eminemdrdre00
    Hi everyone!
    I am under the direction of Krzysiu Turek made yesterday and so far I doing well. I think that it is not so dangerous, if careful, to the proceedings. So far, said after the update has served more than two days, I hope that it will now longer. If a man thus saved me hassle!
    Tell after a few days how things are going. Hi.
    ATI HD2400XT
  • by SeSam,

    SeSam SeSam Jan 17, 2011 11:23 AM in response to yogidig
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 17, 2011 11:23 AM in response to yogidig
    Holding down shift is supposedly safe mode, in my case the Mac's stuck on the same white screen regardless.

    I tried Firewire Target Disk Mode today, but no success. I had white screen for about 5 minutes then finally the Firewire icon appeared, but the host computer (MacBook) didn't see the drive. Also, the Firewire icon was moving on the screen really really slowly, like one frame per minute. Normally it should ping around the screen.

    Seeing how everyone else is doing well this may have nothing to do with me experimenting with kext files.
  • by yogidig,

    yogidig yogidig Jan 17, 2011 11:34 AM in response to SeSam
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jan 17, 2011 11:34 AM in response to SeSam
    @SeSam, my mistake, I meant the Option Key.

    Regards,
  • by TeardropCarnival,

    TeardropCarnival TeardropCarnival Jan 17, 2011 1:59 PM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 17, 2011 1:59 PM in response to DazzaG
    Hello all,
    I've been reading this discussion for a long time, first time posting. I've had this issue since 10.6.3.

    I tried the fix a few times before getting it right.

    Just a note to anyone attempting the fix, be sure to check which Graphics card you have before applying the kext files. I have the 2400 while I had been applying the kext file for the 2600. This resulted in my iMac freezing on the grey screen (the spinning wheel would just stop). After having to boot from install disk, reinstalling 10.6, installing 10.6.2 combo, two separate times, I think I'm in business.

    I'll report back if things go south.

    Thanks to everyone for hanging in there and helping out. Hopefully 10.6.7 will give us the official fix for this ongoing issue.
  • by balintalovits,

    balintalovits balintalovits Jan 17, 2011 2:21 PM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 17, 2011 2:21 PM in response to DazzaG
    Does f**king apple care about our problem? I reported this issue a several times, but they do not give a sh*t!

    Message was edited by: balintalovits

    Message was edited by: balintalovits
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