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 sallyfromdartford,

    sallyfromdartford sallyfromdartford Jul 29, 2011 3:23 AM in response to picaman121
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 29, 2011 3:23 AM in response to picaman121

    I have upgraded to snow leopard 10.6.3 now everything is 1/4 the size, I have iPad stuff on a huge screen,oh how I wish I had left alone can I go back to OS ?

  • by Chris J.,

    Chris J. Chris J. Jul 29, 2011 4:48 AM in response to swmaster
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Jul 29, 2011 4:48 AM in response to swmaster

    Good info. I'm glad we are starting to see some success. Note..I did not to the last kext you mentioned on my own but my system is working so I assume it keeps that kext from lion. Also..I did make the mistake of not saving the lion kext..ugh!  Will they be anywhere on the hard drive for me to find them?  If not I may have to get them via email from you. Thanks again for the info. Hope your Mac keeps humming along like mine!

  • by swmaster,

    swmaster swmaster Jul 29, 2011 12:42 PM in response to Chris J.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 29, 2011 12:42 PM in response to Chris J.

    of course, i'll pass it over. i have right now a collection of ati kexts :-)

    what's your email?

  • by Chris J.,

    Chris J. Chris J. Jul 29, 2011 1:13 PM in response to swmaster
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Jul 29, 2011 1:13 PM in response to swmaster
  • by CWGuide,

    CWGuide CWGuide Jul 31, 2011 8:58 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (135 points)
    Jul 31, 2011 8:58 AM in response to DazzaG

    Just an update to my lion experience. I have only experienced freezes when using Apple Motion. Also that program has always cased freezes for me and now they are much less frequent (only two over a whole project as apposed to five or six) I have never personally experienced a freeze anywhere else on the system. In fact there ave been times when the machine has gotten hot and the hard drive has benn full where everything stutters and lags but no freezes.

     

    When I get home today I can check what specific kext files I'm using (with the terminal code mentioned before) if it would be helpful to anyone. Also when I was at the apple store the other day I picked up the kext files on one of the iMacs there. I only got the 2400 ones I think but if someone wants them for some reason I got them (I originally was just picking up the color profiles they had as mine were messed up but I remembered this thread and thought "hey why not")

  • by timsted111,

    timsted111 timsted111 Jul 31, 2011 9:22 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 31, 2011 9:22 AM in response to DazzaG

    my 2010 Imac has never had a problem until i installed IOS LION.  Now every time i boot it as soon as i click on any application it shows me the beach ball, which remains there until i restart.  The only way i can restart is by using the power button as the whole computer is left frozen, cant use the force quit shortcut either.  Not sure if this is the same problem as i am not seeing a black screen like others.  If anyone can help, would really appreciate it.  Really regretting upgrading to LION. 

     

    Many Thanks

  • by Tazthed,

    Tazthed Tazthed Jul 31, 2011 10:13 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 31, 2011 10:13 AM in response to DazzaG

    iMac 24" (8,1) with ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro on Lion:

     

    Freezes several times today! ... white screen again.

     

    Have now replaced kext files from 10.6.2 on Lion.

  • by cam.inc,

    cam.inc cam.inc Jul 31, 2011 4:35 PM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 31, 2011 4:35 PM in response to DazzaG

    Same here, my iMac 8,1 24" 2.8GHz with Radeon 2600 Pro running Lion freezes randomly.

    I have just read about this "kext-fix" and will try to figure out how to do it. As soon as I have any news, I will report back.

  • by Eclipsethegalaxy,

    Eclipsethegalaxy Eclipsethegalaxy Jul 31, 2011 4:44 PM in response to cam.inc
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 31, 2011 4:44 PM in response to cam.inc

    I have basically the same problem with random freezing. At least with Lion, after reboot, everything goes back to the way I had it before it locked up. I have been following the discussion for quite some time and wish someone would give a step by step discription of how to replace kext files for us non techies. It's all way over my head.

  • by swmaster,

    swmaster swmaster Jul 31, 2011 11:29 PM in response to Eclipsethegalaxy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 31, 2011 11:29 PM in response to Eclipsethegalaxy

    well, i'll try my best...

     

    first of all, you have to grab the 10.6.2 kext files. i have them in case you need them.

    depending on your hw, that would be

     

    ATISupport.kext

    ATI2400Controller.kext (AT2600Controller.kext)

    ATIFramebuffer.kext

    ATIRadeonX2000.kext (i did not replace this, however, but my imac is kinda ok, uptime is 3 days 6 hours)

     

    then comes the tricky terminal part. open up a terminal.

     

    first identify, what kexts do you need:

     

    crowley:~ swm$ kextstat | grep ATI

       92    2 0xffffff7f813a8000 0x45000    0x45000    com.apple.kext.ATISupport (6.0.6) <77 9 8 7 5 4 3 1>

       93    0 0xffffff7f816ef000 0xca000    0xca000    com.apple.kext.ATI2400Controller (6.0.6) <92 77 9 8 5 4 3 1>

       95    0 0xffffff7f813ed000 0x25f000   0x25f000   com.apple.ATIRadeonX2000 (7.0.2) <94 77 9 7 6 5 4 3 1>

      100    0 0xffffff7f816d8000 0x12000    0x12000    com.apple.kext.ATIFramebuffer (6.0.6) <92 77 9 8 7 5 4 3 1>

     

    mine is an imac7,1 with HD2400xt, so i need ATI2400Controller.kext

     

    $ sudo sh

    Password:

    sh-3.2#

     

    now you are the root user, total ruler of time and space on your imac :-)

     

    # cd /System/Library/Extensions

    # tar czvf /Users/your_username_goes_here/ATI.10.7.0.kexts.tgz ATI*kext

     

    you just made a copy of all your ATI kexts in an archive placed in your home folder.

