Q: display anomalies

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!

Good to now. I am curious though, did you disconnect the PRAM battery (if there is one)? I ask because I noticed that everytime I did so (during thremal paste installs) that I never had and bad artifacts during boot or botting from the Snow Leopard install. They would show up quickly, but when doing just a simple PRAM reset at boot or an SMC reset, they would often remain after many reboots. But in your case you still had them. I am just trying to figure out what role, if any, the PRAM plays in this. From what I figured out on mine, it was the key step to clear things up it seemed.

I did disconnect the PRAM battery. However after it locked up during the first attempt at erasing, I reset the PRAM (holding down Alt/Ctrl/P/R) before attempting to erase and install again.

Interesting. That may mean the PRAM storage is not an issue. Or it may mean that the installer disc has bad drivers and they are indeed loaded upon boot. I tried booting from the install disc in safe mode, but it would not let me. But I only tried it once. Well keep us updated!

I just ran home at lunch and upon firing up Safari and the apple.com home page coming up I instantly had artifacts and the spinning beachball. Didn't have time to mess with anything or look to see if the ATI extensions were back in the folder. Will try to get at it tonight, I don't know if the software updates might have changed any of the ATI extensions.

I wanted to update...last night after getting artifacts in Safari, I removed the rest of the extensions that began with ATI and moved them to the trash (while keeping a copy on the desktop) and deleted them. It gave me a warning that 2 couldn't be deleted because they were in use, so I continued to delete the rest. I then restarted and reset the PRAM. Opened Safari back up and the artifacts were gone. I then downloaded Chrome and was using that last night for email, etc. and had never had any artifacts show up again. However I did notice an issue with trying to run "video" type stuff such as viewing YouTube video. The area where the video would've shown up acted like a clear window so the desktop behind it would show up instead of any video. So I assume one of the ATIxxxxx extensions I removed has effected this.

Also, I should note I have an issue with the laptop now, it will not go to sleep when the lid is closed. Quick Google search said trying the magnet trick but that didn't work. So I just decided to shut it down. But then it was sitting on a blue screen for a half hour and I finally just hard shut down.

Well first things first, users need to be clear that a PRAM reset (via keyboard command at boot) is NOT the same as what is in my instructions - which is pulling of the battery to hard reset it. That clears it 100%. A keyboard reset at boot does not. This is made clear by loosing the date & time settings.

As for video. Without the driver extensions installed the video card is disabled. Things like taking screen shots and using previes with JPEGs may not work.

I recommend you re-read the steps I posted and clearly follow them to see what happens. If at any point the computer is booted in regular mode (not safe mode) with extensions prior to 10.6.8, I feel there will be issue from that point on even after updating, PRAM resets with keyboard, etc.

If one is already updated to 10.6.8, simply hard resetting the PRAM *might* work. Also no need to trash the extensions, simple moving them to a folder on the desktop will disable them upon reboot. This way one can reinstall if needed.

Here are some temperature readings. These are after playing SPORE for some time, then Homeworld 2. Probably not the most intense 3D games out there, but I am not a gamer. Max CPU core temp was 185 with the GPU hitting 147. Avarage would seem to hunt between 140 and 147. Prior it could usually not get to 105 without issue although even at 90 I would at times get artifacts. I dont think temperatures are the biggest propblem, but high temps did appear to mean issue would be certain. But even on cold boots (litterally put it in the fridge) I would have issues.

I guess it wasn't clear to me in the instructions that I was to remove extensions AND update to 10.6.8 before rebooting out of Safe Mode. I will try again here when I can to see if it helps. Thank you.

I have tried 10.6.8, following the recipes for banishing software corruption previously posted Nov 2010.

Nov 5

https://discussions.apple.com/message/12538979#12538979

Nov14

https://discussions.apple.com/message/12584182#12584182

System boots up clean no problems. Then I tried my usual "torture test" - scrolling the page http:/www.apple.com/appletv. Instant crash/lockup. So I'm not sure they've fixed the bug on 10.6.x yet.

I haven't tried the pull the PRAM battery fix yet, since I have had no trouble to date getting a reliable system following the software recipe. Now running 10.5.8 for 9 months without ATIRAdeonX1000.kext with no crashes excepting Safari is unstable scrolling http:/www.apple.com/appletv of viewing these discussion pages. No problems with firefox.

If you want to torture test the GPU, suggest Cinebench on Mac or Furmark on Windows.

If others report success, I will try pulling the PRAM battery.

How about this guy with the heat gun technique?

http://themainframe.ca/2010/07/03/macbook-pro-video-repair/

I have been running for periods of a couple of hours before kernel panic or video distortion following your recipes on kext deletion.

I am still in Leopard, as Snow caused heat and crashes. I really don't  want to go to XP, but may do so to salvage machine and my sanity!

Ikoin, The recipes are more "corruption cleaning" than "kext deletion". They are based on the fact that I have not seen a problem when safebooted or running Apple Hardware Test, which implies that the problem is not related to hardware or basic software. (When I logged a bug report with Apple, it was closed as a duplicate of a known bug, which theoretically should be in a queue to be fixed.)

To double check, it's a good idea to run Apple Hardware Test (on original hardware boot disc) and check what happens with a safeboot.

