display anomalies

I'm gonna test it just after this post with a clean install on an external firedrive Hd, with my original 10.4.5 dvd. I know I have the battery for pram, as I have no more superdrive (it's under it) . I thinked about disconnect it, but I was unsure of the result. And I would never had think about booting with extensions off ;-)

Anyway, if it works for you with 10.6.8, it should work with Tiger

so I keep my thingers crossed 😐

Just a question : after the first boot with extensions off, you say that you have rebooted several times : Was it also with extensions off ? (I hope that your answer will be No.. )

Answer is no. When I was playing around, or shoudl I say limping around with the driver removed, I had installed software and was using the machine normally until I decided to jump the gun and install 10.6.8. I really expected 10.6.8 to be no different since I was convinced the hardware was the major issue. To my shock, all is still well. I played Spore for several hours with my fans set to 3k RPM, which is pretty low really, and I still have no issues. But like I said, I want to push the machine hard for a week or so before I fully trust it. I will say that the steps I used should be followed to a T. The only variation I can say would work is a source for the 10.6.X installer, in my case I have it imaged on a drive, not a DVD. A Facebook user had tried my method but assumed a PRAM reset would work followed by unplugging the machine for 30 minutes. LOL It of course, does not work that way since a PRAM reset is NOT a full erasure of the settings, it just "corrects" then to default, but most of the data is kept live. And I really think, since everything else has been tried by hundreds of users, that the PRAM clearing is key and keeping the system from being exposed to any ATI X1000 extension that is below version 1.6.36. The driver that ships with 10.6.0 is 1.6.

As for working with Tiger, not sure how it will work unless you are getting the new driver from 10.6.8.

To clarify above about not rebooting again in safe mode. While I do not have it in the steps listed, after the clean install and first safe mode reboot I had removed the ATI drivers for X1000 and X2000. From then on I would reboot normally and used the machine. But the video card was thus offline and everything was being renered by the main CPU, not the GPU. Things like Preview were not working right. No screen shots, etc. That frustration is what made me later try the 10.6.8 update. I did so beacuse someone around 10.6.4 or .5 there was a Leopard graphics update. I was not sure what was updated, but in 10.6.8 I new that update would be built-in to the download. Figured it was worth the shot. It was!

But if someone tried the steps to the letter and there is still an issue, maybe it is necessary to remove the ATI drivers for the X series first, then update.

Thank you for posting this info marco, before I begin testing your steps...can you advise as to where the ATI drivers would be located to remove them?

The drivers will be in DRIVE NAME/System/Library/Extensions

ATIRadeonX1000.kext

ATIRadeonX1000GA.plugin

ATIRadeonX1000GLDriver.bundle

ATIRadeonX1000VADriver.bundle

ATIRadeonX2000.kext

ATIRadeonX2000GA.plugin

ATIRadeonX2000GLDriver.bundle

ATIRadeonX2000VADriver.bundle

The above are what I removed after hard resetting the PRAM via disconnecting battery, booting from a 10.6 installer, installing 10.6 and (very critical) booting the machine for the first time into safe mode by holding the "shift" key right after the starup chime. Once removed, I rebooted again normally and had done several additional reboots after installing software, etc. Later came the 10.6.8 update without any additional safe boot. Sorry if I repeat myself a lot, i just want to be very clear on my method incase there is some step I forgot to list or some action I did that would make the directions wrong.

And if the PRAM clearing worked right, your system clock will be off. So when the system setup gets to the clock settings, they should be off.

I don't want to shoot for victory, i'll wait tomorrow evening, to have the same conditions.

But for now, your trick work great and you could be The One...

I have been able to run Second life for 30 mins, without a crash, with my GPU above 48 ° celsius....

it"s been 2 years or so that I was crashing at 45 ° or 43 recently.

I have reboot with my old, untouched, hard drive with 10.4.11. Play a little, but it's cold night here. But I have no crash for now.

