display anomalies

Allright folks... brace yourselves... check out this thread... YOU WONT BELIEVE IT... the craziest fix for all of our video issues...

http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/726/diy-obsolete-ibook-logic-%20board-repair

I repeat crazy but it seems to work, at least for the majority of people... it's really amazing, good luck to all.

I am adding myself to this list. The issue is my Macbook Pro from late 2006. For the last several months it has gotten worse and worse. That ATI card is pure junk.

I now have to restart at least once if not twice or even three times a day. I can no longer use my external monitor and can no longer edit video on this computer with Final Cut Pro. Typically, if I even attempt to watch a video on Youtube the whole computer freezes and that's it. Time for a kernel panic or just try to shut everything down as quickly as possible!

It's insane. I might try the genius bar thing for $300 but I'm not all that thrilled with the idea. I sure wish Apple would address the issue and admit there is a problem with this card. For the amount of money paid, it is no different to the NVidia card issue.

I"ve got SMC fan control running in the hopes it will at least prevent it from crashing on me. I work from home and this computer is my office so now ... I am not sure what to do! Sigh.

Wow, that's crazy. May give it a go. Worst case, my laptop is useless, but then again, it's that now...

I haven't seen any iMacs in this discussion, so I'll volunteer mine. I'm running a 2ghz iMac core 2 duo that's been experiencing this problem for the last year. I recently cracked it open and blew out any excess dust and it APPEARS to be running better. iStat has the CPU currently at 54 and GPU at 51. These are within specs for the hardware. However, like most of you, I run fine until the X1600 hits between 55 and 60 degrees. So it's not only you portable guys hurting out here.

I tried the Quartz Extreme disabler, but I don't know if it's actually disabled now. Does anyone know how to test that functionality? At this point I'm running a 4 year old desktop so I know it's best days are behind it. If I can squeeze another year out of it I'll be happy. At least until Apple puts out a Mac Mini with specs better than my 4 year old iMac (come on, still using core 2 duos?)

Same thing here. I just brought my macbook pro in the genius bar a while ago - and look what - they turn on the computer and saw the display is weird matrix like text - and then they try to diagnose it with the Nvidia utility (lol they cant figure out why the utility does not work on my computer - coz it was ATI not NVidia - Geniuses)
Too bad my Applecare just expires last april 2010 - just a mere 3 months. And they are charging me a $300 for the 'depot' thing repair they are talking about.
Is there any other option in repairing this thing? And they mention $900 thing for the factory repair. Sigh... What a rip off. Hope Apple will do the same as they did in their Nvidia graphics. They repair it for free coz it is a manufacturers defect. I dont use much of the video graphics - just a normal operation for my computer - if I should have been using it more often probably it will break sooner than this and I should be covered by my Applecare (the sole purpose of my applecare for this one was gone to waste)

I had a grey screen a week ago, brought it in for the $300 repair, got a new logic board, air port card, dvd drive, and new case.

A week later and now my ATI Radeon X1600 is fried, thanks apple.

Trying Fan Control until I get Apple to resolve the issue.

Tsk..Tsk...Tsk...sorry to hear that.
How's your Macbook Pro(blems) right now?

Probably I'll be seeing a Windows 7/Ubuntu set up in my desk in coming days. Thanks Apple. Atleast if they got some problem its not a rip off (plus its a given that you wont expect too much of a performance/support out of those system - just like I did in my macbook pro - now its a pro(blem).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52606108@N03/4851862078

I really can't see Apple repairing these units on their dime. These laptops and desktops are upwards of 4 years old. Whether you think a computer should last that long or not, there just isn't the drum roll of consumer anger that Dell found with their blown capacitors or Apple saw with it's iPhone 4.

It *****, because while my circa 2001 iBook was in desperate need for an upgrade 3 years later, my circa 2007 iMac still does everything I throw at it. It just needs to not fry eggs on it's GPU. If it wasn't for my software investment, I'd probably ditch Apple desktops altogether. I already stopped buying their laptops since Windows 7 came out.

Im probably repeating what a lof of people already have, but I dont have the time to read through 50 frickin pages.

Im pretty confident that the many of these issues are due to Apple's recent update to 10.6.4. And I dont think it is necessarily just MacBooks that are affected.

I have a Mac Pro and this update caused so much havoc with my NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT. Constant glitches, strange screen refreshes, flashing... and lockups. I never had an issue before the update. As soon as I swapped out the card for the stock ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT I havent had one single glitch. It is DEFINITELY a software issue in my case--and I suspect a lot of others.

Id be curious if there were a lace we could all list our video cards. From what Ive seen on other forums, it usually seems to be an NVIDIA issue.

