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 portis1972,

    portis1972 portis1972 Dec 5, 2013 3:16 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Dec 5, 2013 3:16 AM in response to David Portela

    My iMac continued to get worse and worse the last few months until it was virtually unusable without running SMCFanControl at high speed pretty much all the time.  I finally couldn't take it anymore and broke down and bought a new 27" iMac.  It's a breath of fresh air, if not all that different from my old Mac which *should* work fine.  Very frustrating, but I suppose exactly what Apple wants.

     

    That said, I'd like to give my parents my old early 2009 iMac.  So I tried downgrading to Mac OS X 10.5 after erasing and zeroing the hard drive.  After installing all upgrades, etc. in 10.5, I tested the machine by running 10 Youtube videos at once.  The computer performed admirably, and I saw no hint of screen pixellation, artifacts, or freezing. 

     

    So I got brave and installed 10.6.  Within minutes of booting into 10.6 I got the "glittery" pixellation trails in a horizontal line across the lower portion of the screen.

     

    So, I popped the original discs with 10.5 back in and reinstalled 10.5 again.  This time, I also got the artifacts in 10.5!  

     

    So I did an SMC and PRAM reset (4 chimes) and tried again.  Seemed better so I tried the YouTube test again.  Everything looked good.  After I had that running for a while and the machine was getting quite hot (as measured by Temeperature Monitor) and the screen was still looking good, I decided to reboot, and try to use the computer for mundane tasks at the same time as running a YouTube video.   Sure enough, after a few minutes, a small amount of glittery pixellation occurred.

     

    I've shut the computer down and left it sitting a couple of days.  I may try zeroing the hard drive again and reinstalling 10.5 from scratch.  I can't imagine zeroing the drive will make any difference, but it is the only thing I did differently in my first attempt, which *appeared* successful (maybe I just didn't push the machine hard enough.)

     

    In any case, 10.5 is much, much, much better on this computer than later releases are, but it does **not** cure the problem as others have reported.

     

    I'm hoping to still find a fix so I can give my parents the computer (they're still on the bendy-necked iMac G4!) without worrying that it will fail on them.

  • by Joris Sewandono,

    Joris Sewandono Joris Sewandono Dec 5, 2013 10:28 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (27 points)
    Dec 5, 2013 10:28 AM in response to David Portela

    Did anyone try to disable Quartz Extreme with the GT130 ?

    http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20040724190553112

    or https://discussions.apple.com/message/21530654#21530654

     

    I think the problem is that Graphics card exceleration with Quartz Extreme is overheating the GPU and therby destroying the graphics card and / or motherboard.

     

    So with a new video card you should disable QE with an already infected machine it maybe helps... maybe not

     

    I wish apple would update their imac drivers to send lesser load of these effected iMac video cards

    I just want to be able to use my iMac and 90% i don't really need those hardware excellerated graphics...

     

    j.

  • by sjakubecz,

    sjakubecz sjakubecz Dec 5, 2013 11:52 AM in response to Joris Sewandono
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 5, 2013 11:52 AM in response to Joris Sewandono

    A couple of months ago, I disabled Hardware Acceleration everywhere I could (Browsers, video players, etc) and I'm still getting the same freeze/reboot garbage from this faulty system that Apple does not have the integrity to stand behind and publically admit that there is a defect and make it right.

     

    I see red every time my imac randomly restarts while I am in the middle of trying to work. It is somewhat shocking that the solution some have chosen is to just buy another computer from the deceitful company that already sold them a lemon, then laughed & spit in their face. It's like the clichéd guy driving off the used car lot and the two salesmen are just laughing their butts off.

     

    Feeding more money to an indifferent behemouth that won't stand behind their product is just not in my nature.

     

    The chiselers in charge KNOW there is a defect in their product. The thousands and thousands of crash reports sent in by the afflicted suckers (whoops, I meant customers) after their 2009 imac had a kernel panic directly related to the graphics card/driver and reboots proves this. Yet, this wide-spread defect is news to anybody you talk to at Apple. Hhhmmmm...So what exactly is the point of those crash reports? Are they sent to a mailbox that is just deleted each night? Are they just used togather info about customers computers? What's the deal?

     

    They need to be shamed in to admitting that there is a problem and then committing to fix it. That seems to be the only way to get a big comapny to do the right thing these days.

     

    I'm tired of dealing with this. I'm just tired...

  • by portis1972,

    portis1972 portis1972 Dec 5, 2013 1:29 PM in response to sjakubecz
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Dec 5, 2013 1:29 PM in response to sjakubecz

    nm

  • by rigelsys,

    rigelsys rigelsys Dec 8, 2013 9:47 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 8, 2013 9:47 AM in response to David Portela

    Just adding my lament to the stream.  I have 2x early 2009 imac 24"ers with nvidia GT 120 graphics boards, 4GB.  Updated both to OS 10.8 at the same time.  One gets 4x the use than the other.  On the 4x used one, I started seeing display crashes bringing down the imac.  Tried smc control didn't help.  Upgraded to Maverick, didn't help.  Checked memory loading, doesn't seem to be the issue.  But have found a simple test that crashes every time.

