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 bobtibb,

    bobtibb bobtibb Jul 1, 2011 5:42 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2011 5:42 AM in response to DazzaG

    Hi again. I originally posted when I upgraded to 10.6.3 months ago and suffered the strange freezes. As each new release came and went, I installed . . . only to suffer once again and reverting back to 10.6.2 (which allowed my Mac to 'work' properly . . . and this was why I bought one in the first place, Apple!). I have been on 10.6.2 until the 10.6.8 update and then re-read this thread to see what developments had occurred.

     

    I decided to apply 10.6.7 Combo, after reading about the kext work-round.

     

    I performed the work-round listed further back in this thread after the update, and have been working without freezes now for three days. THANK YOU!

     

    Now, why wouldn't Apple address this issue perhaps by allowing updaters to choose this option somewhere in the upgrade process? At the same time take it on board and ensure that we don't have to suffer this under Lion! They are clever people, so why not sort it out?

     

    Anyway, I am like a dog with two tails now. So I am now: 20inch iMac 8.1; 2.66GHz; ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro. 10.6.7 with the 10.6.2 kexts installed.

     

    I don't think I will go to 10.6.8 and, like others here who have got this far, will hope that when Lion is available and proved to work without freezes on our systems, will update at that time.

     

    Thank you all again for the insights here and assistance that it has given.

     

    I will, of course, report back if anything goes astray again while I work with this set up.

  • by Eclipsethegalaxy,

    Eclipsethegalaxy Eclipsethegalaxy Jul 1, 2011 8:29 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 1, 2011 8:29 AM in response to DazzaG

    I can be of no help to anyone, but I'm just going to chime in. I have an iMac 3.06 with 10.6.8 -Screen flashes once or twice and then freezes. Had graphics card replaced last year. Worked fine for a year. Freezing again. Took it in to be serviced and checked, Passed all hardware tests. Took it home. Froze again. Just unplugged backup drive for time machine. Waiting to see if it has any effect.

  • by Harkaitz,

    Harkaitz Harkaitz Jul 1, 2011 10:49 AM in response to k3bs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2011 10:49 AM in response to k3bs

    k3bs wrote:

     

    thanks for that command! yes, i have a 64bit EFI

     

    $❯ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi

        | |   "firmware-abi" = <"EFI64">

    Yes, your computer is able to run 64bit Kernel but looks like not on snow leopard (silly Apple limitations)...

     

    BUT On lion (developer preview 4) it runs with the 64bit kernel and kexts natively (I just installed it on a 7.1 imac 2.4GHz, 2600 pro 256MB).

     

    Tonight I´ll inject the 10.6.2 Kexts and see what happens.

     

    By now it looks good

  • by k3bs,

    k3bs k3bs Jul 1, 2011 11:32 AM in response to Harkaitz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2011 11:32 AM in response to Harkaitz

    Awesome news Harkaitz! I have the same machine.

     

    I tried to enable 64bit on my 7,1 but that is waaay to technical for my taste. Too much can go wrong. I tried it, but still no go.. Anyway, your message gave me hope. I will keep my 10.6.7 with the 10.6.2 kexts until Lion is released (and the AppStore servers are responding again.. ^_^).

     

    Let us know how it goes. Maybe we don't even need the old kexts anymore *fingers-crossed*

  • by Harkaitz,

    Harkaitz Harkaitz Jul 1, 2011 12:55 PM in response to k3bs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2011 12:55 PM in response to k3bs

    Good news again! 10.6.2 kexts work on lion dp4 fully updated on a 7.1 imac.

  • by Tazthed,

    Tazthed Tazthed Jul 1, 2011 1:06 PM in response to Harkaitz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2011 1:06 PM in response to Harkaitz

    @ Harkaitz:

     

    I thought you were using a 8.1 iMac? 

     

    Have you tried the kext files in Lion on a 8.1 iMac?

     

    I really hope that the freezes will be fixed in Lion.... !

  • by Harkaitz,

    Harkaitz Harkaitz Jul 1, 2011 1:20 PM in response to Tazthed
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2011 1:20 PM in response to Tazthed

    XDDDD

     

    I've both. My imac 8.1 2.8 GHz and wife's 7.1 2.4GHz

     

    Both use radeon 2600pro.

     

    First I "played" with mine, later with the other. Both work with Lion patched.

     

    I just tried SL 10.6.8 on my imac 8.1, not on the 7.1 due to the SL limitation to 32bit on this machine.

