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 richard.s.hall,

    richard.s.hall richard.s.hall Aug 10, 2011 9:27 AM in response to richard.s.hall
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    Aug 10, 2011 9:27 AM in response to richard.s.hall

    Just a follow up. I investigated updating to 10.6.8 and switching to 64-bit mode with the kext fix. Unfortunately, I have an iMac 7,1 which cannot boot into 64-bit mode, even though it reports EFI64. So, at this point, I'm stuck on the 1.6.7 combo update with the kext fix. Unfortunate, but hopefully it will keep my machine from locking up.

  • by wendyln,

    wendyln wendyln Aug 10, 2011 1:20 PM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 10, 2011 1:20 PM in response to DazzaG

    My specs:

    20" iMac8,1 2.66 Ghz (early 2008)

    ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

    ROM Revision: 113-B2250L-259

     

    First time posting to this thread, but THANKS for the thread. I'll share my experience for those taking notes about particular configurations...

     

    I experienced the same frequent freezing problem after 10.6.3 update

    The kext fixed worked (incl. the 64 bit advice for the 10.6.7 upgrade)

    I upgraded to Lion on 7/23

    I have not applied kext fix in Lion

     

    I have not experienced any of the type of the freezes I had previously since upgrading to Lion w/o the kext fix. I do occasionally experience the apparent freeze with moving cursor issue (usually when I have a Web browser open w/ many tabs) BUT if I wait a minute or so it resolves and I do not need to reboot so it seems different from the type of freeze I had before. It seems like more like "spinning beachball" behavior only w/o the visual cue of the spinning beachball.

  • by goskip40,

    goskip40 goskip40 Aug 10, 2011 2:02 PM in response to wendyln
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 10, 2011 2:02 PM in response to wendyln

    I also have a similar spec iMac

     

    24" iMac8,1 2.66 Ghz (Aug 2008)

    ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro

    ROM Revision: 113-B2250L-259

     

    I am currently running at 10.6.2! I did get up to 10.6.6 and suffered no end of freezes which resulted in a hard reset each time. I was convinced I had a hardware problem and played around with the memory and fan settings in order to attempt to fix the issue. I bought into Apple as I thought all their platform was pretty resilient and pretty much ruled out an OS problem.

     

    I did see the messages about GPU in the log files and eventually I stumbled upon this thread. Since going back to 10.6.2 my iMac has been solid as a rock. It means I can't use my iLife11 let alone upgrade to Lion but am happy just to have a stable system.

     

    Of course I have read about the 'kext' fix but am reluctant to change anything until Apple bring out a permanent fix, I somehow think though as time goes on, it is less and less likely a fix will be available for this range of iMac's.

     

    Message was edited by: goskip40

  • by KWP33,

    KWP33 KWP33 Aug 11, 2011 8:10 AM in response to DazzaG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 8:10 AM in response to DazzaG

    So glad I found this thread. What a hellish 24 hours I have had. Upgraded to snow leopard in order to gain access to the app store, in order to get lion. Just as soon as snow leopard was loaded the problems started. Screen freezes constantly! I immediately upgraded to lion hoping it would solve the problem and everything seemed to get worse. After many hours of talking to apple care on the phone, doing two clean installs of snow leopard (yes two, because my mac froze 22% into restoring my files from my back up HD the first time which sent things into an even deeper spiral of badness) I am back to square one with a totally ruined computer thanks to the snow leopard virus (really, what else can you call it when it does what it is doing to our computers?). I am now in the middle of reinstalling leopard with the hopes that I can regain some functionality from my machine. I hate the fact that I have a 4 year old mac (almost to the day) that can't run anything nicer than leopard. I have no access to the app store and have pretty much consigned myself to knowing that I won't be upgrading software of any kind until I buy a new mac in 4-5 more years.

     

    And regarding the kext fix. Sounds too risky to me as I am rather computer illiterate by your guys' standards. I just don't think I can risk it. Hope Apple fixes something in the near future. I guess I'll just have to keep checking back : (

  • by TK111,

    TK111 TK111 Aug 11, 2011 8:17 AM in response to KWP33
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 8:17 AM in response to KWP33

    No, man. Don't be worried about the kext fix. If you can do all that you wrote about here, you can easily install the kext fix. From reports, it works in Lion too, if you want that. Much better than waiting 5 years for an upgrade. Mr. Jobs will have us all wired with computers that fit in our ears by then.

     

    Do this, though. Make a bootable backup of your latest working system with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!, which I use. (This makes restoring much easier).

     

    Then get the instructions from this thread. There is one page, don't remember which, that explains it very clearly and has links to download the kext helper and the kext files. Follow them exactly! It's really quite simple and you'll have a justifiable feeling of satisfaction plus a working computer afterwards.

  • by johnckendall,

    johnckendall johnckendall Aug 11, 2011 8:22 AM in response to TK111
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 11, 2011 8:22 AM in response to TK111

    Does NOT work on lion for us.  Still get screen freezes within 30 min during OS animations

  • by TK111,

    TK111 TK111 Aug 11, 2011 8:26 AM in response to johnckendall
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 8:26 AM in response to johnckendall

    Here again we run into specifics. It appears, at least somewhat, to depend on what version iMac, what GPU, etc.