     

    1) Open safari (I'm up to version 7.0 in Maverick)

    2) Do a google search for  " sewnsew  glendora "

    3) On the right the google search shows location and map for sewnsew in glendora, click on the map to bring up Google location page

    4) Place cursor in the middle of the map, hold down the mouse button and wiggle the map around

    5) Crashes within a few seconds

     

    Now repeat  with firefox and it doesn't crash!!!

     

    Other than safari, this more used imac doesn't crash (but I'm not running intensive graphics elsewhere)

     

    Meanwhile the lesser used imac doesn't have any graphics problems in safari or elsewhere.

  • by Joris Sewandono,

    Joris Sewandono Joris Sewandono Dec 9, 2013 12:45 PM in response to rigelsys
    Level 1 (27 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 12:45 PM in response to rigelsys

    And does it still crash when you disable Hardware Acceleraion / Quarz Extrem ?

  • by rigelsys,

    rigelsys rigelsys Dec 9, 2013 1:11 PM in response to Joris Sewandono
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 1:11 PM in response to Joris Sewandono

    Not yet,  its the next thing to try, once I figure out how to

  • by Drunken Hobo,

    Drunken Hobo Drunken Hobo Jan 9, 2014 1:39 AM in response to rigelsys
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 9, 2014 1:39 AM in response to rigelsys

    But yours has a gt 120 card this thread is for gt130 card 2009 imacs only. Please don't confuss this thread go to the gt120 card thread.

     

    I have just took my imac to the apple store bullring. After a week they can not find any thing wrong. Offered to charge me to replace the graphic card that their tests said was ok? Imac is still restarting itself having kernel panics wacky screen graphics. Got to be a driver or softwear issue. When using early snow leapard works with no problems.

  • by Drunken Hobo,

    Drunken Hobo Drunken Hobo Jan 13, 2014 12:29 AM in response to Drunken Hobo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 13, 2014 12:29 AM in response to Drunken Hobo

    I have took my 2009 imac into the apple store bullring. They cleared the dust out the fans & its past all the tests. They offered to put a new graphic card in at a charge. But stated they can not find a fault with the graphic card. (GT 130 card) They have now ran  it for two weeks without a crash. I was geting kernel panics 20 times a day since sept 2012. So maybe a complete clean install with fresh user of mavericks & a dust clear out is the answer. I would not buy a graphic card unless it fails the apple store test.  I have been advised not to use any old time machine back ups, as the fault is somewhere in the softwear of my old user profile. The only none apple softwear I had installed was accountedge. So its a case of reinstalling all my old  stuff untill i can recreate the kernels panics scrren shots imac restarting itself. This should show the real cause.

  • by nottalotta,

    nottalotta nottalotta Jan 13, 2014 7:09 PM in response to Drunken Hobo
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 13, 2014 7:09 PM in response to Drunken Hobo

    Hobo,

    I was having KPs all the time with my 2010 i7 iMac (11,1 model) until I turned off WiFi. Not a big deal since the switch is only five feet away so wired Ethernet is fine, but it bothers me that Apple didn't get it right. So...I did a clean wipe of the hard drive and installed Mavericks from a USB stick. All's well, and I only had stock Apple software installed and I thought "what the heck" and I enabled the WiFi connection. I had a KP within an hour or two. Some things never change with Apple, I guess.

  • by A.Vacc,

    A.Vacc A.Vacc Feb 23, 2014 11:48 AM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 23, 2014 11:48 AM in response to David Portela

    Apple support insists that it is a hardware problem. I am ready to gvie up.

  • by Scott Hannahs,

    Scott Hannahs Scott Hannahs Mar 16, 2014 5:16 PM in response to A.Vacc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2014 5:16 PM in response to A.Vacc

    This has "branched to a new discussion" according to the top link, but then it claims I am not authorized to see such a discussion?  What gives?  Has this become "secret"?

  • by sjakubecz,

    sjakubecz sjakubecz Mar 16, 2014 7:15 PM in response to Scott Hannahs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2014 7:15 PM in response to Scott Hannahs

    I'm seeing the same "branched" message you are Scott and just like you I cannot access whatever it is. No idea what that is, I don't think I had ever seen that previously.

     

    * Something else I just noticed too is that I can no longer go back and edit my prior posts in this thread. However, I do not know if this is  somehow normal, like posts lock themselves after a certain amount oftime has paased since posting or something like that.

  • by sgadsby,

    sgadsby sgadsby Mar 16, 2014 7:33 PM in response to Scott Hannahs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2014 7:33 PM in response to Scott Hannahs

    I see the "branched" too and cannot access and I am an Apple partner. Suspect it is an internal discussion. I wish it would result in a resolution!

     

    On another note, can anybody confirm whether there are similar driver/heating problems when running Windows 7 on the system?

  • by Scott Hannahs,

    Scott Hannahs Scott Hannahs Mar 16, 2014 8:33 PM in response to David Portela
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2014 8:33 PM in response to David Portela

    Supposedly 10.9.2 (Mavericks) has a change in the Nvidia drivers.  At least reports are that the testing concentrated on them and the update notes claim that there are "improvements".   So has anyone tested their 2009 iMac with the GeForce 130 and the latest Mavericks?  Are the drivers a newer date and version?  Any good or bad news?  Or has everyones video card been so damaged that there is no hope.

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