  • by Eminemdrdre00,

    Eminemdrdre00 Eminemdrdre00 Jul 1, 2011 3:03 PM in response to Harkaitz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2011 3:03 PM in response to Harkaitz

    Lion DP4 still requires the kext file fix? I don't know if I'd consider that good news     

  • by Harkaitz,

    Harkaitz Harkaitz Jul 1, 2011 11:01 PM in response to Eminemdrdre00
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2011 11:01 PM in response to Eminemdrdre00

    Some users posted that the freezes are present on Lion, I havent tested that. The good news are that in that case, the kexts still works and you will have and updated stable machine

  • by Eclipsethegalaxy,

    Eclipsethegalaxy Eclipsethegalaxy Jul 2, 2011 5:19 PM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 2, 2011 5:19 PM in response to DazzaG

    iMac Intel 3.06 OSX 10.6.8  / Screen flashes quickly a few times and locks up. Took it in for testing. Passed all hardware tests. Took it home and again within an hour screen and cursor frozen. I decided since I'm not a techy, try the obvious. Unplugged my iomega 1T external hard drive used for backup. Ran without problems for many hours. Until I Skyped my friend. Again the display began to flicker.  As soon as I closed Skype, the screen returned to normal without any incident since. Is Time Machine or the external drive at fault? What do they have in common with the Skype video? I am going to try Apple's Time Capsule for backup and see if there is still a conflict.

  • by jaycee1980,

    jaycee1980 jaycee1980 Jul 2, 2011 5:29 PM in response to Eclipsethegalaxy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2011 5:29 PM in response to Eclipsethegalaxy

    There is no problem with your external drive at all, it's just coincidence. Skype has made the GPU do some work and this has kicked off the bugs in the driver. It is only a software bug.

  • by Eclipsethegalaxy,

    Eclipsethegalaxy Eclipsethegalaxy Jul 2, 2011 5:34 PM in response to jaycee1980
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 2, 2011 5:34 PM in response to jaycee1980

    Thanks. Anyway to repair the driver?

  • by jaycee1980,

    jaycee1980 jaycee1980 Jul 2, 2011 5:38 PM in response to Eclipsethegalaxy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2011 5:38 PM in response to Eclipsethegalaxy

    Either use the driver from 10.6.3 (as mentioned in posts here), or just install 10.6.3 outright - Apple are the only ones who can correct the problem with the driver as shipped since 10.6.4, and it seems they have no intention of doing so.

  • by Tardigrada,

    Tardigrada Tardigrada Jul 3, 2011 5:51 AM in response to jaycee1980
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 3, 2011 5:51 AM in response to jaycee1980

    jaycee1980 wrote:

     

    Either use the driver from 10.6.3 (as mentioned in posts here), or just install 10.6.3 outright - Apple are the only ones who can correct the problem with the driver as shipped since 10.6.4, and it seems they have no intention of doing so.

    Almost It's the 10.6.2 kernel extensions which help, and it's 10.6.3 which started the problems (hence the name of the thread). And don't forget that you need to switch to the 64 bit kernel if you want to use the 10.6.2 kexts with OSX 10.6.8 (kernel panic with the 32 bit kernel).

     

    BTW: My iMac is still on 10.6.7 but switched to the 64 bit kernel on Friday. If things run smoothly, I'll update to 10.6.8 in a week or so.

  • by k3bs,

    k3bs k3bs Jul 3, 2011 1:39 PM in response to Tardigrada
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 3, 2011 1:39 PM in response to Tardigrada

    Yup! Get the 10.6.2 extensions! I installed them on 10.6.7 (downgraded, because i don't have a 64bit mode) and didn't had a single freeze since - current uptime: 2 days! Thanks everyone!

     

    So how am i gonna upgrade now? Here's my plan: It's not that the machine is unuseable, just unstable. As soon as Lion becomes available i will patch to 10.6.8, hope it doesn't freeze too much on me, and download the OS update from AppStore. Then i Install Lion, which is said to ship with 64bit mode by default (source:Harkaitz), and then reinstall the 10.6.2 kernel extensions. Done!

     

    Before Lion: If the 10.6.2 drivers do help you, DO NOT upgrade to 10.6.8 right now, UNLESS you can enable 64bit mode.

     

    After Lion: It seems everyone gets 64bit enabled automaticly with Lion installed so the 10.6.2 drivers will load. 

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