Just my thoughts, I know everyone's problems are unique. Dont get all postal on me for offering an opinion!

My problem still nearly reliably disappears on safe boot. It suggests that a possible hardware/thermal problem causes corruption of code or NVRAM, which then results in corruption of more system resources (eg prefs files) and the more fatal problem of freeze/crashes. Perhaps the ATI driver also has a bug which feeds the problem.

At its worst, I saw a short corrupted horizontal line after a DVD boot. Sometimes a complete corrupt horizontal line at login screen. Usually a corrupted horizontal line across the desktop, which gradually propagates through various windows.

Zapping PRAM and running single-user mode applejack in deep clean mode and rebuilding essential system preferences seemed to solve a large chunk of the problem often, but after days, it would start to recur and get worse.

An archive/install of OS PLUS zap PRAM appears to solve the software part of the problem. Cleaning out dust is worthwhile. Also trying running smcfancontrol and disabling Quartz Extreme as prevention if the underlying problem is a dry solder joint on the GPU. Seeing what happens now....

Keeping a clean backup of the system after archive and install should help fix corrupted system resources.

Latest recipe which seems to clean up the horizontal line bugs for me which appear on login (still testing):
1. restart
2. zap PRAM while restarting (<cmd><opt>

<R>)
3. restart in single user mode (<cmd> while restarting)
4. run applejack (not sure if it is preinstalled, if not download from htp://applejack.sourceforge.net/) - run at least options 3,4,5. 1 and 2 take a lot longer and recommended if you have lots of time. When asked if you want to clean caches and prefs in specific user accounts, say Y and clean out any user accounts having problems
5. restart after finishing applejack
6. zap PRAM while restarting

(Sorry about the redlining - can admin please delete last post)

Latest recipe which seems to clean up the horizontal line bugs for me which appear on login (still testing):
1. restart
2. zap PRAM while restarting (<cmd-opt-P-R>)
3. restart in single user mode (<cmd-S> while restarting)
4. run applejack (not sure if it is preinstalled, if not download from htp://applejack.sourceforge.net/) - run at least options 3,4,5. 1 and 2 take a lot longer and recommended if you have lots of time. When asked if you want to clean caches and prefs in specific user accounts, say Y and clean out any user accounts having problems
5. restart after finishing applejack
6. zap PRAM while restarting

I'm having issues with the MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz with an ATI Radeon freezing on wake from sleep which are possibly related to the RadeonX1600 issues. Incidentally these problems seem to have arisen since I installed the 10.6.4 update. It seems to be heat related so I'm keeping the fan at max.

This turns up in kernel.log repeatedly:

Sep 9 18:53:39 fish2 kernel[0]: ** ASIC Hang Log Start **
Sep 9 18:53:39 fish2 kernel[0]: 0x010171c5 00040100 00000000 20080100
Sep 9 18:53:39 fish2 kernel[0]: 0x10002009 c0002a04 00000002 00000008
Sep 9 18:53:39 fish2 kernel[0]: 0x00000047 00000000 00000808 90010140
Sep 9 18:53:39 fish2 kernel[0]: 0x00080000 00000000 00000001 40000000
Sep 9 18:53:39 fish2 kernel[0]: 0x60001ea5 0004000a 00000000 00800000
Sep 9 18:53:39 fish2 kernel[0]: 0x00000000 0000444f 10040004
Sep 9 18:53:39 fish2 kernel[0]: 0:0xdeadbeef
Sep 9 18:53:39 fish2 kernel[0]: 1:0xdeadbeef
....
....
Sep 9 18:53:51 fish2 kernel[0]: 1022:0x10218021
Sep 9 18:53:51 fish2 kernel[0]: 1023:0x00620061
Sep 9 18:53:51 fish2 kernel[0]: 0x5b1f9e2f
Sep 9 18:53:51 fish2 kernel[0]: ** ASIC Hang Log End **
Sep 9 18:53:52 fish2 kernel[0]: ATIRadeon::wait for_rbspace: Overflowed block waiting for FIFO space. Have 0, need 5. RBBM_STATUS 0x90010140

I'm having exactly the same problems as many users have reported here. Mine is the 2.16 GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro running 10.6.4, with the ATI X1600, bought in mid-2006. I never had any problems until sometime earlier this year, when the random blocks of pixels, lines, or splashes of colour started appearing. The problem has been getting worse until now the computer will freeze around twice a day and I'll have to do a hard restart. When it freezes music will continue to play in the background and i can still move the cursor on screen, but none of the on-screen elements are responsive.

Has anyone solved the problem by downgrading to Leopard?