David Portela

Q: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 Kernel Panics/Freezes in Lion & late Snow Leopard

I've found some other reports of these freezes scattered about the forums, but usually other people come in and post something about unrelated video cards. So this thread is specific to NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 running OS X Lion (10.7-10.7.3), to avoid confusion and cross-polination of different issues.

 

Hardware Overview:

 

  Model Name:          iMac

  Model Identifier:          iMac9,1

  Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo

  Processor Speed:          3.06 GHz

  Number of Processors:          1

  Total Number of Cores:          2

  L2 Cache:          6 MB

  Memory:          8 GB

  Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz

  Boot ROM Version:          IM91.008D.B08

  SMC Version (system):          1.37f3

 

NVIDIA GeForce GT 130:

 

  Chipset Model:          NVIDIA GeForce GT 130

  Type:          GPU

  Bus:          PCIe

  PCIe Lane Width:          x16

  VRAM (Total):          512 MB

  Vendor:          NVIDIA (0x10de)

  Device ID:          0x062e

  Revision ID:          0x00a1

  ROM Revision:          3370

 

 

Since upgrading to Lion I have had many issues with crashes and kernel panics characterized by the following symptoms, listed here in detail so that people can find them when they search:

 

  • Pixellation - colored pixels appear in different areas of the screen, in seemingly random bunches.
  • Mosaics - squares appear redrawn in the wrong part of the screen. Sometimes these squares are large, other times tiny.
  • Recovery - sometimes the system recovers once it starts doing these. Other times it just keeps going until it freezes/panics.
  • Kernel Panics - I've only had the "grey screen" appear once or twice. Usually there is a complete system lockup before this can happen, and I have to reboot the system manually.

 

Some solutions/attempts to solve:

 

  • Turn off Energy Saving - This is horrible for the monitor and can lead to burn-in, but I found that many of my crashes occured when the system was trying to recover from "screen sleep". So now I run a screen saver instead, which doesn't seem to trigger it as much.
  • Screen Saver - Sometimes I can "refresh" the system by turning on the screen saver and then coming back. Other times, this doesn't work and the pixellation/mosaic remains. Sometimes I can't even initialize the screen saver at all (in which case a total freeze usually occurs right after).
  • Rebooting - seems to clear things up for a while, but inevitably, the problem resurfaces.
  • Running Windows - Not really a solution, but I have had absolutely no issues with this behavior while running Windows 7 on this same machine (under Bootcamp).
  • Downgrading to Snow Leopard - I have not attempted this, but I've read others say that their crashes went away when they did. I would like some more concrete evidence on this if anyone has it.

 

My diagnosis so far:

 

  • OS X Lion's NVIDIA driver kernel extensions (kexts) seem to be faulty with this GPU. The Windows drivers for this GPU work better on Apple's own hardware than OS X Lion's. Anectodal evidence indicates that Snow Leopard's drivers (at least up to 10.6.3 – more confirmation needed) do not display this issue. I can confirm that this never occurred in Snow Leopard until Lion was released and I upgraded to it.

 

My request for help and information:

 

  • If you are running this GPU (GeForce GT 130) and OS X Lion, please contribute to this thread offering any solutions you may have or, at the very least, listing your hardware and GPU profile.
  • If you can, post crash logs so that we can compare common issues (NVDA Resman seems to be a huge recurring kext in the crash logs, for instance).
  • Post screen shots or pictures taken of the pixellation (colored pixels) and mosaic (squares drawn in the wrong place) phenomenon, so we can build a body of evidence regarding this issue. I will continue to update this thread with the same.

 

I feel Apple has ignored these issues for far too long, and required too many people to simply purchase new computers and new GPUs. If we can build a solid body of evidence regarding this specific issue, it will be a thread that Apple Support can be referred to.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 3.06 Ghz (Early 2009 – iMac9,1)

Posted on May 9, 2012 8:29 AM

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Q: NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 Kernel Panics/Freezes in Lion & late Snow Leopard

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  • by Joris Sewandono,

    Joris Sewandono Joris Sewandono Nov 21, 2012 3:57 PM in response to Will Moindrot
    Level 1 (26 points)
    Nov 21, 2012 3:57 PM in response to Will Moindrot

    Same issue here, strange mosaic kind of screen/gpu/openGL kind of errors

     

    iMac specs:

    24-inch, Early 2009, 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

    8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

    NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 512 MB

    Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5

     

    Some last log lines of the Console:

     

    *** Canceling drag because exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException' (reason 'Can not nest column dragging sessions') was raised during a dragging session

    NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error

    IOVendorGLContext::ReportGPURestart

    And a lot of these errors:

    NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error

     

    [1196:-1332187136:1121/155336:ERROR:gpu_watchdog_thread.cc(201)] The GPU process hung. Terminating after 10000 ms.