  • by Harkaitz,

    Harkaitz Harkaitz Aug 11, 2011 8:27 AM in response to johnckendall
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 8:27 AM in response to johnckendall

    johnckendall wrote:

     

    Does NOT work on lion for us.  Still get screen freezes within 30 min during OS animations

    Looks like your computer has "something" more than the normal freezes of the imacs with ATI cards.

     

    My 2 computers are running without any freezes since I patched them (the same day of Lion realease).

  • by bumina,

    bumina bumina Aug 11, 2011 9:19 AM in response to Harkaitz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 9:19 AM in response to Harkaitz

    Harkaitz wrote:

     

    johnckendall wrote:

     

    Does NOT work on lion for us.  Still get screen freezes within 30 min during OS animations

    Looks like your computer has "something" more than the normal freezes of the imacs with ATI cards.

     

    My 2 computers are running without any freezes since I patched them (the same day of Lion realease).

    Nope.  It sounds like he upgraded past 10.6.2 and got freezes.  He probably has a 7,1 ATI-2400 imac like me.  Like me he got freezes once 10.6.3 was installed and like me lion did not fix it.  The kext fix in lion will make things worse if his system is the same and his system won't boot.  He is stuck running 10.6.2 and he wasted $30 on an OS that he can't use (like me).

  • by johnckendall,

    johnckendall johnckendall Aug 11, 2011 9:23 AM in response to bumina
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 11, 2011 9:23 AM in response to bumina

    Bumina,

    I believe your assessment is correct. Mine is a 7,1 with the ati2400 and we have been having the freezes since 10.6.3. Very sad. :-(

  • by Harkaitz,

    Harkaitz Harkaitz Aug 11, 2011 9:24 AM in response to bumina
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 9:24 AM in response to bumina


    Nope.  It sounds like he upgraded past 10.6.2 and got freezes.  He probably has a 7,1 ATI-2400 imac like me.  Like me he got freezes once 10.6.3 was installed and like me lion did not fix it.  The kext fix in lion will make things worse if his system is the same and his system won't boot.  He is stuck running 10.6.2 and he wasted $30 on an OS that he can't use (like me).

     

     

    My both machines (7.1 and 8.1) have radeon 2600. Is there anyone with a 2600 that doesnt fix the problem with the 10.6.2 kexts?

  • by johnckendall,

    johnckendall johnckendall Aug 11, 2011 9:26 AM in response to Harkaitz
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 11, 2011 9:26 AM in response to Harkaitz

    Harkaitz,

    We installed a 2600 and it made no difference... 

  • by Harkaitz,

    Harkaitz Harkaitz Aug 11, 2011 9:29 AM in response to johnckendall
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 9:29 AM in response to johnckendall

    It´s really strange that on some machines work and on others there is no efffect!

  • by morpho,

    morpho morpho Aug 11, 2011 10:06 AM in response to johnckendall
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2011 10:06 AM in response to johnckendall

    johnckendall wrote:

     

    Bumina,

    I believe your assessment is correct. Mine is a 7,1 with the ati2400 and we have been having the freezes since 10.6.3. Very sad. :-(

     

    iMac7,1 with ATI2400 here. Got WindowServer freezes (and a panic) since 10.6.3, now it's happily running on 10.6.7 with 10.6.2's kexts.

    I guess it would work with Lion as well, but I'd have other problems with it (eg. TrueCrypt, VMware Fusion, etc.).

     

    Detailed system specs:

    • Model ID: iMac7,1
    • CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz
    • RAM: 3 GB
    • Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
    • SMC Version: 1.20f4
    • GPU: ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT
      • PCI ID: 0x1002:0x94c8
      • Hardware Revision: 0x0000
      • ROM Revision: 113-B2250A-207
      • EFI Driver Version: 01.00.207
      • VRAM: 128 MB
    • OS Version: 10.6.7
      • Kernel Build: xnu-1504.9.37~1/RELEASE_I386
      • ATISupport Version: 1.6.6.25 (kext version: 6.0.6)
      • ATI2400Controller Version: 1.6.6.25 (kext version: 6.0.6)
      • ATIRadeonX2000 Version: 1.6.26.31 (kext version: 6.2.6)
      • ATIFramebuffer Version: 1.6.6.25 (kext version: 6.0.6)
      • CoreGraphics Version: 1.545.0
    • by johnckendall,

      johnckendall johnckendall Aug 11, 2011 11:01 AM in response to morpho
      Level 1 (9 points)
      iCloud
      Aug 11, 2011 11:01 AM in response to morpho

      Morpho,

      This is my config exactly. Where did you get this:

      ATIRadeonX2000 Version: 1.6.26.31 (kext version: 6.2.6)

       

      The one I found is 1.6.6 (6.0.6)

       

      That is the only difference I see...

       

      When I tried replacing that kext, the machine would no longer boot.  But maybe your version will work?

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