display anomalies

Hi Small,

thank you for your response 🙂

Since a few days i am back on MacOSX 10.6.7, including lock-ups and hard-resets.

You were right, LMDE is short-term for "Linux Mint Debian Edition" and "amd64" only means 64bit.

(as a sidenote, be sure to download the MAC-amd64 (if available) imagefile, otherwise the CD won't boot)

No matter what Distro you choose, they all share the same driver base differing in its versions. If you prefer a most recent version (in cost of stability) then take Ubuntu 11.04 (11=2011, 04 = april). It contains recent drivers especially for some ATI graphics cards which provide a small performance increase with OpenGL. If you'd prefer a more stable and/or more supported version, take Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (10=2010, 04=april, LTS=long term support). It contains all what you need, especially STABLE drivers/packages. And LTS means update support until 2013. Click here for all ubuntu releases on Wikipedia.

Linux Mint shares its core with Ubuntu, differing in multimedia/codec support and usability. I'd prefer Linux Mint (Version Julia). Julia = Ubuntu. LMDE = Debian. With Julia you can use most of the Ubuntu-software available, but Debian has a very big software base too. Sure you can get the sources of everything and compile it yourself. 😁

With Linux you can install "WINE" which allows executing Windows-Software (e.g. Games, MS-Office).

On their Webpage is an App-Database where SC2 is listed as "playable". Depending on your hardware it might be possible to play the game with a small performance hit. As far as i can tell about World of Warcraft: it runs AT LEAST as good as with MacOSX. (may vary) On the link posted above you'll find installation instructions for ubuntu (english) and debian (french).

Just as a reminder, Linux MAY be easy to use, but if something does not work out-of-the-box you'll need to use the terminal. If you do not what to do there and you do not have any idea how and where to ask for help - try to install windows - or you may waste a LOT of your time.

I am not a "linux crack" but hey, google gave me all i needed to know when using Linux. 🙂

And: still no glitches on Linux, either i am not that affected by damaged hardware or it might be a firmware/driver problem as already was assumed here.

Greetings from germany!

Add another dissatisfied user. Tried replacing thermal paste, cleaning fans, smcFanControl set to max but keeps locking up on me. Maybe I will move into that meat locker's cooler down the road as my office so my Macbook will run cooler!!

So unhappy with Apple right now 😟

+1

I'm another MacBook Pro 2.33 GHz with RadeonX1600 experiencing these issues. I'm trying to manage it using iStat Menus to boost the fan speeds, but I still get glitches and freezes at least once a day. I'll be buying a new machine shortly, as I'm having to use this as my primary work machine currently, but I'd like it to survive as a useful spare.

Frustrating.

Hi davidlegend,

as a starting point you could sign these 2 online petition:

http://bit.ly/iMqsjR

http://bit.ly/11Ac4Q

Best,

SergeGardien

or you could not bother since there has been no action at all on this despite this 62 page long thread and the 150 or so signatures on the said petitions... sorry to be such a bummer but the truth is that Apple has NEVER acknowedged this problem and NEVER will.

it's water under the bridge for them at this point anyway, WAY under the bridge.

you can either just buy a new Macbook Pro or switch over to the Dark Side.

I caved and bought a new one. but then I had thought ahead and purchased insurance - REAL INSURANCE, NOT APPLECARE - on my MBP and when it finally died 3 years after spending $2500 on it I got an insurance check for $1500... not bad on a $150 investment. plus it covered theft and accidental damage and all that other jazz Applecare does not.

FWIW - next computer you get, call Safeware that same day and get a policy - and no I don't work for them.

but - if you're trying to manage what you have - take a look at the long thread I posted perhaps 18 months ago that summed up all the various strategies people have tried to make these *defective* machines work. just search the thread for my name.

now that I looked at this thread for the first time in a year I have to say that the Linux option seems like ABSOLUTELY the best option.

it's not for the faint of heart perhaps - but certainly easier than you might think. I just recently installed Debian on an old Windows laptop and it works like a charm.

step by step instructions are out there and there are a million folks on various forums who will help you as well.

the only other option is to try and keep your machine as cool as possible and to disable the 3D acceleration. in the end tho it didn't make any difference for mine.

I dropped mine at school and smashed the screen and dented and warped the case badly - since this was covered under my insurance policy (thanks Safeware!) I sent it in and they spent about $1400 making it just like new!

2 weeks later the GPU died.

the insurance company was non-plussed but did the right thing and just cut me a check.

end of story.

Thank you for pointing this out. As i have already posted, i am running Debian Linux too (LMDE) and i've never had any issues and i got full OpenGL acceleration. Just give it a try, its worth the 40 minutes of work.

