System Freezes Randomly after 10.6.3 Update

i take that back.

been on the wrong track. Apple changed the kext names as they are displayed in the kextstat output, however the files are still named as they were back in 10.6.2. so it loads them by their original names.

so basically i was wrong, if you put the old files there, it will load it. the 10.8.2 drivers are displayed as AMDxxxxx

the old ones as ATIxxxx

so it was me who got confused. :-(

Thought I'd update this thread with 10.8.3 info

I installed the combo update today and within minutes of the reboot the freezing came back. Patch back in the 10.6.2 KEXT files and all has been well since.

Come on Apple its been 3 years now and still no fix *** is going on 😊

Well, I'm not sure if everyone in this thread suffers from the same problem but I'm going to post this anyway...

Last week I updated this machine...

iMac7,1, 2GHz Core 2

BootROM: IM71.007A.B03

SMC: 1.20f4

3 GB of installed RAM (3 passes memtest86+ 5.0rc1 tested)

... from OS X Leopard (10.5.8) to Mountain Lion (10.8.3). Completely clean install (InstallESD.dmg from USB); no upgrading. Drive zeroed. The thing crashed on first boot already with the symptons described in this thread:

- Screen freeze

- Mouse still active, changing to beachball after a few seconds

- GPU DEBUG INFO START gibberish in the system log

- Hard shutdown needed. Caps lock key still works though.

And later:

- Once or twice I've seen glitches, like a darkened screen or distortion. Right after boot/wake.

It did that every other boot. But only at boot or shortly after booting. Sometimes it would freeze on the transition between the grey Apple logo and the login screen already. Extremely annoying to say the least. It also froze randomly like that when waking from sleep; again during wake up or shortly after. If it didn't freeze almost immediately it would not freeze at all.

This is the graphics card installed in this iMac:

ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT, 128 MB:

Chipset: ATI Radeon HD 2400

Mfgr: ATI (0x1002)

Dev ID: 0x94c8

Rev: 0x0000

ROM ver: 113-B2250A-207

EFI ROM ver: 01.00.207

All I knew before visiting these threads was that it didn't happen on OS X 10.5.8 for at least 4 years. Further testing showed no instability with heavy 3D applications or games at all; nor any overheating.

When I found these threads I was confused. I have had other iMacs of this exact same model here that didn't have any problem with OS 10.6 and up, same videocard too - though I haven't checked the ROM revision on those machines obviously. I didn't want to install 10.6.2 kexts on a 64 bit Mountain Lion system. Trying it miserably failed anyway, no GPU driver was loaded which indeed solved the crashing but heh, many apps do not even work without graphics acceleration. I've installed Windows in an attempt to further diagnose the problem and to access the Radeon's in-core temperature sensor.

I chose to install Windows 7, the 64 bit version. Of course BootCamp wouldn't let me so I just installed the Bootcamp package manually (run the .msi installer from an admin cmd prompt and it'll install just fine). I updated to the last AMD Catalyst suite from amd.com and lo and behold: screen freeze, then black, then Windows would come back up again with this message:

"Display driver stopped responding and has recovered"

Again, usually right after boot. It would happen a few times in a row, then stop. Running Furmark for a while or playing Skyrim (yes it runs on that card but barely) would not cause any problems at all. Sleep however did.

So I knew the following:

- The problem is not limited to Mac OS X, Windows 7 x64 suffered just the same.

- The problem is not overheating

- There is no instability in rendering at all - if there was FurMark and the games would've shown it.

- The problem does not occur when the GPU is in VESA/driverless mode (boot, OS install, DOS, Windows without drivers).

- The problem appears to happen only right after initializing the graphics driver.

At this point it could be a defect when switching from low voltage to full power mode (GPUs switch clock and voltages, this one only does between 'boot/driverless' and 'full' mode), a firmware bug or ... crazy stuff. Still pretty clueless. I've completely disassembled the iMac, see if I could spot anything (blown caps, visible/measurable power supply defect). Nothing. Well, except that Apple used way way way too much heatpaste on the CPU, GPU and logic board controller but things were definitely not overheating. I did find out the GPU is a replaceable (and thus upgradable provided you find one with an Apple EFI/hybrid ROM) MXMII card. Quite rare, they are used in some laptops.

