Q: display anomalies

after having posted yesterday i did a search for recalls and under something called TS2377 apple are replacing the piece of hardware even if the machine is out of warranty.
Then I rang the authorised repair people in adelaide Mac Alert and was told they would have to test and if they couldn't find the problem would not replace. Sigh - what does that mean - sooo often these things don't show up in test conditions!
oh well thats monday's job. I'm going to Mac Alert in south australia so will let you know!

TS2377 looks to be the Nvidia recall.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2377

NVIDIA is the maker of the GeForce 8600 GT graphic processor in my macbookpro and i am assuming that is what's giving me my lovely psychedelic screen.
distorted or scrambled screen - is their description - you don't think that's it??

sigh will i have to go back to the drawing board???

any other suggestions??

If you have Nvidia, go for it and it should be fixed. Most people here have ATI Radeon X1600, for which there is no recall.

Ahhh now i understand and yes thats what is in my mac book pro - I'll let you know if i manage to get it changed - here goes!

Ian, thanks for your help in my other thread. After running 5 or so months on a very similar MBP with a cloned HD from the failed MBP, I am convinced that I have an unrelated, hardware-based issue. I wish you luck with the X1600 and hope it is resolved.

Very interesting reading, and so frustrating that Apple hasn't resolved this yet. I have a MBP dual-core with ATI Radeon X1600 and I've seen this problem get worse over the last year or so. I've never had any freezes but lots of wedge-shaped anomalies and tears. However I don't seem to have the issue unless I have an external monitor plugged in- usually a 20" Cinema display. When I'm viewing Flash-based websites the bottom corner of the display jitters constantly.

I think I might try the solution of deleting the ATIRadeonX1000.kext file, but I was wondering if anyone has the set of ATI extensions Pre-10.6.3 & Graphics Update. Would it be worth swapping all the extension files to the earlier versions?

@drrtybyl I have been dealing with crashes as well. It is very frustrating I must tell ya. I even cleaned the logic board and heatsink, reapplied top of the line thermal paste and still the problem continues. Also the *machine boots* with the artifacts on the desktop.

Yes, that is exactly what I have noticed. Music continues to play.
Even audio from videos that might be playing continues. I have often wondered if I had an external monitor would that work or connecting to the computer via remote desktop app would let me quit applications.

Hopefully this helps someone. I was pretty much able to get rid of the problem.

All I did was install smcfancontrol and keep the fans at 6000rpm all the time. Even though the CPU/GPU was only ever around 60 C, it would cause problems. When the fans stay at 6000rpm the temp only gets up to around 46-47 and its been problem free for over a month now.

I would try this before anything else.

Desktop boot artefacts can be reliably cleaned out:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12702258#12702258

My other posts have screenshots, temp logs, etc. Apple does know the problem, either as a bug or perhaps as a hardware problem they are keeping quiet about.

I have the same issue with my first generation MBP with x1600. In Chrome or Safari I will see random horizontal lines across the window. When my MBP was still in AppleCare, its logic board was replaced several times (for other issues) but I have seen this problem with different boards.

If only Apple would acknowledge the problem and do something about it.

hello everyone, and new people on that bug.
I understand that reading 60 pages for this topic could be tedious :°
So, let me resume for all the new comers.
Your bug, is coming from overheating, which make the ATIx1600 card die... There is quite nothing you can do for it, except keep your MBP cool. That's all if you don't do that, one day you will have a totally dead card, and it is the death of your MBP..
I deal with the bug since 3 years now, and, believe me, it's going worse and worse, that mean that first you will have the glitches when your MBP is at 70°Celsius, then at 60, then at 50, etc...
Since 2 years, I have a hard reboot at 43/45°C...
So, here is a few tricks to do :
1= Don't let Apple make the cooling of your Mbp , Do it yourself /___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png that's the most important thing.
If you let Mac Os do the cooling, it will cool your mac above 72°C, which is really to much for that ATI..
So Use SMCfancontrol, or another software, which allow you to manually turn the rpm of the fans.
and keep an eye on the temperature. A good one is 50 °, which mean fans at 4000/5000 rpm if you look at flash video on web.
2= Experiment TemperatureMonitor, let it run with "automatically save history" enable . So when you crash, or when strange display line occurs, you will now at what graphic card temperature it have begin to happen.

