Mac Pro sometimes displays static after displays wake up from sleep

Same here as above poster- not a Mac Pro, but have had this same problem for last 3 years running G5 Quad and on 2 different 30" Apple Cinema Displays with first Tiger, and then all the way through Leopard.

Problem has persisted using two different graphics cards- a nVidia 6800 256MB and a 7800GTX 512MB. It's been a random occasional problem- green or multi-colored "snow" across the screen either on a restart or a screen-wake-from-sleep situation. Power-cycling the monitor on and off several times 'fixes' the condition 99.9% of the time...

I've learned to live with it, an occasional minor annoyance...

null

Hello people, let me join the boat. I am also one of those sooo happy to see – it's not just me. My config:

- 2.66 Quadcore Mac Pro, 4GB RAM, newest 10.6.2 Sno Leo. I think this is early 2009?
- 26" NEC Spectraview Monitor, connected via mini-DVI-to-DVI-Connector, main monitor
- 15" old Belinea 15", connected as VGA via DVI-VGA-Cable
- GeForce 120

I had all of the problems described above:

*Strange distortions*
like in the very first posts (could solve that through hardware-resetting and then recalibrating my NEC Spectraview Monitor)

*Colored snow*
Occasionally seen but not annoying.

*Blue screens*
with every wake of the gfx card. And connected to that I must add something:

*Total desktop chaos*
The problem is: after waking both my screen turn blue for like 5 seconds. So the system seems to +re-recognise the displays+ like if I had pulled off and replugged a cable or so. But after it fades back to "normal" all my icons are totally mixed up, my chat clients are on the wrong screen etc.etc. I put my windows back where they belong like 3-4 times a day. THIS ***** BIG TIME – I have 4 spaces full of stuff.

Sometimes I can see for a second how my menubar or the dock sit on my 26" screen just where they would be if I had only like 15". After the second they jump back where they belong.

In my opinion it all has to do with the system being too slow with rerecognising the displays somehow. Apple told me when I purchased the Mac and called their hotline right after this problem was to be fixed with 10.6.2 - but apparently it wasn't.

I have a Bootcamp partition with a Windows 7 Pro installed. Never had any of those problems. When displays go to sleep there they simply wake up as expected.

Never had this problem before using the same monitors on my G5 Dual 1.8, even the old 15" has been connected with a convertercable to VGA and my main monitor didn't have to use the totally senseless mini-DVI-port.

I have often sent stuff to Apple Bug Reporter – but is there an open Ticket for this? Whom can I call or write to make Apple get going a bit faster? They sell us 2200€ computers for pros and we cannot use them properly.

I have this problem also. Mine will sometimes show snow/static if the monitor is "re-awoken" from sleeping. It's more annoying than a serious problem, but I'm surprised it hasn't been addressed yet with any updates. I can usually fix it by turning the monitor off then on again.

Message was edited by: Jesse Van Valkenburgh

And I have something to add:

it happens often when I start *Quicktime or iTunes* which even more makes me think it has something to do with graphics card stuff or color profile loading.

Obviously the saturation is sometimes too high (in iChat, in Dock icons, MenuMeters etc.). I can just change that by quitting the app and reloading it.

I also have the static when waking my displays sometimes.

Mac Pro 8-core early 2009
2 GT-120s, 3 monitors

I have the static almost every time the displays wake. A few times i have to power cycle them to get a picture again. Using 2 samsung 2032sw.

Hi!

The image flickering to hear?

I can post videos from wake up...

Regards

2006 Mac Pro, 2 24" Dell Monitors, and a new Apple 4870 Card.

Count me in with the same snowy picture. Glad to see I am not alone!

And it can happen with either of my monitors.

Snowy screen....
Wacky wireless mouse....
Leopard based Oven re Maudio Firewire 410 connected...
Maudio drivers lose Word Clock when Drive sleeps....

Mac Pro (early 2009)

Apart from that it rocks...

Eddy

I believe I am experiencig the same thing...

If it change inputs and back or wake from sleep the screen has the snow like an old tv. Returns to normal if I power cycle the lcd power...

Using a gateway FDH2400

I have the colored snow problem on my new mac pro (see my thread http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2377665&stqc=true for a video). I think I may have just solved it by using the minidisplay port. I havent been able to see the snow since I've plugged in the minidisplay adapter. Maybe the usb injection is all it needed - perhaps a little more power?!

Add me to the list of users with this problem. My solution is to sleep the Mac Pro using the front power button and then wake it using either the button again or the keyboard. I will try the power-off power-on of my LG 26" LED monitor next time.

Add me to the list 😟

When my MacPro comes out of sleep, about 5% of the time it wakes up and the screen is
full of snow. Usually, a second press of a key or the mouse clears everything up. Except for
today, when cycling power on the monitor (Dell 2709W) didn't clear it up. I took a photo,
and was looking for another monitor I could test with when it finally cleared up by itself.

Mac OS 10.6.3, Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro4,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per processor): 8 MB
Memory: 12 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 5.86 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MP41.0081.B07
SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5

graphics/display info:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 120:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0640
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3386
Displays:
DELL 2709W:
Resolution: 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

I have the coloured static problem too. mainly if i simply sleep the apple display (23") via its button and turn it back on, couple of seconds of static. and sometimes more extreme static for much longer (perhaps only resolved after keypress or restart)

I have two of the same Gateway FHD2400 monitors.

Even under OS X 10.6.2, I STILL get the snow. I have had this problem now for more than a year now.

I've checked Gateway's website. In their support forums they talk about seeing snow when the DHCP part of the monitor loses its connection with the device providing the image. (In the case of their support page, a BluRay player) There is little info otherwise.

As far as I can tell, there are no firmware updates for the monitor.

My problem is still like this: When the computer boots, the primary display turns on and displays fine. The second display, when it's turned on later, 100% of the time, will display snow. When the computer is put into sleep, or just the displays are slept, they both will display static.

It takes between 1 to 6 power cycles for the monitors to finally display the image.

Like I said, this has been going on for more than a year. It's probably one reason why I use my laptop more around the house, and shy away from working on those projects I'm supposed to be doing on the Mac Pro. Perhaps I should just set my G5 back up. It didn't have these issues... with the same monitors!!!!!!!

I'm in the process of downloading the 10.6.3 update again. My last attempt, the last time I used the Mac Pro, failed. Hopefully the download won't get corrupted like last time.

Sorry for venting.

Message was edited by: Scott Thomas3