24" iMac Screen Freezes since 10.6.3 update - pls help!

Smarter people than me will have to weigh in. My iMac 8,1 has been running fine on Mavericks without the kext fix, which was always necessary on the previous two OS's.

Kext Helper stalling and needing intervention to move on is typical, I think. Not sure about the force quit, though. Are you sure you can't just restart without force quitting KH? You might try that again. Or if you can't restart without force quitting, try a force shutdown (holding down the power button until it quits), then restart manually.

It might be a typo on your part, but you need the 10.6.2 files, not 10.6.6 (or 1.6.6 as you're typed). Good luck.

Version 1.6.6 is the ATI2400 version. I'm sure it's comeing from the 10.6.2 upgrade (back in the day).

I've tried installing several times. I even tried a different kext installer (kext utility).

Thanks for the quick response.

Dave

I hesitate to comment as I don't recall the details. But a few years ago on this thread, I think there was an issue of the affected iMacs needing to be booted into 64-bit mode so that the kext fix would work. In one of these 103 pages, there were details about it but I don't know where or when. It might have been that the 7,1 could not boot into 64 bit. Does that sound right to anyone? At any rate, I recommend making sure that the computer is booting into 64-bit mode because I believe the kext fix stopped working in 32-bit mode at one point. Very sorry if this info is causing more confusion that clarity. I don't have a 7,1, so cannot recall details of the fix that did not impact my 8,1.

Are there any 7,1 folks out there who got the kext fix to work on Mavericks?

Well, I may have jumped the gun on trying to get the Kext Fix to work on my 7,1 iMac. 🙂

The good news.... Only 1 freeze in 24 hours, so the computer is somewhat usuable. I'm hoping perhaps it was just my wife's user error. LOL

Thanks again to those that are working to keep the "hope" alive.

Dave

Update: Okay I had some some more time to look into this matter.

The ATI2400Controller, ATIFramebuffer and ATISupport versions 1.6.6 are in my extension but checked as NOT loaded.

Since they are there, how do I get them to be loaded instead fo the AMD files?

Thanks,

Dave

PS. I'm also not really sure what authorization signature thing in 10.9 is all about, but perhaps it's a part of my problem trying to get the Kext fix to work????

Duster19 -- I haven't moved to 10.9 yet but I belive you need to remove the AMD kext files so that the old ones will get loaded (once the AMD ones are not found).

See freandc's STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO ATI FRAMEBUFFER KEXT FIX FOR OS X 10.9 MAVERICKS on page 102.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2384136?start=1515&tstart=0

Hope that helps.

I did remove them. That is when my video play was really clitchy and choppy. I used the Kext Utility to put back the original files. The 10.6.2 files are there, just not loaded.

Update: I've have only had 2 freezes since upgrading to 10.9.1. I use this computer to surf the net mainly, so I have not tested it on any heavy program use.

Dave

KrzysiuTurek : You Rock ! Thank-you. 🙂

I posted to this thread back on page 20 with the trouble I was having and have been folllowing it for 3 years now.

I recently was forced to bring my imac beyondsafe zone of 10.6.2because of a new ipad mini and outdated itunes version.

I had nothing but trouble again with 10.6.8 and the went to ML 10.8.5 and still had the same freezes. I dug back to your page 21 post about the Kext files you gave us to download and the Kext helper tool which worked awesome.

Machine booted right after install and has been running without freezes since. I love Apple but shame on them, and appreciate people like you who work hard at fixes and share with others.

You just took my 6.5 year old (mid 2007 imac) and gave it another 5 years of life (hopefully) !

Hat's off to you !

Thank-you, Mike

Although the kext files solved the situation for me, I found an even better permament fix.

I bought an early 2009 imac with dif. graphics card.

Then a little later I bought a 27" 2010 iMac, also no problems.

I'm so glad to be beyond these hassles!

My old 2008 IMac I gave to my father, but the kext fix has meant it hasn't frozen or crashed or hung not once!

Also the graphics card and CPU are faster than the 2009 model I had.

I just hope not to run into these kind of problems again, when I buy a newer 27" iMac further down the line.

I think this could be the solution to my annoying freeze-ups. Forgive my lack of understanding tech-speak but how do I "navigate" to "System/Library/Extensions"? I open Finder, click on the "House" go down to "Library", click on that... and there is no "Extensions" folder. What am I doing wrong?

Don't laugh too hard. 😉

Hi LM. Not laughing -- all questions are worthwhile in this frustrating deal. However, if the system library is stumping you I would be VERY careful about this procedure, following the instructions EXACTLY, if you're going to try it at all.

Instead of clicking on the "House" or Home icon, click on the icon of the hard drive that you're booting from. That will show a "System" folder within which is an Extensions folder.

Good luck. The kext fix has always worked for me, but since I got Mavericks installed I haven't needed it.

OK... I clicked on my root drive icon, and navigated to "Extensions" and this is what I saw:

Can't find anything that looks like "ATIxxxxxx" so am I looking in the wrong spot? And yes... I can follow instructions to a "T" so I'm willing to keep plugging away until I fix this.

BTW, I am running OS X v.10.9.1, this is on an iMac 24", 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 6 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. HDD is a 500GB internal, 1TB Lacie 800 FW Time Machine, and although its probably unrelated I noticed that since upgrading OS X to Mavericks I'm also having some issues accessing my two NAS drives from some programs like Handbrake, Photoshop, and Image Capture. I can see the drives in Finder, and "force" a existing file to be opened in Photoshop, but if I use Photoshop's/Handbrake's "Open File" dialogue, the drives don't show.

Mike

Message was edited by: LightningMike

Yikes! That's what I get in my extensions folder, too. Since I moved to Mavericks I haven't looked at it because my freezes haven't shown up again. I don't know what's going on there. I'll have to butt out. Someone who knows will show up, hopefully. (I have the same iMac as yours by the way.)

I don't know why this is, but I just checked my Extensions folder again and there are many, many more files showing there now, including all the ATI kext files. No idea why this should be, but suggest trying to look at the Extensions folder again.

Here's what I can see:

There's only One (1) _ATI_ item in that list.