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 Aug 5, 2013 5:03 AM in response to celloist
    Level 1 (26 points)
    Aug 5, 2013 5:03 AM in response to celloist

    Does any know...

    Can I just buy a new 'Nvidia GeForce GT 130' graphics card and swap it into my iMac ?

    Or is it a special model?

     

    Does anyone know what other video cards I can put in this iMac?

  • by Will Moindrot,

    Will Moindrot Will Moindrot Aug 5, 2013 5:12 AM in response to Joris Sewandono
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 5, 2013 5:12 AM in response to Joris Sewandono

    No I'm afraid it's got a special adaption for going into an imac. I think you can get them on ebay, but they don't look like the rectangular type graphics cards as fitted into PC compatible computers.

  • by Drunken Hobo,

    Drunken Hobo Drunken Hobo Aug 7, 2013 11:06 AM in response to Will Moindrot
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 7, 2013 11:06 AM in response to Will Moindrot

    Have opened a topic on the Nivarda  forum. Hope this will get us a updated driver.

    https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/571752/geforce-apple-gpus/nvidia-geforc e-gt-130-kernel-panics-freezes-in-lion-amp-late-snow-leopard/

     

    please go there & ask for one.

  • by Drunken Hobo,

    Drunken Hobo Drunken Hobo Aug 7, 2013 11:17 AM in response to digitalparkour
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 7, 2013 11:17 AM in response to digitalparkour

    I'm unauthorized to view? As well. Q : What are Apple hiding?

  • by WarriorAnt,

    WarriorAnt WarriorAnt Aug 7, 2013 1:57 PM in response to David Portela
    Level 4 (2,750 points)
    Aug 7, 2013 1:57 PM in response to David Portela

    My iMac is constantly freezing.       I cannot even browse the web.

     

    I have Multiple Sclerosis and I'm retired. I simply cannot afford another machine. I spent 2K on this one the day it came out hoping it would be THE machine for me for some time to come in my retirement, but now it is unusable and I won't be able to get another machine.

     

    Is there a fix for this? 

     

    Have the folks who have had thier graphic boards replaced had freezes since?  Is that the solution?

  • by Dodger_im,

    Dodger_im Dodger_im Aug 7, 2013 2:51 PM in response to WarriorAnt
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 7, 2013 2:51 PM in response to WarriorAnt

    Brought mine to my local apple store. They've done a complete check on it only to tell me that the problem seemed related to the graphic card. They've replaced it for 180$ CDN. So far no more freezes or other graphic issues. It is only been 3 days though. Also, video doesn't seem as fluid as it used to be, even with the new card. I've got a toshiba laptop at work, with 2 go of ram, and it plays videos better than my imac with 8go and a brand new graphic card... I'll keep you posted on whether or not it fixed the issue.

  • by Dodger_im,

    Dodger_im Dodger_im Aug 7, 2013 2:52 PM in response to Dodger_im
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 7, 2013 2:52 PM in response to Dodger_im

    And when I say seemed, I mean they didn't know for sure but decided to change the card anyway.

  • by Will Moindrot,

    Will Moindrot Will Moindrot Aug 7, 2013 3:28 PM in response to WarriorAnt
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 7, 2013 3:28 PM in response to WarriorAnt

    Hi WarriorAnt,

     

    I've said this before but will say again - I got the gfx card replaced in mine by the Genius Bar on their advice and it cost about £130/so probably something like $180. Prior to this I rolled back to Snow Leopard incase the new card got broken by Mountain Lion. After getting it replaced I got frustrated that I should have to run an older OS, and with the warranty of the new card I upgraded to ML again anyway. After a few days the graphics problems started up, mildly at first (broken blocky windows, repeated parts of the screen) seemed to be caused in iphoto when scrolling through pictures, and at that point I started to make plans to go back to Apple but because it wasn't evident the whole time it kind of put me off from going back and I never got round to it, instead I rolled it back to SL to see if it solved it. No problem for a few months until the beginning of June and the ambient temps starting to increase, and it blocks up now probably a few times a week but it doesn't get a lot of use at present anyway, because I have moved to my tonymac for mac work such as video editing.

     

    Other people say getting the gfx replaced fixed their issues, others say it fixed the issues but then add that they don't push it, or they have the fan controller at a certain rpm. For me personally that's not satisfactory.

     

    The funny thing is that under Windows the computer does not display any issues, so I think my advice for what it's worth would be to make the most of your investment and hardware, having windows 7 installed on your computer perhaps alongside OSX.

     

    I did this sometime ago using Bootcamp which I think sits within utilities in ML and older OSs. Pretty easy to do and you don't have to wipe your computer clean to do it. Although you'll need to get a copy of Windows from somewhere (XP or Windows 7 I recommend). Once it's installed I think you get an option of which partition to boot from the Windows or the OSX and it boots into that system.