     

    And a lot of these errors:

    NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error

     

    then:

    [QL] QuickLookUIHelper is stuck - force quit now

    NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!

     

     

    Force Reboot

     

    (now switched of openGL in Photoshop, lets see what happens)

  • by amandreamartino,

    amandreamartino amandreamartino Nov 22, 2012 2:39 AM in response to Joris Sewandono
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 2:39 AM in response to Joris Sewandono

    Same Mac here and had the same problem

     

    Try to install Mountain Lion, update to 10.8.2, install smcfancontrol and boost all of you fan by 200rpm (especially odd fan). Finally, if it keeps crashing, install last mountain lion driver from nvidia website... You'll have to use pacifist to extract kexts because when the installer run it checks you mac model (if you haven't mac pro3.1/4.1/5.1 it dorsn't work). So instal kexts usinh kext wizard. This worked for me.

  • by Will Moindrot,

    Will Moindrot Will Moindrot Nov 22, 2012 3:21 AM in response to amandreamartino
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 3:21 AM in response to amandreamartino

    Hi Amanddreamartino,

     

    I can't find any drivers the GT130 under any version of OSX on the Nvidia site, either on the mian Nvidia page under 'All Nvidia drivers', 'GeForce Drivers', or 'Legacy Drivers'. Did you mean this latest release here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/257-nvidia-releases-mountain-lion-10-8-2-graphics-driv ers.html

     

     

    I notice that that website seems to suggest that it solves issues for various graphics cards (although I think specific to Mac Pro's again): http://www.tonymacx86.com/127-nvidia-geforce-gt-430-gt-450-gtx-550-ti-gt-620-gt- 630-graphics-cards-issues-mountain-lion.html

     

     

    Also, did anyone ever follow any of these instructions back from 2011?

     

    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1145844

  • by amandreamartino,

    amandreamartino amandreamartino Nov 22, 2012 3:28 AM in response to Will Moindrot
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 3:28 AM in response to Will Moindrot

    HERE

     

    I don't know if it is the perfect solution... But yesterday I've tested my gpu (gpu only rendering). Max gpu diode: 75C. No problem at all! No glitch and no crash. I've tried two days ago with mountain lion default driver and some little graphic artifacts appeared... No problem with those driver!

  • by David Portela,

    David Portela David Portela Nov 22, 2012 6:09 AM in response to amandreamartino
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 6:09 AM in response to amandreamartino

    Before I get too excited, could you confirm you OS version and what video card you are speaking about, as well as your computer model?

  • by amandreamartino,

    amandreamartino amandreamartino Nov 22, 2012 6:24 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 6:24 AM in response to David Portela

    iMac early 2009 (c2d 3.06ghz - 512mb gt130 - 4gb ram (today updated to 8gb))

     

    I've had no graphic releated crashes in last months (using smcFanControl only in OSX-Windows crashed sometimes, but I've not tried using different drivers and/or fan control software)...

     

    Two days ago, same tests. No crash, but little graphic artifacts after render... I've used Default settings profile in smcFanControl (no boosted fans).

     

    So I've decided to look for new driver...

     

    Yesterday I've 100% used my gpu (gpu only rendering) for minutes and I've logged temps.

     

    graph.png

    Used nvidia driver with 10.8.2 Mountain Lion.

    I've seen only one little artifacts using spotlight, near the text field... Now it is working w/o problem...

     

    I can give you only three advice:

    -please, don't use Lion... It *****...

    -Use smcfancontrol

    -try nvidia updated driver. I don't know if it is the solution... And I don't know if there are performance differences... I will try in a while!

     

    Finger crossed!