For reference: numbers on a label stuck on the MXMII Radeon 2400XT board (apple P/N?): CC3B 3PPI8MA0050 . Model number printed on the board itself next to the AMD logo: 109-B22531-10

I saw quite some firmware revisions floating around on this forum for that 2400XT card, and Apple has issued a firmware update for the 2400XT and 2600 Pro as well. Apple's updater obviously wouldn't install on this machine ("not needed", apparently it only updates a specific revision). I dumped the firmware (rev 113-B2250A-207) of the card to take a closer look at it. Was going to look at voltage or other tweaks, see if they could 'work around' that initialization crash. I also extracted the firmware from Apple's own updater (113-B2250H-259). The two proved to be very different on byte level. The original firmware (*207) describes two extra DIN/S-Video ports along with other difference suggesting Apple's revision isn't a small update OR for a different hardware revision. Clocks, voltages and connector object IDs for DVI were the same, however. As is the chip used and memory layout.

In the end I took the plunge and flashed the firmware extracted from Apple's updater (113-B2250H-259/01.00.259) on the GPU using atitool. I've ran two days without any crashes or stuttering or anything weird. Put the computer to sleep around 20 times, unplugged it a few times, booted it at least 30 times; watched 1080p videos on youtube (ML 10.8.3), played a few Quake matches (ML 10.8.3), looped a 1080p h.264 video in Quicktime 8 (ML 10.8.3), ran Furmark (Win7 SP1 latest AMD Catalyst), browsed the web (ML 10.8.3), organized photos in iPhoto (ML 10.8.3) and other generic things. The crashes would occur almost every other boot before, or every other wake from sleep so I think the new firmware pretty much fixed or worked around whatever black magic went on.

While not too hard (you need blank CDs and Windows), this is however a highly dangerous and risky operation. A faulty flash/incompatible firmware can permanently brick your Radeon 2400XT card. A new one will set you back around $200 at least, excl installation cost. There could be multiple hardware revisions of these cards around, peraps even with the same firmware revision on it as my machine. Highly unlikely, but possible.

Before I'm going to post instructions on how to do this (if the mods here even let me) I'd like to know if there are people with the exact same sympthons still reading this thread and if there are any other actions that are likely to crash the GPU on affected iMac - I only ran ML for a week with the crashing going on before I was completely fed up with it so I might have missed other interesting ways to cause a GPU crash.

I want to be absolutely sure this solution did indeed fix the issue or wether I have 2 days of incredible luck. I really don't want people to risk bricking their card for nothing.

Cheers,

kloent

Kloent, that is an impressive bit of work 🙂 I have the same model iMac and had the freezing problems, but since upgrading to Lion they have largely disappeared. It is now only occasionally that it still happens and is not so serious that I can't live with it. However, unlike you, there is never an issue when running unders Windows (XP). I am quite certain that the trouble is with the HD 2400 graphics.

Thanks 🙂

32 bit XP could be fine just like Leopard was, who knows. 64 bit Windows 7 runs very well on the machine, if you ever want to.

5 days and still going without any instability or crashes. Thing is rock solid. I'm surprised about Mountain Lion's performance. With just 3GB of RAM ($30 for an extra 2GB) it performs like what you'd expect of a brand new machine. The system limits itself to 800-1000MB, leaving 2GB for the applications. I've yet to see a page out using only Mail, Safari, MS Office and iPhoto. The latest Adobe Flash with full HD video works like a charm too.

The performance is definitely not bad for a 6 year old iMac. With a little storage and memory update these machines will reach 10 years before they feel dated with generic office and multimedia work.

---

Here's another link for adventurers:

http://boeglin.org/blog/index.php?entry=How-to-flash-a-PC-4870-for-a-Mac-Pro,-us ing-only-Mac-OS-X

This guy explains how to flash a videocard with "ATIFacelessFlash.app" extracted from the very same iMac Graphics Update I got the 2400XT ROM from. If you follow these instructions without removing the 2400XT and 2600HD ROMs (I'd leave only one in just to be sure) you'll likely be able to reflash your iMac without booting in DOS. Of course you won't have a backup of your ROM, so if the ROM is incompatible you're stuck with a dead video card.

I would obviously recommend using a DOS startup CD to make a backup of the 128KB ROM first using atiflash.exe. Also, do not use GPU-Z or ATIWinFlash. Both failed at dumping the full ROM, they only dumped 60K of PC BIOS code omitting the EFI part.

