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Helpful answers
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Apr 3, 2012 7:01 AM in response to Brian from VAby CW3X,Took my 20" iMac 8,1 to the Apple Store with less than a week to go on my AppleCare. I explained the issues with the display freezes to the Genius and he ran a quick hardware test as well as some intensive video to stress the display. I told him that it was unlikely the problem would occur because it was so sporadic and because I had downgraded my kext files. He looked for, but obviously didn't find, any Apple support doc on the issue but saw my history of reports to AppleCare over the last two year. With much less fuss than I expected, he agreed to replace my GPU and even ordered a new logic board just in case.
It took a couple of days for the parts to come in and I dropped off the iMac for repair. The next evening I got a call from the Apple Store telling me it was ready for pickup. I was told that the video card had been stress-tested and no problem was found. I asked if the video card had been replaced and he told me it had not because the techs didn't see a problem. I told him that the Genius had agreed to replace the GPU and I expected that to be done. He said he was just relaying the message and he would have to get in touch with the Genius to confirm and that if everything checked out my repair would be given a priority.
Got a message a few days later (I assume the weekend delayed the repair) from the Apple Store that my iMac was ready and that they had replaced my GPU as a "courtesy" even though they didn't have to under AppleCare.
But in a case of "be careful what you wish for" . . .
After some delay (they forgot my box and then tried to charge me as the new repair order was dated after my AppleCare expired), I got my iMac with the shiny new GPU home (I knew I wouldn't be able to tell if it made a difference until I upgrade to Lion since I have the old kext files) and fired it up. It booted up fine but something seemed off to me. I finally realized that the top third of my display was noticeably dimmer than the rest which was not a problem before I took the iMac in. So it looks like something got screwed up in the repair.
Now I have to convince Apple to fix the problem since it resulted from their repair. Sheesh!
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Apr 6, 2012 10:16 AM in response to CW3Xby goskip40,I have taken the plunge today and decided to order a new GPU unit at a cost of £134! Fed up being stuck on 10.6.2.
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Apr 7, 2012 2:17 AM in response to DazzaGby SeSam,I own a 2008 iMac, plagued by the same issue. Despite the expired warranty I managed to get in contact with Apple and have the issue looked at by engineers. I wrote about the process and the result in a blog post.
Long story short, it was determined that the cause of the issue is faulty hardware, so if you experience this problem and still under the 1 year warranty or Apple Care, go on and request a video card replacement and do not give up until you get one. Try referring to my case, id 287990848.
For everyone else no longer covered by warranty, tough to be us. :[
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Apr 7, 2012 8:05 AM in response to SeSamby Fritos_Chips,Wait, wait, wait... It's not a hardware issue, let's get that straight. It's a driver issue. Apple or whoever developed the drivers, messed up, and ended up killing older iMacs.
So instead of just fixing the drivers, which will allow our WORKING video cards to continue working. They'd rather us purchase new video cards, or reward those who invested into apple care?
<Edited by Host>
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Apr 7, 2012 8:16 AM in response to Fritos_Chipsby Eclipsethegalaxy,I really think it is a hardware issue. My card showed overheating when checked by my Apple tech. After replacing the card with a revised one from the manufacturer, I've had no issues after 1 month. I had all the same symptoms as everyone else. But I had an NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 graphics card. If it was a driver issue, then why did I have the same problems as those with other cards? Yet I haven't touched my Kext files or anything else. Plus, I'm sure that if was only a driver issue, they would have fixed it. Lion pushes the Graphics cards harder than previous OS versions as well. I may be wrong, by my Apple service tech believes it is a hardware issue and I have to agree.
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Apr 7, 2012 9:28 AM in response to Eclipsethegalaxyby jaycee1980,It is not a hardware issue - to prove this, install Windows, install the latest ATI drivers from AMD, and you can stress the machine as much as you like (eg 3DMark) - your machine will not lock up. This is the first thing I tested with my ATI 2400 based Mac.
There may well be a *hardware errata* which requires a driver workaround that was taken out/broken in the newer OS X drivers. Newer revisions of the hardware do not have the problem and work, which is why a replacement GPU cures the fault. The problem is still a software one.
Apple could easily fix this issue in the drivers, they simply *do not want to* - they would rather sell you a new Mac.
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Apr 8, 2012 4:54 AM in response to DazzaGby KrzysiuTurek,Eclipsethegalaxy- It is ONLY software issue because of bad driver for ATI card's makes overheating...
You have now NVIDIA card, which has a better driver.
How to overheat ATI card? just play youtube video in 1080p resolution
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Apr 8, 2012 7:12 AM in response to Fritos_Chipsby and001,Dear all,
I've had a very similar problem with my 20" iMac 9,1 early 2009 model. This has the Nvidia Geforce 9400 GPU chip installed. All worked fine until the update to 10.6.3 then the seemingly random screen freezes started occurring - at first I thought this was a HDD problem because of file corruption (That was caused by frequent powering down to reset, I later realised).
After reading very many other related support threads, Cleanly re-loading the OS and all updates and etc etc, up to 10.6.8 and even running MacKeeper, I was not able to completely fix the issue - until now. Here's my posting from another thread - I hope it helps some of you too:
>>> Meantime, I've had an issue with the iMac 20" 2009 model crashing with graphics-intensive operations (Such as when running Minecraft, Google earth, Safari & etc). This took ages to figure out - it appears to be caused by an update to SnowLeopard 10.6.3 as many others have experienced. The issue is caused by the original Nvidia graphics chip (Geforce 9400) drivers being incompatible with - or not included in - the OSX update.