I've posted some information about installing Linux on MBP a few pages ago. 🙂

Software update can reduce the scope of the problem. However, proper hardware adjustments have to be taken into account. Like installing new fans, new heat paste, etc. It is extremely sad that Apple has not acknowledged this problem. I reported this issue several times in the past but no dice.

For me, I am still using Mac OS 10.6.x, I use sms fan control to set the fans to max. I do not use any 3D, but snow leopard uses that anyway. I do get constant freezes especially these days when the temperatures are rising.

I think the best solution to to force snow leopard to stop 3d rendering, clean fans, install new thermal paste, use smc fan control to keep CPU temp below 70c.

Is it just me or do you think OSx updates have made this issue go away (to a degree)?

My pixels don't corrupt anymore, which was tell tale sign that everything was going to lock up...

i've tried 10.6.8, 10.5.8, and even lion golden master.

with tiger everything ok, with leopard sometimes freezing, with snow leopard a lot of freeze, with lion mac freezes after 2 minutes from boot.

it's absolutely a kext (driver problem).

I have a MacBook Pro 15" A1211, with the ATX Mobility 1600 128mb video chip. Been having the same graphic artifact, coursor-movable freeze, complete freeze, frozen with graphic artificats, as well as occasional inability to fully boot onto the desktop.

I have done a thorough cleaning of the inside of the case; cleaning out all dust from surfaces and vents. I also cleaned off the old thermal paste, and reapplied Arctic Silver 5 with noticable 10 degree drop in temperature while system is under stress tests.

Tried using 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, and now 10.7 (GM) with no differences in random freezes and artifacts. The "issue" is most persistent while the system is running graphically "intense" applications, such as viewing a YouTube video at 720p...

After testing different hard drive, RAM chips with DiskWarrior, Xbench, and TechTool Deluxe; the only hint given towards the potential culprit of this wide-spread Apple issue is that while running TechTool Deluxe, the application abruptly quits while attempting to test the video RAM, every single time; other components passes each time. While running Xbench to test, all test (CPU, Thread, Memory, Disk, Quartz Graphics, User Interface) passes with the exception of the OpenGL test; with the OpenGL test, the system will freeze at the start or during the test, never finishing.

If the ATX video chip issue is as deadly as the NVIDIA's, why then did they not also issue a recall? Apple should at least address the potention issue rather than completely ignoring it. This type of corporate antics are what causes people like me not want to recommend Apple products. Apple is jolly and happy to accept money, yet when products become defective, it refushes to help.

I have an iMac 5,1 with the ATI Radeon 1600 and have been experiencing the same problems - and they're getting worse. When I recently upgraded to Snow Leopard the graphic glitches increased dramatically. I spent about an hour with a "Genius" at the Apple store - all hardware tests checked out OK but the video glitches and eventual system lockups were easily reproduced. We tried 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6 and all of them had the issue. 10.4 seemed to be the least offensive, but any quicktime movie in 10.5 and 10.6 showed a green line across the video window. Some apps we downloaded from the App Store crashed the system consistently.

What I'm bummed and a little disappointed about is that Apple won't own up to this issue and won't advise people not to attempt to upgrade to Lion if they have this chipset/board/GPU combination. I was preparing my machine to go to Lion and it made it worse. All of Lion's minimum requirements are technically met by my machine - but Apple makes NO mention of "if you own a POS ATI Radeon X1600 chipset, don't even bother"

I'm quickly learning that Apple hardware shouldn't be expected to live much beyond its AppleCare maximum of 3 years - mostly due to overheating caused by a lack of air movement, and sub par graphics cards. So much for superior hardware Apple! I used to think more highly of you - especially when you fixed my nVidia based MacBook Pro just after the 3 year mark when IT melted down. But when it comes down to ATI cards - there's been NO ownership whatsoever.

Yes I am still inclined to agree with @alexfromconagliano that it is a driver (kext) bug, that results in corruption of low level resources - PRAM, SMC, hidden prefs - which is where the display problems become more persistent. I'd still like to be able to reflash firmware, since there could still be a firmware bug or corruption, but have not been able to find a way to do that.

My system is fairly stable for several months without the ATIRadeonX1000.kext and one user to date has installed Linux and his system appears to be quite stable too. I also noted that my system temperatures were 10-15degC lower on 10.6 than 10.5

At this point I have seen no concrete evidence in this thread of a hardware failure, though a ball grid array (BGA) solder joint failure is feasible.

Some users appear to have had their problem resolved with a new motherboard, but whether that may have just corrected a software corruption issue and later recurred after some time has not been reported back.

It may be that a solder reflow of the motherboard could fix it, but to date nobody has reported having tried it.

@underlircs, I suggest you follow the directions pointed to in my December 3 2010 post https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1697470?answerId=12702258022#12702258022 and then rerun Techtool to see if it makes a difference.

@benfromhouston, what did the Genius recommend to resolve the problem?? Did they know of this thread??