     

    let's assume, the ATI kexts fot 10.6.2 are located in your home as well

    now we will remove the original lion kexts from /System/Library/Extensions

    depending on your imac model, you may need to remove ATI2600Controller.kext.

    make sure you do not restart your system until you finished this part or have to do

    a boot with one of your OSX DVDs as you will have no proper drivers installed.

    the best thing would be to close all applications and avoid using mission control, dashboard,

    anything that may give you a gpu crash.

     

    make sure you are in /S/L/E

     

    # cd /System/Library/Extensions

     

    remove old kexts

     

    # rm -r ATISupport.kext ATIFramebuffer.kext ATI2400Controller.kext

     

    copy over the files from your homedir to /S/L/E. note the trailing dot (means current working directory)

     

    # cp -R /Users/your_username_goes_here/ATI*\.kext .

     

    change owner to user root, group wheel

     

    # chown -R root:wheel ATISupport.kext ATIFramebuffer.kext ATI2400Controller.kext

     

    remove all extended attributes (safari and mail tends to add on this to note that those files were downloaded from the internet, this may disallow osx to boot those kexts)

     

    # xattr -dr ATISupport.kext ATIFramebuffer.kext ATI2400Controller.kext

     

    basically you're done. you should wait until kexthelper automatically rebuilds the kext caches in the background. that takes 1-3 minutes.

     

    hth.

  • by Tazthed,

    Tazthed Tazthed Aug 1, 2011 1:32 AM in response to cam.inc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2011 1:32 AM in response to cam.inc

    For those who have a 24" 8,1 Mac with ATI 2600 Pro, use this guide (thanks to CWGuide and KrzysiuTurek) from this thread.

     

    I installed the kext files on Lion and haven't got any freezes so far:

     

     

    1. *MAKE A BACKUP!* (super important) I used Time Machine and it saved my but as I did it wrong the first time and basically killed my iMac till I restored from my external backup drive.

     

    2. Download and open the .zip file of the old (10.6.2) graphics drivers.(provided by KrzysiuTurek)

    The downloaded drivers

     

     

    3. Download Kext Helper b7.

    Kext Helper b7

     

     

    4. Go to *+Apple Menu>About This Mac>More Info...>Graphics/Display+* and find your graphics card's model. (In my case the ATI,RadeonHD2400)

    About This Mac Find your cards model

     

     

    5. Take ONLY the files titled ATIFramebuffer.kext, ATISupport.kext, and ATI2400Controller.kext *(IF YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT GENERATION OF CARD THEN SELECT THE FILE WITH YOUR CARD'S NUMBER)* and put them on your desktop.

    The three files

     

     

    6. Open Kext Helper and drag the three files into the top drop spot.

    Files ready

     

     

    7. Enter your password in the text entry field.

    Pasword entered

     

     

    9. Click *EASY INSTALL*.

    CLICK THE BUTTON

     

     

    The app will do it's thing then ask you to restart the mac. After that it should be smooth sailing (no more freezing )

     

    Hope this guide helps! (Also pretty much the same thing has already been posted by KrzysiuTurek. All credit for this fix goes to him (or her) as I only followed his directions)

  • by cam.inc,

    cam.inc cam.inc Aug 1, 2011 3:58 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2011 3:58 AM in response to DazzaG

    Thank you very much, both of you and KrzysiuTurek and all the others.

    The replacement seemed to have brought no new problems. I will report back soon whether it helped with the crashes.

  • by NSBanyard,

    NSBanyard NSBanyard Aug 1, 2011 7:02 AM in response to Tazthed
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 1, 2011 7:02 AM in response to Tazthed

    This fix was working fine for me, then I upgraded to 10.6.8. Computer started crashing - as it had done every time the kext files 'updated' - so I ran this procedure, and my iMac wouldn't boot properly. Got to the apple screen, then a lovely long string of text saying it didn't recognise the replaced .kext files (Sorry, I didn't write down the text).

     

    One reinstall and update of Snow Leopard later, I'm back to where I was. iMac works fine, except when it crashes (sometimes just after startup, sometimes after a few hours of use, it almost always happens if I've woken it up from sleep). Mouse pointer moves, otherwise completely unresponsive.

  • by swmaster,

    swmaster swmaster Aug 3, 2011 2:02 AM in response to Chris J.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 3, 2011 2:02 AM in response to Chris J.

    10.6.2 ATI kexts working for quite a time now in lion.

     

    crowley:ATI swm$ w

    11:00  up 5 days,  9:25, 5 users,

  • by Chris J.,

    Chris J. Chris J. Aug 3, 2011 4:28 AM in response to swmaster
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Aug 3, 2011 4:28 AM in response to swmaster

    Mine has been working a week with no problems at all.  I have put this iMac through the ringer and have not gotten one freeze, hang up or glitch.  Glad we have reached point of happiness with Lion, even though it was something we all did on our own and without the help of Apple.  I will say, I love Lion!

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