It was solved for me by uploading the drivers needed directly from the Nvidia website, as I learned in another thread. You must first load the Nvidia "Cuda driver", and then the package of drivers "Nvidia retail Mac Driver 256.02.25f01" Open the package contents with a right click to get past the incompatibility warning dialogue box and run the install programs manually one at a time. A couple of restarts should then enable the drivers to operate. The system preferences pane will also be updated with a Cuda dialogue Icon.
As many 2009 iMacs will now be out of Apple care warranty this shouldn't be a problem - if you still have Apple care then this approach is not recommended and you should take the machine to Apple (who might replace the GP card with a later - and better supported - version).
I understand these Nvidia-sourced drivers may have to be re-loaded or replaced with updated versions as each new OSX release comes out, at least until Apple decides to include them again. Other threads indicate they were not available in the OSX 10.7 Lion upgrade... (this may have changed by now - don't know 'cos I'm not running it as yet) however OSX Lion is certainly supported by Nvidia...
I would suggest those of you with ATI GP cards look into this driver update possibility as well.
I don't want to pre-suppose built in obsolesence - more likely this is an oversight by Apple. You can draw your own conclusions, but getting under the hood like this should really be the preserve of Microsoft Windows enthusiasts IMHO. As a broadcast engineer with over 25 years experience I have fewer qualms than most about having a go myself.
Apart from finally fixing the screen freezing issue (this machine will now readily run minecraft, safari and replay you tube videos simultaneously) you will be happy to learn it has also corrected the overheating caused by incorrect use of the GP chip.
Good luck to you all,
Andy
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Apr 8, 2012 7:26 AM in response to and001by CWGuide,hmm. Might have to try this in the future. Haven't had a freze recently but it's only a matter of time I'm sure.
These graphic drivers, they aren't the newest though right? It's pretty much the same as the KEXT "fix" without the KEXT.
Also, since I have an ATI card, I'll be finding the drivers first as well... lucky me
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Apr 8, 2012 9:56 AM in response to and001by Rafael Burgos,I have not been able to find any "retail" ATI mac drivers to try on my mid 2007 20 inch iMac.
Still using the 10.6.2 kext fix without problems.
If anyone knows how to get these drivers (if these exist anyway) please let me know.
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Apr 17, 2012 6:20 PM in response to DazzaGby Jsh1971,I've been having the same symptoms as many on this thread for quite awhile now.
iMac 27-inch Late 2009 2.66 Ghz Intel Core i5
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3
Symptoms: Random lockups: 1-4 times per day with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Usually, the mouse pointer continues to move but the GUI is unresponsive. Sometimes, when idle, the screen will refuse to turn back on. In all cases, requires a hard reboot. Quite a few times, will wake from idle and will freeze about 15 seconds after being responsive.
I've tried to isolate the problem many different ways but symptoms continued.
- Restored OEM RAM
- Rolled back to Snow Leopard
- Clean install of Lion
- Reset SRAM & PRAM
- Removed all USB devices, leaving only mouse and keyboard.
Over the last several weeks, taken it to the Apple Store twice. They run "stress tests" and cannot duplicate the issue. Thinking I was doing the right thing, I clean installed Lion - didn't want my personal data floating around in the event the computer got shipped out. Techs said I needed to bring it back without wiping it so they could investigate logs. I'll probably do this at some point but the store is over an hour away - not very convenient.
Last log entries before the last lockup a few hours ago show:
4/17/12 4:40:31.000 PM kernel ** Device in slot: SLOT--1 ** 4/17/12 4:40:31.000 PM kernel ** GPU Debug Info Start ** 4/17/12 4:40:31.000 PM kernel 0x0000944a Then a whole lot of hex code, maybe some sort of mem dump.
I've had quite a few Macs, but unfortunately this one cost me the most and is being a real pain.
Jim
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Apr 18, 2012 10:04 AM in response to DazzaGby thoniefromgroningen,Since i have been using fan control for my early 2008 iMac, for about a month now. It only crashed twice.
The two times it crashed i was using aiplay to my apple tv2. When i kept monitoring the GPU temperature when using airplay i noted the temperature went above 50 C. Normal temperature with fan control is about 40 C.
Isn't this strange since airplay (itunes to apple tv2) doesn't use any graphics?
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Apr 18, 2012 11:09 AM in response to thoniefromgroningenby Fritos_Chips,I know our issue isn't hardware. But I thought this article was very interesting. Short story is, a person sued Apple and won. The big part about the story is, Apple tried really hard to give the customer NOTHING, when it would have cost Apple NOTHING to give it to him.
http://www.seattlerex.com/seattle-rex-vs-apple-the-verdict-is-in/
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Apr 19, 2012 2:48 PM in response to goskip40by goskip40,As reported in an earlier part of this thread. I have ordered a new GPU (at a cost of £134) having been stuck on 10.6.2 for well over a year.
I decided to upgrade anyway to 10.6.7 but then iLife11 would not install due to a license issue (bug). This is resolved in 10.6.8 which I am now running at.
The system ran fine for a few days but then the hangs returned, I did read that the Kext fix does not work on 10.6.8 so I am stuck here now. I have had one lock up every couple of days or so. Seems far more likely to lock up if the system has been used for longer (heat?).
This weekend it is going in for the GPU replacement which I am hoping will fix the problem, especially as this is at my own expense and my current iMac does not seemingly have a hardware issue!
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Apr 19, 2012 7:43 PM in response to goskip40by aieronimo,The Kext fix DOES work in 10.6.8 -- if your iMac is capable of booting into 64-bit mode. If your iMac can boot only into 32-bit mode, then the Kext fix won't help with 10.6.8. I believe it is the iMac 7,1 model that cannot boot into 64-bit mode. The iMac 8,1 model (which I have) can boot into 64-bit mode -- so the Kext fix works.