HT4044: About LCD display pixel anomalies for Apple products released in 2010 and later

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TerrellPDX

Q: Red and green square dots?

I only have problems with randomly appearing red or green squares when I launch iPhoto and occasionally when watching video.  A reboot usually fixes it until I launch iPhoto again. Anyone else see this happening?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), iOS 5.1

Posted on Apr 10, 2012 3:39 PM

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Q: Red and green square dots?

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  • by joshwardell,

    joshwardell joshwardell Oct 10, 2013 11:08 AM in response to jack fox
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 10, 2013 11:08 AM in response to jack fox

    While the blotches will continue for days, I too have had a few freezes where everything stops but the mouse.

    While I still lean towards a faulty video gpu/video ram, it may also be a corrupted system, or bad ram. After a freezeup just this morning, I yanked out the 3rd party ram and I'll see if it goes away. When mavericks arrives that will allow me to test if it is system corruption. My fingers are crossed because of course video card means buying a new computer.

  • by HayMoose,

    HayMoose HayMoose Oct 10, 2013 12:07 PM in response to joshwardell
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 10, 2013 12:07 PM in response to joshwardell

    I was told by AppleCare that since I was able to see the artifacts in a screensharing sesion it is not hardware. They told me it is a kernel extension that is currupt.

     

    So, do you run any Apps that have injected kernel extensions? Antivirus, for instance?

  • by jack fox,

    jack fox jack fox Oct 10, 2013 12:40 PM in response to HayMoose
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 10, 2013 12:40 PM in response to HayMoose

    No antivirus here, is there a way to identify Apps with kernel extensions?

     

    jmf

  • by jack fox,

    jack fox jack fox Oct 11, 2013 4:53 AM in response to HayMoose
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 11, 2013 4:53 AM in response to HayMoose

    Corrupt "kernel extensions," not hardware may have merit. At least no surprises in the last 12 hours, which is significant. I didn't know which programs affect the kernel, so I started by pairing out the resident processes (routines that are loaded at login) and it seems to be helping. No artifacts or freezes that stop everything except the cursor. Among the things I removed were DDAssist (Drobo), and SpeechSynthesisServer.

     

    jmf

  • by Crow8ster,

    Crow8ster Crow8ster Oct 13, 2013 6:02 AM in response to TerrellPDX
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2013 6:02 AM in response to TerrellPDX

    I have noticed them a few months ago on my 2010 27 Inch Intel iMac. They are getting much worse - where there used to be about 6 of them now there are about 40. They seem to blink in correspondence to the hard drive activity. I think it is a screen hardware issue. This is my first Mac and and it was bought at the highest price I have ever payed for a computer. I am not too pleased.

  • by jack fox,

    jack fox jack fox Oct 13, 2013 7:06 AM in response to Crow8ster
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 13, 2013 7:06 AM in response to Crow8ster

    Same symptoms here but the solution was not hardware. To my surprise it was software. Start by removing some of the programs that load on login. Go to Preferences/Users/Login Items and highlight a program that you do not need and hit the minus sign and reboot. I did this after hearing from apple tech that there were Apps that have incompatible (ill behaved) kernel extensions. Until then, I was convinced it was hardware.

     

    jmf

  • by HayMoose,

    HayMoose HayMoose Oct 13, 2013 8:36 AM in response to jack fox
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 13, 2013 8:36 AM in response to jack fox

    I agree with Jack Fox.

     

    I too disabled "SpeechSynthesisServer" and have not seen the symptoms since rebooting after disabling it.

    My only challenge now is that I manager a late 2011 Mac Mini Server that has the same symptom and this service has never been set to run and I am still seeing the fragments.

     

    These are the common Apps I run that the Server also has running

     

    Dropbox

    Parallels Desktop 9

    iStat Menus

    Growl

    SpamSieve

    Server running ESET 6 for Mac

    iMac running Intego Security 2013

    LogMeIn (It is a business Server running QB Server inside Win7, serving to Win7 clients.)

     

    I'm just trying to find some commonality in the issue on the server since the symptoms present during Screen Sharing on feed from Mac Mini to the remote veiwing iMac as well.

     

    Thanks, and great work Jack! The iMac has been issue free since the 11th.

     

    hayMoose

  • by joshwardell,

    joshwardell joshwardell Oct 14, 2013 9:02 PM in response to HayMoose
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2013 9:02 PM in response to HayMoose

    Where did you find speechsynthesisserver? I don't see it in my Extentions unfortunately. Any idea what it is for?

    Let us know if the problem has come back.

  • by jack fox,

    jack fox jack fox Oct 15, 2013 6:43 PM in response to joshwardell
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 15, 2013 6:43 PM in response to joshwardell

    Go to Preferences/Users/Login Items and highlight a program that you do not need and hit the minus sign and reboot. Do some research on (Google/Bing) the items in the login window and start by removing all the ones that you are sure do not apply to you. If in doubt leave the program in until you know for sure.

     

    jmf

  • by HayMoose,

    HayMoose HayMoose Oct 19, 2013 9:37 AM in response to jack fox
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 19, 2013 9:37 AM in response to jack fox

    Anyone having this issue happen to be using a 3rd party SSD or home-grown FusionDrive?

    Also, how many devices/drives are you running externally?

    FW800, USB, T-Bolt?

     

    Thanks,

    Larry

  • by jack fox,

    jack fox jack fox Oct 19, 2013 10:42 AM in response to HayMoose
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 19, 2013 10:42 AM in response to HayMoose

    I have two external drives hooked to Apple Extreme 4th generation.

     

    jmf

  • by jack fox,

    jack fox jack fox Oct 20, 2013 11:51 AM in response to jack fox
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 20, 2013 11:51 AM in response to jack fox

    I have stopped the crashes by removing some unused "login items," but the square dots still happen once in awhile. I noticed them today when I was usinng Chrome, and they were gone when I closed it and opened another browser so they CHROME is suspect of errant kerning extensions. I'm using Version 32.0.1671.3 dev.

     

     

    jmf

  • by joshwardell,

    joshwardell joshwardell Oct 23, 2013 4:37 AM in response to joshwardell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 4:37 AM in response to joshwardell

    I really thought Mavericks would have licked this, and although things went well after installing yesterday, the video blotches are back again this morning!

     

    At this point I think the only solution is a clean install. That's hoping that it is a non-apple kext doing this. If it is, then the only answer is reverting back to 10.6 or 10.7. As it is I'm going to have to find the time and an external hard drive to try a clean install and rebuild my computer from scratch.

  • by jack fox,

    jack fox jack fox Oct 23, 2013 6:15 AM in response to joshwardell
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 6:15 AM in response to joshwardell

    Same here. No recent crashes until I started to install 10.9 (really bumpy process). This morning I had to do a hard shut down (the screen was frozen with nothing but square stars). All these crashes during new OSX and program updates makes me nervous. On startup I purged the PRam and repaired permission with 10.9 Disk Utility, so we will see what happens today.

     

    jmf

  • by HayMoose,

    HayMoose HayMoose Oct 23, 2013 6:46 AM in response to joshwardell
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 23, 2013 6:46 AM in response to joshwardell

    Could this be a challenge with a service or app using an incorrect implimentation of OpenCL?

    I too plan a fresh install this weekend.

    I have bad news however, I have been "fresh-installing" each Mav beta and the issue still reappears after a few days.

     

    I plan to avoid these technologies:

     

    Adobe

    Chrome

    3rd party anti-virus?

    iStat menus?

    Others?

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