  • by amandreamartino,

    amandreamartino amandreamartino Nov 22, 2012 6:30 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 6:30 AM in response to David Portela

    Could you please try smallluxgpu on your gpu? Select Luxball Midrange Gpu... With cold test my gpu scored 22.5 sec, 1 second worse than old drivers... After two test temp increased and now I can score 20.5 sec, one sec better!

  • by Will Moindrot,

    Will Moindrot Will Moindrot Nov 22, 2012 6:38 AM in response to amandreamartino
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 6:38 AM in response to amandreamartino

    Sounds interesting - having been burned with Lion/Mountain Lion I am weary of going beyond Snow Leopard (which is great but does have the doggy paw prints across the screen as I screengrabbed in an earlier post.) Guessing that the newest driver from Nvidia can't really help me here then?

  • by amandreamartino,

    amandreamartino amandreamartino Nov 22, 2012 6:43 AM in response to Will Moindrot
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 6:43 AM in response to Will Moindrot

    I don't really know... I've read that 10.6.8 drivers aren't good... Try to use 10.6.3 or earlier release or try to upgrade to Mountain Lion... I hate ML... Snow Leopard was so a good os... But SnowLeopard:Lion:MountainLion=xp:vista:seven... And seven isn't so bad... xD

  • by Will Moindrot,

    Will Moindrot Will Moindrot Nov 22, 2012 6:53 AM in response to amandreamartino
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 6:53 AM in response to amandreamartino

    Nice analogy!

  • by Drunken Hobo,

    Drunken Hobo Drunken Hobo Mar 6, 2013 8:01 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 6, 2013 8:01 AM in response to David Portela

    I have been having this problem for a while even after upgrade to  mountain Lion os X 10.8.2 Imac 24 inch early 2009 Nividia geforce GT 130 512 MB Memory 4gb 1067 MHZ DDR3 As i had just installed mountain lion (From Snow Leopard) I was entitled to free advise from Apple care. After talking to several juniors i was passed on to a Apple Senior Adviser who claims its a softwear issue as I have no problems running snow leopard. My Imac freezes then restarts itself for no reason generating kernel panic reports. Or graphics go wackey & screen & mouse freeze & i have to restart by the back power button. After pointing him to this forum he said he would have his softwear engineers look into the problem. This was back on the 22nd sept 20012.  I can not use my imac for any work as I don't trust it at present.

     

    <Edited by Host>

  • by Drunken Hobo,

    Drunken Hobo Drunken Hobo Nov 23, 2012 3:40 AM in response to Drunken Hobo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 23, 2012 3:40 AM in response to Drunken Hobo

    http://www.geforce.co.uk/drivers still does not list a update for Nivada Geforce GT 130 running mountaion lion 10.8.2

  • by Will Moindrot,

    Will Moindrot Will Moindrot Mar 6, 2013 8:04 AM in response to Drunken Hobo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 6, 2013 8:04 AM in response to Drunken Hobo

    Hi Drunken Hobo, for some reason it doesn't show up on their site but if you do a search there on google they seem to have released some sort of unofficial update: http://www.tonymacx86.com/257-nvidia-releases-mountain-lion-10-8-2-graphics-driv ers.html

    (That page links to an official Nvidia page with the release).  Best, Will

    <Edited by Host>

  • by Drunken Hobo,

    Drunken Hobo Drunken Hobo Nov 23, 2012 4:01 AM in response to Will Moindrot
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 23, 2012 4:01 AM in response to Will Moindrot

    says update is for mac pro users only NOT IMAC Users? is also for GT120 not GT130 that this topic is about.

  • by Will Moindrot,

    Will Moindrot Will Moindrot Nov 23, 2012 4:11 AM in response to Drunken Hobo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 23, 2012 4:11 AM in response to Drunken Hobo

    Amandreamartino, gave some instructions 14 messages back (pasted below). Yes this thread is to do with the GT130, and although the link to this driver is not specific for the GT130 I believe that this update will have an effect on the 130

     

     

    Same Mac here and had the same problem

     

    Try to install Mountain Lion, update to 10.8.2, install smcfancontrol and boost all of you fan by 200rpm (especially odd fan). Finally, if it keeps crashing, install last mountain lion driver from nvidia website... You'll have to use pacifist to extract kexts because when the installer run it checks you mac model (if you haven't mac pro3.1/4.1/5.1 it dorsn't work). So instal kexts usinh kext wizard. This worked for me.

     

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