Have the same issue, can you please post the instructions?

the ATIFacelessFlash stuff does not work for me.

i tried it with the gfx update v1.2 which is for snow leopard.

basically all updates (1.0, 1.1, 1.2) contain the same firmware for HD2400/HD2600,

the very same app to do the flashing, only the kext for the low-level-access is

somewhat different.

anyway, it does not work for me with my imac7.1

neither does Zeus, which is pretty much a nice frontend for the same AtiFacelessFlash.app.

ok, it could do a bunch of other things, like messing around with the efi part, etc, what i

don't need at all.

but the flashing procedure is the same, so it doesn't work for my mac.

my biggest problem is that i cannot boot my mac into DOS, (tried freedos, dos622) so i can

flash the card with atiflash.exe. what is the trick?

Sorry for not reading my mail for a while. That must've been frustrating

The flashed iMac still works fine to this date with Mountain Lion, issue never came back nor is there any 'gpu debug info start' line/kernel panic in the logs. Mountain Lion also runs surprisingly well with just 3GB of RAM. Lion certainly didn't.

It's been a while, but I wrote down some of the steps so these instructions *****should***** work. Here they are, let me know if anything is lacking or if you require more help. Also, feel free to try/add alternate ways.

Noteworthy risks:

* Permanent loss of video (wrong flash) and thus bricking/destroying your iMac. Sorry for stating the obvious, I just want people who don't know what they're doing to stop reading now.

* Loss of data (due to repartitioning)

Requirements:

* CREATE A BACKUP OF ALL DATA ON THE IMAC. My apologies for stating the obvious in capital letters yet again.

* Blank CDs, preferably rewritables. You can use rewritable DVDs too but they are very unreliable (different tech).

* The updated ROMs. Extract the updated ROM file for your video card from this updater using Pacifist:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL938

The ROMs are located here and are exactly 128KiB in size:

<iMacGraphicsFWUpdate.pkg>/Applications/Utilities/iMac ATI Radeon HD Graphics Firmware Update.app/Contents/Resources/ATIFacelessFlash.app/Contents/Resources/K2 M74 ROM 113.IMG (iMac 7,1 ATI HD2400)

<iMacGraphicsFWUpdate.pkg>/Applications/Utilities/iMac ATI Radeon HD Graphics Firmware Update.app/Contents/Resources/ATIFacelessFlash.app/Contents/Resources/K3 M76+ ROM 115.IMG (iMac 7,1 ATI HD2600)

* ATIFlash.exe from http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2230/atiflash-4-07/

* A bootable MS-DOS CD.

Ultimate Boot CD will work (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com).

Hiren's Boot CD will likely work (http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd).

A FreeDOS ISO has been reported not to work by swmaster.

The iMac cannot boot any non-EFI system from USB so a CD is your only option. The USB drivers on the ultimate/hiren CDs do not work either (at least I couldn't get them to work), hence the need for a FAT partition on the internal drive.

Optional requirements (for a bootable blind restore CD in case things go wrong):

* A Windows OS (probably XP or later). Doesn't matter if it's virtualized, bootcamp or a real PC.

* bootcd.zip from this page: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootablecd

Dumping the iMac's GPU ROM for recovery in case you need it

0. For reference and verification purposes, take a screenshot of the Graphics/Display tab in System Information or at least write down the ROM revision/EFI driver #.

1. Create a small (1 GB or less) FAT (not exFAT) partition on your harddrive using Disk Utility. This will likely only work if you have less than 4 partitions (MBR limitation) and if your drive isn't encrypted by FileVault 2. Also, live partitioning only works on 10.5 and up iirc. Click on your internal hardrive in Disk Utility, then click on the 'Partition' tab. Resize one of the existing partitions to make some room for a new 1 GB "MS-DOS (FAT)" partition. Then apply.

2. Copy ATIFLASH.EXE (see top of post) to the newly created FAT drive

3. Reboot using one of the MS-DOS boot CDs (see top of post). Even though the iMac does support booting DOS from CD it sometimes has trouble like losing input if you type too fast. For best results disconnect every device but the keyboard, then hold 'alt' or 'c' to boot from the CD.

4. Find out which drive letter your FAT partition got. Type the following commands in the MS-DOS prompt, each line followed with a <return>:

C:

dir

If you get an error on C:, try other letters like D:, A:, B: until the prompt changes letter successfully. After typing 'dir' you should see ATIFLASH.EXE and likely some garbage Mac OS X put on the drive (think DS_STORE, .trashes, etc). If you see something else you might have listed your CD-ROM drive or a ramdisk. Try changing letters.