     

    I have always been surprised at how well macs run windows, nippy, and apart from the gfx problems I think the hardware is pretty robust.

     

    Hope this helps and provides you with a bit of inspiration.

     

    Best, Will

  • by celloist,

    celloist celloist Aug 7, 2013 6:31 PM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 7, 2013 6:31 PM in response to David Portela

    IF you are freezing and not sure that it's the graphics card heating/firmware/voodoo issue you might also want to consider the problems they're having with external USB3 drives, Lacie in particular. If you have a Lacie d2 with USB3 you are probably freezing on a regular basis. In my case I have both the late 09 with the firmware problems and an external Lacie that seems to be locking me up as well. See Daisy chained Firewire 800 LaCie d2 Quadras - iMac Finder Locks up

  • by Drunken Hobo,

    Drunken Hobo Drunken Hobo Aug 8, 2013 12:22 AM in response to Drunken Hobo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 8, 2013 12:22 AM in response to Drunken Hobo

    https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/571752/geforce-apple-gpus/nvidia-geforc e-gt-130-kernel-panics-freezes-in-lion-amp-late-snow-leopard/

     

    Nividia are asking imac users with Geforce GT 130 graphic cards to send kernal logs  here.

    For the kernel panics, could you send the panic log? It should be in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports.

  • by Dodger_im,

    Dodger_im Dodger_im Aug 9, 2013 5:41 AM in response to Drunken Hobo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 9, 2013 5:41 AM in response to Drunken Hobo

    So, here we are... Less than a week from getting my card replaced, at an apple store, the same issue reappeared. My niece played on line games on the imac for about 1-2 hours then, as i tried to access i tunes the **** thing froze on me once more... So, card replacement... Done for nothing in the first place... I'm getting my money back from apple. I've noticed the computer was quite hot when I shut it. I guess it is linked somewhat to this issue...

  • by Dodger_im,

    Dodger_im Dodger_im Aug 9, 2013 8:57 AM in response to Drunken Hobo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 9, 2013 8:57 AM in response to Drunken Hobo

    Thank for this Drunked Hobo, keeping our efforts organized on this issue is important, mostly since David had his machine replaces by apple. I on my side contacted apple care following on my card replacement fail. I have another appointment at my local genuis bar as a follow up on the non effective repair. I also contacted apple via the email address provided by the technician over the phone and provided them with a link to this discussion thread while  pleading for someone at customer service to respond to eveyone here who has been victim of this software problem.

  • by dolo b,

    dolo b dolo b Aug 16, 2013 3:38 PM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 16, 2013 3:38 PM in response to David Portela

    First let me say this is bulls#&% apple.

     

    I have the same make and model as everyone else in this thread (09' nivida ge 130). I replaced the graphics card when it was under warranty, seemed to fix it for awhile. Surprise!!! the issue is back, i have artifacts appearing as i write this. Unfortunately for me local repair companies are charging over a grand to fix and i'm out of warranty! I have tried all of the solutions on this post, no dice but thank you everyone for the advice. Im giving my two cents worth in the hopes apple will see what a crap job they have done in helping loyal customers... I'd rather not switch to a pc but if apple keeps this up i will.

  • by WarriorAnt,

    WarriorAnt WarriorAnt Aug 16, 2013 8:54 PM in response to dolo b
    Level 4 (2,750 points)
    Aug 16, 2013 8:54 PM in response to dolo b

    Has anyone seen this? 

    Apple Initiates Graphic Card Replacement Program for Mid-2011 27-inch iMac

     

     

    http://www.macrumors.com/2013/08/16/apple-initiates-graphic-card-replacement-pro gram-for-mid-2011-27-inch-imac/

     

    I don't know if this is hope or a slap in the face.  I'm not sure.  I hope it means help.

  • by Dodger_im,

    Dodger_im Dodger_im Aug 18, 2013 12:22 PM in response to dolo b
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 18, 2013 12:22 PM in response to dolo b

    So, here's another chapter to this story. I've just got my imac back from my second trip to the apple store. They had the graphic card replaced the first time but the issue reappeared after 3 days. So, the guy at the genius bar refunded me for the card replacement, and basically, confirmed the issue is within the software/drivers. But that's it. I'm goin back home with a refund for a repair that fixed nothing, a new graphic card that does not work any better than the old one and a computer close to useless. The tech at the store provided me with the repair numbers and said the issue had been added to their database but no work arounds/repairs/updates/recall were existing at the moment... I will attempt a follow up with apple care by email, and keep you folks updated... Any news from nvidia on this?

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