If you read the all 60 pages, you will see that the bug is going worse and worse, it's because the ATi is slowly dying more and more.
A lot of peoples here have no more that MBP with ATIX1600, because they have their ATI dead, now.
I can't offer me a new MBP, so since 2 years, I focus on cooling.
every way of keeping the mbp cold is good to keep it...

here some tips:
if as me your graphic card show lines at 45/43 °, which mean that your mbp is going to BE dead soon:
3= run on One CPU: take off the battery, and it ok, you will see a 10°C difference
If you play games, flash video, quicktime video, encoding, 3D, making DVD,everything which need quartz extreme, turn the fans to 5000 or 4000, but look at the temperature and if it is more than the bugging limit that you have determined before, with temperaturemonitor, remove the battery.

You may have bug lines at 55 or 65, the important is TO NEVER let the computer goes on these temperatures, because it damage your ati, for ever...

4= Keep your fans clean and lubrificated . It's quite easy with ifixit.com to open your computer. As you're going to use you fans a lot, they need care. Open them (google it, it's easy) put a little W40 on the axe and rotor, clean them carefuly from any dust, clean the outpipe with a brush and a vacuum cleaner (be carefull) and clean your keyboard, as a part of the cooling air come from it.
I do it every 6 months.

5= this one is just from today experiment : My superdrive is dead since 3 years, after only 65 DVD burned.. Another bug well knowed here
I have try to clean lenses, and so on, no way for now to fix it.
Today, as I was doing my fans cleaning and lubrification, I have remove that piece of s.it
Oh, surprise :
My computer don't take anymore 10°C or 12° when the battery is on /___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png/___sbsstatic___/m igration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png
Of course, If I use 3D or encoding, I need to adjust the fans, but, before, when IDLE, it was heating to my maximum, so 2 core was useless since about a year.
Now , when Idle, it's quite at the same temperature only1 or 2°c more
That look strange, because I don't understand why, but it's a fact, and it help me to run with the battery, at full speed, and even play games with battery on (2 core on) /___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png

6=Use a laptop Cooler /___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png
it help a bit, because it cool the under of the MBP, where is the ATI chip.
7= be carrefull with Os Upgrades... some are really heavy for old MBP.
I'm in 10.4.11, I have tried newest OS, with worse results in heating.
8= DON'T use Flash 10.1, keep the good old 9 one...
Try to use a system done for your hardware, don't trust software update, or trust it when Apple will have take that topic in charge, and will have do something for that bug.
Thanks for reading, sorry for my poor english, keep you mbp cold, and you will keep it for some years more

You're the man, Ian. Very good info; at least it solved my problem. I inherited my son's 1st gen MacBook Pro, which he upgraded to a 500 Gig 7200 RPM drive, which makes it a viable machine for my needs especially considering the cost of an upgrade. It had been running fine with the occasional annoying horizontal lines, which weren't enough of a problem to worry much about until it stopped working altogether. The system froze on startup out of the blue - endless spinning wheel unless started in safe mode. After sifting through the forums and determining that by removing the ATI extensions it would at least start up, I then found your post, which solved the problem. I'm back to where I started at least - the occasional hz line but a functioning unit with the ATI .kext files all reloaded and functioning. The computer without the ATI extensions is essentially useless of course, so it wasn't really a viable solution for me at least. Thanks so much. Your well-thought out exercise saved the day for me - at least so far.

MacBookPro without ATIRadeonX1000 driver still will do an awful lot (except 3d rendering). If one really needs 3d, then a new machine is probably the best solution, unless one is patient enough to want to do the software cleanout recipe every week - I suppose one could script it to run unattended overnight as often as desired. 2d graphics appear to work fine - inc video, dvd playback. Even Google Sketchup which needs 3d is a little buggy but mostly usable with ATI driver.