Cleaning out corrupted prefs includes some hidden files mentioned in the directions. I have had no trouble creating a stable system (apart from Safari crashes on some Apple pages) on 10.5.8 for many months on my machine. Still hoping one day Apple will fix the ATIx1000.kext bug.

Hi Everyone

I have to say that Marco's post really grabbed my attention.  I struggled for weeks upon weeks with the instability of the MBP/x1600.  I tried FanControl which helped a bit but not long-term.  I re-applied the thermal paste which did absolutely nothing.  To avoid the MBP being totally useless, I wound up disabling quartz extreme and using it that way, however, a lot of the apps I use on a day to day basis were crippled (iMovie, iPhoto, etc.).  This drove me to buy a new system after a few months in the crippled state and completely shelfing this MBP.

Fast forward to a few days ago and me checking back in with this forum thread.  That's when I first saw Marco's post and it indeed intrigued me.  Now I must say that I did not follow the post to his exact spec.  My system was at 10.6.4.  I re-enabled quartz extreme then booted into safe mode and blew away the drivers.  Once the system came back, I updated it to 10.6.8.  The reason I half @$$ed-it is because we've moved twice in the past 3 1/2 months and I can't find my 10.6 media at the moment   But I wanted to see if any of the steps in his post helped at all.

I am very happy to say that it has made the system completely useable again.  Now - that being said, I still see some minor display artifacting when the system gets really kicked into gear (Handbrake encoding, high virtual machine usage, etc.) but it stays stable and running.

Every once in a while though, the UI will hang... its strange - the system seems like its locked or frozen, but you can ping it and also log in via SSH.  I can move the mouse but the icons aren't clickable and there is no response from the UI.  Using the web cam for 5 minutes+ normally brings it on.  To get the system back, I had been SSH'ing in from another host and "sudo reboot"ing it.  This morning, though, it happened and what brought it back was sorta neat.  I was sitting upstairs and the display crashed.  So I closed the lid (and the system went to sleep) and then when I got back do my desk downstairs, I opened it back up.  SUPRPRISE - the UI was responsive again.  I could sign back in and everyone was working as if nothing ever happened.

So - if the system stays as is, I think I now have two fast-performing MBP!  If not, I just might try Macro's full posting, rather than what I did.

Thanks MARCO!!  I'm interested in seeing what other combinations folks have tried and what their results are.

I've been providing Macintosh and Windows technical support, professionally, going all the way back to the 1980s. I've worked with hundreds of clients and have done an incredible amount of troubleshooting personal computers. I'm extremely careful, meticulous and thorough in my approach to problem solving.

That being said, I can't commend "marco...POLLO!" enough for having devised the ACTUAL SOLUTION to this problem. Way to go, Marco! CONGRATULATIONS!

Every person who has posted to this thread, in despair, should consider following his instructions TO THE LETTER! Half-___ed measures won't cut it! If it's done right, you should be able to achieve a rock-solid, renewed MacBook Pro.

The most important aspect of Marco's solution is that YOU MUST KILL THE CONTENTS OF THE PRAM BY DISCONNECTING THE BATTERY FOR A SUFFICIENT PERIOD OF TIME! "Zapping" the PRAM with an option-command-p-r at startup won't cut it! (I actually did ZAP the PRAM several times, just for good measure, to achieve the cleanest system possible.)

Also, Marco is exactly right, in that the older ATIRadeon resources MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO INTERACT WITH THE SYSTEM once the PRAM has been canceled out. The older ATIRadeon resources somehow "pollute" the PRAM and cause the MBP to "misbehave" from that point forward.

The older ATIRadeon resources that I removed (in single-user mode) were dated 3 August 2009. The newer ones were installed by MacOS X Update 10.6.8 and are dated 7 June 2011. After I had a stable system, I tried putting the older ATIRadeon resources back in place, and the pixellation and overheating returned. I don't know what it is about the older resources that "pollute" the system, but they do seem to do that. Maybe they've been altered or corrupted by some unknown agent. (By the way, if you have trouble installing MacOS X Update 10.6.8, which I did, try using DiskUtility to repair the drive's catalog and permissions.)

I've been troubleshooting this jumbled, pixelated graphics problem for many weeks now on my MacBook Pro 1,1 and have tried all sorts of potential solutions. My MBP was becoming nearly unusable, and I was becoming more despairing, in spite of my great experience and confidence troubleshooting these types of problems. After carefully working with Marco's instructions, and even trying some variations on them, I now have a MacBook Pro that is running ROCK-SOLID, just like when it was new, with NO GRAPHICS ABNORMALITIES at all. The system even RUNS COOLER, to the point that I'm considering doing away with any fan control. Last night, I "Handbraked" a two-hour movie, and my MBP barely noticed! I think the temperature got up to about 145 degrees F, whereas last week it would run over 210 degrees F. Right now, it's running at 104 degrees F.

I may have more to say about this experience in the days to come, but let me finish my post with this opinion: IT IS MY BELIEF THAT THE "ACCEPTED" SOLUTION FOR THIS APPARENTLY WIDESPREAD PROBLEM, THE REPLACEMENT OF THE SYSTEM BOARD, IS SIMPLY AN EXPENSIVE WAY TO OBTAIN A PRAM THAT HAS BEEN COMPLETELY CANCELED OUT. That's why it works! The emptying of the PRAM is the key, folks!

Thank you, Marco!