So, may be you point the right way to be rid of some boring updates .

p-s: I still have artifacts on 10.4.1, but for now, no more crashes and hard reboot 🙂

Well I never had a chance to try anything with 10.4.X. But I do think the propblem lies in the PRAM. Therefore, hard resetting the PRAM may clear up the issue for a while until some sort of corruption happens again. But if your computer is working better than ever, that along makes it worth it.

i have opened my macbook pro...and apply heat over the gpu(ATI x1600) ..after that display anomalies were gone.everything become fine but a new problem arise which is my macbook pro fans always run at 6000 rpm...whatever the temperature is.

zaeem wrote:

i have opened my macbook pro...and apply heat over the gpu(ATI x1600) ..after that display anomalies were gone.everything become fine but a new problem arise which is my macbook pro fans always run at 6000 rpm...whatever the temperature is.

By "apply heat," do you mean something like a propane torch? Whatever the method, you may have disconnected or fried the heat sensor. Go back in and check the connection/location. If that's good, run Apple Hardware Test and see if it IDs a bad sensor. Fans default to top speed/6000RPM when sensors are disconnected or go bad.

Update: Been running fine for days now. I dont manually manage the fans anymore unless I think to do so. Usually the system spins them up just fine under load as they should. More Spore and some Bridge Commander under Bootcamp. All is still working fine. Not crashes or display glitches at all.

Hi marco...POLLO

Have tried updating my OS 10.6.6 test install to 10.6.8v1.1, but having trouble. Ran into a problem with the combo updater failing to install and may have to to a new installation - pain.

Interested to know what you TemperatureMonitor temp logs show. Also interested to see what happens if you stress the GPU. (I think I tried repeated running of Xbench graphics benchmarks in the past.)

In the deep dark past (a year ago now), I have found a really clean system even on 10.5.8 will be OK for days to weeks before the graphics bugs start to creep in. Activty monitor was often the first.

If I can get some logs out of Temperature Monitor, I will. But I never tried and I am not sure if there is a way to export? The history seems to only show the current open session of the app. But I will see what I can do to tax the system and see just how hot I can get the CPU and GPU. Traditionall the GPU is always cooler than the CPU under light load. Under heavy load it matched the hottest core reading, which is usually core 1. The highest temp I have seem so far is 145 degrees farenheit. Prior to all this, I avoided anything over 100 degrees!

On a side note, I just installed (using a MOD trick) the latest drivers for the X1600 in Bootcamp. I was able to activate the anti-aliasing, etc. Really tweak the setting and push the card. Still no issues under Bootcamp. Wish I could activate some of these settings under OS X.

Anyway, I will get more temp data and post what it reaches. If you do reinstall, pull the PRAM battery if you can. I am guessing one really does not need to erase the drive, but I would pull the battery, boot from a clean source and install a clean system, reboot in safe mode, pull out drivers and then after a reboot in normal mode, install 10.6.8. Just a thought, might be worth trying.

TemperatureMonitor will keep history for weeks. Didn't figure out how to export but just changing the time scale shows the long-term history, which still appears on the graph on a few pages - can take screen grabs - which I have posted in the past.

Update after applying Marco's fix last night...my laptop was locking up immediately upon startup and getting to the main screen. It started with small artifacts then got worse then to total lock up upon viewing video until it got to the point of lockup right after startup. I had trouble the first try trying to use Disk Utility to erase my HD first before installing Snow Leopard (booting from SL CD) as it locked up 2 minutes into the erase. I found a fan and set it up behind my laptop to keep it cool since FanControl isn't available upon booting from the SL disc. That worked! It kept it cool enough from locking up during the erase and install of SL. Then upon reboot, held down the shift key and in Safe Boot removed the above ATI drivers. Restarted and used Software Update. Now I haven't had much time to mess with anything else but I know that the laptop isn't locking up right after startup as it was previously. I did install SMCFanControl again and keep them at 5000rpm.

I want to thank you Marco for your hard work in researching this. I will post an update in a few days after I get more time to play.

Thanks again Marco!