5. Now that we have set the path of our DOS prompt to the FAT partition on the Mac's internal drive you can dump your card's ROM file.

Use this command do do so:

ATIFLASH.EXE -s 0 IMAC.OLD.ROM

wait until it's done and type

dir

You should see both ATIFLASH.EXE and a file named IMAC.OLD.ROM which is exactly 128KB in size.

6. Reboot back to Mac OS X (use the power button on the back of your iMac, DOS usually doesn't have a reboot command) and collect the IMAC.OLD.ROM file.

(optional from here but highly recommended!)

7. Boot in your Windows system and extract bootcd.zip (see top of post).

8. Put IMAC.OLD.ROM and ATIFLASH.EXE in the 'bootcd/Floppy' directory.

9. Edit the Floppy/AUTOEXEC.BAT file and replace its contents with:

MSCDEX.EXE /D:CDDRIVER /L:X

echo XMSDSK.EXE 51200 R: /t /y

PATH=A:\;R:\

ATIFLASH.EXE -p 0 IMAC.OLD.ROM -scansii

10. Edit the config.sys file and replace its contents with:

DEVICE=OAKCDROM.SYS /D:CDDRIVER /L:X

LASTDRIVE=Z

11. Run bootcd/Build-ISO.cmd

12. Burn the resulting .iso file. If you want to burn on Windows, use imgburn or something similar.

13. Test the resulting ISO by booting from it. If everything goes right it should say 'no flash was necessary' or something like that. If it doesn't get to the ATIFLASH part check syntax in the autoexec.bat and config.sys files or let me know the error here before proceeding any further.

Flashing the iMac's GPU ROM

If you have followed the dumping instructions above you can continue to step 1 below. If you didn't, you can also use the above instructions to create a blind/auto flash disc, just start at step 7 and replace the mentions of an old rom with a new one. ?Perhaps handy if you want to reflash multiple iMacs quickly.

1. Rename 'K2 M74 ROM 113.IMG' from above to '2400NEW.ROM' if you have an iMac with HD2400 OR rename 'K3 M76+ ROM 115.IMG' from above to '2600NEW.ROM' if you own an iMac with the HD2600.

2. Put your 24/2600NEW.ROM on the FAT partition

3. Boot from your DOS CD like before. Follow the instructions in the 'Dumping' section up to step 4.

4. The point of no return. This is the exciting part where you make or break your iMac.

Type the following command if you have an iMac with the HD2400:

ATIFLASH.EXE -p 0 2400NEW.ROM

Type the following command if you have an iMac with the HD2600:

ATIFLASH.EXE -p 0 2600NEW.ROM

This will take a while. If you see a warning, verify the ROM is listed when you type dir. If you get an incompatibility warning you might be trying to flash a 2400 rom om a 2600. You should not use atiflash.exe's force flags but you can look at the help by typing atiflash.exe without arguments. Make sure there were no errors while flashing was already in progress. If so, flash back to the old rom or try to flash again before rebooting the iMac!

If everything went OK, reboot. Yes that's it. Once Mac OS X finished booting you should open System Information->Graphics/Displays and check the firmware version numbers. They should be updated. You're done and hopefully crash-free forever!

Aw... I'm no longer able to edit my post. I just found the image upload feature for some images, but more importantly, I wanted to add something to the tutorial above.

Before continuing to flash your GPU you really want to make sure your machine is absolutely stable otherwise.

First, run the extended test using Apple's own hardware test if you haven't already. You received a DVD with AHT on it with your computer.

Secondly, check the harddrive with a tool like http://binaryfruit.com/drivedx (14 day trial). If there are no warnings and the short self test completes fine it's safe to assume your harddrive is fine. AHT does check the drive as well, but not quite as extensive.

Thirdly, do a thorough test your computer's RAM. Apple Hardware Test does this too, but Memtest86+ does it more thoroughly. Get the latest version here: http://forum.canardpc.com/threads/68001 . Disconnect all USB devices including keyboard after the CD begins to start but before memtest is running because it can report false errors if they are still connected (try pressing keys to create errors, issue only exists on Apple's BIOS-on-EFI). Let it run for at least one pass to make sure everything is fine.

