display anomalies

Yes, it also has the X1600.

I had previously tested drivers to 10.6.6. The latest 10.6.8 ATIRadeonX1000.kext is version 1.6.36 dated 8 June 2011. I am presently testing to see if I can get a clean system without unplugging PRAM. Having read the page on what PRAM holds, I presume that the invisible PRAM settings relating to video driver/hardware will be rewritten if there is a change in video driver.

Running 10.6.8 without ATIRadeonX1000.kext at present, having had 2 failed attempts with. I looks like the bug in Safari crashing without ATIRadeonX1000.kext on appletv page scrolling and crashing on these discussions has been fixed as of Safari 5.0.5 from the 10.6.8v1.1 combo updater. But my machine previously crashed instantly with the new driver doing the same thing - scrolling the appletv page.

Maybe the EDID is the issue. Which would be funny, but make sense, that then the PRAM may be partly at fault. I am guessing that the EDID might be stored in PRAM and that prior drivers may corrupt that data? If so, that might explain why hard clearing the PRAM might work/help. And it also possible that once stored, its not updated? Even with new drivers? Read up (Google) on EDID to see what I am talking about and what a bad EDID can sometimes do.

Also interesting that 10.6.8 without ATI won't do screen shots or display a png in Preview, but Safari can display png. 10.5.8 without ATI will happily do both. Neither will run DVD player without ATI. So there is a deep dependence of Apple software on display drivers.

Without ATI kext, System profiler happily reports the presence of the ATI hardware + EFI driver version. So perhaps there is an EFI driver problem???

Can confirm that without pulling the PRAM battery, can restore an apparently clean 10.6.8 system but does not stay clean between logins.

Sometimes I have seen this appearance after combo update and reboot:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa145/cheongi/boot_corruption_1068.jpg

Also have seen random sparsely scattered pixel snow on single user boot.

Next up...the marco...POLLO fix.

Thanks Ian for testing things out. I really hope that after pulling the PRAM things start to work as well as they have for me. Good luck!!

Hi

So after pushing my system a bit, I can get it to crash and burn using Aperture and applying various edits to photos. So I'm actually doing MARCO's full post at this very minute. I yanked apart the system and disconnected the PRAM battery for about 40 mins and then reconnected/reassembled and SL is installing as we speak (~13 mins remaining).

Wish me luck!

-Lou

So I'm disappointed 😟

After following the outlined steps, I don't really have any good news. I saw artifacting almost immediately after updating to 10.6.8... and the system froze/hung while not even being pushed (sitting with a full screen terminal and bringing up All Windows via Expose F9).

I'm going to keep messing around with the current install and then perhaps try it one more time before giving up and sending it off for logic board replacement (where god willing I hope it doesn't happen all over again).

Was this the firmware update that did these machines in?? Scroll down to MBP 1,1

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237

I don't think a firmware update caused problems. That update is dated 2006 and my machine had been running a few years with no problems since then. Of the possible sources of a "bug", which Apple says is a "known" bug, the sotware candidates seem to me to be firmware (bug or corruption) and ATI drivers.

To date, there is no way to reinstall the same firmware and no easy way to fix an ATI driver bug unless it is fixed in 10.6.8 with the latest version. So far, marco...POLLO appears to have fixed his machine wiping PRAM by pulling the battery. Hope to pull my PRAM battery this weekend......

😟 That no good. And to be sure, before updating to 10.6.8 you did not boot normally, you booted into safe mode? This includes the boot right after 10.6.x finishes a clean install?

Hey marco

yep - i had your doc printed out and was following alongside it. As soon as it came up for the first time in safe mode, i blew away the drivers (ATIX1* and ATIX2*) and then updated to 10.6.8. this would be right after step 7 & 8 on your list. I was getting display artifacts pretty much immediately but I only had one crash/freeze. Last nite, I tried to push it one more time (~10 standard def video recording in iMovie from the web cam, then running the stabilization filter after it recorded). It actually kernel panic'd. 20 minutes in.

what I will say is that I had issues booting from the SL media using the internal DVD drive (i've had issues with it before and I think its trashed at this point). I actually had the DVD temporarily stuck in there as it would not eject.. so I had to do the mouse-button down trick while the system powered on to get the thing out. I also made sure I had the Option key pressed so I would not boot off the hard drive... this is actually the reason I wanted to run through it again before throwing in the towell. Since you were very explicit in not booting off anything except the SL DVD, I thought there was at least enough of a chance that something could have been loaded to try it again. That and at this point I have nothing to lose.

One other thing I wanted to throw out there to everyone - my system was working fine for months. No artifacting, no overheating, no crashing. It seems that everything started after I upgraded the HD. I took out the 7200RPM 100GB disk and upgraded to a 5400RPM 250GB disk. 2 questions from that - 1) has anyone else with this issue upgraded hard drives and 2) does anyone think this could be part of the issue some crazy way? I am actually going to try another disk (not the original though) when I do this PRAM trick again.

I should have some time tonite/this w/e to try this again.. let's hope our power stays on underneath Irene (I'm in the northeast).

-Lou

Hey Lou, I swapped the factory installed HD, and put in a 500GB one last year. I don't think HD swapping would cause a problem as the artifacts started to come up months beforehand.

I would also find it odd that a drive swap would be the cause. The the previous owner did upgrade my MacBook Pro to a 500GB model at some point. I do not know when the displays issues started though, I would think after since it would be illogical to upgrade a drive in a potentially "dying" computer.

I too swapped the HD (WD Scorpio Black 7200rpm) 320GB August 2009 and had no major problems prior to that, or immediately after that I can recall. (Amended)

I think I have had a lot more trouble getting a clean 10.6.x system than 10.5.x system. No doubt that if you see display artefacts at any time, a crash will come eventually. Repetive 10.6.x logout/login without doing anything will result in different patterns of artefact on the login screen until returning to clean temporarily.

I think deleting a wider range of recently written prefs files helps. I would still say it is possible to get your system to boot up with a clean login screen and clean desktop. Perhaps a combination of marco's fix and my longer software recipe could work.

Wondering at this point if the PRAM battery may be causing problems. Failing PRAM batteries are famous for causing weird errors. Maybe that's why they have been banished inn favor of capacitors. I read somehere that leaving a machine without all power for an extended period (?30mins) and seeing if the clock got reset was a test for a failing PRAM battery. In my reading I note that the CR2025 lithum specs say it tends to run about 2.8V. The BR-series high reliability batteries appear to run a higher voltage closer to 3V. I have a new battery to put in (hope it fits since I upsized it guesstimating based on pictures from iFixit).