display anomalies

James Hayward4 wrote:
Would you please explain how to make the changes you did. Is it just launching the Quartz Debug app in Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/ and in Window>Quark Debug Settings>Hardware Acceleration checking the Force QuartzGL box? How do you get the settings to stick?

Force quit Quartz Debug after setting.

Alternative method if you want to disable quartz extreme:

Without booting in safe mode pasting this in the terminal will turn off quartz extreme:

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver GLCompositor -dict tileHeight -int 0 tileWidth -int 0

and this turns it back on:

defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver GLCompositor

Thank you. Do you still need to do all of the steps in the Nov. 5th post? I've only done the reset SMC, zap PRAM, safeboot, reboot. I've Forced QuartzGL and force quit and entered your command into the terminal and rebooted.

I believe one should do everything in the two previous posts Nov5 and Nov14 to clean out corrupted resources, prior to trying to isolate the problem:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12538979#12538979
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12584182#12584182

(10.5.8 without ATIRadeonX1000.kext up 21 days no glitches/hangs/crashes excepting Safari crashes on www.apple.com/appleTV)

On 10.5.8, fiddling with Quartz settings produced some improvement but not a fix. Haven't tried Quartz settings in 10.6.5, since loginwindow still exhibited corruption even on install DVD boot (small horizontal line glitch hiding behind the installer window).

Hi james,
If you aren't comfortable fiddling with the preference files, then just have the Quartz Debug tool launch at login, and simply hide it (don't quit) while you work.

I rarely actually shutdown/reboot my macbook (just put it to sleep between uses), so this was the easiest option for me - it also serves as a reminder of what I did (Force QuartzGL on) since the debug window pops up at login.

As a follow-up, I've managed to get my graphics card to lock up again when (ambitiously) trying to play some games - but the stability with/without "Force QuartzGL" is still very marked.

Hi Nick,

One of the things I noticed with my issues were that they were mostly 2D related.
The glitches (lines/colors, etc.) would occur on browser windows, UI element, videos, and so on...
But I never had any problems with 3D software in fullscreen.
Occasionally I would get lockups while using a full screen 3D app (games, CAD), but in retrospect this mostly occurred when switching contexts from 2D to 3D (e.g. -Tabbing to a different window or application, quitting/starting a 3D app, etc.)

From what I've read, QuartzGL uses OpenGL commands to render 2D items on the desktop as well - I'm not sure how it was done before, but had something to do with rendering to PDF subpages and then compositing them to create the desktop image.

So my thinking is that Force quartzGL moves more of the desktop rendering system to the opengl pipeline, avoiding whatever problem was causing the glitches - but that's just IMHO.

Hey Jit,

I've noticed some glitches during Safari-use, in Finder and on my desktop. Lots of my graphical glitches however, occur in 3D applications. Especially WoW is bad, but also the Big Fish games my girlfriend plays make OS X hang. I haven't noticed a lot of glitches lately though. It seems as if the glitches are skipped for the most part now, and we're going right to the hangs.

I do a SMC reset and a applejack deep clean everytime this occurs. It's been a while since I've cleaned up the pref files though. The last time I did this was before 10.6.5, so it might be a good idea to do that sometime soon.

I'll see if I can get a screenshot of WoW glitching sometime soon, so I can at least show you guys what I'm talking about.

Regards.

PS. Ian, I forgot to update the signature, I've been using 10.6.5 since it was available!

Add me as another victim to the ATI 1600.

Freezing.
Black screens.
Distorted screens.
Random horizontal lines.

Joy.

Message was edited by: jer

Just to expand a bit on my original post of success after Jits recommendation of using Xcode tools to force GL; I too have experienced points after a while of running well where browsing seems to stall out and I need to clear caches (applejack auto restart, from Single User Mode) to get going again. I also discovered in my situation that it wasn't enough to disable just the X1000 kext; I had to disable the other supporting ATI... Kexts as well to avoid boot freezes, etc. Essentially, I moved every Extension in System/Library/Extensions beginning with "ATI" to an "Extensions_Disabled" folder that I created inside System/Library. Yes, I come from the OS 9 days (grin). I did this logged in as root instead of via the terminal. For those who want to avoid the command line for moving things around, simply enable root log-in by launching Directory Utility (which is now inside System/Library/CoreServices in Snow Leopard) and enabling root from the menu. After you move the items, it's crucial to open Terminal from Utilities and enter the following... "sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions" so the kext cache recognizes the changes. You technically don't need "sudo" if you're logged as root, but no harm. As a disclaimer, you should disable root from the same menu in Directory Utility when you're done, forsake of security.

I don't believe Applejack is enough to clear out corrupted prefs files. One needs to manually delete many/all recently modified prefs files as mentioned in my previous posts.

Up 26 days now 10.5.8 minus only ATIRadeonX1000.kext.

Some problem (probably Flash) on wake after several days unattended saw CPU temp spike to 93degrees, but still no glitch/hang/crash.

Hi Ian:

Since I've disabled everything ATI in System/Library/Extensions, I only need to run Applejack to recover from the occasional browser stalling/cache issues. The problem affects all browsers, not just Safari; so a simple reset of Safari doesn't help, but Applejack does the trick. I noticed that there's no control of display brightness without the ATI stuff, which of course makes sense, I guess.

If I offer to go on a hunger strike, do you think we can appeal to Steve's sense of fairness? I can start right after Christmas dinner. I'm planning on using the 17" as a warming tray for the buffet. 🙂

Brightness works for me in 10.5.8.

I'm having the same problem with my 3 year old MBP. Which I bought October 2007.

Weird "squeezing" of square blocks of the screen, as if a rectangle were squished into a triangle by moving one of it's corners up to touch the other corner! But only in a small (seemingly random) part of the screen.

Black vertical bands appearing in a window. Random color bands appearing.

Screen went BLACK once, and refused to respond.

Another time, I got a spinning ball of death. The entire screen went bezerk, wierd colored patterns all over the entire screen, that gradually got more intense. I would have looked at those colored patterns for longer if I didn't get the feeling my Mac was cooking itself to death.

Another time... I got another error, but I can't remember what it is right now, but it did require me to restart the Mac.

Not happy. it's only 3 years old. I got a 5 years old G5 iMac sitting happily downstairs, works perfectly, and probably has 5 more years of life left in it.

I've heard, but don't know for sure, someone said its because the solder is overheating. Should I really have to get a new computer just for that??

Apple seem to be running Macs too hot. I turned up the fans to 4000, using FanControl, it still sounds quiet? I'll try using CoolBook although its a bit daunting. I'll try using the thermal paste.

I'll ask Apple about this, but I don't have my hopes high.

Also, the problem seems to be getting worse over time. Suggesting that some kind of damage has been done.

It happens when I'm watching videos on my Mac 😟

Hi BoyTheo. My failure was also progressive, starting with occasional freezing and screen glitches to total inability to run for more than 1 or 2 minutes after a cold start. I am tearing it down this week to look at the GPU, but the extent of my failure doesn't bode well for the prospects of a solder fix or simple application of thermal paste. I hope others get some relief from the measures. Let us know how you fare.

Have to be systematic to separate hardware from software. Your problem sounds worse than mine and could be GPU.
Step 1 is to run Apple Hardware Test from original disks - a passed test suggests hardware is fine; also can run it in loop mode for an extended time
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509

Step 2 is to safeboot and see how it behaves

If it looks like software, suggest following directions in this post:
http://discussions.apple.com/post!reply.jspa?messageID=12702258