If any of the above tests report an error you should not attempt a GPU flash. Also, there are many other possible causes of this or similar issues as I stated in my first post. This is a risky solution to a very specific problem with the iMac 7,1/HD2400 and definitely not a 'cure all graphics problems' remedy. Having said that (yet again): good luck!

Here are some pictures I took back in april for your viewing pleasure:

The mid-2007 iMac's MXM type 2 Radeon HD 2400 GPU. As you might have read in my first post, I've quickly inspected the computers' internals before suspecting the card/firmware (PSU voltages, signs of leaking capacitors or other defects on the logic board, overheating). Only think I found is that Apple went completely nuts on the heatpaste. Luckily the card runs cool so this couldn't have been the problem:

Front after cleaning (looks like a standard MXM card):

Back of the card:

Memtesting before flashing, wise because I just installed one of the cheapest (Mushkin) DDR2 2GB module. The front cover is still removed in this photo:

Screenshot after the flash. Got the original ROM file open in a text editor on the right to show the old firmware revision:

Running a 1080p HD video (WipeOut HD trailer). Just one of the many things that could give problems after upgrading from 10.5.8 to 10.8.3.

1. Problem started happening after 10.6.3 update? No, but it started after the 10.6.8 update.

2. Did you get any errors during 10.6.3 update process? No.

3. Mouse cursor moves? Yes

4. Mouse clicking does nothing? Yes

5. Keyboard key presses do nothing? Yes

6. Only way to re-animate system is by holding down power button? Yes

7. Mouse/Keyboard Model? Mouse is a Logitech M100. Keyboard is a CM Storm Quickfire rapid, but that is new and the problems were happening before I acquired it.

Thx kloent for your work.

I've got the same problem on the same Imac 7.1 (same GPU etc..).

Upgrading hardware with 4 Gb RAM and trying to update OSX from 10.5.8 to Maverick .

Freeze start just after 10.6.3 update...

I'll try later to upgrade the firmware following your instructions.

I'm feeling confused because after 3 days of non-stop freezing problems tonight it seems to be stable, don't know why. The only thing I've tried is to force cooling with Macs Fan Control but I'm pretty sure it's not an overheating problem because sometimes the freeze happen juste after a cold start (the iMac temp was cold.).

I'll post here again to say if firmware upgrade did solved the problem.

We have a lab of these machines, currently running 10.6.7 and because of reasons mentioned previously in this thread I can't install 10.6.8 which would help to get newer versions of Pixelmator and so on.

I will try this, and if it works I'll speak with my boss to maybe donate some money to you, this is a great job! Now off to buy CD-R's 🙂

For me the fix is still working!!!

While it's fresh, I managed to get DOS running from a USB stick, so need for formating the internal drive. I tried many things, and I am sure it is possible to do on OS X alone but I had to use Windows to.

Step 1: Get Windows (I used WinXP from VirtualBox)

Step 2: Download and install http://rufus.akeo.ie/

Step 3: Make sure your USB stick is captured and is working in Windows

Step 3: Run Rufus, defaults worked for me, but I changed to MSDOS instead of FreeDOS, choose your USB and Start

Step 4: Back on the Mac

Step 5: Download Refind Binary http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html (A binary zip file).

Step 6: From terminal find and unmount your USB stick:

- diskutil list , locate your disk number, usually 2

- diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX (replace X with the number of your disk from the last line)

Step 6: From terminal: sudo /Users/myuser/Downloads/refind-bin-0.7.7/install.sh --usedefault /dev/diskXs1 , where diskXs1 is your USB memory stick

Step 7: Do as you normally would with the burned DOS CD 🙂

Forget the guide over, it doesn't work on older Macs :/ Though it worked on a MacBook from 2009, so seems like 2009 is ok but not 2008 😝

BUT! After having been on this the whole day, since formating is not an option (I have a lab of those), I finally managed it. I tried to get USB drivers in DOS, and I actually managed to get the drivers to load with autoexec.bat, config.sys and such, but they didn't play nice with the USB on the iMac so no luck there :/ I found atiflash for Linux though, so take any live CD etc. (I use "System Rescue") burn it and put atiflash, the new ROM etc. on a USB stick. With System Recue there is no automount and such, depends on the distro (I don't like auto mount on repair tools), but all you need to do is to mount the usb and flash with the same commands provided in kloent's guide.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=373574

And, I had NO troubles with FreeDOS on my iMacs. Even though in the end it was Linux to the rescue 🙂